I LOVE putting on events. All the organization, details, creating the buzz, stress leading up to the day of, sending out invites, VIP status, getting on the microphone, stoking the crowd and exhaustion afterward from giving it all you had is gratifying. The Triple Threat World Premiere was a huge undertaking but well worth the effort.

You never know how well an event will go, until the time comes. Nobody knows "what could have been" or how close things come to falling apart except for the people behind the scenes. To the viewer, unless there are blaring mistakes, the event happens just as planned. Especially a couple hours before, I get stressed wondering if anybody will show up.

So what is the Triple Threat? Well, it's supposed to be a three part experience: an art/photo exhibit, film showing and after party. We acquired some ski industry artwork and had action shots framed to be seen as consumers enter the different venues. Then we show two films, Contrast by Nimbus Independent, followed by PBP's Everyday Is A Saturday. Concluding with a dance party featuring two DJ's. We booked just over 50 shows in North America, all starting in Seattle at the King Cat Theater.

I want to share with you what went into making this event/tour happen. First, we have two film companies, with different branding and different sponsors that need to blend into consistent branded communication tools. I worked with a graphic designer at PBP on branding the Triple Threat Tour. We created a new logo, print ads, banner ads, posters, film tickets, VIP invites, web image slates, VIP badges, posters, etc. Can't say I was super excited with the overall creative. It was pretty busy and the colors were slightly off. I'm a fan of clean design with rich neutrals and crisp, accentual bright colors. As you can see from the event poster, the requirements required a lot of info and a logo circus.

We had a lot of people coming to the world premiere so we needed lodging. The next line item was booking hotels for media, sponsors and athletes. I got a great deal with Hotel Max, where most of our attendees stayed. The Triple Threat booked almost every room they had. The overflow and people on a tighter budget stayed at the Kings Inn. Both hotels were located just blocks from the King Cat.

Now for the hardest part of the event... I'm a big fan of the internet and it's ability to reach a large audience. There's no variable cost associated with reaching more consumers like there is with selling a dvd. So I felt we could generate some revenue off of streaming the event live. Then editing the footage and posting it on a microsite for the entire winter season. I contracted out Mobile Rider and Mountain Sports International(MSI) to make it happen. Mobile Rider to build an iFrame and microsite and MSI to come film and transmit the feed via satellite.

I averaged about four hours of sleep a night for about three weeks leading up to the event, beta testing the iFrame and microsite. Why? Well I'm a pretty organized and detailed oriented person. At first I advised against trying to pull this off due to start up costs and the short timeline we had to get things in place. We didn't actually decide to do the live internet stream until a month before. In retrospect, I could have used two to three months to plan this event, not three weeks.

It came close to not even happening. MSI was in Chile putting on another event, when a storm came in and whipped out the only road out. They were stuck. They just got back a couple days before our event. The initial plan was to tap into the King Cat's internet line. I went there and tested their upload speed, turns out the two block radius around the King Cat has old wiring. Not nearly fast enough to stream an event live. So we decided to bring all the satellite equipment and beam the feed. The trick is you need a clear path to the satellite, 180 degrees or South, at a 30 degree angle up across the skyline. Um, we're in downtown Seattle with a ton of skyscrapers? Amazingly there was an angle and it worked out.

We also had about half the normal budget required. This meant not flying out MSIs' regular film and grip crew, but instead having me find people here in or around Seattle. Granted we have two film companies, but all the crew wanted to walk the red carpet and be apart of the event instead of behind the camera. Luckily, I have a pretty good network and found the necessary people.

The event itself was pretty epic. We oversold the premiere, stuffed the theater well over capacity and the production side of the event worked out. It's amazing how things come together. The person responsible for scripting the event arrived with nothing, so Keith Carlsen from MSI and I put it together in a couple hours.

So getting athletes, sponsors and media in the right place at the right time can be like herding cats. We needed them to ride in the limo to the King Cat, walk the red carpet, talk to the talent and be filmed. So I threw down my credit card at the Sushi restaurant, The Red Finn in Hotel Max, and had open bar and sushi for two hours leading up to the event. Ouch, nothing like spending $2,500 and not getting to participate. But this way I could corral the right people at the right time into the limo and coordinate with the production crew at the venue.

It all worked. There was a huge crowd gathered outside, slapping high fives with athletes as they arrived. The talent managed to ask the right questions, the athletes responded correctly plugging their sponsors and projects, the stream worked, everything was live, the crowd cheered and everything went off.

My only regret was I didn't get to participate. I hoped that I could have ridden in the limo with the Nimbus Crew, been interviewed, etc. Instead I had to run around and produce the event. I've been the guy behind the scenes for so long, I don't know if I would have even known what to do in front of the camera. I did get up on stage when Nimbus was introduced and seeing all the people in the crowd was awesome. Tons of people getting posters signed and fighting for SWAG.

I am proud to say it was the biggest world premiere Poor Boyz or Nimbus has ever had, which isn't saying much for Nimbus as we've only been in business for 2 years, but for Poor Boyz it's been 15 years. All the sponsors, media and athletes raved about it. So when the dust settled, the event was a huge success. Every space of the King Cat was occupied by people. The Green Room (VIP room), the bar (which had flat screens showing what was going on in the theater) and even the aisles were packed with consumers.

I have to say a big thanks to the crew at Mobile Rider and Mountain Sports International. It wouldn't have been possible without their hard work on everything. They were extremely professional and a joy to work with.

I don't know how long the event will be available on the microsite, but if you want to check it out, click here. It's ten bucks. I will also post a bunch of images from the event in my gallery section when I have time.

Here's the tour teaser video we put together:

Triple Threat Tour Video Press Release from Gary Winberg on Vimeo.

Posted by Gary at 12:51 PM | Permalink