We're taking a small break from writing to allow one of our best clients a chance to discuss his recent event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Our goal is to provide more of a user's perspective as opposed to our own.  Please help us welcome guest blogger/writer Mark Sorensen, Vice-President and Executive Producer at Gail & Rice.  Be sure to check out some of their work we've featured here before as well, including this time-lapse of a ballroom meeting installation.

(Las Vegas, NV)  Once planning began for our long time client's recognition event we decided early that if we could avoid being in a typical ballroom we'd go that route.  The goal was to do something different.

We zeroed in on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and designed a theme around NASCAR and winning.  The ideal spot for the event was the infield garage area and we wanted to make it appear as if watching the event like you would in the stands at the raceway so stadium seating was required.  The challenge was how to keep the audience shaded and utilize an existing structure in the Neon Garage area of the Speedway.

We developed a design that we thought could work and called our partners at SGA to help analyze how we could fit 1,000 people in the space.  The CAD guys there are really great and after describing our vision to them, drew up a plan that would work.

But it didn't stop there.  SGA sent local (Las-Vegas) managers to do their own site surveys and take detailed measurements on at least two occasions to make sure this could work.  They recommended their Alto seating - we were outdoors and it looks most like real stadium seats - so we went with that plan.

It turned out great.  We had to have a light pole removed and make some modifications to the area but the seating fit under the existing canopy snugly and we built our stage under a temporary tent that married up to the existing cover.  It looked like it was meant to be and the Speedway staff even took note for future events that would benefit from our plan.

SGA was the perfect partner and fit for this project.  Special thanks to Keith Menne and Corey Ploetz for helping us pull this project together!