Though the travel and hospitality industry has seen better days, there wasn't a single free room at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center from Monday through Wednesday this week, and the venue's ballrooms and 100,000 square feet of trade show space were likewise booked. Topco, a grocery industry cooperative, hosted a two-and-a-half day conference and trade show, and to accommodate the 920 guests that attended the event, "we literally rented out the entire Renaissance Schaumburg," said Marcy Manley of WPI Event Partners Inc., which Topco conference manager Beth Mathis tapped to assist with planning efforts.
Each day's itinerary consisted of a trade show open from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., as well as ancillary happenings such as breakfasts and luncheons, award ceremonies, meetings, and cocktail receptions. Although planned activities wrapped up by early evening on most days, Tuesday night's cocktail reception and dinner for 700 of Topcco's members and vendors lasted until 10 p.m., and involved the highest measure of production—as well as a Cher impersonator.
"We called the event Room 21 [in reference to blackjack]—we wanted it to have a Las Vegas theme with a twist," said Manley. "We wanted to create a kind of lounge environment with pool tables, casino gaming, and entertainment that's synonymous with Las Vegas. We were trying to encompass all that Las Vegas represents on all these different levels, and really create that energy." Manley and her partner, Jessica Weinberg, chose the theme for the variety of entertainment options that it allowed, from strength acts to poker tournaments. "Our audience was 75 percent male and 25 percent female," Manley said. "So we wanted to make sure we had something that would appeal to every age demographic and to both genders. Everybody likes casino night."
The theme also allowed for some interactive tropes that planners hoped would engage the audience and get them mingling with each other. Along with group games and communal lounging environments, WPI worked with the hotel's culinary crew to design a menu intended to encourage networking. "The goal of this event was to make everything truly interactive, so we didn't want guests to just walk up to a buffet and say, 'O.K., I'm going to get my piece of chicken and move on,'" Manley said. Instead, food stations offered everything from paella to mashed potatoes, and according to Manley, "the culinary staff got really involved in the presentation. Everything was served on small plates so that people could interact and converse—it wasn't a seated, plated dinner kind of thing."
Ultimately, Manley said that adding a dose of Vegas-inspired showmanship to the evening helped "create the illusion of grandeur, without spending a lot of dollars." In this economy, she said, "it's all about the way you package and present an event." As an example of how she was able to stretch dollars, Manley noted that the evening's mashed potatoes were served in martini glasses, which "fancied them up" for no extra cost. In terms of entertainment, she pointed to Deep Blue Fields. "They have an electric violin, cello, and a DJ," she said. "So it's a trio and not a full band, but it gives the illusion of having all this entertainment without spending all the entertainment dollars."
