Dan Wender is the 34-year-old president and co-founder of experiential production company The Umbrella. He’s based in New York.
My career journey:
I began my career in nightlife. I always craved events that offered something unique, and at the beginning of my career in the late aughts, there were few truly intriguing events in NYC.
There were events that were very art focused, but without thoughtfully curated music, and music events or parties that had nothing but a dance floor and a bar. We set out to marry experiential art with truly well-curated music, and the result of that was my first successful event series, RINSED, which turned 12 this year.
RINSED was a party I created with my close friend Bobby Picciotto. We created it for ourselves and were lucky that so many thousands of others were also craving the same thing. Each event was themed with highly concise, narrow, focused art directions and themes like “Surveillance,” “Museum,” “Love Hotel,” and “Chemical Bank.” We brought in both up-and-coming and established DJs and performers like Jacques Greene, MK, TEED, Gorgon City’s first American DJ set, as well as legends like Inner City and Crystal Waters. The idea was to transport guests out of their normal lives for one night. Because the events were carefully designed, it drew more of a high fashion and artist crowd than the more eclectic “themed” events that drew a more Burning Man-type crowd. Those parties connected me with a family and network that bootstrapped my trajectory into experiential production.
Our first branded event came through a partnership with Topshop and Boiler Room that featured RINSED as the centerpiece. After that experience, I realized that brands were also looking for unique ways to market their products with engaging experiences. We originally launched “The Umbrella” as a record label and venue in East Williamsburg, and organically it became a creative and production agency.
We worked with agencies and directly with clients to produce some outrageous and incredible experiences. Some highlight projects include activating the derelict park underneath the K-Bridge for LaQuan Smith’s Met Gala party, rebuilding the defunct and deteriorating Delano Hotel in Miami Beach for an Art Basel activation, developing a proto-metaverse virtual event platform called "Antibody Club" during the pandemic, and launching an ‘80s era nightlife experiment last year for NFT.NYC.
The work we’re doing now is some of the most creatively fulfilling of my career, and the best projects are yet to come.
Wender is often shoulder-to-shoulder with celebrities, including the likes of Hailey Bieber and Zoë Kravitz (pictured together at an Umbrella-produced event). "The best projects are yet to come," Wender told BizBash.Photo: Courtesy of Dan Wender
What inspires me:
New York City—watching human interactions at the bodega or on the train. Nature—big red rock formations sculpted by time. Courageous experiential pioneers—Eric Goode and his ‘80s nightclub AREA is one of my greatest inspirations and aspirations.
What my day-to-day looks like:
I wake up around 7 a.m. and drink enough matcha to get my blood pumping. Then I answer emails til around 10 a.m. Then there’s usually an all-hands meeting with our production leads. From 11-2 p.m., I block out time for creative writing. Generally, this is in the form of deck outlines for upcoming client projects and proposals or business strategies.
In the early p.m., I sync with our design team to turn my chicken scratch outlines into proper decks. And the later part of the day is spent on the phone with important vendors and pitching decks to clients; or if it’s a production day, I’m on location supervising installation and ensuring the details of the events are up to our standards. Before bed, I sync with my business partner, Ann D’Ovidio, to do a finance check of our current projects and the company at large, process payroll, and plan the future. It’s generally an 8 a.m.-8 p.m. work day when we’re not on location.
My most memorable event:
In 2019, we partnered with Mazarine Group and artist Sebastian Errazuriz to produce Blu Marble, a public art installation that used proprietary software to pull images from a NASA satellite and project live video of Earth from space—in real time—on a custom-built circular LED screen in NYC’s Lower East Side.
Over six weeks, people walking to work, or to a night out, would stop and see this massive live image of Earth. It was a brilliant piece that forced one to acknowledge that we all share this planet, circling the sun, in an infinite universe. It helped contextualize life's daily trials and tribulations, and reminded people that we are a part of something much larger than ourselves. Watching people stop in the street and consider this was powerful.
This project reinforced that we could use our scrappy rave background to make truly refined public art experiences.
In 2019, The Umbrella produced Blu Marble (pictured), an art installation that projected real-time video of Earth from space, courtesy of NASA. Wender said this project was notable because it "reinforced that we could use our scrappy rave background to make truly refined public art experiences."Photo: Courtesy of Dan Wender
My greatest career accomplishment:
The RINSED parties amassed such a loyal cult following that strangers have approached me at events with our flagship red umbrella neon sign logo tattooed on their bodies. I'm talking about complete strangers. There are at least three of these tattoos out there, and knowing that we've made such an indelible impact on our guests fills me with immense pride.
Events are intrinsically ephemeral—the goal is always to make an impact. The fact that someone would permanently alter their body to be reminded of the experiences we produced is the greatest compliment I could ever dream of.
A time I averted a complete event disaster:
The list is endless.
There's the time the power went out at the peak of an event in a warehouse space with more than 1,000 people, and we happened to have an electrician guest volunteer to hack the circuit breaker back together and get the music going so quickly that people thought it was part of the show.
There's the time a torrential downpour happened 20 minutes before guests arrived at the LaQuan Smith Met Gala party, and we had to grab whatever we could to shelter the decor from the rain water and rising sewer water. Nobody but the production team would have ever known it happened.
There's the time a very well known French couture house asked us to move all of the furniture from one end of an enormous garden to the other while guests were having dinner. At the same moment, an important lighting element was glitching out with only a few minutes to troubleshoot and fix it. Nobody ever knew the wiser in the end.
Things will always happen during the course of production. When it feels like the world is about to explode, the most helpful thing to do is remember that we're specks on a rock hurtling through space. It feels like it's life or death, but it isn't. Try to remember, "What’s the worst that could happen?" and if you play the tape all the way through, you'll feel some relief. When you're calm, it's much easier to solve problems.
My leadership style:
Extreme transparency. I try to keep my team in the loop on what's going on client-side, unless it will cause unnecessary stress. I've found that honesty and transparency organically motivates and creates a sense of collective ownership in our projects. I bring problems to my team, we discuss solutions, and often myself or my business partner have to make difficult decisions. Being decisive and transparent can be scary, but humans appreciate it on a biological level. It's better to be decisive and honest than to worry about hurting people's feelings. In the end, we all have to face reality. If you have a team of mature people, they can handle the truth.
The Umbrella activated "the derelict park underneath the K-Bridge for LaQuan Smith’s Met Gala party" (pictured), but just 20 minutes before, it downpoured. Wender recalled having "to grab whatever we could to shelter the decor from the rain water and rising sewer water." Thankfully, "nobody but the production team would have ever known it happened," he added.Photo: Courtesy of BizBash
The advice I would give my younger self:
If you're passionate about producing experiences and bringing people together, make them. Don't get bogged down with perfection or you'll end up in a state of analysis paralysis and you'll never make anything. If you're confident in your idea, and you are willing to invest the time and thought to make something happen, people will receive your enthusiasm and show up.
At the same time, don't expect immediate success, and don't let failure dissuade you—it's part of the process. It takes time, it takes failure, there are waves of optimism and existential dread. Over time, these experiences will give you muscle memory, and it will get easier. Stick with it. The people who succeed are the people who keep at it. Over enough time, you'll become part of the community, and the work will find you.
My ideal day OOO:
I wake up, it's 70 degrees outside, and I go hiking somewhere extremely remote. Zero cell phone reception. Zero human beings around (except maybe my wife), and I am able to absorb some of the vastness of nature. Having lived in the city nearly my entire life, I can't possibly express how profound the experience of nature has on my well-being.
At night, we light a fire and cook something simple and delicious, and sleep under the stars.
What’s next for me:
The Umbrella's got some incredible projects in production right now that are coming to fruition over the next few months. A novel music exhibition, some very exciting fashion activations, and a few other very big projects that I'm too NDA-ed to disclose. Keep up with @theumbrella.nyc on Instagram to stay up on our upcoming projects!
BizBash's 2023 40 Under 40 list is sponsored by VDA, a Massachusetts-based experiential marketing and event design agency that specializes in custom live, hybrid, and virtual experiences designed to drive business growth through client collaboration and creative thinking.
