How Geniecast, Show Imaging, Zero Waste Event Productions, Select Event Group, & Se7ven Sounds Music are Rising up to Support Others
We’re so excited to say that we are back with the 8th edition of our Give Back Series. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we showcase five companies to help bring a little bit of positivity and spread some ideas of what people have been up to since for so many, it is not ‘business as usual’ or even close. We appreciate the tremendous outpouring of support we have received for this effort from all of you. Every like and share really does mean so much. So here we go! Five more stories from some amazing human beings doing what they can to stay positive and give back to those around them.
Geniecast: Raising Money and Rising Up
Geniecast is a member of a family of brands started by St. Louis entrepreneur, Keith Alper, who exemplifies what it means to pay it forward. His career has been dedicated to making people’s lives better and a big part of why his ventures have been so successful is because of this focus on community which he explores in his book, From Like to Love.
Geniecast was originally created to address the ever-growing need for virtual events and attendance from a new perspective. What Keith and his team didn’t realize is how important their efforts would be in the current climate. Their unique spin on experiences has flourished recently because the immersive and interactive format they provide gives people as close to an in-person experience as possible with colleagues, celebrities and speakers, even when we are all staying at home.
Despite their unprecedented surge in demand, the Geniecast team never lost sight of what really matters. They partnered with a few local staples, including the city of St. Louis, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the St. Louis Blues on an initiative called “Rise up for Heroes.” This unique initiative raised money for doctors, nurses, and families in need. The “Rise up for Heroes” pop-up parade caravan visits a few neighborhoods each night. It completes its route by ending at one of the member hospitals, which are all part of the regional COVID-19 task force. The launch events have been carefully planned to follow all CDC guidelines and represent a partnership with key governmental agencies. So far, they have featured special appearances by local celebrities like Joe Buck, Cedric the Entertainer, and Nelly. Together, with their partners, they’ve been able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dollars that have brought help and lots of smiles back to their city.
In addition to helping their local community, Geniecast has also been working to support their clients and customer communities, which consists of companies like Boston Scientific, Target and Phillips 66. The Geniecast experience is similar to a live event versus a standard webcast, complete with a few tricks that their team has perfected to make each event truly unique. Casts are designed to create a fluid and engaging meeting, complete with breakout rooms and interactive Q&A. In a recent event, they brought together businesses to collaborate on best practices to cope with and make it through the pandemic, brainstorming and collaborating on strategies moving forward. Through flawless execution, they were able to show what ‘virtual done right’ looks like, demonstrating that it’s here to stay as a viable option to bring people together, regardless of the situation or their location.
Rise Up for Heroes – Raising Spirits in STL
Show Imaging: Feeding San Diego
Show Imaging, Inc. is a premier Southern California event production company creating unique, live experiences through hands-on project management, creative design, and cutting edge technology. Since 2008 they’ve partnered with companies around the globe as well as non-profits and other various charitable organizations to bring their visions to life.
When business slowed down, they decided to use their team’s skills and those of their good friends, the San Diego Padres. Partnering together, they put on the first “Drive-In” style concert benefit in the state of California. The “Feed the Need” event featured multiple acts, including hometown heroes Switchfoot. They were able to raise over $50,000 for Feeding San Diego, the leading hunger relief organization serving San Diego County. Show Imaging was honored to be part of this event and look forward to doing it again soon! If you’d like to learn more about the effort- check out the press release here and the event review from the San Diego Tribune.
Zero Waste Event Productions: Recycling and Providing Supplies
Zero Waste Event Productions, based right outside Columbus, Ohio is no stranger to giving back, as their entire mission and philosophy centers around improving upon the disposable nature of events. They work with festivals and events to keep the scene clean, managing all materials generated with an emphasis on diverting waste from the landfill through composting and recycling. In recent months, with few festivals and events to work with, they have shifted their focus to a small-scale plastics manufacturing effort. Through the effort, they have still been able to continue to tackle their goals of waste diversion, while producing things like face shields to help slow the spread of the virus.
They were able to secure a small grant from their local government (Athens County Foundation) which was used to purchase a plastic shredding machine, an injection molder, and some additional supplies to produce personal protective equipment out of recycled plastics. This equipment is being provided to local health workers in need to use in their continued fight against Covid-19. They are also using their equipment to make hands-free door openers to distribute to businesses around their local area to help slow the spread.
Select Event Group: Lending a Hand to Build Pop-up Medical Facilities
Select Event Group, based in Laurel, Maryland, is one of the largest family-owned event services companies on the East Coast. Though they specialize in supporting live events, when those went away in early March, they were contracted by the state of Maryland to provide 100 expansion emergency rooms and ICU facilities throughout Maryland.
They had only 45 days to build. Each 1,800 square foot unit was installed on an elevated deck. After the initial deck structures were installed, the Select team put in steps, access ramps, electricity, hard walls, LED lighting, vinyl flooring for easy cleanup, HVAC systems, and air scrubbers. The state then provided the medical equipment so these facilities had everything needed for frontline workers to do their job to respond to the cases that were coming in. They turned it all around in record time and were able to keep a number of their staff employed for the project. To hear more about the effort, read the full story, written by the alma mater of Select Events’, Alex Corgan, here.
The team from Select Event Group building a temporary hospital structure
The finished temporary hospital structure
Se7ven Sounds Music: Feeding Production Crews and Showcasing Great Artists
Tampa, Florida’s Se7ven Sounds Music is a one-stop event production source for special event staging, lighting, sound, video, and backline gear with over a decade in production experience. Their team, like so many others in the industry, wanted to make sure they could find a way to survive, never losing sight of the professionals and technicians who make production such a fantastic world to be in.
In their mission to find a way to give back, they partnered with some other member companies of the Tampa Production Association to feed the production community and showcase some of their talents. The five day series that came out of the initiative featured the “Essential Workers” of the industry who are needed for any professional event; such as stage, sound, video, lights, advertisement, steaming crew, riggers, technicians, operators, logistics crew, and more.
