When you hear something like this, you have to go take a look and when you find a New Orleans band playing the start of your trade show, you know the day’s going to be good.

We were blessed with a steady stream of booth traffic throughout the first day, and would like to thank all those who stopped by for their time, interest, and stories about their great events.  We look forward to following up with you soon!

After a 10-year hiatus, SGASi is back at The Special Event’s trade show, this time in NOLA, for some event planning goodness. Dennis Smith, Keith Menne, and myself (Ben) will be setting up booth 828 tomorrow for the show that runs thru Friday.

We’re looking for #eventprofs who would like to be interviewed for a piece on “what makes good event drape” or “what I look for in a performance stage”. Stop by, hit us up on twitter (@SGASi) or come to the tweetup we’re coordinating Wednesday night at the Hilton Riverside Bar at 6:30 PM.

Corey took a minute to send us this photo of our Las Vegas Fleet with all the new logos installed, the trucks washed and waxed, and ready to deliver the goods.

The SGASi Las Vegas Fleet

I love the way these word clouds auto-generate.

Click the image to try one on your own.

Just landed in Orlando yesterday at 10AM, and we’re already half installed in the booth.  By the time I arrived at the scenic shop, our crews had already completed the custom cabinets and furniture for the install, as well as a huge sign frame that would attach to some recycled truss.  I worked quickly with Dennis and Colin to complete the wiring and assembly of the recessed lighting, hopefully enough to give us some decent ambient light on a mostly-dark show floor.  A bit of the old, a bit of the new, and we had a truck loaded down with all our goods, and six plasmas from partner NMR.

Roland and I headed over to the Convention Center only to find that for the first time since its inception, LDI would be held in the NEW portion of the Orange County Convention Center.  After finally finding the POV docks, we were unloading carpet, finding an electrician to get us a special pig-tail for our little power pagoda, and busy installing padding and carpet.  By the time we finished that, Nicolas was thru the marshalling yard and gear started to arrive about 4PM.  Colin joined us soon thereafter, and we started assembly of the large sign.

The pieces fit together after a bit of wrangling, and we attached the truss to a 550-lb base plate and soon had everything ready to go up.  I was designated the ropes guy (sometimes being a big guy has its advantages!) and we slowly but gracefully put the sign into the air.  We were out by 7, in time for Roland to see his son’s baseball team go undefeated for the season, Colin to get back home before he leaves today for a site survey in Chicago, and for Nicolas to head over to the new Hilton next door to do a strike of some scenic panels.  We go back today to finish the cabinet installations, and hopefully get the plasmas up and the programming working with the touch-screens.

SGASi employees Keith Menne, Brent Klein and Ben Slayter installed VIP risers at the 2009 JazzFest in Old Town Lansing.

Kathleen Petersen and Sara Link attended the National Assocation of Catering Executive’s Taste of NACE: Orlando last week, and snapped a few shots for us.

Kathleen writes, “SGASi donated 210 running feet of 22′ tall white chiffon, which was in all the entrances and placed in various areas throughout the main ballroom. Since wthis was a Susan G. Komen fundraiser for breast cancer awareness, pink lighting surrounded the room and reflected on our drapery just beautifully.”

Thanks to Kathleen for the photos, please be sure to check out the miniature podium with “Staging Sara” Barbie doll. These women are awesome!

Lansing Jazz Festival

We’re proud to be sponsors of this year’s (and Lansing’s 15th!) Jazz Festival.  The fun kicks off Friday August 7th at 4PM, and lasts thru 11PM Saturday August 8th.  Come see great local bands, munch on some tasty street vendor food, and kick back in the beer tent.   SGASi is installing three VIP risers today – we’ll post some pics tomorrow!

For lineup, artists, vendors, sponsors, directions, maps and more check out the Festival Web Site.

Since its inception, JazzFest has welcomed such renowned artists as Mose Allison, TS Monk, Johnny O’Neal, Rayse Biggs, Tim Cunningham, Michael Kaeshammer, Marcus Belgrave, the Professors of Jazz at MSU (Derrick Gardner, Randy Gelispie, Diego Rivera, Rick Roe, Rodney Whitaker, Sunny Wilkinson), Ritmo, Eric Reed, Don Phillips, Betty Joplin, Francis Kofi, Tumbao Bravo, Sheila Landis, Patti Richards, Los Gatos, Tyrone Johnson, and numerous regional and local acts.

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(Boston, MA) SGASi will be in Boston starting tomorrow 7/24 for the 84th Annual IAAM Conference & Trade Show, booth 517.  If you’re local to the area, grab a free ticket for Sunday or Monday, and stop by and see us.

I’ll be there with Dennis Smith, Keith Menne, and Roland Black until tuesday 7/28.  For more info on the show, follow the @SGASi live twitter feed.