The South Florida Heart and Lung Institute celebrated its grand opening on Thursday night in Doral with a wine tasting party intended to stand out amid the sea of medical-related cocktail parties held in South Florida each week. The institute’s Romualdo Segurola and Alfredo Rego turned to Roxana Fernandez, president of Imagen Marketing Agency, to plan the party with a short seminar led by a Moët Hennessy USA educator.
“Dr. Segurola said doctors get invited to cocktail events like this every week and usually don’t attend because there are so many, so we had to figure out what would really attract them,” said Fernandez, who added the event reeled in 100 more people than anticipated. “The [institute's] doctors are heart surgeons, so wine and heart [health] go together.”
Some 250 heart surgeons, cardiologists, health care industry executives, and other doctors attended the event, which took place in the office building’s lobby and carport. Fernandez used sheer white draping suspended from the ceiling, black carpeting, white-topped steel highboys, and mirrored bars to decorate the space, which Florana dotted with white floral arrangements.
Though Fernandez originally planned on two wine tastings led by Moët director of education Seth Box, the schedule had to be scrapped at the last minute due to time constraints and crowding. Instead, bartenders poured glasses of the three Champagnes and three red wines planned for the tastings and Box spoke for about 10 minutes to the group. During this time waiters served various sushi rolls and spring rolls, which Essence Caterers originally created to be paired with specific wines.
Dr. Segurola led an official ribbon cutting ceremony for local media including Univision and Doral Lifestyle magazine. Saxophonist Jorge Gomez Montes of J Music Inc. performed on the second floor balcony overlooking the main event area throughout the night. The event wrapped up around 10 p.m., an hour later than anticipated.
