Are You a Planner, or Curator?

I used the phrase “event planner” yesterday during a conversation with Cara Kleinhaut, founder of Caravents, an award-winning live events company in Los Angeles. (She’s going to be part of our upcoming trends issue, which will hit your mailboxes in early December.)

Cara took issue with the term “event planner.” She prefers the terms “curator” or “producers.” Her team, she said, curates the content of the event—what the audience will see, hear and experience, from providing an intriguing backdrop for the step-and-repeat to extending the reach of the event with RFID bracelets.

“It’s not about the linens or the lighting,” she said. “Tools of the trade have evolved.”

Those tools, she argues, are technical expertise in live video production, social media, interaction and engaging the mind as well as all the senses.

We’ll show you what she’s talking about in the next issue. In the meantime, what do you think? Are you a planner, or a curator?

Night of the Zombies

  Photo: Marija Majerle

What do you do with a broken-down bus full of zombies, stranded on the freeway late at night?

With Halloween coming up, this scenario may not be all that far-fetched for event planners who have spooky events on the to-do list.

In this case, the event was the seventh annual Zombie Pub Crawl, which took place last Saturday night in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. An estimated 7,000 undead were lurching about the streets that evening, covered in blood, gore and entrails, along with spilled beer and other potent beverages, I suspect.

My own 20-something zombie happened to be on one of the city buses that transported the ghastly groups about town, from bar to bar. And his bus happened to be the one that broke down.

As I listened to the gruesome tale the next morning, my first thought was for the bus driver, who, I was told, looked like he had been yanked out of retirement to do this gig.

The poor guy. It’s bad enough to have your bus break down. But at night? On the freeway? With a bunch of zombies screaming "WE WANT BRAINS!"

This driver took it all in stride, I am told, even when his cell phone died when he tried to call for a replacement bus. He simply borrowed a phone from one of the zombies, then went along with the flow, posing for pictures and being an all-around good sport. That’s the kind of guy I want working my events.

Especially with zombies around.

Here Comes the Bride

You may have noticed that Event Solutions has been covering the wedding industry in more depth lately. We certainly have not given up our focus on events in general, from corporate to nonprofit to association and the very special world of independent planners, who may work in all these areas.

But a few months ago, we realized that a large segment of our readership is in the social and wedding planning business to some extent. And we weren’t exactly giving them a lot of attention.

This, we decided, was not good.

So that’s why you’ve seen Preston Bailey and David Tutera gracing our pages on a regular basis. And why we’ve partnered with Lovegevity’s Wedding Planning Institute to bring wedding planners the education and ideas they’re looking for.

But we have more news. We’ve also formed a partnership with one of the most heart-warming charitable organizations in the industry—Wish Upon a Wedding. This fantastic group of wedding planners and suppliers, organized into local chapters, has the fabulous mission of making wedding dreams come true for couple who are being affected by life-threatening illnesses.

At a time when the engaged couple’s financial and emotional resources are dedicated to simply surviving, this group is able to offer couples a beautiful wedding experience, from venue to caterers to floral décor. What greater gift can there be than to give the couple a perfect day, a memory to treasure?

We’re proud of our affiliation with Wish Upon a Wedding, and look forward to bringing you stories that will touch your hearts, and perhaps even your pocketbooks or scheduling calendars. Because there’s one thing we’re sure of—event professionals have heart.

To learn more about Wish Upon a Wedding, go to www.wishuponawedding.org.