Loving Us Takami & Elevate Lounge in Downtown LA!

Hey local Angelenos! If you haven't been down to see this space it's a must! We recently produced a reception for just over 350 and you just couldn't keep your eyes off the gorgeous view plus the inviting open design of the space.

 This event recognized our City's Elected Officials and their Chiefs of Staff. We all know it takes a village, but those that lead also couldn't do it without their Number Two's!

 And, here's part of our Mumtaz Team taking a quick shot during the event! We also need to give a shot out to Cara and Mike from the site for their tremendous support! Thank you!

USC-CMAA Conference & Annual Dinner!

We had a great time working with the USC Chapter of the Construction Management Association of America! It was held downtown at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel for their 18th Annual Megacities: Sustainable Energy & Green Energy Symposium. The day's conference closed with a Dinner featuring leaders across the private and public sectors.

The event started with all day sessions and panelists on topics such as school and campuses, transportation, healthcare, entertainment, infrastructure, and government and transportation.

The symposium dinner was held that night in the California Ballroom and included dinner and a panel discussion from industry leaders. It's always great when we can experiment with different decor ideas for our diverse panel of clients, and this event was a perfect example. To welcome attendees that only participated in the dinner event we had "construction" sign rotating - Welcome to USC CMAA 2012! That was just the beginning...

It was fantastic being able to incorporate a student into our main keynote panel presentation. This event is about the students and here is a pic with our panelists: George Hershman – VP & Division Manager of Swinerton Renewable Energy, Jason Hartke, VP, Advocacy and Public Policy from the U.S. Green Building Council, David Jacot, PE, Business Portfolio Manager, Customer Energy Efficiency & Solar Division, Southern California Edison, Rob Oglesby, Executive Director, California Energy Commission, Kameron Burk - USC Student, and it was moderated by Jonathan Powers, Federal Environmental Executive.

Now, because we are doing an event for a construction group... why not play it up... For our centerpieces, we used cinder blocks and placed yellow orchids and garnet ribbon - USC colors. Let's just say we had some heavy lifting to do! LOL...  Keeping with the construction theme, we also placed hazard signs and construction cones on the perimeter of the tables. It never hurts to have a little fun!

To close - we have to give major kudos to our main girl at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Yvonne Chang, CMP - You Rock! Thank you for always being fantastic at what you do and a great friend!

Low Budget High Class! Annual Dinner Event at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel

March has been a fantastic month for us and we are thrilled to post about our Low Budget High Class which really means a happier client with a higher Net! As always, the Millenium Biltmore was gorgeous so, just a splash of color and we were set. We had a bit larger than expected silent auction, but it was fantastic to present attendees with the items upon entrance into the ballroom. Since we wanted to give our guests more time in front of the silent auction in addition to a closer proximity to each other we combined the reception and ballroom space. We simply placed rope and stanchions and cleared once we were ready to invite guests to be seated. We went with all hotel linens to save on budget but spent a few hundred on purple napkins, along side the centerpieces and accent purple lighting. We were able to bring enough "polish" to the space to make it seem produced above your standard in house event (not that the Biltmore isn't already glam!)

It was also a pleasure working with all of our honorees, but it was fun working with the Good News Foundation! It's really nice seeing strong and successful women giving back to the community. This was the case with all of the event's honorees - Evon Gotlieb, Yolie Flores, and Wells Fargo for their corporate leadership.

We are very much looking forward to next year's event! Remember - Make sure to take part in civic leadership, register to vote, and make democracy work! Follow our client on Twitter at @LWVLosAngelesEF

Annual Awards Dinner at the Millennium Biltmore on a Budget and Gorgeous!

On June 7th our team transformed the Crystal Ballroom at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel for the Asia Society's Annual Awards Dinner. Even on an extreme budget we were able to create a gorgeous event. Many non-profit organizations across the nation are facing the same question - how do we create the same quality event on a smaller budget. Catering costs haven't come down and clients still want more... As a planner it is our job to be creative and help the client pull a fabulous event! Below we showcase a few items of the elements we focused on to create a gorgeous event on an extreme budget. The ballroom was decked out in yellows and oranges, the colors associated with the non-profit organization, and the beautiful Asian inspired centerpieces were created by Doyle at My Flower Guy. We knew we had little in the budget for "fancy" linens so we paid close attention to lighting and threw patterns across the tables to create warmth and texture. It is also important to leverage your relationships with your vendor partners to pull rabbits out of a hat! To close the reception, guests were alerted to the ballroom doors opening with a Dhol drummer leading the way... What other way than to have drums announce a change in pace - in celebrating the organization - Asia Society - we used two different types of drums - an Indian Dhol Drummer and Japanese Taiko Drummers. For those stragglers that wanted to linger in the reception and not find their way into the main event space, we "politely" moved them along when the Japanese Taiko drummers began. It was actually great because as people started to find their seats we could hear the drummers, but it was not overpowering. They also set the stage for the rest of the program which included a panel presentation on the Economic Outlook of Asia.
We branded the event using their "Leo" as an accent through out the event from the chocolate chips on everyone's dessert to almost all event signage and gobos! It was an easy way to tie all of the elements together. A lot of bang for the buck!We were thrilled to see Billy Zane supporting the event and it's cause. Joella and Jennifer got a quick moment to take a shot with him!Thanks to Jorge of J & M Entertainment Event Production (pictured above), Chivari Chair Rentals, Luminaire images, and all of our team members who collaborated to make this such a successful event!

Simply Mumtaz featured in Best Events Magazine!

We are very excited that one of our events was featured in Best Events California Magazine Winter 2011!

Check it out below! LInk will be up on our Simply Mumtaz Events facebook page soon too...

Simply Mumtaz produces 5th Annual Hospital Hero Awards at Millennium Biltmore Hotel

Southern California hospital are always in the news. We are constantly reminded of the impact hospitals have on our communities. Healthcare is a critical part of our infrastructure and effects every person, at every level in our community. The luncheon event honors the outstanding commitments and achievements of healthcare professionals; the women and men who work tirelessly to ensure the needs of our communities are met. Hospitals are the front line of care within our society and are committed to providing life-savings services to millions people of every day. The Hospital Hero Awards honors these outstanding achievements and share with the public these extraordinary events.

Take a look! It was a fabulous day! Ric Romero from ABC7 was our master of ceremonies and did a fantastic job! We look forward to having him back out next year.

Congratulations to all of our hospital hero nominees and winners. You all are amazing! Photos taken by Dmitry - Photography by Alexander. Special thanks goes out to the Simply Mumtaz Events team for doing a fantastic job, again!

Los Angeles Trade Tech's Annual Dinner Fundraiser!

Simply Mumtaz Events, Inc. had the pleasure of producing the Los Angeles Trade Tech College Foundation's Annual Dinner event. It was a great experience we were able to help the Foundation raise funds for the school. We were able to use one of the two special event tents they have on campus for the affair. A few of our major challenges for the event were that we literally had no power to source as well creating a high caliber event with a restricted budget. The inspiration for the event design and decor was the Pegasus. HACER, an alumnus from LATTC turned fine artists sculpted the amazing piece which was installed on the campus - "Education gives you Wings" was the essence of the inspiring the piece. We incorporated elements and the story of HACER into various aspects of the complete event from the Tribute Journal to the lighting...

As guests arrived they drove past the Pegasus and then were welcomed by Valet and a wash of the abstract color patterns until they arrived on the red carpet. The photos below detail the event set-up. We had a silent auction and reception in the first portion of the tent... then the second half was set up with our very clean table tops with only accents of the red /orange of the Pegasus. The lighting on the ceiling changed throughout the evening, moved and grew from barely there to WOW! A special touch accent was the origami cranes - our alumnus HACER was inspired by the delicate art of origami and his metal work looks / gives you the impression of origami in metal... The menu cards detailed the why each guest was given a special origami crane.

Above are the one-of-a kind abstract award pieces that were given to the honorees. HACER was kind enough to create these amazing works as wings to the Pegasus for each honoree. Then, as guests departed they were greeted good-bye by the event logo as a gobo.

We literally pulled this event together in 2 weeks! It was a fantastic whirlwind and couldn't have done it without the help of our strategic vendor team members... You all were so gracious under the timelines. A special thanks go out to our client! Thank you for the opportunity and we look forward to many more... Photos Courtesy of Dmitry Morozov / Photography by Alexander and Nick Carranza.

Simply Mumtaz produces - Surfacing the Solutions 2010 Water Luncheon

Simply Mumtaz Events, Inc. has the pleasure of working with Coro Southern California and presenting their Surfacing the Solutions Water Luncheon... The event addressed California's environmental and engineering challenges facing the Delta.

In the picture above was our keynotes, panelists and Coro President & COO plus our Event Chair. Phil Isenberg, Chair of the Delta Strwardship Council; Craig Wilson, Sacramento Delta Watermaster; Rich Atwater, Southern California Water Committee; Charles Wilson, Southern California Edison & SoCal Water Committee; Robb Whitaker, Water Replenishment District; Phil Anthony, Orange County Water District; The Honorable Grace Napolitano, 38th Congressional District; Gloria Gray, Chair West Basin Water District; Don Pierro, Coro; John Greenwood, Coro and Ken Willis, Chino Basin Watermaster Board and Event Chair. Plus, Ric Romero, our Master of Ceremonies from ABC7.

Jennifer got a great shot with Ric Romero from ABC7 and The Honorable Grace Napilotano form the 38th Congressional District...

We look forward to producing this event again next year. It was great working with the folks at Coro and we had a great Simply Mumtaz team putting it together. Special thanks go out to Flor Cruz from the Marriott - appreciate all of the great team work. Photos taken by Dmity - Photography by Alexander.