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Events To Remember
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Business New Haven
7/9/2001
By: Priscilla Searles
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When it comes to planning special events, the sky is the limit for Ellen Mandes, owner of Creations at Work in Wallingford. Conferences, meetings, weddings, bar mitzvahs - just about any event one could conceive sends Mandes into all-out creative mode.
A former banquet manager for a hotel in Washington, D.C., Mandes was well prepared for opening her own events-planning company, having worked with her husband on four Presidential inaugural balls. She started Creations at Work about five years ago.
Mandes has learned that, to be prepared for any kind of an event, you have to be creative. “For example, we might have to create a New York City skyline using lighted boards or even the Cotton Club,” she says.
“For one client we created a circus, and even had lions and tigers in cages - full size. We drew them on boards and had an artist paint them and cut them out. We put up circus posters and made balloon clowns.”
Mandes notes that many of her clients know only what they want to spend and what the mission of the event is - but have no idea how to achieve the desired results.
“For conferences, for example, say for 400 people, we take it from beginning to end - suggest location, theme, food, arrange for room registration, take care of tours, arrange for audio and video and anything else they might need,” Mandes says. “We recently took a corporate group to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., planning all phases of the trip, including tours.”
Mandes points out that people can spend virtually limitless sums of money and still not accomplish their mission. “Clients must come prepared with a clear view of what they are trying to accomplish with the event,” she explains. “Is it a sales event, training event, a reward for employees, an event to attract customer or an exhibit? We are prepared, for example, to produce an entire expo if asked or a portion of an expo - but it is always important to understand the mission of the event. You don't want it to become hodgepodge.
“If you have a good event planner they can show you how to cut corners without it being evident or effecting your mission,” she says. Mandes also suggests that clients define in advance what they are willing to spend. Playing games with the event planner is self-defeating, she says.
“One of the more successful events we did,” recalls Mandes, “was a 50th-anniversary wedding [recreation], and the children wanted it done exactly as it was done 50 years ago. We took them to an old resort hotel in New Jersey where they had originally been married, and we copied everything - their original wedding cake, floral decorations very close to what they had 50 years ago. We even had lilies of the valley flown in from Holland, since they were not available here. We also did a big scrapbook of their life together and believe it or not we even had the same woman sing who sang at their wedding 50 years ago.
“We're always looking for unusual and creative locations,” Mandes says. “It's a challenge to find spots that can hold large groups. We've even taken a vacant building and turned in into a creative site for a corporate event. We rented a large oriental carpet, brought in lots of props. The owner was able to sell the building as a result of getting all those people inside and seeing what could be accomplished with an imagination and some creativity.”
When it comes to finding unusual props, Mandes claims to be the world's best shopper - scavenging at tag sales, flea markets, second-hand shops, catalogues and the Internet. Of course, she attends all the gift and flower shows looking for new ideas. Even for a small house party, Mandes makes it clear that you just have to look around at what you have to work with, and, if you think like she does, throw out the rules and get creative.
Mandes next major project is to open a retail shop. And if some of those props she's famous for make it into the shop, it should prove to be quite an unusual shopping experience.
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