January 2012 ACCESS Advantage
- Special Event Lighting Design - Tips and Trends!
- Go Beyond the Ordinary to Create Delicious Memories!
- Florida: The Land of Hidden Gems!
Contact the team at ACCESS Destination Services for all of your destination management requirements throughout North America.
Special Event Lighting Design - Tips and Trends!
Lighting design might be the least considered - yet most impactful - aspect of most events. Whether it's functional or decorative, thoughtful lighting choices will create an environment custom-tailored to your needs and make your special event extraordinary.
Functional lighting should enable guests to see and walk about safely, but it should also highlight buffet or station style food service areas, as well as other places of activity. But great lighting isn't just functional, it's an effective communication medium for your particular message. To make your message heard, choose decorative lighting that adds an element of decor to an event space. It can range from simple ambience to a full package of specialty lighting. Here are just a few of our favorites:
- Uplighting: A great place to begin, uplights highlight walls, trees, columns, drapery...nearly any surface. These versatile fixtures can add touches of color by "painting" specific areas to your specifications.
- Washes: Not as powerful as uplights, washes project a soft sweep of colored or white light on a workspace or point of interest, adding a touch of elegance and warmth while drawing subtle attention to the area. Washes can also project patterns, creating specific themes such as zebra stripe, camouflage, floral and other visual effects.
- Pin-spotting: These small but exacting lights make your floral designs pop by adding a specific highlighting beam to each bouquet.
- Gobo: Think "bat signal" and you understand the essence and appeal of this type of lighting. Gobo lighting lets you project words and images of almost any size or color on nearly any surface.
- Stage lights: These focused lights often move, following the people and action onstage and are sometimes enhanced by lasers or fog.
- Hanging or Pendant lighting: If you've ever strung overhead lights on your patio, you understand the allure of this type of lighting. It creates a "starry sky" effect and infuses the area with a twinkling ambience.
After you've chosen the lighting you want, get the most out of your decision by:
- Including a dimmer so you can adjust lights up or down throughout your event, calling attention to a speaker, for example, or signaling the end of the program and the start of dancing.
- Picking a focal point for your decorative lighting.
- Using lighted tables or inner lit centerpieces if an event budget is tight.
- Being aware of local fire laws. Some venues have restrictions that prompt the use of lighting rather than natural candles.
- Using your hotel's specialty lighting to cut down on costs and reduce design overlap.
Be inspired and get excited about decorative lighting as an event component! Contact ACCESS today to help add the energy and excitement of lighting to your event today!
Go Beyond the Ordinary to Create Delicious Memories!
Yes, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon Tour, Dune Buggy adventures and shopping may be the most obvious attractions for groups traveling to Las Vegas, but ACCESS Las Vegas has cooked up a surprising alternative to the obvious: exciting culinary experiences that you can enjoy right in the city. From cooking with a reality show chef star to making your own creations, Las Vegas has plenty to choose from, and ACCESS Las Vegas adds the special twist to make your activity simply delicious.
Wine and Chocolate with a Top Chef
If you like Bravo TV's Top Chef Just Desserts competition, you'll love our custom-designed, hands-on chocolate / wine pairing and tasting class taught by a World Pastry Champion and Bravo Top Chef Just Dessert finalist. This unique class discusses regions where chocolate is grown, how to select the right chocolate and the best way to pair chocolate and wine in harmony. Each student gets an opportunity to taste various chocolate desserts paired with the perfect wine! The class also includes an interactive flavor mapping of chocolate. Students in this class become immersed in the whimsical world of pastry design and are truly amazed by the knowledge and teachings of this renowned chef.
Italian Cuisine with a Vegas Flair
If your group prefers more savory fare, join us for a cooking experience with renowned Italian cuisine and famous-trained chefs. At this event the cooking demonstrations followed by lunch are affairs your guests will remember. This restaurant boasts exhibition pizza, antipasto and dessert stations, a glass-enclosed area where fresh pasta is made daily and a spacious bar in the center of the restaurant.
Bistro with a Side of Streep
That's right. If your mouth watered while you watched the movie "Julie and Julia" starring Meryl Streep, this tailor-made cooking class is right for you. Here you and your group can learn to cook three of the delicious recipes from the movie. Our chef will demonstrate how to cook a three-course Julia Child-inspired meal, including classic onion soup au gratin, beef bourguignon and chocolate mousse. Indulge in these specialties while enjoying a French wine tasting, as Julia would insist!
General Cooking Classes
For a broader experience, choose a customized private cooking class with one of our expert chefs. Begin by enjoying prepared gourmet appetizers and refreshments while our chef shows you around the kitchen. Our chef and classically trained chef instructors demonstrate basic cooking techniques, knife skills and safety and sanitation in the kitchen. Each group works with fresh and seasonal raw ingredients and, under the guidance of experienced instructors, creates a complete and memorable gourmet meal.
Yes, there's more to Las Vegas than most people realize. Contact ACCESS Las Vegas today and make your one-of-a-kind events more memorable...and delicious!
Florida: The land of hidden gems!
To the casual observer, Florida is a place of orange groves, beaches and theme parks, but the knowledgeable team at ACCESS Florida can show you a side of the Sunshine State you never knew existed and craft a meeting theme to complement each unique destination.
The Horse You Rode in On
Several hundred years before the orange groves were planted and theme parks became the largest business in Central Florida, the state's main industry was ranching. Florida's cattle industry, one of the oldest and largest in the nation, is still vital to the state's economic and environmental well being. In fact, one of the country's largest ranches is just 45 minutes from Walt Disney World in St. Cloud, and ACCESS Florida can take you there for a rodeo ranching trip of a lifetime!
From bronco and bull riding to calf roping and barrel racing, you'll experience an authentic ranch rodeo first hand, including rodeo clowns, delicious food at Gary's Grub House and Chuck Wagon Circle and an honest to goodness cowboy sing-along of tales from an earlier time.
Mind and Matter
Peanut Island is another little-known Florida gem waiting to be explored. This man-made island is navigable by foot (a mile-and-a-half long walkway encircles it) and is rife with natural beauty and historical significance, offering just the right balance of enjoyment and education. The brilliant sun and crystal clear waters divulge sea creatures that inhabit a nearby reef, and several viewpoints offer beautiful visions of the Riviera Beach and the Port of Palm Beach.
Your journey will begin with a kayak tour that takes you over pristine shallow waters, revealing stingrays and beds of wavering seagrass. You may get the chance to see the near-endangered horseshoe crab, sometimes referred to as a living fossil, and a collection of other tropical marine species. Explore the Kennedy bunker and relive a historically significant time in America's history. This unique excursion is sure to excite your mind and amaze your senses.
Magnificent Mansion
Florida boasts a historic Italian Renaissance and Baroque style villa in the seat of Miami. This national landmark in one of Florida's few native forests has 34 rooms decorated with furniture from the 16th through 19th centuries, as well as a museum and botanical gardens that feature a hedge maze.
Your visit to Vizcaya will start with a trek through the ground's lush subtropical forest. You'll know you're approaching the main house when you encounter a walkway lined with fountains and foliage. Once inside you'll hear Vizcaya's 1917 pipe organ while appreciating the mansion's historic decor on your guided tour. Feel free to roam the mansion and grounds at will during cocktail hour prior to a sit-down dinner in the courtyard. Afterward sit in the renowned gardens and soak in the serenity of this bygone era.
These are just a few of Florida's hidden treasures. Call ACCESS Florida today to help you find that rare combination of unique idea and ideal location that makes your meeting the one everyone talks about throughout the year!
Cookin' with ACCESS
Cher's Tuna Pasta
Let's kick off the new year with something on the lighter side - Cher's Tuna Pasta as printed in The Sinatra Celebrity Cookbook.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
- 1 (8 ounce) package shell pasta
- 2 medium onions
- boiling water
- 1 (12 ounce) can white tuna, drained
- 1/4 cup low-fat or regular mayonnaise
- 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
- 1 (4 ounce) can black olives, drained and sliced
- 3 tablespoons minced parsley
- 3 tablespoons minced dill
- Beau Monde seasoning to taste
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Directions:
Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside to cool. Stem tomatoes. On opposite side, cut shallow X in skin. Blanch in boiling water for 1 minute, rinse under cold running water to cool and peel. Cut in halves, remove seeds and dice. Combine tuna and mayonnaise, mixing thoroughly. Add tomatoes, celery, olives, parsley and dill to tuna. Season with Beau Monde, salt and black pepper. Serve cold.
Enjoy!