Designing the invitation is an exciting and creative aspect of planning an event. By hiring a graphic designer, you open the door to fresh visual ideas, innovative paper selections, and a professionally finished piece. Customized invitations set a unique tone for any social or business occasion; their individuality and style tell guests far more than where to go and when to arrive. A well-designed invitation provides guests a tantalizing peek into the festivities that lie ahead.

admin Event Essentials, The Wilsonwest Way culture, customers, design, partners

Event producers rely on a team to pull off an extraordinary meeting or event. At Wilsonwest, we hold members of this team in a very high place. Call them trusted partners, collaborators, friends –  but never vendors. Vendors sell you something. Trusted partners give and keep on giving – great inspiration, extraordinary service, value, respect, and much more. Working with these partners you are capable of delivering more than you or your customer imagined. All of this giving translates into an even greater experience for event participants.

This week, I’d like to give a shout out to one of those partners: Bill John and the Odyssey Team.

The Odyssey team is extraordinary and they have been working to create meaningful Corporate Socially Responsible (CSR) events long before the term was in vogue. When many of us hear the words team building, we cringe. Odyssey changed this for me. When you meet Bill, you understand why the firm is so successful.  He lives and breathes his mission. He listens. He gets it. And he is a true innovator.

Check out their work: innovative, dynamic, smart, and real.

Cindy Wilson

admin Relationship Marketing, The Wilsonwest Way collaboration, culture, partners, relationships

I took a quick trip to New York City last week, and while dining in some great spots I was reminded of a favorite guru of mine in the hospitality industry: Danny Meyer. Danny is CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group and owner of famed restaurants such as Union Square Café, Gramercy Tavern, Tabla, The Shake Shack, and many more.

I LOVE his approach to business which he calls enlightened hospitality and which serves as the foundation of his thriving restaurant empire. This business model, designed for long-term sustained profitability, embraces his key stakeholders in the following order: 1) employees  2) customers 3) community 4) suppliers, and 5) investors. Hmmm? Investors at the bottom of the list? Sound a bit backwards? Meyer argues that if you place the emphasis on the first four groups (in this order) you will find that it is their collective work and collaboration that fuels even greater and more enduring financial success which ultimately fuels the bottom line and makes for happy investors.

His businesses are known for outstanding employees, warm hospitality, strong ties with exceptional suppliers, and a solid commitment to playing an active role in the community. Investors are honored to be associated with businesses that generate not only profit, but good will and soul. There’s a lot to be learned from this business philosophy and I have enjoyed reading Meyer’s book Setting the Table, The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business.

Meyer understands that serving food is secondary to the experiences he creates for his customers and to quote him, “Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple, and it’s that’s hard.”

Cindy Wilson

PS – If you’re heading to NY  there’s a few new Shake Shacks popping up in the Theater District and the Upper East Side.

PS - I know it’s been around for a while, but my daughter and I loved, loved, loved Billy Elliott The Musical and I hear it’s coming to San Francisco in the Fall.

admin Relationship Marketing, The Wilsonwest Way collaboration, culture, customers, employees, food, partners, relationships

A good portion of the work that we do here at Wilsonwest involves selecting – or helping our clients to select – just the right place for a meeting, special event, or conference. Place plays a central role to the experience and relationship building that lies at the heart of any successful event.

I spent some time last week in one of my favorite places – Meadowood in the Napa Valley. It struck me that this geographic region (and resort) may well be what Wikipedia has in mind when defining a Sense of Place:

The term “sense of place” is often used in relation to those characteristics that make a place special or unique, as well as to those that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and belonging. Cultural geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, and urban planners study why certain places hold special meaning to particular people or peoples. Places said to have a strong “sense of place” have a strong identity and character that is deeply felt by local inhabitants and by many visitors. Such a feeling may be derived from the natural environment, but is more often made up of a mix of natural and cultural features in the landscape, and generally includes the people who occupy the place.

What happens when this geographic outer space impacts our inner space? Magic happens. You relax, engage, and connect to both the people and places around you, forging deeper relationships and gaining new insights. Hopefully, an ah ha moment takes you to a new level of thinking. This experience is at the heart of our work creating Events that Build Relationships.

Hats off to Meadowood for its authentic connection to the Napa Valley and its sense of place.

admin Relationship Marketing events, locations, partners

Look closely at the inside cover of Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin and you will find a picture of me and my colleague Nick Rossi. Imagine how excited we were to discover this when the book arrived! How did this happen? Well, unbeknownst to us, our colleague Mary Sullivan sent in our photos in response to the questions, “Who Matters to you? Who could you not live without?”

Take a moment now and think about the people who really matter to you – those people that you just can’t live without.

Call them. Write them a note. Send off an e-mail. Celebrate them! Do it often. It feels good to be on either side of this equation.

I will join Seth in the chorus by saying, celebrate the linchpins! We most certainly need more of them.

admin The Wilsonwest Way culture, partners, relationships

Aptera – from the Greek word for wingless flight.

Wow…what fun I had this week visiting the Southern California offices of Aptera, creators of the soon to be released all-electric car. What struck me most about the visit, beyond their space-age looking vehicle, was the excitement and energy of the design and marketing team we met. Surefire signs of collaboration were present in every corner of the facility: from the workplace design to the diversity of the team who were drawn from multiple industries.

This was a good reminder about the power of collaboration and the diverse resources available to us in the event management world. Planning teams bring together marketing gurus, culinary wizards, technology minds, environmental designers, and more. Encourage your partners to contribute outside of their areas of expertise and some new, exciting idea might take flight.

admin The Wilsonwest Way collaboration, culture, green, partners

In the event world, environments are really important. You know: that feeling you get when you’re in a great restaurant, the lighting is perfect, the service unobtrusive, and the space well designed. All of these things support conversation and put your guests at ease. I had such an experience on a recent East Coast trip, where I had the immense pleasure of dining at the home of one of our clients. I felt at ease the minute I walked in the door. One of the many things that struck me that evening was the manner in which his art was arranged on the walls. Much like him, the arrangements were impeccably and artfully presented. Fast forward to my return to California where I read an article celebrating the expertise of Rob and Gaetan, owners of the Lost Art Salon here in San Francisco. I had previously paid a visit to their studio, a hidden gem on an otherwise anonymous city street. I began to better understand that there really is an art to hanging art and when properly done, the results are both seen and felt.

I decided to share this discovery and built a client event around the idea, turning my own home over to the guys from Lost Art for a make-over of sorts. We removed all of the art we had hung up at different times over the years and pulled a few more pieces out of the closet. While we caught up with some old clients and made some new friends over cocktails and food, two of my walls were transformed by Rob and Gaetan into beautiful examples of what is called a Totem Hang and a Salon Hang. Our clients enjoyed the lively discussion with the Salon owners who shared some of their secrets and encouraged us all to have an open mind. We worked with another partner, Lisa Eastlack, to design a small guide for our friends to take away. In fact, the Salon liked it so much, they commissioned a more detailed version. You can download it here.

We hope our guests were inspired to look at their art through a new lens and transform a home, office, or even event space of their own. Whatever the result, when you combine expert advice and an invitation to give your imagination free reign, only good things will follow.

admin Design & Decor art, customers, design, events, partners

Green is everywhere these days, especially on this coast. When we started down the path of greening our events, we were quickly overwhelmed by the amount of information and no clear, trusted path to “green-ness.” We decided early-on that our commitment would be to learn as much as possible, mine the information for substance, and share it with others in the event world.

That was the impetus for our recent Green Event Summit hosted in tandem with Green Consultants and the W Hotel San Francisco. When it comes to Green, these guys are the shade of Deep Loden, unlike our Budding Leaf status. “Deep Loden?” you may ask. Well, an interesting roundtable exercise we conducted was to ask all of the participants to rank themselves on a “Green Spectrum” of our own design (we had to have a little bit of the Wilsonwest creative flair in there). The range of responses really helped illustrate that this is a burgeoning aspect of our industry and further fueled our excitement to be involved on the ground level.

We had a great turnout for the event and were impressed by the industry leaders from Oracle, The Gap, and Cisco who shared stories about the successes and challenges in greening their events. One of the takeaways was a lengthy list of online resources that we are all using to help wrap our arms around this important topic. Here’s a great example of one such resource. Check it out and see what the carbon footprint is for your most recent event. The success of this forum has encouraged us to make this a regular part of our partner outreach. If you would like to attend the next one or are interested in more specific information, please send us an email.

admin Green Events green, partners, roundtable