Five Grain Events

Chicago Event Planners

Southbank Park Grand Opening

J. Brown Photography

The Southbank Park Grand Opening was a beautiful event from start to finish.  We will never forget how that day felt: a picture-perfect autumn day with the warm sun shining on the Chicago River and Cityscape.  It was an event that really brought the South Loop community together through music, art, food, libations, and merriment.  We can’t wait to work with Lendlease again for their next celebration:  and we’ll all be champing at the bit for a reason to gather!  It takes a village to make an event like this flow seamlessly and we are forever thankful for the vendor team that brought it all into fruition.

J. Brown Photography

The Southbank Park is a 2-acre publicly accessible green space with an adjacent riverwalk bordering the South Branch of the Chicago River.  The park anchors Lendlease’s “new 7-acre Southbank neighborhood development underway in the South Loop that, upon completion, will include several mixed-use towers, the first of which, The Cooper at Southbank, opened in Fall 2018″ [source].  Our job was to gather an incredible vendor team to create an open-house and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the beautiful park.

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

Setup for the event began the day before with tents being erected and rentals delivered by Marquee Event Rentals.  We also met with the geniuses at Gen Power who helped power the whole event with their massive generator drop-off.  Blue Star Security came on site and stayed overnight to protect all of our setup (and break down) needs through the duration of the event.  Kleen Teem provided a mobile bathroom for our guests and worked in tandem with Waste Not Compost to ensure that our event was sustainable, eco-friendly (and kept tidy).  Greg from Twin Oaks Landscaping had been working on the gorgeous landscaping for months prior to the Grand Opening and the hard work showed–the area looked picturesque.  Thirst was in charge of all of the event’s branding and Event Medical Solutions was on-site to ensure the safety of our guests.  Everything was good-to-go, and we couldn’t wait for event-day to arrive.

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

The day of the event (a breezy, sunny 72 degrees–thanks Mother Nature!) was a complete success!  J. Brown Photography did a wonderful job documenting the day’s festivities, which included delicious bites from Good Eats Group  and beer sampling from Marz Brewing. Actor’s Gym Entertainment provided a face painter, tree “statue”, and incredible acrobats throughout the day.  Sean Masterson from Masterson Magic came ready to astound with his close-up magic. Tiny Tunes, a neighborhood institution for kids’ music classes, came mid-afternoon to provide musical entertainment and movement for our littlest attendees.  Celebration Authority provided lawn games, which included giant Jenga, Connect Four, and a cornhole set.  Nate Baranowski, who had worked with us previously at Chalk Howard Street was working on a live painting surrounded by all the madness of the event.  Lastly, we could not have done it without the hard work of Sound Investment and Beat Mix Music who facilitated a ribbon cutting ceremony and played us wonderful blue-grass inspired hits well into the evening.

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

J. Brown Photography

Thank you again, so much, vendor team that made such a lovely day possible.  We can’t wait to work with you all again.

With Love and Solidarity,

Colleen, Joan, Emily, and Theresa

McCormick Place – Tessitura Conference

One of my favorite things about being an event planner is how delightfully unexpected certain clients, venues, and assignments can be. Last summer, we were asked to help with on-site logistics for the Tessitura Conference — the largest gathering of arts and cultural professionals in the world. Joan and I have a unique connection to the conference; in our past lives as non-profit arts organization employees, we each attended a Tessitura Conference!

Our role was to act as the “right hand” to the head of the conference planning team, who had recently sustained an injury that made getting around the behemoth that is McCormick Place difficult. We dove in head-first, attending a week of pre-con meetings to get up-to-speed with the schedule of events and our role, then got ready to welcome the nearly 2,000 attendees.

The General Session space, where attendees gathered for conference updates and keynote speaker sessions, was set up in such a way as to create a strong viewing angle for each person. The screens and open stage structure really helped make the presentations accessible. The collaborative efforts from PRG and J&J Exhibitors ensured the set-up and audio/visual were up to par and within union standards.

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

Daily meals were provided by Savor, the in-house catering team at McCormick Place. Their service and quality was impressive, given the number of mouths they were feeding! We worked hand-in-hand with them before each meal to ensure all the dietary restrictions were represented and properly labeled, so attendees could quickly get their meals.

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

One of the highlights of the week for me was helping facilitate the 5K run from McCormick Place to Museum Campus. The combination of the beautiful weather, a stunning sunrise, and world-famous architecture along the route made me feel even more proud to call Chicago home. A couple Tessiturians even dressed up like the Blues Brothers to cheer the participants on! We worked with the team at RaceTime, a local company who set up the course and tracked participants’ times.

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

The Tessitura team hired CSI DMC to assist with transporting the thousands of attendees from McCormick Place and its neighboring hotels to Navy Pier for the final night’s festivities. The Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier was the perfect spot for celebrating the end to such a wonderful week! The weather was picture perfect, and the view of the fireworks simply couldn’t be beat.

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

As the Tessitura Network is a technology company that serves the Arts industry, it only made sense that there would be a band made up of Tessitura employees and attendees. The performances were wildly entertaining, and the dance floor was packed!

Images courtesy of Tessitura Network

Image courtesy of Tessitura Network

We truly enjoyed working with Tessitura’s conference planning team, and being involved in all the ins-and-outs of a large-scale, week-long conference.

Chalk Howard Street 2019

We were so excited to partner up with a5 branding and digital and the Rogers Park Business Alliance last summer to put on an incredible Chicago street festival–Chalk Howard Street! We loved getting to know the Howard Street neighborhood as we worked on this event throughout the first half of 2019.  It is an extremely diverse and artistically charged area–over 80 languages are spoken and the plethora of ethnic cuisine dining options is a clear illustration of that.  And it’s so easily accessible from anywhere in Chicago via CTA red line.  

While there was certainly a ton of work that came along with this first-year festival, we were extremely proud of the result:  an event truly reflective of the vibrant community of Howard Street in Rogers Park. We love these photos that Chris Guillen Photography took showcasing the day’s festivities. 

Chris Guillen Photography

The week leading up to the festival was one of excitement and preparation. Along with a5, we prepared our festival headquarters and began marking off the streets for our artists and vendors so that when festival day came, we were ready for anything that might come our way. 

On Friday, the day before the festival, professional artists began to arrive and start working on their pieces. As we saw the pieces begin to come together, our anticipation increased to see what our 2D artists, Jennifer Chaparro, Chelsey Austin, Beth Niemczyk, and Jessi Queen, along with our 3D artists, Nate Baranowski, Anat Ronen, Craig and Jamie Rodgers were going to create!

The morning of July 20th came with a flurry of activity. The Five Grain Events and a5 teams both arrived bright and early to begin festival set up. Before we knew it, the artists had arrived and begun working, the smell of delicious food was wafting over from the vendor booths, and the first band was warming up, ready to begin playing for the crowds that would soon be flooding through our entry tents! 

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

When 11 am hit, the festival officially began and we were overwhelmed with just how many smiling faces were on Howard Street, marveling at the street art, eating and drinking, enjoying the music, and visiting the local businesses nearby. Despite the official heat warning put out by the city of Chicago, the turn-out was fantastic and we were thrilled to have counted about 3,500 attendees!

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Around 5 pm, the temperature suddenly dropped and dark rain clouds rolled in. Though the respite from the intense heat was welcome, we knew it was an  ominous sign for weather to come.  The full production team raced around securing plastic tarps over the artists’ works before the deluge began. Festival attendees ran, laughing and smiling, into the local businesses to sit down for dinner and a drink. 

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

The rain finally let up about an hour later.  Though the food and merchant vendors had packed up  their wares, and the stage equipment had gotten too wet to safely continue amplified music, dozens of attendees waited with bated breath to see whether the street art had survived under cover. Thankfully, most of the professional artists’ work had been preserved, and people were able to continue appreciating the art, brick-and-mortor local businesses, and even the serendipitously scheduled Four Star Brass Band through the remainder of the evening.

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Chris Guillen Photography

Despite the crazy weather we experienced throughout the day, we had an incredible time pulling together all the details for this one-of-a-kind event. The biggest reward was seeing all of the Rogers Park neighbors come out to enjoy Chalk Howard Street with friends and family. A big thank you to everyone who helped us make this day possible, and we hope to see you all at the 2020 Chalk Howard Street on Saturday, July 18th!

Chris Guillen Photography

Lincolnshire Marriott — The Big Event by Lake County Partners

Cobalt Photography

We look forward to working with Lake County Partners on The Big Event every year! It’s quickly becoming one of our favorite corporate events, as the people we get to work with are so much fun. This year’s event was no exception.  Thanks to Cobalt Photography for the wonderful photos!

We returned to the Lincolnshire Marriott to take advantage of their stellar event space for our multifaceted event. The salon spaces are perfect for large-group networking, and we love that there are smaller satellite rooms we can use for more intimate groups, like the Speaker Reception. The Grand Marquee Ballroom is a bright, airy space that works so well for our 500+ group of Lake County business professionals. We’re consistently blown away by the excellent service put forth by their Marriott’s team.

Cobalt Photography

The networking portion of The Big Event is always bustling as hundreds of professionals from all around Lake County mix and mingle. Midwest Young Artists provides the delightful background music.

Cobalt Photography

Cobalt Photography

Cobalt Photography

We loved working with AVP on the audio and visual needs for The Big Event — they really helped make sure the presentations looked their best and that all the speakers were comfortable with their set-up before the big day.

Cobalt Photography

Cobalt Photography

This year’s event featured a few special additions in honor Lake County Partners’ 20th anniversary, one of which was the incredible keynote speaker, Robert Safian. His history working with and interviewing innovative business leaders over the past few decades provided great insight and a very enthusiastic presentation. Working with APB Speakers made the logistical elements of his trip to the Chicago area so easy! Special thanks to Windy City Limo for working with us on his ground transportation.

Cobalt Photography

Cobalt Photography

Lake County Partners also created a special new award to bestow upon a company that demonstrates true innovation in the workplace. (Congrats, HydraForce!) We were happy to partner with Matthew Hoffmann to create a custom award for this event. The wonderful team at a5 branding and digital helped us bring this design, as well as all the other print and visual presentations, together for The Big Event.

Cobalt Photography

Cobalt Photography

Cobalt Photography

We were also delighted to offer a treat to attendees as they were leaving — cake pops from Candy’s Cake Pops! In hues of blue and white and an assortment of flavors, they may have been the biggest hit of the day!

Cobalt Photography

Cobalt Photography

We’re already looking forward to getting started on next year’s event — and hope for many more years of fun and collaboration with Lake County Partners!

Find Your Way with Matthew Hoffman

Matthew Hoffman is a Chicago artist whose work has been showcased across the globe.   Chicagoans, in particular, probably recognize his work from his many “you are beautiful” murals, stickers, and art installations plastered throughout the city and beyond.  When he asked us to help with his new exhibition opening back in September, titled “Find your way,” we were ecstatic.

Find Your Way with Chicago Artist Matthew Hoffman

The event took place at Workshop 4200,  a shared artist workspace housed in the historic Hammond Organ Factory.  The event took place as an open house to show off the renovations headed up by Baum Revision and each artist’s space.   It was awesome to see so much going on and the wide range of artisans who call Workshop 4200 home.  Matt’s work was featured in the main hall of the building.  He also had a popup shop where attendees could buy some of his very popular “you are beautiful” merch.  In the pop-up, guests were able to send off their very own “you are beautiful” postcard to an addressee of their choice, courtesy of Matt and his team.

You Are Beautiful campaign by Chicago Artist Matthew HoffmanThe event wouldn’t have been possible without the help of an amazing vendor team and several volunteers.  Erin from Baum Revision was our point person for the space.  Pastoral provided an incredible artisan cheese spread for the soft opening on Thursday.  At Friday’s larger event, DönerMen brought their food truck and served up their delicious menu for guests to enjoy.  Essentia provided water for thirsty attendees.  The always amazing Carol’s Staffing provided a bartender to serve up donated beer from Marz Brewing and cordials from Leatherbee.

Beverages available at Bar featuring Letherbee Distillery

Here’s a sneak peak of some more incredible pieces we snapped that day:  Forever by Chicago Artist Matthew Hoffman Everything by Chicago Artist Matthew Hoffman

Signs at the Matthew Hoffman Art Showcase

The by Chicago Artist Matthew Hoffman

Thanks, Matthew! We had so much fun helping host this incredible event!

Check out more of Matthew Hoffman’s work here.