Rena Toppe is the regional marketing coordinator for the US Trust.
Rena Toppe
US Trust
Planning events for one of the nation's oldest and largest private investment management firms comes with an unspoken mandate for Palm Beach planner Rena Toppe. Considering that her company, US Trust, puts a premium on impressing future clients—namely young and well-to-do professionals who may one day be looking for a firm to handle their investments—Toppe sets out planning an event by looking for the best attractions, whether she is organizing seminars with guest speakers such as Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, or Tommy Franks, or planning a welcome dinner for the firm's new C.E.O., Peter Scaturro.
"No matter what I'm planning I have to be fully aware that the event has to be of the utmost quality," Toppe says. "Because that's what US Trust is all about. We do event-based marketing as a tool to get in front of prospective clients and gain more business."
In March Toppe put together the company's first family day for clients and employees, in which she and event designer Bruce Sutka transformed the parking lot of the regional headquarters into an archaeological dig based on a 1920's desert site in Africa.
Sutka enclosed the lot with black spandex draping, and instead of sand ("not an option," Toppe says) sand-colored carpeting covered the entire floor of the garage. Mosquito netting hung from the ceiling and antique-inspired lanterns lit the entire area. Decor elements included weathered trunks, raw-looking wooden tables, and tools such as pickaxes, shovels, and brushes.
Guests entered the venue through a 90-foot tent that Toppe extended from the entrance of the garage to the curb. "My feeling about events is that they start the minute you get out of your car," Toppe says. "There can't be any lag time. The second you walked in [to the tent] you were in another world."
Guest speaker Dr. Paul Sereno, a paleontologist from the University of Chicago, gave a hands-on demonstration and family-friendly lecture. Toppe made sure the children had a sand box filled with faux dinosaur remains and other fossils. For gifts, Toppe arranged for 200 metal buckets to be printed with US Trust's logo.
In June she created a star-spangled cabaret starring political satirist Mark Russell at Palm Beach's historic Flagler Pavilion. The show and reception were designed to welcome Saturro on his first visit to the region. At another private dinner for clients, Toppe displayed the last automobile owned by Howard Hughes—a mammoth blue Buick that was equipped with an air-purifying system in the trunk.
"On top of my education and experiences, I have the ability to visualize exactly what I want," she says. "But when I'm planning an event I have to make sure that my vision is balanced with the needs and objectives of my employer."
US Trust
Planning events for one of the nation's oldest and largest private investment management firms comes with an unspoken mandate for Palm Beach planner Rena Toppe. Considering that her company, US Trust, puts a premium on impressing future clients—namely young and well-to-do professionals who may one day be looking for a firm to handle their investments—Toppe sets out planning an event by looking for the best attractions, whether she is organizing seminars with guest speakers such as Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, or Tommy Franks, or planning a welcome dinner for the firm's new C.E.O., Peter Scaturro.
"No matter what I'm planning I have to be fully aware that the event has to be of the utmost quality," Toppe says. "Because that's what US Trust is all about. We do event-based marketing as a tool to get in front of prospective clients and gain more business."
In March Toppe put together the company's first family day for clients and employees, in which she and event designer Bruce Sutka transformed the parking lot of the regional headquarters into an archaeological dig based on a 1920's desert site in Africa.
Sutka enclosed the lot with black spandex draping, and instead of sand ("not an option," Toppe says) sand-colored carpeting covered the entire floor of the garage. Mosquito netting hung from the ceiling and antique-inspired lanterns lit the entire area. Decor elements included weathered trunks, raw-looking wooden tables, and tools such as pickaxes, shovels, and brushes.
Guests entered the venue through a 90-foot tent that Toppe extended from the entrance of the garage to the curb. "My feeling about events is that they start the minute you get out of your car," Toppe says. "There can't be any lag time. The second you walked in [to the tent] you were in another world."
Guest speaker Dr. Paul Sereno, a paleontologist from the University of Chicago, gave a hands-on demonstration and family-friendly lecture. Toppe made sure the children had a sand box filled with faux dinosaur remains and other fossils. For gifts, Toppe arranged for 200 metal buckets to be printed with US Trust's logo.
In June she created a star-spangled cabaret starring political satirist Mark Russell at Palm Beach's historic Flagler Pavilion. The show and reception were designed to welcome Saturro on his first visit to the region. At another private dinner for clients, Toppe displayed the last automobile owned by Howard Hughes—a mammoth blue Buick that was equipped with an air-purifying system in the trunk.
"On top of my education and experiences, I have the ability to visualize exactly what I want," she says. "But when I'm planning an event I have to make sure that my vision is balanced with the needs and objectives of my employer."
