Crafting Connections: A Unique Experiential Tour at San Francisco’s Newest Event Space
Entire Productions X Convene “Secret” Experience
I accepted an invitation to do a site visit with my friend and event industry colleague Kimberly Campbell at San Francisco’s newest event venue- Convene. Formerly the Macy’s Men’s store in Union Square, San Francisco, Convene is a modern 2-floor space with in-house “everything” including food and beverage, state-of-the-art A/V, decor/furnishings, and full-time event staff. I was blown away!
As I was leaving that walkthrough I had an idea that I spontaneously proposed to Kimberly, “I’d love to bring a small group of our highest-value clients on an experiential tour of this space. We could activate various rooms to show them in an immersive environment how it could be used instead of a normal walking/talking tour.” Kimberly immediately responded with a resounding, “Yes, let’s do it!”
I initially thought we’d bring no more than 10 clients to the space, but as we began ideating, we decided a few more, but still keeping it intimate, would be a better use of all resources.
Invitations went out to carefully selected corporate event decision-makers in the VC, tech industries, Fortune 500 companies, and our local convention and visitors bureau SFTRAVEL. The magical combination of wonderful and committed event professionals made up our list!
Guests from Silicon Valley were offered chauffeured transportation from our partner Urban Worldwide. I was very impressed by their commitment to customer service and incredible communication system allowing us to be prompted at each milestone point of their journey.
Our attendees were greeted on the 5th floor by members of the Entire Productions team, with the gorgeous music of our Latin guitarist, presented with a colorful hand-lettered name badge, and whisked away to the gallery to sip on bubbles, rose, and a beautiful watermelon mocktail. Delicious bites were passed- my favorite being the savory cheese and onion tartlette, and papas bravas brilliantly shaped into a delicate flower. Then guests were invited into the Landmark Library space to record a sound with a hand percussion instrument, and their voice to be collected to create a rhythmic work that we’d receive days after the event.
It was time to move everyone, once again, to the Pacific Theatre where our director of strategy, Bennett Smith gave a presentation of our ROI-driven Strategy Sessions that we start every event project with. She spoke of the necessity of getting to the bottom of why the event is being planned, what the key performance indicators are to measure against, and the ultimate ROI expected to be achieved with the event. She then unveiled our plan for KPI measurables and ROI for this event which of course, was to deepen our relationships with our guests and create working partnerships and a catalyst for the discovery of the venue.
Bennett then spoke of the collaborative and non-competitive nature of our local San Francisco Bay Area event industry, then introduced the concept of community and the quest for rhythm in our gathering, making the perfect segue to our team-building provider Rhythm Quest.
We were invited to move back to the Landmark Library to a circle of chairs with various drums placed in front. We all chose a hand-percussion instrument (I grabbed the claves) and sat studiously in our chairs awaiting instructions. We’re such a well-behaved bunch! We began by creating a baseline heartbeat-like beat, steady quarter notes only at first. By the end, each of us had marched to the beat of the collaborative groove but also got to show our individual artistry and expression within. By the end, each of us had marched to the beat of the collaborative grove and shown our individual artistry and expression within. A thunderous and cacophonous, percussive performance aided in weaving each of us together into a tighter group which undeniably led to ease of conversation following.
Laughing and talking the whole way out to the next experience, we found our way down to the 4th floor where a delightful culinary display awaited us. A chef’s station featuring paella, ceviche options, chips, homemade salsa, and guacamole were the perfect offerings to satiate our appetites. Conversations crisscrossed between known and previously unknown groupings of people as our Latin guitarist continued to entertain. A beautiful bar was set up and also enjoyed by all.
Upon exiting this Entire Productions X Convene “Secret” Experience, guests were offered a tin of chocolates created by the chef
Thanks to photographer Scott Chernis, all of this magic was beautifully captured.
Big thanks to JT Long of Smart Meetings for writing the sidebar to this article along with the sound recording of the Rhythm Quest drum circle.
