As the vice president of creative services for Hello Florida!, Mark Wells is responsible for overseeing nearly 1,200 events a year, half of which he personally works to create. Getting his start in art direction for theater before moving into entertainment programming for nightclubs in California in the early 1990s, Wells came east in 1994 and ultimately found his home in the corporate event market. With more than 400 percent growth in his department since beginning five years ago at Hello Florida!, Wells is whose name is on people's lips when out-of-the-box destination events are called for in Orlando.
How do you manage to plan so many events in a single year?
It would be an impossible feat to think one person or department could do what we pull off. We have such strong relationships with our vendors and have such a great communication model that there is far less explaining to do in the creative process. They know our style and what it is that we're after, so it is much more efficient.
Our philosophy is to represent the client to the market and not the market to the client. I find out what the client wants and deliver it to them with the shortest distance from A to B at the most reasonable price. We may use four decor companies, three rental, and two lighting companies all on the same event, so no single company is overextended. We like to spread the business out across the industry. Plus, depending on the load-in time, we may need more than one company to make it all happen in time and to the client's satisfaction.
What has been your standout event of 2008?
The Marshall Impact event at the Swan and Dolphin Beach Resort's beach and pool area in April. Creatively, it was fun to work with because the client had chosen the martial arts-with their discipline, power, concentration, etc.-to communicate their company's new vision for its sales group; and instead of going cliché, we tried to work those principles into the event and color it with an Asian influence.
We covered the main pool with a 40- by 40-foot bridge that was also a performance space, lit the pool with submerged lights, and set up a bungie fu (a twist on "wire fu," a slang term for kung fu using wires) apparatus behind the band's stage for people to take their pictures in their best martial arts pose. It created a living backdrop for those watching the band perform from the beach-where we had custom-made Zen gardens. We put a twist on the Asian sport of kite-fighting by designing a kite show over the lagoon with pyro coming out the back of the kites and fireworks overhead, in addition to roaming entertainment such as geishas, stiltwalkers, capoiera [correct?], and five strategically placed trampoline acrobats performing high-flying stunts.
What would you say has been your biggest career accomplishment thus far?
Assembling this team. I've worked in many places with many jobs, and this is the longest I've worked with a company. The team of people here and their dedication and passion for this business is amazing. Between my team and the passion of the sales teams (14 total in-house) who touch the national market, there is always an opportunity.
What do you think makes the Orlando market different form the rest of the state/country?
There is no other marketplace that has the volume that we have here. I hear other people from around the country say they do 40 events a year, and we are able to have 1,200-plus. With the massive hotel ballrooms and all the resources in Orlando, I can do here what my colleagues have to travel around the country to do.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I would like to do a book that helps young people understand what it takes to do business in this industry and shows them the real journeys and the pretty pictures that come out of that journey. What does it take to actually get to that perfect picture? I would want revenue from the publication to go toward college funds for students who are trying to get into the business. I always wanted to do what it is that I am and my parents didn't want me to. It took me awhile to just go for it, and I want students to believe that if they want to be a commercial artist in the event business, they can. They need to believe that this is a serious business and a multimillion-dollar business at that.
From your experience, what do you think is the key to a successful event?
Because there is such a varying set of expectations, a successful event should answer a few questions: 1. Did you provide what the client expected? 2. Did you exceed their expectations in any measure? 3. Did you leave a bit of yourself on the program by doing something extra because you saw it could be done?
We have a saying in our department: if it's 20 minutes before doors (open) and you see something can be done, just do it. You're already invested, so knock it out of the park.
Recently we've seen a lot more D.M.C.s pop up across the industry, but Hello Florida! was one of the originals in the state. What separates you from the rest?
We've created a boutique feel in a big company by having a team structure assigned to represent each client., That team is focused solely on that one client while still having and offering the resources of the entire creative department and all of Hello Florida!. The clients don't have to explain themselves and what they're looking for multiple times, as they have one consistent relationship. At the same time, we have training procedures and standards set in place to allow any one of the five designers to pick up a client from someone else if necessary and do it just as well as the original person on the project.
We put this system in place about five years ago when we started to see the influx of smaller companies. The new dynamic has served us very well and allowed us to continue to be competitive in the marketplace.
