Tis The Season For Campari

The historic and unique brand of Campari hosted some of San Francisco’s most notorious bartenders on a progressive night out in the city, spreading holiday cheer wherever they landed next.

One of the stops was at the Union Square ice rink, where we quenched their thirst for entertainment. Greeted by friendly elves with gift bags in tow, guests spent some time sipping on specialty Campari drinks and delighting in the smooth sounds of the a cappella carolers, SoVoSo. After snacking on bite-sized grilled cheese sandwiches and warm tomato soup, guests were encouraged to skate alongside the dashing Count “Sno-Groni” and his Snow Bunnies on the rink.

The evening was stylish and classy in true Campari fashion! Thanks again to Dominic Phillips Event Marketing for bringing us on to another amazing event and to Gamma Nine Photography for capturing the magic.

Happy Holidays!

Campari Elves

SoVoSo

Count "Sno-Groni" & his Snow Bunnies

By Kelsey Pavao, © Entire Productions

Wilkes Bashford Rebranding

Going on its 47^th year, the always posh and fabulous Wilkes Bashford decided it was time for a facelift. To celebrate the completion of the renovation and new look, the store threw back-to-back fetes at their San Francisco and Palo Alto locations. The events reflected the luxury brand of Wilkes Bashford: elegant, current, and a touch playful.

With a chic vintage-circus theme, the events featured talented contortionists, stilt walkers, a magician from LA, a contact-juggler, hoop and ribbon dancers, a tarot reader, photo-shoot style photo booth, and DJ. Guests were able to interact with the talent as they snacked on passed hors d’oeuvres, browsed the shelves for new winter accessories, and watched a fashion show of all the latest men and women’s fashion.

Needless to say, the events were unique and sophisticated – just as the founder, Wilkes Bashford, intended the brand to be.

Thanks to Dominic Phillips Event Marketing for bringing us on and Gamma Nine Photography for taking these amazing images of our talent!

Stilt-walkers at Wilkes Bashford Palo Alto

Catie Brier - Contortionist

DJ Fox

Cherry Hoops - Hoop Dancing

Contact-Juggler

iNKa - Contortionist

By Kelsey Pavao, © Entire Productions

Indian Event Trends

Breaking into niche markets within the event industry can be tricky if you don’t have a good base of knowledge to draw from. Often times we get wrapped up in areas we find comfortable and the task of marketing ourselves to others can seem daunting. Thankfully, here in the Bay Area, our event community is both supportive and generous, and richly diverse. If you don’t know, ask. And if you don’t know the questions to ask, thankfully we have special event experts like Ranjan Dey to educate us!

Owner of New Dehli Restaurant, our friend and colleague Ranjan Dey has long been a part of the special event industry catering Indian weddings. As the star of documentary series "My India", we feel so lucky to rub elbows with a celebrity chef and Indian spice expert. On November 20th he graciously shared his knowledge about the niche market of Indian weddings and events. “Indian Event Trends” took place at City Hall, showcasing local vendors who can help supply a beautiful Indian- themed event leading guests through the venue progressively as they experienced the vendors’ décor, refreshments, and entertainment.

The evening kicked off with an informative speech from Ranjan in the North Light Court about commonly used spices in Indian cuisine and gave several tips on how to connect with an Indian client. Guests were then guided to the South Light Court where a Henna Party was taking place – including a ghost chili eating competition (for those brave enough to volunteer), henna tattoo artists, passed hors d’oeuvres, and two photo booths. The event concluded with colorful Bollywood dancers emerging down the steps of the Rotunda to perform an upbeat number. The dancers even taught the guests how to shake their hips along to the beat!

Bollywood dancers in the Rotunda

We were honored when Ranjan asked us to light the gorgeous Rotunda for this event. With pattern washes, uplights and a spotlight for the dancers’ performance, we helped to create a striking entrance as guests arrived.

Our talented A/V division lighting up City Hall

Among fellow sponsors Denon & Doyle Entertainment, Orange Photography, Blueprint Studios, Classic Party Rentals, and Henna Garden, we were proud to be a part of such an exciting and unique event! Special thanks to the venue sponsor, San Francisco City Hall and Elsie McAteer for hosting us - what a great setting!

Our own Natasha and Elise even dressed the part in authentic saris! Way to go girls – you looked great :)

Elise & Natasha looking glamorous in authentic saris

by Kelsey Pavao, © Entire Productions

A City Club Affaire

What do you get when you combine newly engaged couples, mini red velvet cupcakes, bubbling mimosas, a stunning venue, and talented vendors? An affaire to remember!

As one of The City Club of San Francisco’s preferred vendors, we had the opportunity to participate in the venue’s annual wedding and event showcase, “A City Club Affaire”, earlier this month. The event featured passed hors d’oeuvres and a scrumptious buffet provided by the on-site chef to accompany the many sweet offerings from various bakeries. Fortified with treats, future brides and grooms were able to peruse the 10^th and 11^th floors full of the City Club's preferred vendors. 

We had a great time visiting with couples and educating them as to what we can provide for their big day! Most of them hadn’t begun to think about music or lighting needs, so we were happy to provide suggestions and options that they have. String quartet? Harpist? Cover band? Karaoke machine for your mother-in-law’s musical debut? From classical to crazy, we have it covered.

A special thanks to La Tavola Linen for helping to complete the aesthetic of our booth with their fragrant and beautiful flower arrangement! And a few more shout-outs to our friends Gustavo FernandezPhotography, Darcy Padilla Photography, New Delhi Restaurant, and Amy BurkeDesigns who joined us at this wonderful showcase. Last but definitely not least, a huge thank-you to the friendly staff at The City Club for hosting us in their gorgeous event venue!

masterful instagram iPhone photo taken by Gustavo Fernandez 

Prosit!

It's time for lederhosen, wooly socks, and of course, beer in a big glass boot. All this can mean only one thing: OKTOBERFEST! Event designer and planner extraodinaire Sarah Lucas hired us to an out-of-this-world alphornist as well as a rollicking Bavarian band! Together with Sarah, Best Beverage Catering (they did a porter and champagne cocktail--WOW!) and Componere (using molecular gastronomy they created a pork cake topped with a "beer sphere"--essentially a ball of liquid beer atop the bite...fancy and delicious!) we turned Palo Alto into a little slice of Europe for a fun loving family. 

Alphornist 

Alpenrose Band (2 out of 4 members) 

As if this crew wasn't fun and creative enough to work with we had a brand new team member joining us! Introducing Kelsey Pavao, our new Marketing and Production Associate--she jumped into the Entire Productions wackiness feet first with professionalism, grace, and a sense of humor. Check back soon for some of the professional shots, but until then, grab a german pretzel, kick back with a stein of your favorite brew and say "prosit"! 

Elise Everett and Kelsey Pavao. We hadn't brought anything German so Richard lent us some hats :-)

From French Carnival to French Vietnamese

Parlez-vous Francais? 

Ok neither do we (except Natasha!) but we definitely speak lighting and lately we've had the pleasure sponsoring two marketing events at beautiful SF venues. On August 8th Dylan (Director of our A/V division) and our crew lit up The Box SF for their French Carnival themed marketing event. We were in good company with Small Potatoes Catering serving up tasty treats (they made DELICIOUS fried chicken biscuits with honey butter and tabasco cotton candy) and Tonic Beverage Catering mixing refreshing libations. Our friends at Orange Photography captured the fun....check out all the photos here!

Left to right: Elise Everett (Entire Productions), Christopher Lee (Leftwich Event Specialists), Jessica Haro (Global Gourmet Catering).  Photo by Orange Photography.

Amazing antique door table! Photo by Orange Photography.

The next week we found ourselves at Le Colonial, our favorite San Francisco French-Vietnamese restaurant/venue. If you haven't been over there to sip a mojito on the terrace you really don't know what you're missing! We did all of the moody uplighting and splashy gobo light on the dance floor of their logo.

"The Big 4-0" & Other Fabulous Fetes

Lately we've been receiving a lot of requests for entertainment and lighting for milestone birthdays and anniversaries lately. We love that people are celebrating these events with creativity, whimsy, and a sense of humor. 

One client hosted an upscale 20th anniversary party at his home--starting the evening with a candy girl greeting guests as they arrived, a feature performance by Her Rebel Highness , a victorian themed walking table serving vodka shots and to top it all off- a mermaid swimming in the pool!

Her Rebel Highness

Swimming Mermaid

Walking Table

The other trend we've been loving has been the blow-out 40th birthday party! One client celebrating at Roe is featuring go-go dancers and hoop dancers and a rocking DJ. 

A fun-loving husband and wife are hosting a joint 40th birthday at the W San Francisco with Candy Girls, Contortionists, LED-Hoop Dancers and an amazing DJ. We love that SF knows how to party! 

Magic Mike...who?

Customer service is all about giving the people what they want, right? Well on July 15th the customer wanted three sexy "Chippendales" revue dancers! We met the request head on, suppressing our giggles. It was an interesting challenge du jour, being as we had never before sent out exotic dancers.

So who was this daring, saucy client? She was an 80-year-old woman with a high-end event planner. And the event was to be held at one of the most-known upscale hotels in San Francisco. It quickly became my PG-13 pet project. I couldn't help but love it. A bunch of elegant older ladies at a swanky hotel waving dollar bills around? Yes. Yes. Yes.  If you've lived to see 80, you're pretty much entitled to start doing whatever the heck you want. And this particular elegant older lady wanted to see three hot men strip to the Hava Nagila, and lift her up in her chair, whilst wearing oversized Star of David necklaces.  Yes. Yes. Yes. Give the people what they want.

Just to make sure you absorbed all of the awesomeness in the above paragraph here are the CliffsNotes: 

Our client, a woman well into her golden years, wanted three dancers to strip down to their skivvies and Jewish Star necklaces with the Hava Nagila blaring in the background. At the most famous hotel in SF.

Ok...now that you've had a moment to process that, I'll continue.

Not fully trusting career strippers to adhere to our no-touching policy (and to not think I was totally demented when I requested they strip to a Hebrew folk song), I sought out three incredibly talented and hunky professional dancers/circus performers that we've worked with in the past. I knew they had the performance-chops, they knew that sometimes jobs are weird. Plus they're easy on the eyes.

Luckily San Francisco seems to LOVE weird and they agreed to do it. The ladies were delighted (one of our dancers backflipped out of his pants) and the dancers had a great time. 

Now I suppose we can say we really can provide it all in terms of entertainment, but this one most certainly requires a backstory. My only regret was being out of town the day of the event--it's a memory I would have treasured forever!

-Elise

Natasha's view: When I overheard Elise talking on the phone with this planner about hiring male strippers, I was thinking, 

       "No! We don't do strippers, we have to draw the line somewhere!" 

But how could we turn down this wonderful planner and her octogenarian client? 

I made peace with the fact that we are officially sending out dancers that will remove their clothes to their G-string (but with dancers we know and trust), but then I heard, 

      "You want use to source a blinking large Star of David necklace for the dancers?" Again, I said, 

      "No! We couldn't possibly have them wearing that!" 

Then I saw the music request for the performance which was the techno dance version of Hava Nagila. I giggled aloud and just couldn't believe this was my life and my incredible business! 

I love what I do- and so does everyone who works with me. This is one reason why. And it pushes my boundaries sometimes, but we're always growing and learning, right? 'Can't take the Iowa out of the girl, I guess. But after 18 years of San Francisco life, I think I'm becoming a native!

(We cannot show photos because of their sensitive nature, and to protect our client's identity- but I assure you, it was awesome!)

Kevin Murphy Hairshow

Entire Productions AV was brought in by Grand Hyatt's catering manager, Kaleen Barnett, to produce the Kevin Murphy San Francisco Hair Show at the Grand Hyatt! 

We constructed the catwalk and installed a flying truss system for runway lighting. We did all of the audio and flanked each side of the stage with video screens complete with live image video switching so attendees in the back of the house could have a great view of the styling on the catwalk.  

Dylan McIntosh did an amazing job producing the technical aspects of this event, that we've been asked to do the rest of their shows this year!

Here's what we started with

It only seems messy to the untrained eye ;-)

Almost there!

Would have loved to see our EP-AV crew strutting the catwalk!!!! 

Here you can see the live video feed on the big screen at the top of the runway!

View from the top of the runway

Our crew working on setting up the live video switching

Sounds Like Summer!

Did you know that this summer marks our eleventh year programming and producing the Oakland City Center’s Summer Sounds Concerts?

We’ve had the pleasure of bringing a diverse taste of Bay Area music to this great public venue for over a decade!

It’s a joy making this wonderful music series happen. We get to book a range of different genres to interest the 10,000+ people who empty out of CBRE’s office buildings on Wednesdays for lunch.

This year the City Center tenants have rocked out to The Sun Kings (Beatles Tribute Band) and Napata and the Chocolate Kisses (Motown) to name a few. But don’t worry—there’s still more great music to come! We’ll be featuring KFOG recording artist Megan Slankard later this summer, and many others! So head over to Oakland City Center at 12pm on Wednesdays,  grab some lunch, find a spot in the sun, and enjoy! 

PS. Stay tuned to catch the dates for our 2^nd annual family-friendly outdoor movie nights at Oakland City Center! 

Click here to see the other concerts this year!

Fito Reinoso y su Ritmo y Armonia. Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Napata And the Chocolate Kisses. Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Lloyd Meadows of Zydeco Flames. Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

The Sun Kings. Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Click here to see the rest of the photos from the shows!

San Francisco's Got Talent!

America's Got Talent calls Natasha every year to suggest talent for their shows.

We've had the Pop Lyfe make it to fourth place in the finals last year. Season Six featured Thomas John--a local comedy juggling act.

This year one of the performers we suggested is still in the competition! New father and Bay Area crooner Tim Hockenberry has been impressing the judges with his Joe Cocker-like performances. We wish him the best, and our fingers are crossed for him!

Tim performing Katy Perry's "Part of Me" 

Kaiser Roof Garden Concerts

Question: What's better than a sprawling rooftop garden? 
Answer: A free concert in a sprawling rooftop garden! 

This marks our fifth year programming and producing the Kaiser Roof Garden Concerts. We love to be able to put these great musicians to work, give them an audience, give the audience a wonderful hour of music, and have it all take place at one of the most amazing urban roof gardens!

The three-acre roof garden at Oakland's Kaiser Center was the first major privately owned Roof Garden in the United States. In fact, when the visionary creator cut the ribbon in 1960, it was the largest Roof Garden in the world! This internationally acclaimed and renowned garden set the stage for green roofs, and has inspired the proliferation of roof gardens across the planet. 

This series started with Zydeco Flames and will also include Scheherazade Stone and Ritmojito. 

A perfect day to enjoy some music outside!

See our lineup for this year below, and come and check it out! It's a sight to see and the music is great! Bring your family, friends and enjoy the beautiful Friday afternoons here!

Outstanding Invitation Idea from our Pharma Client

What's better than winning an all expenses paid trip to Monte Carlo? Getting to coordinate surprising all the winners with their prize! Well...sort of. For lovers of iPhone emails, Excel spreadsheets, and all things logistical, it's a close second.

With over thirty winners scattered throughout sixteen locations across the United States, our pharmaceutical company client wanted to surprise their top sales people with a special trip. In years past all the winners had been announced at once but this year was going to be something special. With a phony announcement scheduled a few weeks out, the winners would REALLY be surprised a few days earlier in a "Publisher's Clearinghouse" style reveal, complete with giant checks, champagne, balloons, a spiffy presenter and a videographer. All on the same day. Sixteen simultaneous surprises across three time zones. We had two weeks to find the talent, communicate with the on-site contacts for the shipment of the giant checks, coordinate pickup of the champagne and company color balloons, and organize and track shipment of the camcorders. Piece of...cake?

After many long nights and countless emails back and forth between myself and the client I finally had to ask myself: is this going to be up to snuff? Have I done the unthinkable and over promised and under delivered? The idea behind the project was simple enough, but in our time-frame it was a logistical night terror.

I sat down and wrote what I thought was a carefully crafted, highly diplomatic (if not a bit verbose)  email to our client, about how I want things to be perfect, but given the obstacles and limited time I have some concerns, which I then went on to enumerate as honestly, and realistically as I could (in the least scary way possible).  Do you know what she wrote back?  She sent me a succinct and beautiful email that carried the message: Elise, this project is tough. Don't worry- we'll make it work.

And she was right--we would make it work. Sometimes when you are conducting your business from computers and cellphones it's easy to forget that your clients and your vendors are people--they're realistic, they're inherently good, they're supportive, and we all just want to make it work. We have bumps, sometimes things are stressful, but we always figure it out.

Our amazing client was right--we ended the week with 34 ecstatic winners, and amazing (and a little bit hilarious) footage of every one of the surprises! It was a mess of laughing and crying and hugging. There were levels of surprises, managers thinking they were going to surprise their staff, only to be surprised by THEIR managers! The winners all got the surprise they deserved and it couldn't have been done without every single person's hard work.

-Elise Everett

Benefit Cosmetic's Glamouriety Film Premiere

Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

This spring we had the pleasure of working with Benefit Cosmetics (acquired by leading luxury brand LVMH) to produce the premiere of their original film “Glamouriety”. With only a little bit of time, a TON of ideas, and a lot of hard work, our team was able to pull it off: a night of over-the-top glamour and fun. Glam was certainly the word of the month for us leading up to the big day. Red carpet isn’t quite glam enough – make it pink! (We had a custom pink carpet made to match the PMS colors of Benefit's special tone.) Those centerpieces are pretty but they need some bling—glam it up (a HUGE thank you to Blueprint Studios for doing just that!)! We need some gals to check coats but maybe we could have them look like 1920’spinups? GLAM! 

Wham bam glam, we took off running working with the perfectly powdered and glossed benefit power-women. Their creativity is boundless, and their tireless dedication to fabulous is inspirational. The point wasn’t just to create something pretty, it was to create a “once in a lifetime” feeling. What’s more, it had to be a roadmap of sorts. This event would shape the design and production of the international premiers to follow.  We had to design a lighting scheme that would transform the iconic black and red hued Bimbo’s 365 Club into a Benefit-wonder-land: pink everything! Our lighting team, Entire Productions AV, was amazing, washing the façade in dramatic hues, shining star gobos across all the walls, and splashing the Glamouriety logo across the pink carpet for a dramatic entrance.  Aside from the clear goal of premiering the film with crystal clear audio and picture, we aimed to have champagne in hand, smiles on faces, and feet on the dance floor. Careful planning and timing was everything. Mission accomplished. 

Benefit is a unique brand, it’s luxury with a quirky twist. We can jive with that. As guests arrived in white limousines, they were greeted by a solo sax player playing outside of Bimbo’s on the pink carpet, gorgeous show girls offering makeup touchups, and gallant men in tuxes directing the benefit staff and VIPs to their seats.  We parked a vintage Rolls Royce Silver Cloud out front, later joined by a striking vintage Bentley. Adding to the drama was the VIP trailer parked out front. Pink-hued and "benefitted" with decals depicting art from the film, the two stars of the evening got dressed and relaxed in style before their big debut. Original film costumes were flown up from LA, and we had character actors from the movie interacting with the crowd.  Fabulous food from Melons Catering piqued guests’ appetite after the film, and Kelly Park Jazz Quartet played the film’s theme song live. We had over 30 different entertainers throughout the evening, ranging from DJ Matteo spinning as dancers in tuxedos did back-flips across the dance floor, to vintage paparazzi cracking jokes with the guests. All I can say is we were thanking our lucky stars for clearcom headsets, nice weather, and amazing talent.

By the end of the night, with the last guest safely tucked in a town car, we looked at the glorious mess we had on our hands: empty champagne flutes, pink ostrich feathers strewn on the floor, TONS of lighting to strike, custom made lipstick stanchions that needed to be repacked in their crates (crates that were delivered and subsequently torn open by frantic Entire Productions staff minutes before first guest arrival). Relieved to slip into flats and that my sense of humor was intact, I donned the feathered and jeweled headdress worn by the Bimbo’s Mermaid at the step and repeat, rolled up my sleeves, and we cleared the space. It was a long, fabulous, exhausting night. And we’d do it all over again! Thank you to Benefit Cosmetics for trusting us with your vision and letting us be a part of your special night. We certainly created memories and made friends that will last us long after I finally get the Glamouriety theme song out of my head.

-Elise Everett

Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Restrooms decorated with Benefit items. Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Showgirls and Silvercloud Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Vintage Paparazzi photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Custom centerpieces by Blueprint Studios photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Custom Ice Sculpture by ChiselIt photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Custom Gobo light, lipstick stanchions, pink carpet. Photo Gustavo Fernandez

Hair/Makeup Trailer for the Stars! Custom static stickers Photo by Gustavo Fernandez

Check out the time-lapse video below!!!