Exhilarate Events & Marketing

CSR: Step It Up For Hunger

Selina Christine Mullenax — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:43:56 +0000

A client of ours has an annal CSR event attached to their client conference. This year the conference was in Las Vegas, and we were faced with the mission of creating something to top last year’s event and the purpose of connecting to the company’s tagline of “There’s Power in Community.” One of the challenges in Las Vegas conventions is all of the walking that occurs because of the the massive hotels, we decided to make it an advantage.

The concept Step it Up for Hunger was created. We teamed up with Three Square (Clark County’s largest food bank) with the goal of 1 million steps by the attendees during the conference, which would supply 7,500 meals to the hungry children of Las Vegas. Attendees were given custom-branded pedometers which counted every step taken during the four-day conference. As an added result, the attendees got a kick out of seeing how many steps they actually took during the conference and even made small competitions between themselves.

Math that Matters:

We received almost 100% participation by the attendees
The goal of 1,000,000 steps was exceeded
The average steps a person walked during a 4-day conference was 40,000 (that’s close to 20 miles!)
We were able to provide 7,500 meals to those in need in the community

We, here at exhilarate events! Believe that adding a corporate social responsibility element to your next event should be stress-free and fun. The options are unlimited and we’re here to help you to focus in on an event or activity that will combine your company’s mission with a measurable goal and purpose. With that being said, what are some of the best CSR events you’ve seen, planned or participated in?

Exclaim All You Want!

Exhilarate — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:20:43 +0000

You may have wondered why our company’s name has an exclamation point and what it says about our brand. To explain, we must first take a look at the history of the exclamation point.

Forty-three years ago the exclamation point was added to the keyboard to express strong emotion and communicate excitement….similar to exhilarate don’t you think?! Before it was added to the keyboard as SHIFT + 1, typists would put apostrophes (‘) on top of periods (.) once the paper was printed.

People are always wondering when and if exclamation points should be used – Is it appropriate? Is it grammatically correct? Is it professional? Mignon Fogarty, the author of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing said, “There’s no point in being unnecessarily staid if you’re afraid it will offend someone.”

In other words, if you are looking to stand out and be adventurous in your words and endeavors then go for it! We believe the exclamation mark suits our company perfectly as our symbol. Hence why you will see it on our emails, shirts, nametags, etc. When you see an exclamation mark… think of us and be exhilarating!

Thirteen Tips on Using Instagram for Business

Selina Christine Mullenax — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:53:24 +0000

Behold, another social media platform! With what seems like a new one coming out just about every day, I can understand the feeling of being overwhelmed with trying to stay on-point and up-to-date. You may even be questioning yourself about if delving into yet another social media platform would benefit your business or just put it at a disadvantage by spreading itself out too thin. We’re here to tell you that this one’s a keeper. And now that’s it’s available on android phones (after having been exclusive to Apple) you should download it now (I’ll pause for you) so that you can jump right in after reading these tips.

1. Build Your Brand Personality: Use images to tell a story, but not necessarily blast your branding. Users are following you for a reason, show them who you really are as a business. Try posting pictures or people enjoying your products or services. Or event add some humor elements in your photos.

2. Learn the Power of Hashtags to Build a Following: The best thing to do with hashtags is to create your own. That way you can tell directly who is talking about you/your business. Hashtags enable you to find others who are interested in similar products that you may offer.

3. Reach and Engage Directly with Users: Asking questions increases engagement. That’s a fact. This makes Instagram a perfect tool for engagement because captions give you the ability to ask questions or start a poll. Just don’t make your questions too text-heavy; remember that you want to portray your brand as interactive and engaging. Users are also able to tag you with their response answers, or even use hashtags!

4. Show Your Products: If you actually have products, you can show off a collection via Instagram. Or even a piece of a popular product and have users try to guess what it is. (Remember, it’s about engagement!) If you offer a service, you can still show off the supplies and equipment that are essential to the services you provide.

5. Expand Your Audience: Instagram has the capability of sharing photos posted with other social media networks such as facebook and twitter. Taking advantage of this toll is a great way to join in on the larger conversations throughout all of the platforms. Be cognizant of which networks use hashtags and which don’t. Also, only share photos when they are valuable to the other platform’s personality or brand image.

6. Build Anticipation With Sneak Peeks: In order to maintain an effective marketing campaign, a business needs to keep their target audience interested. You can do this with teaser photos about new products, services or events that make them feel like they’re receiving insider (VIP) information by following your business. Reward them and make them feel special!

7. Behind the Scenes Photos: As human beings, we are naturally very curious. Posting photo breakdowns of how exactly a product or event is made would really be a fun and creative twist to interact with your audience.

8. Before & After: This one kind of builds off of the tip above. There are many apps you can download in order to make collages of pictures. With these (like Split Pic) you can upload a photo of side-by-side pictures: before and after! This will also showcase the difference or improvement upon a product you started with or an empty room that you transformed.

9. Introduce and Involve Your Employees: By taking photos of employees you can humanize your brand. You can spotlight certain attributes or accomplishments of employees with an appropriate hashtag each month, for example.

10. A Day in the Life: This has been made popular thanks to YouTube, where vloggers record their daily life in clips of about 10 minutes or so. The audience automatically feels connected to your business and starts to build a relationship and loyalty. You can do this by showing off your office, or the more relaxed side of your business rather than the brand they are used to seeing elsewhere.

11. Take Us With You: You travel for business? Perfect! We’d love to escape to a unique destination by living vicariously through your adventures! Daydream vacations in the middle of a work-day are the best pick-me-ups. But in all reality, showing pictures of your travels goes along with the tip above, as well as shows the bigness of your business.

12. Be Creative: Your followers will not want to see generic stock photos, boring store images or text-heavy images. Put your creative hat on and personalize your photos. PS: Instagram makes it easy with their oh-so-trendy filters.

13. Be Consistent: Based on our experience, we advise this one the most. You want to post photos on Instagram often enough to where people realize you exist and have you top-of-mind But you do not (I repeat; do not) want to over-hog their feed with random pictures. A definite way to get users to unfollow you. A happy medium does exist.

10 Top Tent Tricks, Tips and Trends

Stacey Barabe — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:33:57 +0000

It’s convention season in the south and like every year the tents start popping up all over. Every major convention hotel and even our massive 7,000,000 square foot Orange County Convention Center becomes tent city – gleefully ready to accommodate the ever-growing group sizes.

In my 20 plus years of event production I’ve had more than my fair share of tent installations, tent decorating and a few tent troubles. Everything from managing a massive 50,000 square foot structure install at a major resort that included moving power lines and leveling 50 year old trees to small beach-side VIP cabanas (just because they are cute and tiny doesn’t mean they can’t bite).

1. Site Selection: Tents can seemingly go up anywhere now days: beaches, rooftops, even the side of a mountain. Make sure you define a clear path for load in and load out, tent parking area, equipment staging area and if you’re staking the tent, have the area checked thoroughly for power and cable lines, irrigation pipes and water mains.

Tip: Know that if you are covering real grass for any length of time, it will die without sunlight and water; determine ahead of time that there will be no “replacement of grass fee” or negotiate what the replacement of sod or seeding fees will be. Same goes for the bushes someone in a truck will drive over.

2. Permitting: Warning: If the tent company your taking bids from doesn’t talk about permits or ask hard questions about insurance and site selection – RUN don’t walk away from that prospected vendor. Most reputable tent companies have great relationships with all the governing lawmakers over their area and most will offer to get all permits for you.

3. Restrictions: Check every municipality including, state, county, city, association, neighborhood and owner. You’d be surprised how much they differ in their rules and opinions about what is allowed and what’s not.

Tip: Cost Control on Restrictions: Find out if you have any building time and noise restrictions codes where you want to install the structure. If you’re not allowed to work into the evenings, this could extend the days of your installation costing you more than 3x your labor projected costs.

4. Anchoring Procedures: Make sure to follow the letter of the law on the type of anchoring required and acceptable for the size, shape and location of your tent.

5. Insurance: Double Down – Never skimp on insurance when doing events in tents. Make sure all your basis are covered included event insurance, structure insurance and insurance for site location property owners.

6. Hurricanes, Tornados and Acts of God OH MY!: With incoming season changes come incoming changing weather conditions. Read the contract, get out the Farmers Almanac and pray. Know exactly the policies and procedures that the tent vendor has that they will, have the right and need for safety first to come and take down your tent. FYI – Installing a tent with gusts of wind of 30 miles per hour is scary stuff and it will slow your install down.

7. Design Trend: Double Deckers are IN! If you have the time, money and guts, a tent that has some character with two floors or an open balcony give guest a birds eye view and they love it! This awesome double-decker tent is from TSE 2012.

8. The Floors: Got to have it! Carpet is so yesterday – it’s all about the “hardwood floors”, tiles or seamless black patent leather!

9. Paint it with Light: A tent is like a giant canvas that looks best when painted in light. Animated image projection uses light to create a masterpiece of moving images.

10. Shape it Up: The usual tent shapes are round or have giant peaks. Try to create something out of the ordinary. The “pavilion” over at the Grand Hyatt Airport in Tampa is an interesting oval and round combo that makes it fun to dress in light. The picture above is the Air-star America Dome; it’s one of my favorite tent structures.

Celebrate: Fifth Anniversary Thank You Party!

Selina Christine Mullenax — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:42:18 +0000

For a couple’s 5^th anniversary the traditional gift would be …well….wood. For Exhilarate’s 5^th anniversary however, we decided to turn the tables and do our usual non-traditional event. A party that would wow our guests and show them our appreciation for supporting us throughout our amazing 5 years as a company. We threw an UP!-themed, thank you, anniversary party to show our guests that we are up and on our way to an even BIGGER and BOLDER future! The sky is our limit! With great food and drinks by Millenia Catering and yummy cupcakes from It’s Tasty Too the night had close friends and colleagues in attendance, with a speech made by President Stacey Paul Barabe, quoted below for your enjoyment.

“The year was 2008 and the housing bubble hadn’t happened; there wasn’t such a thing as the “AIG effect,” “bailouts,” or “stimulus packages”; the Lehman brothers still owned Wall Street and there wasn’t a “GSA scandal.” I had big dreams to fill by owning my own event business by the time I was 40 – so I just jumped in. My rock-solid business plan fell apart quickly by January 2009 when I got four client calls which seemed to all be one after the other, in a row, with conference cancellations and budget reductions by 75%-90%. But I stuck it out, kept a lean and mean mindset and with the help of great partners, clients, friends and vendors survived and excelled beyond what I could have hoped for.” Our first step to continued success was moving. In order to grow the company, we had to literally grow the size of our headquarter office. We couldn’t be more excited for this change! Thank you to all who came out and to those who we will always be there for! Happy 5 Year Anniversary exhilarate!

Venue Find: DRIP

Selina Christine Mullenax — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:32:50 +0000

Are you on the hunt for the newest and hottest artistic venue in Orlando? With rooms designed as blank canvases, we can custom-design a full-on creative event for you or your client! The entire place is 100% waterproof and the walls are all painted with black chalkboard paint. Plus, a performance is available for which TheDailyCity.com called “a full on assault to the senses. If you took a poncho to Blue Man Group you’ll need a hazmat suit here!” Curious? Keep reading for a glimpse into “Orlando’s newest cultural gem,” and what we consider to be a venue to explore creativity, communication, trust and fun!

One can try to get information about if from their website or facebook page, but even after all that, we were still confused on what exactly DRIP is and how to describe it to people. So the exhilarate team went on an adventure to check out this artistic show.

DRIP is located down a dark alley behind Denny’s and Senor Frogs on International Drive. As you walk to what appears to be a loading dock, you initially get the sense of a dive bar – the room is dark and feels cool, and smells of a mixture of paint and sand. After passing by the box office, you find a painting station with four colors: yellow, blue, red, and orange. Each color represents a different emotion or feeling, which you later find out becomes an integral part to the story in the show. Be sure to paint your friends as you wait for the show to begin and try their colored beer!

Even if you escape the painting station, you are sure to get wet and painted on at some part during the show! Just when you think you’ve dodged everything, a little more beer, paint, water, sand or even clothing comes flying your way. As an audience member, you surround the “stage” which is a blank space in the center of another dark room where the performers tell their story. While there is no spoken word throughout the entire performance, it’s easy to catch on to the story of intense passion and betrayal of love through their use of movement, lights, paint, sand, and live rock music.

If you are on the search for something entertaining and different, be sure to contact us about DRIP. Our creative geniuses have already come up with amazing teambuilding ideas for this venue! We also have added pictures from our adventure on our facebook and pinterest pages.

The boss is behind the camera for this one and we what to know how she escaped “un-colored.” I guess there is a secret dry zone….

Top Thirteen Trends from #TSE2013

Selina Christine Mullenax — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:40:08 +0000

The Special Event Conference and Show is the premier tradeshow of the year for those in the events industry. This annual show is key to learning all of the new, exciting and up-and-coming trends for the year, as well as to mingle with our industry colleagues. Didn’t get to attend? We created this list of the top thirteen trends for your enjoyment.

Note: they are in not in any favorite-specific order.

Aerial Structures

From feathers to air-filled to LED pieces, aerial structures were everywhere this year. Each showcase event, and the tradeshow had a full array of floating or suspended eye candy in the ceiling for the attendees to enjoy. Some of our favorites were the uniquely designed flowers displayed at the tradeshow floor, and tg=he full-white feather pieces dancing with the city sky lights in the background displayed at the Opening Night Party. We think they add a beautiful touch to any event!

Aqualillies

And they’re back! Since “The Modern Mermaids” were introduced in Chicago back in 1933, having the Aqualillies named as a “Hot List” item at TSE in Chicago, seems like a perfect fit! We’ve used synchronized swimmers (which combine swimming with dance and gymnastics) in past events, and we’re thrilled to see the comeback! Routines and outfits can be themed to match that of the show, so they are sure to leave an impression on your attendees.

BrightBox

Alright, techies, this one’s for you. And whoever created it is a genius! To summarize, it’s basically a locker that charges your phone. You can bring a BrightBox to your meetings and events. An attendee swipes their card, opens the “locker” to charge their phone, and locks it until they return. It’s secure and convenient, and we believe it will be popping up all over the place.

BonFyre App

We are app fans and this one is awesome! How many facebook friends do you have? Like 1,000, right? Does every single person you’re connected to want to see all of the pictures from that networking event you went to last Tuesday? No, not necessarily. That’s where BonFyre comes in handy. It’s an app for your phone, where a “BonFyre” (pun intended) is created for an event, or a networking group. If interested, you join, and then you have all of the pictures and video from that one event in one place. How awesome is that? And of course, you’re able to communicate with those people and share the pictures to your phone (or facebook, if you really want to.)

Bronkar

His picture does him no justice, and you really MUST see/hear this, so please do yourself a favor and click on his picture right now. (But hurry back to see the rest of the Top Thirteen!) Okay, you’re back, do I need to say anything more? He’s a rhythmic, beat-boxing, audience-engaging, juggler! Call us to book him! The end.

Check In Easy

This software eliminates time and paper wasted during event check-in registration. Google used this for an event with 600 people and there were zero issues to report. Multiple people can access the software at once, and there are no bugs or glitches. The founders are already working on the next step, which is to have name badges printed out, but we love their focus on one product at a time.

Cupcake Pod Machine

This giant vending machine made its debut at a Betsey Johnson runway show, and has been popping up in both luxury and social events ever since. The miniature cupcakes sit in pods and you use a token to get one. Once a cupcake pops out, you can use a cell phone app to match the colors of that cupcake and find out which flavor you were given. The rental includes the tokens as well as a recycle bin; how clever! A sweet branding opportunity awaits.

Dear World

Dear World is a movement. But we included it because it’s a strong movement that can be added to leave an everlasting effect at an event. Whether there is a cause already associated with your event, or not, writing on skin with a black dry-erase market just seems to make a profound impact when photographed. Try it.

Dresses!

Looking to add a futuristic touch to your next event? The LED electric dresses as living décor, pictured above ,will definitely create that fun, whimsical theme. And if you want something even more spectacular, just add a twelve-foot tall dress in the mix! Not only do they liven up a room, but they make a great photo op as well!

Gantry Bike

The American circus is reinvented, with the gantry bike being the newest creation. It can move through crowds and complete a whole 360 degree turn. All while holding up acts who perform on this moving machine! Can we say exhilarating?

LED/Glow

If you haven’t picked up on this trend already, know that you’ve seen it three times already in just this one blog post. Adding a glowing effect with LED is sticking around for another year. Our favorite is adding this touch to luminescent trees or furniture.

Metal Mariachi, AKA: Metalachi

Again, this is another act that is easier to comprehend after listening, so click on the picture above to experience the one and only heavy metal mariachi band. To further explain, they’re a mariachi band performing heavy metal music. Yes, you can now say you’ve seen it all.

Xylobands

Yes, we’re talking about LED once again. But this time via intelligent, radio-controlled, LED wristbands with custom colors and patterns. The bands can control up to eight different zones, meaning there will be different colors or patterns going off in various sections. Coldplay used Xylobands in order for their audience to be part of the show. What more could you ask for to create audience interactions and have an event truly come to life?

As you’re probably on a creativity-high right now, and we’d love the opportunity to help you decide which of the newest trends are perfect for you upcoming event. Give us a call!

Trends: Remix Run!

Selina Christine Mullenax — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:43:33 +0000

Trending Now! Themed runs are all the rage now, with the Dine and Dash, Color Run, Foam Fest, Tough Mudder, Devil Dash and so many others just popping up left and right, we decided to create our own: Remix Run! While sponsoring the 5K Fun Run/Walk for PCMA’s Convening Leaders conference in Orlando, we decided to throw the “fun” back in Fun Run with the Remix Run!. Aside from the costumes that participants are always excited to wear at themed runs, we played up with a little tongue and cheek of a “throwback” to icons of workout infomercials. We had impersonators of legendary work-out heroes from the 70’s and 80’s, volunteers with neon LED clappers cheering on the runners and a mobile Hummer DJ to keep the excitement level at a high all throughout the run. Richard Simmons started off the race with his “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” workout routine to get everyone’s muscles stretched and funny bones warmed up. Once the air horn went off, the runners encountered Suzanne Somers with her infamous thigh master, Tony Little “Gazelling” at the halfway point and Rocky Balboa ending the race with a stair challenge up the towering stairs of the Orange County Convention Center. Reaching the finish line, runners were cheered on to finish strong by joyous, applauding volunteers. After every participant crossed the finish line underneath the illuminated balloon arch, an awards ceremony and congratulatory celebration took place. Top runners from various categories were selected for their prizes, and snacks to recharge were available for all.

- Pippa O’Shea, @pippapop92, placed 9th!

- Carson Edwards, @carsonedwardsjr, placed 12th!

We love adding exhilarating concepts and ideas to your events! Contact us now about your upcoming run or race to see how we can put the “fun” back in to it! From the entertainment to the coordinators, the entire environment will be exhilarating!

Exhilarate Golf Style!

Selina Christine Mullenax — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:12:59 +0000

The world has heard of Gangnam Style, but Exhilarate Golf Style is by far the newest and hottest trend for 2013! Team Exhilarate took over the 6^th hole at the GMF Dunes Executive Invitational at the Mystic Dunes Resort this past month. A total of 36 teams made their way by our “Exhilarate Golf Style” Tailgate Party. The golfers were greeted with a regulation game of cornhole to win a Mulligan while enjoying some hand-crafted “good morning” Bloody Marys, and charcoal-grilled, all-beef hot dogs. To make the event even that much more memorable, all of this fun was capped by jamming classic rock from our custom Fiat 500C convertible! In the crowd were teams from the NFL Retired Players Association, Lux Marketing, Rosen Hotels, the Orlando Predators and even a former N’Sync member, Chris Kirkpatrick. As the day came to an end, we joined the golfers at an awards lunch where we were named the top pick for “Most Fun Sponsored Hole” and best hot dog of the day. Being chosen as the “most fun” hole came as no surprise to us as we exhilarate every event we work on. And this is just one way that Team Exhilarate can add some excitement to your next golf event. With creative themes and logistics, we are looking forward to planning future golf outings and activities to be truly memorable for years to come. We are ready for any challenge and look forward to continuing the conversation with you.

Win an Exhilarating Experience

Selina Christine Mullenax — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:35:58 +0000

We are extremely thrilled about our campaign for this upcoming year! In order to Launch a Lucky ’13, we will be doing an experience giveaway every month.

The campaign will kick-off at PCMA’s Convening Leaders conference in Orlando. So yes, more details are to come; just stay tuned. To enter, you simply need to ‘like’ our facebook page or sign up for our quarterly newsletter by joining our mailing list. And if you send us an RFP you increase your chances by getting your name entered additional five!

The giveaways are sure to be both exciting and exhilarating! Make sure to add something heart-pumping to your New Year’s Resolutions! We’re ready to go on helicopter and hot air balloon rides, as well as enjoy indoor skydiving and amusement parks in 2013! Are you? No purchase necessary to be considered Must be 18 or older. You may submit alternate entry or request winners’ information by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Exhilarate Events, 8601 Commodity Circle, Orlando, FL 32819.