Tampa Bay CVB Celebrates 21 Years of Service

When people turn 21, their friends usually throw them a large birthday bash. When companies turn 21, they plan their own large bashes, with a little help from a volunteer committee. That was the case recently when the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) had 540 business and community leaders attend their 21st annual meeting and luncheon, the organization's last professional board meeting of the year. Included among these guests were catering directors, government politicos, advertising agents, and hotel owners.

When guests arrived at the A La Carte Event Pavilion, the Brown Memorial Church of God in Christ Choir performed for them. The CVB's Dianne Jacob and Joyce Fisk hired conceptBAIT to design the room, which featured plenty of chocolate and .phpberry—colors, that is.

"Since it represents an entire city, as well as a 21-year celebration, we wanted to take this event somewhere it had never been before. That's the reason we wanted a stylish, coming-of-age mood," said Frank Clemente of conceptBAIT.

It took several steps to complete this sophisticated look. They first combined chocolate, .phpberry, and white spandex shapes that were draped from the center of the ceiling, creating a three-dimensional mini twister effect. Contrasting light and dark, the designers provided spandex covers for the tables and chairs—chocolate tables with red chairs, .phpberry tables with chocolate chairs, pink tables with .phpberry chairs, and red tables with white chairs that also had a splash of chocolate. Lastly, they placed eight floor-to-ceiling fabric walls around the room: four around the perimeter, three on the stage, and finally, in the very back of the room, one round rotunda of fabric that was draped in chocolate with multicolored LED lights inside it, thanks to Bay Stage Lighting.

Bay Stage also supplied intelligent lighting and gobos that projected textured patterns onto the walls and ceilings. There was enough lighting to supply every person and design accent with a spotlight, and Bay Stage kept adjusting the colors to fit what was happening at each point of the event.

A La Carte's event designer Corina Wian created four different types of centerpieces and her co-worker Justin Torres coordinated their arrangements. These showpieces included glass vases with Gerber daisies in pink-tinted water, tall martini glasses with hot pink feathers, some funky red Asian-style table lanterns, and lamps with feathered pink lampshades.

This event also came with a three-course meal, which was catered by the staff at A La Carte. The first course consisted of a Mediterranean hummus platter with roasted red peppers, roasted garlic, kalamata olives, and feta with a crudité of seasonal vegetables, pita chips, and flat bread. It was followed by a trio of mini lump crab cake with ancho chili aioli; chicken tikka and grilled beef tenderloin; and an onion and pepper brochette with avjar served with basmati rice. Red velvet cupcakes with rose-tinted cream cheese frosting were served for dessert.

In between the music, food, and decorative surprises, the organization's newest officers, executive committee, and board members were inducted, and two were celebrated—Linda Sadler for her 10 years of service at the CVB, and Suz Cavanaugh for reaching her 20th year with the bureau.

The best news of the afternoon came when Jim Norman, chairman of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners & Tourist Development Council, announced that the CVB will receive an $820,000 supplemental award to support additional collaborative marketing and promotional programs.

—Albert del Toral