Mia Choi and Sneha Bhatia met at experiential marketing and design company EventQuest. Over their seven years there—Choi as head of production and Bhatia as a production manager—they enjoyed working together so much that they started their own business. “We both thought it would be great to create an agency that bridged the gap between being a solo producer and a bigger company,” Choi says. In February 2008, the pair launched Production 911, a full-service event production company based in Brooklyn.
Through their firm, they manage any and every part of the production process, from designing and executing the look and feel of an event to securing venues, creating sets and product displays, and hiring a band. “The best part of spending so many years in a large agency is that you’ve done everything. We’ve had jobs in India and Dubai, found stilt walkers for an event the night before. We are able to bring that to this company, but with a much more nimble business model,” Bhatia says.
The two do as much work in-house as possible and hire outside companies to handle things like set construction and audiovisual production, but say they often do not mark up their services. Their client list includes Nespresso, Google, and Trump International.
The New Yorker hired Production 911 to produce its 2008 Passport to the Arts event, a one-day tour of galleries in Chelsea and SoHo, and to turn a raw space into a pop-up gallery for a silent art auction, cocktails, and several branded areas for sponsors, including Land Rover and Mexico Tourism. “It was all under one roof, so we used a lot of dividers and created nooks and crannies so people could explore the area,” Bhatia says. “Usually you have one corporation you create a vision for, but for this project there were many to focus on, which made it more fun.”
The magazine was so pleased with the results, it hired Bhatia and Choi for Passport to the Arts again in November 2009. “They are great at making everything look beautiful and perfect,” says New Yorker special events manager Benjamin Milligan, “but keeping the budget in mind.”
