Glow Parties, Neon Parties and Black Light Parties – An Event Planners Guide

At In Depth Events, we provide large scale glow party events for corporate clients, outdoor glow runs, college events and other large events with high numbers of attendees. We work with event planners and organizers from all over the country to provide events for thousands of people. This blog post is designed for this level of event.

If, however, you are putting on a glow party for a sweet sixteen birthday party, your personal Halloween party or a backyard party for your favorite 50 people – we respectfully suggest you go to Cool Glow and order for your specific needs. They have an amazing selection of glow stuff for smaller, private events.

So, what is a Glow Party, anyway?

Glow Parties, Neon Parties and Black Light Parties can be indoor black tie corporate parties or they can be nighttime outdoor festivals. But the main thing that unites them all is FUN! Whether it’s an outdoor fun run, a Neon New Year’s party or a college party, Glow Parties are a great way to have a memorable, exciting event. There are three different types of products that are used for all Glow Parties:

1 – UV lighting. Black Light lighting rentals, also called Ultra Violet lighting, are necessary for a glow party. Using UV lighting allows UV reactive clothing, paints or other items to glow. Although it’s nice to have specific items purchased for their ability to glow, you’ll be surprised at how much stuff you normally carry around, interact with or wear will glow under UV. There are even several bar items that will glow under black Light without special treatment! The major manufacturers of conventional UV lighting are Wildfire and Altman – and, of course, there are LED products from large scale to small flashlights that project UV.

2 – LED battery powered items. It’s hard to remember a time where LED lighting wasn’t in everything – from the flash on your phone, to lights in your car dash, to security lighting – and party items! You can buy battery operated LED’s in almost any shape or size. There are wigs with LED lighting woven in them, clothing, as well as buttons, teeth, ice cubes and even furniture. More formal corporate events can use LED bars, set pieces and DJ booths. Many events use LED Dance Floors as the centerpiece of the party. Since LEDs provide visible light, they are used in conjunction with UV lighting to create vibrant, saturated colors.

3 – Chemical glowing items. These are the glow sticks that you ‘break’ to activate the glowing liquid inside. These plastic tubes are filled with two non-toxic chemicals. What you bend the plastic, a thin tube of glass inside the plastic tube breaks, mixing two chemicals that provide glowing light for 2-4 hours. You can find these most often in necklaces, bracelets and, of course, glow sticks. They are great as fun, inexpensive giveaways at outdoor and indoor parties.

Production rentals for large scale Glow Party Events

As you may remember from your college dorm – Black Lights don’t produce visible light. As a result, you need a combination of UV lighting, LED lighting, and theatrical lighting rentals to provide the perfect glow party. Wall washes work well, but why stop there? Moving light rentals, LED Dance Floors, gobo projection – even special effects like confetti and cryo bring a Glow Party together for your attendees!

It’s incredibly important to find the right vendor for your Glow Party Events. Whether it’s a thousand people in a hotel ballroom, ten thousand college students in an auditorium or twenty thousand people at a 5K fun run, you need a vendor with specific experience in Glow Party events rentals. Not only will an experienced vendor have the rental UV lighting fixtures, special effects equipment and rigging equipment in their rental inventory, they will also have the knowledge and experience for rigging in indoor environments, working with fire marshals to provide engineered drawings and working with electrical power necessary for both indoor and outdoor Glow events.

The right vendor will be able to provide pictures of previous events – and pictures of more than one event! Check references of both clients AND vendors. Finally, get a Certificate of Insurance. A reputable vendor will have no problem providing a CoI to your organization and your selected venue.

The Shameless Sales Plug

The staff at In Depth Events has been involved with Glow Party events and Black Light production rentals for several years. We are one of a handful of companies that provide large scale UV for all types of events. You can visit parts of our site that deals with production rentals for Glow Parties – from Glow Party Experts to our All-Inclusive College Glow Parties. Make sure to visit our LED Dance Floor pages – once there, you can even get an instant rental quote!

Once you’ve checked us out, then make sure to Ask Us a Question about your upcoming event. Our experts will work within your budget and vision to make sure your Glow Party Events are incredible for your attendees. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Image of Holiday Concert Production Rental

Selecting the Best Production Vendor for your Holiday Concert – An Event Planners Guide

There are plenty of blog posts you can find that will talk about china selection at a small, private, home-based Holiday gathering. You’ll find page after page talking about how to make your own centerpieces. I’m sure there are entire databases dedicated to the perfect napkin ring complement to your curtains and how they match your Holiday scarf. This is NOT that type of blog.

We are NOT talking about Holiday Decor here – we need Concert Production Services!

Large, ambitious Holiday events with thousands of attendees need live holiday concert event production services and rentals to get the party off the ground. Maybe you are a casino doing a Neon New Years event, or possibly a municipality having a Christmas Tree lighting festival. You could be organizing a Holiday themed 5K run, a corporate Christmas Party or a college Holiday party. Whatever your Holiday responsibilities, you are going to have to find a vendor to provide staging rentals, professional audio rentals and concert lighting rentals – quick! Depending on the party, you might also need Christmas lighting rentals, special effects such as confetti or lasers or even an LED Dance Floor! Whether you have a 20 piece swing band, a rock and roll cover act, or just a DJ – you need to make sure that all your production needs are covered for your event by choosing the best live event production rentals vendor possible.

Each Holiday event is unique, but the steps in vendor selection are largely the same for all these types of events. First rule – take the time to research and select the right holiday concert event production vendors! Finding your choice vendors will make you the Holiday hero. The wrong vendors can turn your event into a real Nightmare before Christmas. Never fear! We’re here to give you a few pointers to find the perfect vendors for production rentals for your Holiday event – and along the way, maybe a few pointers for your other vendor needs as well.

Selecting a Holiday concert event production vendor for large scale events

Step One – Recognize you are in a different league. The simple fact of the matter is that once you get past the 1,000 attendee mark, the whole game changes. At 5,000 people, it changes again, and at 10,000 people, it’s a REAL party! You need to have professional audio and lighting services that fit your crowd size, and your expected number of attendees. Many times, this will necessitate bringing in additional power to handle the needs of the equipment, especially in outdoor environments. In some venues, it may be advantageous to ‘rig’ equipment; that is, hang it from ceiling supports to increase the look and feel of the space and the equipment.

The successful concert production services vendor will have experience in producing events relative to the amount of attendees you are expecting. If rigging is an option, choose a production vendor with rigging experience. Understand the venue you have selected may require insurance information from the concert production vendor – this is something a reputable vendor will be happy to provide. Likewise, a reputable concert production vendor will be happy to supply the power needs and requirements they have for their own equipment.

Step Two – Go with your instincts! Did the vendor listen to your needs on the phone? Did they ask questions and pay attention to your responses? Did they offer to do a site survey? Did they offer to provide you pictures of past events? In many cases, you want (and NEED!) a vendor who you are comfortable with. You’re not hiring a plumber here!

A good relationship between you and your vendor is key. Meet the potential vendor on site and perform a site survey with them. Asking for both customer AND vendor references is perfectly OK – in fact, a reputable vendor will welcome your request. A reputable vendor will be happy to provide photos of recent events. You should always take the time to check references with any vendor, but especially when choosing a concert production vendor. Obviously, avoid vendors who are condescending or rude.

Step Three – Ask your concert production services vendor for design advice. This is an often overlooked step that can really help you select the best concert production vendor possible. During the site survey, ask the vendor what other services they may be able to provide that will bring your party to the next level. A good vendor will be happy to brainstorm with you on design ideas. After all, they do hundreds of events per year – they might just have some ideas that will be great for your event!

A good holiday concert event production vendor can help with design. The best production services vendor will be evaluating the venue during the site survey for potential roadblocks as well as design ideas. Look for concert production vendors that are knowledgeable with fire codes and building codes. The best way to do this is to ask if they are Certified Building Contractors with any municipalities. Your vendor should be also able to help you with ideas for crowd movement and making sure your attendees are safe during your event.

The Shameless Sales Pitch

The staff at In Depth Events has provided holiday concert event production services and rentals for hundreds of large scale Holiday events – from huge corporate Christmas parties, to Neon New Years events for casinos, and everything in between. In our regular season, we’ve provided live event rentals for thousands of events of all shapes and sizes. We’ve also got some great production services that are ready for your guests, including the largest LED Dance Floor in the nation, as well as being one of the most experienced Glow Party Experts in the world. Our clients rely on our production experience – shouldn’t you? Make sure and Ask Us a Question to see how we can help with your next Holiday event. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Swimming Pool Covers – An Event Planners Guide

Create an amazing look and maximize event space!

A stunning clear acrylic pool cover at a private event

In the production world, swimming pool covers are used as temporary flooring for a live event. There are a lot of options available to the event planner when it comes to the rental and installation of swimming pool covers. But first, let’s talk about some scenarios where a swimming pool cover might be used:

A marketing firm or DMC may rent the pool deck at a hotel for an evening, open-air cocktail hour. The client doesn’t want a ‘swim party’ atmosphere; rather, a semi-formal sophisticated gathering is the goal. By covering the swimming pool with flooring, additional space is made available for cocktail rounds and seating.
At home wedding receptions can benefit from pool covers as well. Many times, the bride’s family will have a pool cover installed when the reception is to take place in the home. Not only does a rental pool cover allow additional space for guests, it also keeps younger guests from exploring (and possibly, falling in to) the edges of the pool.
Corporate clients as well as family clients can both benefit from using swimming pool covers as dance floors. Imagine an effect where your guests appear to be dancing on the surface of the pool and you’ll see why a see-through acrylic pool cover provides your guests with a truly unique experience.

The three types of flooring available for rental swimming pool covers.

Swimming pool covers can be customized by changing the actual surface of the flooring. Below you’ll find the surface options available for swimming pool covers.

Wood Surface – most wood topped swimming pool covers have a black surface, although vendors can provide a white wood surface or other color to client specifications. This is the most cost effective option for rental swimming pool covers.

Frosted Acrylic Surface – this surface consists of a semi-opaque acrylic. It allows light to project up from the pool to the floor itself. This surface is best suited for cocktail and casual atmospheres.

Clear Acrylic Surface – this flooring type is used in black tie and elegant events. The surface is completely clear, allowing guests to be able to see through the floor into the pool.

Clear Plexi Pool Cover at Hotel Grand Opening

This clear acrylic swimming pool cover was used at the grand opening of a hotel.

NEW – Flush Mount pool cover rentals – With the previous three types of surfaces, pool covers had to built up over the surface of the swimming pool which creates a “step up” onto the floor. No more! In Depth Events can now provide a flush mount swimming pool cover. This means that the swimming pool cover is inset in the pool and custom made to be at the same height of the pool surround. Take a look at this blog post for Flush Mount Pool Covers to see how a custom pool cover might benefit your event!

This article brought to you by:

At In Depth Events, we are swimming pool cover experts with experience doing LOTS of them all over the United States! In addition to providing wood or acrylic swimming pool covers, we can also provide the decor lighting, audio needs and other production elements your clients demand. Make sure and Ask Us a Question about how a swimming pool cover can add to your next event. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Image of Event Production Plans and Rolls

How Engineer Certified Drawings for Events Can Make (or Break) Your Activation – An Event Planners Guide

Custom structures at your indoor or outdoor activation

If you are an event marketing professional, then you have probably used a production company to build a custom structure for your client at an activation or trade show. Custom structures built from truss or staging can be used as elevated seating for attendees or VIP’s, gateway arches or signage towers. These structures can be huge show elements, massive custom stages or as small as a single piece of trussing. However, they all have one thing in common – they are subject to inspection by a city official and will need engineer certified drawings for events of this kind.

In an indoor activation, the person from the city is typically the Fire Marshall or a member of his or her staff. In an outdoor activation, it will typically be a city building inspector. However, this is not an absolute – either one can show up at either event type. Both have the power to write very expensive compliance tickets to your end client, hold the doors closed until you comply with city regulations, or in extreme cases, close your event and escort all attendees out of the event space.

So what is an engineer certified drawing?

With any custom structure, the city can require an engineer certified drawings for events. This is a CAD drawing of the structure to be built with detailed instructions on how it is to be flown (in indoor environments), ground supported (for both indoor and outdoor shows) and ballasted (for outdoor events).

These engineer certified drawings for events may incorporate elements of the venue for flown rigs and will definitely incorporate tolerances for wind speed, ballast weight and banner types for outdoor structures. These drawings are created by a engineer who is certified to do business in the State you are working in. When the drawing is complete, the engineer will apply a stamp to the drawing which signifies the structure is safe to be built.

It’s vitally important that the engineer and production company work together in the creation of the original drawings, as well as the execution of the structure build. If the structure is not built to the specifications the engineer has outlined, the city inspector can fail you (also called a ‘red tag’) and require changes to be made before a second inspection is carried out. If the build is correct, you get a green tag and a sign off by the city to have your event.

Here’s a list on how most permitting is done in US cities:

The client or show designer has the initial idea.
A production company is contacted and they take the idea and turn it into a rendering or quote for client review.
On review, the production company contacts an engineer licensed in the State. The engineer reviews the drawings or specifications from the production company, then creates his own set of drawings showing ballasts, accepted tolerances and detailed installation instructions.
Once drawings are complete, a permit request is filed with the city with the drawings attached. Some cities will require an event permit to be filed first. Occasionally, a permit will not be required, but a review of the drawings will be required.
The structure is built on site and the city makes an appointment to review. Hopefully, the structure is passed, or green tagged. If it fails the review, you will have to request a second time slot for a re-review. Typically, a city official can only fail a structure if it is not built to the specifications that are in the drawings.
The event happens and exceeds your clients wildest dreams. You are so impressed with the production team that you take all members of the production company on a week long, all expenses paid vacation to Hawaii.

It’s always a good idea to have an engineer certified with the State to be on site when the city inspector or fire marshal is scheduled – even if the engineer was not the one who created the original drawings. Any certified engineer licensed to practice in the State you are working in can provide a stamped ‘letter of compliance’. This is basically a letter stating the production company has built the structure to the drawings supplied in the permitting process.

Wow – this is some great information. And you are an incredibly talented writer. Any other advice?

Well, since you asked – certainly!

Dealing with city officials can be incredibly frustrating. It’s important to remember that their job is ultimately to make sure your attendees are safe. Fire Marshals can be downright obstinate about exits being blocked, but there is a good historical reason for concern. A city inspector can (and will) hold the doors closed to your event until your production company reads the plans correctly and installs the right amount of ballast to a gateway. The majority of them are not trying to make your life difficult – they simply have a job to do. And frankly, it’s a job you really want them to do to the best of their abilities.

With that in mind, treat city employees with respect and they will do the same. Be positive, polite and factual. (This works well for police officers, DMV employees and social security employees as well.) If you don’t know the answer to a question, find the production company. If they don’t know, call the engineer who put the drawings together. Answering a city inspector with “I don’t know” will not work well. Select one knowledgeable person to meet with the inspector, not a group of people who don’t know anything about the build. Your clients are the absolute wrong person to meet with a city inspector. If you step back and allow the production company and engineers to interact with city inspectors and fire marshals, you’ll be much happier (and stress-free).

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article. When you are ready, take a moment and Ask Us a Question of the professionals at In Depth Events. We have nationwide experience with building structures with engineer certified drawings for events and we’ve love the opportunity to show you our skills. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Author: Robert Chapman