…just add GrooveBoston.

When we got the call that it was once again time for the legendary MCPHS Harvest Ball, we broke out our huge Mythbusters-style design paper and some silver sharpies. The task was to turn the Boston Park Plaza’s Imperial Ballroom into an INTENSE club experience for 1,000 students — no sweat.

After some time hard at work, the design team sat back amongst a pile of discarded apple cider cartons and pumpkin pie tins (had to get into “harvest” mindset) and looked down at the final design. It was a masterpiece, complete with multiple packed lighting trusses over the dance floor, LED fixtures rigged in the balconies, video screens, and, of course, BANGIN’ audio.

Just one thing left to do… call up and let the hotel know we’ll need the standard 8+ hours to build this bad boy. Unfortunately, that’s not what the Park Plaza (and the erectile dysfunction seminar they were hosting that afternoon… not kidding) had in mind. “You guys should be all set,” they said. “You’ve got all the time you need between 5:30 and 7:00PM” … oh boy. (more…)

As the Providence College volunteers know all too well, there’s a lot of intense case pushing, stage building, and other prep work that goes into the perfect dance party.  I’d consider myself a connoisseur of production gadgetry, and I love the design and build process.  But come on… the party is the fun part.

You put the finishing touches on the stage system, the house lights are off, and you retire to the green room to change into “show blacks.”  You can hear the entry music through the walls:  down-tempo, bassy, “quiet  before the storm” tunes.  You do some stretches, and maybe a few pushups, and talk with the crew about what’s about to go down.  As guests stream into the venue and are juuuust starting to get antsy, you walk back onto the stage, put on your headphones, do a final check on the mix gear, and drop the first big song of the night.

It’s go time.  WIth the Bambossa remix of Lady Gaga’s Just Dance pounding through 30+ speakers, this party had officially begun.

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Whew!  It’s been busy lately in GB land.  When we sat down to brainstorm for our presence at this year’s NACA conference, we couldn’t help but notice how nice it is to SIT and relax every once in a while.   While a far cry from the normal up-all-night sweaty dance party that we normally strive for, we decided that comortable seating would be the core of our sleek booth design for NACA 08.

Our first attempt at cool seating was the inflatable couch.  We ordered a prototype and took it for a test drive.  …Yikes.  If you ever have the opportunity to take a seat on an inflatable couch… well, don’t.  It’s really awkward.  But man, it would have been easy to transport.  Luckily for all you booth visitors, we scrapped the idea and opted for a less inflatable seating solution.

Springer and BobbyD test-drive an inflatable couch

After some 3D modeling and a trip to IKEA, we rounded up some truss and a couple of plasma screens and headed to Hartford to build the hottest booth in the history of the universe.

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