Anyone who lives or works in Calgary knows that during Stampede, the city morphs into a massive 10 day, cowboy-themed party. Venues, event planners, décor companies and entertainers are all booked up working long days and late hours to satisfy the demands of one of the busiest party seasons in our city.
Most Stampede events and parties offer little to challenge the imagination of an event planner. The theme is pre-determined for you, you book your venue a year in advance, the costumes are abundant and there are only so many ways to cook beef on a bun. As an event planner, where is the challenge to be creative or strategic about a Stampede party?
During Stampede 2013, our team was fortunate to work with Cyle Coffman from Vcura Incorporated, a client that truly understood the business drivers behind their event. Vcura is an IT security services firms that works with its network of partners to offer comprehensive, end to end IT security solutions for its clients. Vcura contacted Spark to help their organization put on a Stampede event that would drive home some key, corporate messages.
Our team was tasked with creating an event that reiterated the following messages:
Vcura and its wide array of service partners can provide clients with long term, integrated IT security strategy that will allow your business to grow and succeed.
Vcura is a long term business partner, not a quick fix. We are interested in protecting your company and its brand – we’ve got your back!
Your success is our success.
Working closely with the team at Vcura, we came up with the theme, STOP THE THREAT. The theme focused on a western outlaw as the “threat”, with the understanding that the word “threat” holds significant meaning to the event audience. The western outlaw theme was synonymous to the idea that a company’s IT framework could be threatened and Vcura and its partners can protect them or stop the threat.
This theme was woven throughout event communications and culminated on-site with an “outlaw” in a jail cell who had been caught by Vcura. Through thoughtful branding, theming and execution, the event was on message and was able to support Vcura in its lead generation and client retention efforts.
At Spark, we love working with clients who understand the business value of events. We love working with clients who get that an event can be used as a vehicle to deliver key messages and ideas. Being able to help our clients achieve this is amazing, and it is even better if it still looks and feels like a party when we’re done!
“When we needed an experienced, strategic marketing/event planning firm to develop and manage our Stampede event, we turned to Anh and her team at Spark. Our events require a tremendous amount of coordination and commitment from our partners, associates, marketing team, etc. Spark was with us in every aspect of the event. With expectations of a nearly turn-key, high quality and high return event, without a doubt, Spark delivered.”
