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SSW Winter Newsletter


A Rfection on the 201 APEC CEO Summi el 1


opportunities through net- working.


t By Nathalie Whitton There were 22


2011, What a Year! When I thought we couldn’t top 2010 —working on the Van- couver Olympics and the South Africa World Cup among many other exciting programs—2011 turned out to be equally exciting and even more challenging. Our fall line-up started with work- ing on the United Nations General Assembly in Sep- tember, going right into the Pan Am Games in Guadala- jara, Mexico in October which then led right into the 2011 APEC CEO Summit in Hawaii in November. All this while working with our other very interesting and exciting clients throughout the year, including Pitney Bowes, Spina Bifida Association, Society for Melanoma Re- search and Autotask just to


name a few.


Certainly our most challeng- ing endeavor in 2011 was the CEO Summit, a premier business event that brought 21 World Leaders and over 1,000 CEOs from around the world together to engage in dialog and discover business


In addition, each sponsoring company was provided with opportunities to have their own meetings and recep- tions throughout the 2 day event, challenging the host hotels in a resort and vaca- tion destination not only with putting on a high level busi- ness / corporate event, but with putting on many of them at the same time and with limited space. In a 2 day time period, the spon- sors held over 50 events in total, not including all of the scheduled receptions and


Platinum level sponsors alone bringing in teams from such companies as Micro- soft, Google, Fedex, DHL, Walmart, PwC, Visa and Johnson and Johnson. We were tasked with not only providing all of the logistical support for this amazing program, but also to create an atmosphere promoting the involvement of the spon- soring companies. Part of this task included incorpo- rating them in the overall


branding of the event.


special events that were part of the program. On the first night alone, as part of the scheduled program, we held thirteen dinners in local homes around the Island of Oahu with world leaders and top CEOs in attendance at each. Coinciding with these dinners was a Taste of Amer- ica reception for 1500 peo- ple showcasing food and entertainment from around the United States as well as 4 very high level dinners held between three hotels concluding with multiple night cap events with such thought leaders as Eric


Schmidt of Google.


Adding a little more excite- ment into the mix was the security aspect of an event of this caliber. This required us to work with 21 Embas- sies and staff for 21 World Leaders. I remember my friends from the State Dept and the White House Staff making the determination 3 days before the start of the event that we had to shut down an entire wing of meet- ing spaces (which happened to be housing our media center for the 600 media people that registered for the event) because there was a possibility that Presi- dent Obama would walk past the back side of the rooms and they didn’t want anyone in them. Now remember we


“In a 2 day time period, the sponsors held over 50 events in total, not


including all of the scheduled receptions and special events that were part of the program.”


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