When you’re hosting an event that has been held each and every year for 55 years, you need to know what part of the tradition is sacred and how to keep things fresh and interesting. When the venue changes after more than half a century, you have the opportunity to improve upon what was there before and make your occasion really shine. While some hesitancy and skepticism can ensue, everything usually moves forward without skipping a beat, and some new traditions emerge.   However, when it comes to baseball in St. Louis, the pressure is on to make sure every event involving our Cardinals strikes the right balance and is flawless.

Each year, St. Louis holds a Baseball Writer’s dinner, an affair at which these storytellers honor the St. Louis Cardinals and the team honors the storytellers. But it was time for a major change – after 55 years of celebrating the annual Baseball Writer’s Dinner at the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis, the hotel’s closure meant the dinner was moving to the Renaissance Grand Hotel.

Upon hearing a local radio segment discussing the dinner and changes it would be going through this year, Switch’s President John Nickel, saw an opportunity to usher in additional updates to the event.  With just around of week before the dinner, John placed a phone call and recommended some original staging and lighting concepts.  Shortly after, the team here was hard at work to make sure it would happen in a mere amount of days.

With both Hall of Fame legends and present day All-Star Major League Baseball players scheduled to be in attendance, Switch’s vision was to properly honor and highlight these figures on such a momentous and time-honored evening.

To make this happen, Switch worked closely with the venue, understanding and leveraging all of the amenities the Renaissance has to offer.  In our experience, developing a sound rapport with the venue can be one of your biggest – and most challenging – achievements when producing an event, especially when you are on a short time frame to do so.   When you have a production team that puts the client and its guests first, coupled with experience from producing events for the nation’s top companies, these relationships come swiftly and naturally, providing a cohesive experience for organizers and a seamless presentation for your audience.

A higher stage was created to prominently feature speakers such as two-time National League Championship St. Louis Cardinals coach Mike Matheny.  Improved lighting and sound design came together so to better pronounce such baseball dignitaries as Bob Gibson from the 1964 World Champion Cardinal team.

The evening was truly memorable for those of us at Switch. While the stars of the night rightfully stole the show, careful and well thought out production played an integral role in setting the right atmosphere.   Something every good host knows how to create, along with their added flairs, in order to keep traditions alive.

If you’re interested in bringing new life to one of your annual meetings or events, contact Alan at aland@theswitch.us.