Sammy Caban got his start in the event industry as a DJ in Puerto Rico. Caban expanded his hobby into a business by hiring two other DJs and forming Astro Music in 1981. After a two-year stint as electronics professor at the Puerto Rico School of Technology, he shifted gears in 1989, when he was awarded a job designing the lighting and staging for the Festival Las Eriollas.
After researching the local competition, Caban launched lighting company Show Designers that year. From there, the business grew rapidly and the company increased its offerings to audiovisual services, laser displays, event design and decor, and soon thereafter a full-service, 10,000-square-foot production house. “With my strong technical background I was able to add new services pretty quickly,” says Caban. “My philosophy while designing events has always been to integrate the most advanced technology with designs that are functional, aesthetically pleasing, and safe.” While earning a degree in computer engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, he worked at a San Juan radio station and spun at parties on weekends.
The company, now called Sammy Caban Design and Production, continued to grow with the opening of a second office in Orlando in 2004. There, Caban focused primarily on nonprofit and association events, which made up about half of his work, while trying to expand his corporate business—a goal that prompted the move of his office and 3,000-square-foot warehouse to Miami in February. “I like to do events that have more to do with branding and marketing products than the standard meeting, and Miami is a much better market for that type of event,” says Caban, adding that his corporate business has increased by nearly 20 percent since moving. The relocation made him convenient to clients in both Orlando and Puerto Rico, thereby increasing his event base.
Hialeah-based Spanish language television network Telemundo Network Group L.L.C. hired him to design the V.I.P. and interview areas for the 2010 Latin Billboard Awards, which moved from Miami to Puerto Rico this year. Caban used white draping, red sofas, and gold decor accents to decorate the space with the network’s chosen color scheme for the night.
One of his newest Miami clients is Came Americas, a manufacturer of automated access control products. Caban designed and built a multilevel trade show booth in just three months for the company’s exhibition at the American Fence Association’s FenceTech conference earlier this year. “He gave us ideas on how to better show our product at trade shows,” says Louis Moreno, U.S. technical department supervisor at Came Americas, who hired Caban. “Everything was [completed] on time, which was important, as we gave him short notice to come up with it.”
