24-Hour Party People

Kelly Peacy, CAE, CMP, PCMA's vice president of meetings and events, has written a column, Planner's Notebook, for Convene over the last few months, where she has given readers an inside look at the process of planning 2011 Convening Leaders. With this guest post, Peacy continues the backstage tour:

One thing I've learned is that Las Vegas knows how to throw a party.

King Dahl, executive director at MGM Grand Resorts, and Lenny Talarico, CSEP, MGM Grand Resorts director of events, are two amazing event professionals. Dahl and Talarico designed the "Las Vegas ... Then and Now"-themed Opening Reception, which if you attended on Sunday night, you know was phenomenal.

What you probably didn't know is that, after the reception, our Freeman team and The MGM Grand staff worked all night to get the Marquee Ballroom ready for the Celebrate PCMA Luncheon.

The most expedient way to do this was to get the Freeman AV and production crew to dovetail their efforts with Dahl and Talrico. We used the main part of the entertainment stage for the luncheon program, and the Freeman AV tweaked the existing design to accommodate the graphics screens. We left the majority of the drape lines in place, and then the MGM Grand banquet staff went to work on table settings.

This couldn't have been a more collaborative effort and I hope you enjoy the results.