The Co-Chairs of the 2010 San Francisco Opera Ball departed from the expected by selecting an event design firm based in New York.  Why did they do it?

The following interview with Co-Founder Bronson Van Wyck, and Senior Producer Lauren Koppel will give you a behind-the-scenes tour of what goes in to the creation of not just a memorable event, but one that is unforgettable.

You are New York based, is this your first event in San Francisco?  Have you done events in other cities?

Bronson: Half our business is outside of New York City.  We’ve done California, Napa, L.A., all over Europe, the Caribbean… And the San Francisco Opera is kind of an international opera.  So we feel pretty comfortable working in San Francisco.  It’s not our local town, but by the time we’re done, it will be one of our hometowns.  Besides, Lauren grew up in the Bay Area.

Without giving too much away, how are you incorporating the opera Aida into your design?

Bronson:  We love the Egyptian theme and the use of fabric and texture from costume designer Zandra Rhodes.

Lauren: There’s so much great symbolism from the Opera to incorporate.

Bronson: Plus, City Hall is so cool.  We have so much to work with!

What are the differences in working in New York versus San Francisco?

Bronson: Well, I always think the big difference between working in New York and anywhere else is the relationship between space and time.  In New York City, you don’t have very much space or time.  We might have six to eight hours to set something up that is very complicated.  Space is at such a premium.  In comparison, we have a big New Year’s Eve party in Las Vegas and we start setting up two weeks beforehand.  Because this venue is City Hall, a functioning seat of government, we might as well be in New York: we have the same time crunch to deal with.  We literally rehearse what will happen in the critical few hours between when we take over the rotunda and guests arrive.

That addresses the logistics, but more importantly, from a philosophical perspective every event is different.  There are different traditions, different historical frameworks, difference audiences to speak to, and in general different messages.  We’re trying to tailor our role and design on the creative side to best communicate the message and connect in the best way with constituents of the organization.  Different hosts have difference guest lists, just like different operas have different audiences, too.

What do you view as key differentiator of your ‘product’?

Bronson: Mom (Co-Founder) and I have thrown a lot, and I mean a lot, of parties and we will keep throwing parties of our own.  We’re not doing this work because we want to throw our own party, we’re doing it to throw clients’ parties.  Especially for a nonprofit organization or company, it’s not just about throwing the most fun event.  We certainly want that, but it’s really about accomplishing the objective of the organization.  We take ourselves, and our ego, out of it.

We speak in the vernacular of our clients, and we do it in a way that puts our client forward.  Santa Claus might buy presents but he doesn’t wrap them; he’s got elves.  We are the elves.  We put the presents under the tree, turn the lights on, and disappear up the chimney before the children come down.

What was an obstacle your team overcame during the production of one of your events?

Bronson: Doing a party for Quincy Jones for the MTV Video Music Awards in Miami during the hurricane season.  Hurricane Irene came through and took out the power in Miami for two or three days.  Our party was set to be in a tent on the beach.  The winds were so strong that if you stood outside for a few minutes, you would actually start to bleed.  Every other beach party was cancelled; there was five inches of standing water and no way to drain it.  So, we raised the entire tent two feet off the ground using stilts.  We not only had the best party, we had the only party for the MTV VMAs that year!

What is the most outrageous request you’ve been asked (that you’re willing to share)?

Lauren: As we were setting up for an event, there was a snowstorm in New York on the day of the event in December.  The city was basically shut down because of a foot and a half of snow.  One of our clients said the president of the organization wanted to have a fireplace in the restaurant we had been setting up.  So we dropped everything and found a fireplace, but they wouldn’t deliver it.  We had to get a trucking company to go downtown and bring it uptown.  A snowplow had to drive in front of the truck to pave the way!

Bronson: I remember P.Diddy’s 40th birthday.  The event was at 9 pm, and at 5 pm, he said, “The one thing that would take this over the top for me is if you could make it snow.”  The party was in the grand ballroom at the Plaza Hotel.  In November, it was not snowing outside or in the grand ballroom!  We actually worked with an opera here that helped us make it happen.

Besides what guests see, what makes an event design firm great?

Bronson: Listening.  You have got to listen.  The other thing is that this is a luxury service we provide.  The process should be as pleasurable as the experience of the product itself.  What makes the process great is anticipating everything that can go wrong and preparing for it.  We have layers of redundancy in our organization.  We all have different strengths and we make sure our team overlaps so we can cover for each other’s individual weaknesses.

What is one trait you most appreciate in an event Chair?

Bronson: Audacity. Also, decisiveness.

Lauren: Knowing what they want and being confident in their decisions. They were chosen for a reason.

Any fundraising tips you’ve learned along the way from different event Chairs?

Bronson: Having chaired events here myself, there is something you learn when you raise money: every single gift is its own campaign. Every table sale and sponsorship… It’s a series of interactions. “No” never means “no”—keep on going. Also, you can’t really create the best party by committee. You have to have someone who feels like they own it so that they’re all in. You have to have someone with whom the buck stops. At the same time, you need a team to fill a room with donors.

The other thing I would say is that donors are much more sophisticated today when it comes to their philanthropy. They are personalizing the philanthropic side of their lives, figuring out the things that they care about and engaging in ways that are important to them. Tapping into this shift is essential.

How have large-scale charity events changed over the last 10 years?

Bronson: Events are seen more and more as ‘experiences’. When we started, we were all about creating the most beautiful, wonderful, magical events. After four or five years of doing that on a grand scale, we have taken it up a notch to “how do you create perfect hospitality and use it as a platform to change behavior?” It’s about getting people from point A to point B on how they feel about a brand or charity. They’re friendly when they walk in the door but when they leave, they have to get it; whether that means buying or donating or writing an editorial article about it. For a not-for-profit organization, you completely fail if the take-away for the community that supports you says, “God, that was an expensive party.”

Besides this one, what has been the most rewarding event you’ve worked on?

Lauren: The Whitney Museum of American Art Gala last year. They received the most money they’ve ever raised. And the design was very well received. We are lucky enough to work on the event this year. The ticket sales are doing well because of the excitement from last year. It’s nice to get feedback for the second time around.

Bronson: My sister’s wedding. It was the most personal. It turned the tables because Mimi, my mom (and Co-Founder), and I work here and suddenly we were the clients in a way we had never been before.

What event designer do you admire?

Lauren: Too many to list!

Bronson: I love San Francisco designer Stanlee Gatti; I’ve been to wonderful parties he’s done.

How long has Van Wyck & Van Wyck been producing events?

Bronson: I’ve been planning parties my whole life. We’ve been doing this formal business for 10 years.

Do you segment your staff between Creative and Logistics? If not, how do you do it?

Bronson: We all do everything. Different people run different projects. Lauren is in charge of the San Francisco Opera Ball. Everybody here works on different aspects. We put together teams of people interested in different projects.

Closing Comments?

Lauren: Van Wyck & Van Wyck is a family business.

Bronson: Today I was watching the news while on the treadmill at the gym. Where I’m from, in Arkansas, it was going to be 114 degrees. I have never been as cold in my life as I have been in San Francisco in the summer. There is nowhere else where cold means as cold as that. But the Opera Ball will be hot!

For more information on the event design firm, visit Van Wyck and Van Wyck.

For more information on the Opera Ball, visit the San Francisco Opera.

Previous segments in the Behind The Scenes series include:

In Part V you’ll meet famed Fashion Designer, Zandra Rhodes, who designed the costumes for the Opera, Aida. Wait until you hear her inspiration!