Bringing It Back Home In Grand Style
The Client:
| Bishop Museum, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Awards Dinner
| The Event Goal:
| To host Bishop Museum’s 7th annual awards dinner on a grand scale for the first time at Bishop Museum.
| The Challenge:
| To outfit and enable an open space to host 1,000 Guests complete with ambiance and style worthy of the Princess herself, amidst ongoing massive construction; to accommodate 20 extra tables in a maxed-out space; and to keep the rain from falling onto the al fresco seating area.
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Current Affairs was hired by Bishop Museum
to plan and produce its 7th
Annual Bernice Pauahi Bishop Awards Dinner
for 1,000 of Oahu’s most notable community leaders and supporters. One
of the biggest challenges was the venue itself as Bishop Museum decided
to host the dinner on the Museum’s Great Lawn for the first time in its
history instead of at a hotel ballroom. Why was this a challenge?
After all, we had produced a Corporate dinner for 2,400 Guests many
years earlier, on the same lawn.
First, the Museum was in the midst of building its new Science Adventure 
Center, which was supposed to have
been completed months prior to this dinner and to be the primary
backdrop to ‘show off’ to tonight’s Guests. With construction behind
schedule, this presented a challenge in terms of aesthetics. Our
solution was to rotate the view away from the building construction
toward the Museum’s iconic building, Hawaiian Hall, which we lit to
create visual impact.
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| Second, space was at a premium as this new construction had eaten into
the original green lawn area. This was compounded by a last-minute
addition of 20 tables due to demand, bringing our Guest count up to
1,000. Our solution was to increase the number of Hawaii’s Top Chefs,
which already included Roy Yamaguchi, Alan Wong and D.K. Kodama,
amongst others, and resituate them along what would be ‘the Fire Lane’
for the new building – the added challenge was a delay in laying down
new grass between the Great Lawn and the new Science Adventure Center,
this was solved by astroturfing the area, a cost that was justified by
the additional table sales.
 Third, the Great Lawn is an outdoor venue, which provides a beautiful
alfresco setting yet also presents weather challenges in case of rain.
While we already planned to tent our food and beverage stations, the
Client wished to keep the seating area uncovered. We did have a rain
contingency plan in place should rain have been forecasted in advance;
for passing showers, an event sponsor provided large golf
umbrellas. Luckily, these were not needed. Although, for sponsorship
ROI we did ask the Emcee to promote this sponsor by stating how they go
to all lengths to ‘cover’ the community, which garnered a healthy round
of applause!
 Other elements we orchestrated to create the perfect event were décor
and design, power distribution, staging and lighting, staffing, as well
as the last minute need for additional executive restrooms. The end
result was a sell-out event that not only surpassed fundraising goals
but also remained true to the Museum’s mission to protect and preserve
Hawaii’s rich cultural heritage.
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