The Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee held its annual Action Party, a networking event, on Thursday night. The cocktail party drew 1,200 guests to the Skywalk, the public glass corridor linking Union Station to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The unconventional venue came with a set of challenges, “but it’s also been a lot of fun,” said Magen Boys Entertainment's event director, Gloria Benaim, who produced the event for the committee.
In fact, the long, narrow venue inspired the affair's design scheme, a look modeled after 1920s train stations. Magen Boys draped off spaces to create five “cars,” including the platform at the entrance, the media car, lounge car, bar car, and entertainment car. A saxophonist playing under an old-fashioned streetlight stood outside the venue's entrance, while a vignette of vintage suitcases stacked beneath a clock tower served as the event's entry point.
Although the dimensions played a part in inspiring the theme, they also posed a problem for the producers. “Width was an issue,” Benaim said of the site, which was only 22 feet across in some places. “We really had to be cognizant of our space.” To avoid a bottleneck, Benaim planned bar placement and seating carefully, making sure that there was never a lounge area directly across from a bar. She also decided that the widest section of the venue, which was near the convention centre, would be the entertainment car. “It took a lot of visits down to the site,” Benaim said about the planning process.
A second challenge was turning the Skywalk into an event space. Magen Boys had to route power to the corridor and create a kitchen. “We went through section by section and figured out everyone’s needs,” Beniam said.
The cocktail party started with a V.I.P. reception at 7 p.m. To get guests into the theme, the event entertainment kicked off with a swing band onstage, before flapper girls took to the dance floor. Later in the evening, a DJ took over.
