If you’d asked me a year ago if I thought other event planners would hire us to work alongside them on their events I would say you were crazy. That was until I joined likely the most incredible organization I have ever been a part of. CanSPEP is the Canadian Association of Professional Event Planners and I am so grateful they came into our lives. We have been members of this organization for exactly a year and I haven’t looked back!
Although we are technically all competitors, this group of professionals is the most welcoming and supportive group of entrepreneurs I have ever met. In this case, Pelly from Next Wave Events needed a hand with an event she had been asked to plan. She called and asked if we had some time to spare. We were super excited to work on this event with her!
The company that hired us had just done a rebranding. They were coming to Ottawa for a conference and thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to let everyone know about their rebrand. This event would have been successful if we had rented a great space and provided great food. But instead we knocked it out of the park!
Our client really wanted to have the event on the Canal and play off of a strong Canadian theme but as all of us from Ottawa know, the Canal is not the reliable source of entertainment you might think an ice rink in winter in Canada would be. So! We brought the Canal indoors including the ice, the maple taffy, hot chocolate and an imitation beaver tail!
The event was a huge success. As people entered the door they could see our figure skater, they would stop listening to our greeting and ask “is she really skating over there?”. People generally headed to the hot chocolate bar where they could create their very own hot chocolate – there was marshmellows, chocolate sprinkles, Bailey’s and more! They would hit up the s’more bar or head right to the actual bar where they could have one of the many true Canadian beverages we had. My personal favorite had to be the Creamy Mapletini Martini.
For the food for this event we decided to create an evening based on desserts. We decided this because the attendees would have already been to other events and would have already eaten at least one dinner. We provided them with that yummy sweetness they needed to end their evening off perfectly!
Besides the figure skater, for entertainment we brought in two incredibly talented musicians. They played all evening.
I loved hearing the guests talk about how wonderful the event was as people left. And you can imagine their surprise after being wow’d by all the fun that we also had gifts for them. When the client first contacted us she knew exactly what she wanted to give everyone as a gift at the event, a hat and scarf. The perfect fit for a Canadian themed event!
This event would not have been possible without the help of our industry colleagues:
Ice Surface Rental: Ruckify
Rentals: Mastermind Events
Decor: Pearl Decor
Maple Taffy: Temples Maple Taffy
Venue: Daly’s Restaurant at The Westin Ottawa
Photography: BH Photography
Ice Sculpture: The Iceman
Hat and Scarves Embroidery: JT Custom Embroidery
Figure Skater: Kennadey
Musicians: Nawfel and Bronwyn
