Business Profile: New company lets you have fun at your own party

Too often hosts don’t have enough fun at their own parties because they are too busy doing all the work it takes to make the event a success.

“Why not let the experts handle the problems so that you can attend your own event?” asks Haley Atkins, president of Event Solutions. “Let us maintain the standard of excellence you want so that you can just have fun.”

The event-planning firm, which opened in June at 2011 Corona Road in the Village of Cherry Hill, takes the client’s vision of the event, improves upon it, plans it and makes all the arrangements, Atkins said. Whether the event is a corporate meeting, a wedding or a backyard barbecue, the company’s staff, which includes co-owner/CEO Brent Beshore and Vice President Natalie Merrill, handles all the details.

There are at least 15 to 20 events a day going on somewhere in Columbia, Atkins said. Depending on the event, those details might include rentals, menus, flowers, serving staff, lighting, entertainment, photography, location selection, invitations, mailings, meeting coordination, security, transportation, beverage service, Web sites, decorations, marketing and media relations.

“We can participate in an event at any stage of the planning process,” Merrill said. “We can even help find those loopholes, the things [our clients] haven’t thought of, and those added touches that make the event special.”

The company can call upon 12 to 20 part-time staff or contractors to run an event. And for those events that might require tricky logistics or event management, the company handles that function, too. They even offer liability coverage if something goes wrong.

“We’re event fire-fighters,” Beshore said. “We offer the same big-city services that the big boys in major cities do, but we’re local.”

A recent client, Freddy Spencer, a broker-owner with Century21 Advantage, hired Event Solutions to coordinate a July 27 appreciation event for builders and Realtors to market the new Eastland Hills Estates subdivision near St. Charles Road and Interstate 70. Spencer said the firm did everything to plan and host the event, from telephoning to invite the guests; setting up the tents, tables and chairs; cooking the hamburgers and hotdogs; hiring staff to serve guests; and cleaning up afterward.

Having someone else do the work allowed Spencer to make a few sales that day. “It was really nice for me to call them and just have them do everything; that way I can concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing,” he said. “I can concentrate on selling versus cooking hamburgers. Then, whenever it’s all done, I can go home, and they clean it up. It’s just awesome; I will definitely use them again.”

Spencer said he has already lined up the company to do a few more similar events. LaCrosse Lumber sponsored and paid for the party, which cost about $1,200, Spencer said. “It was definitely worth the money,”
he said.