Armand Limnander - Becoming an Event Planner

M ASTERS AT W ORK ALSO AVAILABLE

B ECOMING A N EUROSURGEON

B ECOMING A V ETERINARIAN

B ECOMING A V ENTURE C APITALIST

B ECOMING A H AIRSTYLIST

B ECOMING A R EAL E STATE A GENT

B ECOMING A M ARINE B IOLOGIST

B ECOMING AN E THICAL H ACKER

B ECOMING A L IFE C OACH

B ECOMING A Y OGA I NSTRUCTOR

B ECOMING A R ESTAURATEUR

B ECOMING A P RIVATE I NVESTIGATOR

B ECOMING A B AKER

B ECOMING A S OMMELIER

B ECOMING A C URATOR

B ECOMING AN A RCHITECT

B ECOMING A F ASHION D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A S PORTS A GENT

B ECOMING AN I NTERIOR D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A F IREFIGHTER

B ECOMING A N URSE

B ECOMING A V IDEO G AME D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A M IDWIFE

B ECOMING A T EACHER

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition January 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN 978-1-9821-4042-7

ISBN 978-1-9821-4043-4 (ebook)

T O M ARINA AND G RALD

INTRODUCTION

T hree Hundred Vesey is an anodyne building plonked down in Battery Park City, the soporific neighborhood in New York that was partly created with landfill from the World Trade Center excavation site in the early 1970s. Across the street there is a luxury mall that always seems to be empty; beyond it is the eight-lane West Side Highway, and just past that looms the Freedom Tower, the hulking monolith that replaced the original World Trade Center with a surfeit of office space but none of the original towers spindly elegance or architectural integrity. There is a daily barrage of tourists visiting the 9/11 Memorial, and its hard to shake off a feeling of dread thanks to the permanent police barricades. In other words, its not a place that New Yorkers would consider even remotely cool.

And yet, on a misty fall evening in October 2019, a cavalcade of black cars converged precisely on that spot, depositing a motley crew of partygoers who were clearly not in their natural habitat. Women in shimmering dresses and men sporting conversation-worthy haircuts breezed past the corporate lobby where thousands of suits swipe access cards day in and day out in order to do what one can only assume is very important work. The building was deserted after hours, so these atypical visitors were quickly whisked up in elevators to the third floor. As soon as the doors opened they entered a different universe.

There was no office furnitureor furniture of any kind, or even corridors, for that matter. Instead, people filed into a serpentine tunnel that was completely dark save for strategically positioned arches of blue and pink LED lights marking the way forward, until it opened up into an enormous black room with forty-foot ceilings. At the far end was a white Plexiglas bar that glowed, beckoning as if a UFO had chosen to alight there with the sole purpose of plying humanity with vodka. Large hexagonal neon structures set against the long wall leading to it cast a cool blue glow.

So far, so sci-fi; but there were also lush plants, twinkling votive candles, and comfortable seating areas to bring everyone back to earth. The space felt imposing but welcoming, an important balance to strike. This was, after all, not a movie set but a charity eventspecifically, the Creative Time Gala, a yearly highlight of the New York art world. A nonprofit arts organization supporting the creation of large-scale, socially engaged public artworks, Creative Time has operated since 1974, collaborating with the likes of Takashi Murakami, Kara Walker, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, among many others. On this occasion, the honoree was Jenny Holzer, the neo-conceptual American artist best known for her astringent aphorisms (Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise; Protect Me from What I Want; Expiring for Love Is Beautiful but Stupid), which are often displayed in public spaces like billboards or projected onto buildings. Illuminated electronic displays that run her sentences like ticker tape are also an important and well-known part of her practicethus the LED-lighting motif that prevailed.

Guests milled about admiring the decor and one another, occasionally pausing to combine the two by taking selfies next to a strategically placed Creative Time neon sign by the entrance. After cocktails and snacks (tiny quail eggs topped with even tinier fish eggs!), heavy curtains that formed a black wall were drawn, revealing the room where the main event was being held. Trustees of every major New York City museum, gallerists, collectors, film director Sofia Coppola, actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel Weisz, music impresario Mark Ronson, and close to 350 other revelers followed Holzer and Creative Time executive director Justine Ludwig, weaving between tables of different sizes and shapes scattered around large trees that formed a leafy canopy. Guests were soon seated and bantering; a battalion of waiters served them as Holzer received her award and Ludwig gave her speech. An hour or two later, after all was said and done, everyone returned to the bar area, which was now the setting for a dance party. Black lights were activated, and reactive tape that had been deployed throughout the venue lit up in Day-Glo colors. The last of the extremely content guests stumbled out in the wee hours.

By the following afternoon, there was absolutely no evidence of the carousing that had taken place. Like a colony of single-minded ants, scores of movers swooped in at nine a.m. and dismantled the mise-en-scne in what seemed like minutes. Every single thing in the room, from the stage and lights down to the napkins and forks, was carried off and placed in trucks. When they were done, what had been a memorable locale resembled a vast, abandoned stock-trading pitwhich is, in fact, what it actually was.

Lest you think that this evening came together as naturally as it felt, consider some of what was required to make it happen:

• 34 dinner tables
• 340 table settings
• 340 chairs
• One 40-foot long bar
• One 12-foot long bar
• 40 large potted plants
• Eight 30-foot tall trees
• 100 bushels of tree branches
• 400 candles and candleholders
• 150 theatrical lights
• 8 LED arches
• 1,500 feet of LED rope lighting
• 175 feet of mirrored surfaces
• 600 feet of black drapery