Denver Wrap Up

We finished the awards dinner, and some of the guys showed up to help take it down.
I think I only expected one or two guys, but there ended up being seven of us in total.
It was about 10:15 pm when we started and in walked Mike Steighner walked in wearing a cowboy hat that the client gave out.
He said he was packing up his hotel room and just wanted to come down and hang out with us.
Jay and I struck the audio while Eric, and Jon worked on the lighting. David and Frank worked on the scenic, and Rick and Mike helped out with pretty much every thing.

So, the eight of us loaded everything into the truck and finished just after 11:30 pm. We all met on the 27th floor of the hotel in the peak's lounge for a final drink together. It was low key because we were all pretty tired. We all said goodbye and the following morning everyone flew to their homes.

It was such a great show and the client thanked us all telling us that the show was flawless. It was so nice to be part of a great crew, and amazing boss, and a wonderful client, not to mention great friends.

Here are just a few photos I grabbed that night.

Winding it all down in Denver

The General Session ended and the local crew arrived, and started ripping the beautiful room apart.
It never fails to amazing me how quickly the room gets taken apart.

Here is a shot of the room during the session, and then another shot exactly one hour after the crew started working.


one hour later



Some of the equipment from the strike didn't go on the truck though. It went upstairs to the Capital Ballroom where we set up the Audio and Lighting for the last dinner. (not to be confused with the "Last Supper")

I will run audio for the room tonight and hang out with Rick who faithfully attends this closing dinner to be with his client.

Rodeo Time

Wednesday night on this show is the client offsite event. This time it was held at the fairgrounds and featured a rodeo.
I was asked to go and shoot video at the rodeo so that it could be edited into the closing candid video module that will show tomorrow.
While I am not really a camera operator, I think I managed to get a few usable clips.
While I was shooting video, I snapped off a couple of shots. Every time I use my Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens, I realize how sharp and great it is!
Time for bed now, but here is a shot I was able to catch tonight.
Whenever I see these kind of events, I always root for the bull.

Show time in Denver

Up until this point, all the meetings that have been going on have been breakout meetings. The General Session room has been all about rehearsals. David has been managing all the breakout meetings flawlessly. Today is the first day of actual General Session meetings, and I have to say, the guys in that room have the show locked down tight! The room looks great, and sounds great. The lighting gives the room great color, and the video screens are beautiful... there really isn't a bad seat in the house.

Bed Time in Denver

The day went well. General Session was rehearsal time.. all day.... Those guys sat in that room freezing cuz the air conditioning was turned down so low to accommodate 700 people worth of body heat... only, there were no attendees today. So, while it was 98 degrees outside, it was like 67 degrees in the ball room.

At the end of the day, I got a call from one of the clients asking me to shoot a couple of photos for them, so I went over and took care of that, and then met Evan, Eric, and Jay in the hotel bar before we headed to Coors Stadium. Rick went and bought us all tickets to the Rockies vs the Pirates game. We got over to the stadium and hung out, had some nachos and watched the game. It was really REALLY relaxing, and even though I am not into baseball, I had a great time, and it is a beautiful ballpark.

Eric and I were hungry and left after the bottom of the 8th inning and walked back to the Tapas place that Rick, Frank and I went to the first night I was here. We had amazing food and were stuffed. After a nice walk back to the hotel of about 10 blocks or so, it is bed time.

Tomorrow, I am going to the client's offsite event which is a rodeo, and am going to shoot some video which will get edited into the happy face video that they will show at the end of the week.

Denver Part II

It has been really good to see all the guys.
This is one of a couple shows per year, where a good majority of all the guys get to be on the same show at the same time.
It is a privilege to be able to work along side of these guys, hang out with them after work, and be able to bounce ideas, share stories, and pretty much laugh constantly because of the antics that they all do.

Our fearless leader Rick has had this client for over 20 years, and it is a really REALLY good gig. They treat us with a ton of respect, they are friendly, and while they have high expectations, it is always accompanied with the resources to accomplish whatever they ask.

Interestingly enough, that ties in beautifully with the way Rick runs his company. He treats us with respect, ensures that we have the resources to make the client happy, and he does all this while having a great time. It is like a big family, and again I say it is a privilege to be a part of this.

After work last night, we met at the hotel bar, and Evan, Mike, Frank and I hopped in a cab and went to a place called the Uptown Tavern. The patio was great, and the food was good... but the service was really slow. We had fun though and laughed like crazy the entire time.
Afterwards, we took a cab to the Denver Capital building and got to shoot some photos. It was super dark out, but we all wandered around with our cameras clicking off shots until about 10:30 and then headed back to the hotel.
Here are a couple of shots I created from last night.

Denver

Flying from Boston through Chicago was no easy task. The weather was pretty bad in Chicago, so after about a 45 minute delay on the tarmac in Boston, the pilots took us back to get more fuel and then we finally took off. Once we landed in Chicago, I had about 10 minutes to get to my next gate. Fortunately it was just 3 gates down and I walked right on the plane. For those of you who have read some of my blogs, you will know that this is not the normal way of life for me in airports.
I landed in Denver right on schedule and met Rick in one of the client offices where we set up some printers and a fax machine and then off to Bubba Gump's for a bite to eat.

After a good lunch, we finished unpacking some more office supply stuff and then walked across town to pick up some paper for the copiers and printers.
We should have taken a cab back, but instead we bought a package deal on 6 boxes of paper that included a free hand truck.
10 city blocks later, and about 3 gallons of sweat, we finally got back to the hotel with our paper and I thought I was going to pass out.

We called it an early day and went walking out in the city and met our friend Frank Sollecito. We then walked to the Baseball stadium and went to the Breckenridge Brewery for a beer. After a drink and some great laughs, we went to dinner at a Tapas Restaurant. I pretty much went to bed after that.