We’re deep in event planning for 2024, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t stopped to reminisce on the incredible year we had in 2023! We hosted, planned and supported several dozen events for our clients last year and loved every single one of them.
We’re so proud of the work we did, and we loved working with all of our clients. Here’s a quick wrap up of it all:
Bots & Brews with Digi-Bridge
February 26 at Lenny Boy Brewing
Digi-Bridge is a Charlotte nonprofit which creates and fosters afterschool STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) programming for students in the Charlotte year. For their annual fundraiser last year they created Bots & Brews, which allowed members of the Charlotte community to sign up and compete in a robotics challenge while others could purchase tickets to watch and partake in the other STEAM focused activities available, like slime making, VR goggles and playing with mini robots. We had so much fun and so did the 100+ guests who attended. And best of all, Digi-Bridge reached their fundraising goal for the event!
Lotus Charlotte Education Panel
April 17-19 in Charlotte and Raleigh
We worked with the Lotus Campaign to host an education panel in Raleigh to help share information about their mission to fight homelessness across the United States by increasing affordable housing availability. They do this by connecting nonprofits focused on homelessness with landlords who are incentivized to rent to houseless individuals. We arranged the program as well and the dinner and breakfast following the program. The event was a huge success with 125 attendees in Raleigh and over 150 in Charlotte.
Polykemi Grand Opening
April 22 at Polykemi
This event was a grand opening for a thermoplastic manufacturing company’s first US-based factory. The event was a ton of fun with international guests as well as local government officials there to speak to the local economic impact.
World Bee Day
May 20 at Waverly Shopping Center
This was our first World Bee Day event at Waverly, which we planned when the client approached us with the idea! Waverly Shopping Center has two honey bee hives on the property maintained by a local beekeeper. This year, to celebrate honey bees and their ecological impact, Waverly made products like chapstick and soap from the honey and gave it all away. We had beekeepers present to inform the public, Mickey Mouse dressed up as a bee, games, a coloring board and more.
The event was a huge hit and we were so excited it was well received! If the client chooses to do it again this year, we’ll be prepared for a bigger crowd and we’ll be shifting the beekeeper to a more prominent place because their information was very popular.
Carnegie Wealth Partners Open House
June 21 at their new offices
We loved working with this local startup to host clients, friends and family at their open house and office reveal this summer. They had a great turnout of folks who attended to support. We had a lot of fun using the company’s brand and aesthetic to inform our decor and details throughout the planning process. The end result was cohesive and classy, and we had a ball!
Promenade Family Day
July 15 at Promenade Shopping Center
While we do love our summer events, one of the things we fight against is the heat. Even so, Family Day was a huge success and so many folks came out to have fun and support the businesses there. We look at every event as a learning opportunity, and with this one we learned we need to incorporate some water activities to help keep folks cool!
Waverly Summer Concert
July 20 at Waverly Shopping Center
Our Waverly Summer Concert series is always a blast, and this one was no different! At this point we have a pretty foolproof formula, but we tried something new and shifted the event to a Thursday night as opposed to a Saturday night as in the past. Even with the change, a lot of folks showed up to support The Emerald Empire Band, who did a phenomenal job. The yard games were also widely enjoyed!
SEED20 Donor Connect Reception
July 27 at Lenny Boy Brewing
This private event went so smoothly and we had a really fun time attending it! The event was essentially a practice for nonprofits who were doing pitches with volunteers and donors, and it was very cool to watch how it all came together. We are so excited to be helping SEED20 with their event again this year - click here for tickets.
Home Celebration
August 12 at a private home
For this event we worked with a client whose wife had cancer. To celebrate their home being built, they invited their friends, family and clients and raised money for St. Judes in the process. The party was such a success that it continued on after we left! We were reminded of the importance of an effective timeline, though, and to ensure there’s always enough time for set up.
Women's Impact Fund 20th Anniversary Celebration
September 19 at The Ruth
We were jokingly named the “event nanny” by our client for this event. We provided some support in helping a small team plan a larger event in honor of their 20th anniversary. Some of the things we helped coordinate included the menus, the activations, a flow for the space, photo ideas and signage. Everything went so smoothly and we loved working with such an incredible Charlotte nonprofit!
Merry Midtown
December 9 at Metropolitan Shopping Center
Holiday events are always a hit with families in Charlotte, especially when they involve key characters like Santa and The Grinch. We had both at Merry Midtown, a free event put on by the shopping center which also had face painting, hot chocolate and other activities available. We had over 1,000 attendees, over 400 people more than we anticipated! December in the South means there’s always a potential for rain, as was the case for this event, but we rearranged quickly to keep folks dry and now know to have a rain plan for the future.
Promenade Holiday Party
December 9 at Promenade Shopping Center
This was another great holiday event accompanied by Santa. The great part about hosting two holiday events on the same day is we were able to cater to different areas of the city. Of course, the rain affected this event as well as Merry Midtown. Thankfully, we’ve been working with Promenade for years and have built a great reputation there, so families came out despite the wet day and had a blast still!
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