In a city teeming with groups looking for the quintessential “City by the Bay” experience, event planning companies such as San Francisco-based USA Hosts-Key Events are consistently charged with manufacturing a reality that exceeds expectations in a city that defies definition.
USA Hosts-Key Events (www.keyevents.com), led by President & Founder Heather Keenan, recently produced one of the splashiest San Francisco events in recent memory when it arranged the opening fete for the city’s new Westfield San Francisco Centre.
“The client came to us telling us to make it the party of the year, and it was, no doubt,” Keenan says. “We had the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus—we really took what the city had to offer culturally and brought it in for the event.”
In addition to all of the top-flight cultural entertainment, Keenan also had a small army of support staff working the event, which drew about 2,500 attendees.
“It was not only huge in terms of the number of people who went to the event, but huge in the number of moving parts—interfacing with the fire department, interfacing with the building people…We had over 150 performers, and my company alone had 20 people there, along with catering, sound and light, and decorations—there were at least 500 [entertainment and support] people,” she says. “That’s exactly what we do—large-scale, logistically challenging events, with a touch of creativity involved.”
Anytime an events company produces such a large to-do smack-dab in the middle of a heavily congested urban environment, working the bureaucracy really takes center stage, such as engaging the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic to arrange valet parking in a city that is known to be a bit parking-challenged.
“Permit-pulling isn’t going down to City Hall and getting a rubber stamp on it,” Keenan says. “It’s really massaging separate entities to have everything work together. Anything is possible. It just takes patience and commitment and logistical savvy.”
And to think, all of this happened in a massive space that had yet to put its electrical and lighting systems to the test of hosting such a throng of revelers.
“One interesting thing is that we were in a building that wasn’t finished and with 300 tenants trying to move in when we were,” Keenan notes.
When navigating between the various bureaucracies and labor unions in San Francisco—and in any large city, perhaps—Keenan has one piece of keen advice for planners, however.
“Do your homework, talk to them, and don’t lie to them, because they don’t appreciate being caught in a lie,” she says. “Be very upfront with them about what you’re doing and they’ll be very accommodating.”
