22
years
Adam brings over 22 years of national event experience (all with PWE) in the areas of professional development and logistical planning as well as entertainment production. His diverse experience provides a discerning eye while packaging a project and precise and focused detail management when on site delivering a program. Under his creative leadership, the company is retained by national organizations, whose primary event usually involves multiple happenings, often in several cities, requiring contract negotiations, city services coordination, site logistics, crowd control, security and complete entertainment production.
Adam has served as Project Lead for The Prentice Women’s Hospital Campaign, The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Chicago Gourmet, Ferraris On Oak, The Illinois Governor’s Conference on Tourism & The 1060 Project for The Chicago Cubs.
In 2015, Adam was named President after completing successful campaigns with NetApp/CDW, Peak6 and The Chicago Cubs, where he handled all phases of event production and management.
Since becoming President, Adam has spearheaded a new division of PWE that includes incentive travel trips for our clients, creating custom websites, scouting locations/venues, booking air, hotel and ground transportation as well as handling all A/V and food & beverage for the custom location events and meetings.
Adam’s meticulous attention to detail as well as his anticipatory approach to problem solving, allows for the formulation of non-obvious solutions to logistical challenges.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE EVENT & WHY?
It’s nearly impossible to pick just one – there have so many cool things that I’ve gotten to experience. My first event, the Baltimore ESPNZone Grand Opening, was a really great experience. I was barely a month into my internship, so to be a part of something that was so high-profile and athlete and celebrity-driven was a really eye-opening beginning to my career. Also, The Ft. Lauderdale/McDonald’s Air & Sea Show, which we produced for 13 years was another favorite. I left for college with the intention of becoming a fighter pilot, so to be involved that closely in what was, in my opinion, one of the best air shows in the country, was a lot of fun. I like projects that are large in scope and complexity, and very little that we’ve done has been as large or complex as that show. One of my favorite things about being part of this company is the team mentality. What we were able to accomplish, especially as a relatively small team, for that show was really remarkable.
Recently, we produced an event for the Chicago Cubs and the 1060 Project ~ The Wrigley Field renovation campaign, on the infield at Wrigley Field. For a lifelong Cubs fan, to be able to spend that much time on the field and have access to areas of the ballpark that are normally off-limits to fans was really amazing.
Who was your favorite celebrity to work with & why?
This is another question for which it’s hard to give one answer. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some really iconic artists who I’ve also happened to be a fan of – Buddy Guy, BB King, Jeff Beck & Ray Charles to name a few. Getting to experience those performances, usually from side stage, never gets old, and is something I try to never take for granted.
The celebrity thing is kind of interesting – when we work with a band or a celebrity, we’re working, and so are they, so you really try to maintain a professionalism. For me, the celebrity interactions that stand out for me are the ones where someone exceeds your expectations. The fact remains, in this industry, occasionally you find yourself in some pretty unique situations. I once spent an hour talking with Jerry Seinfeld about baseball and the state of stand up comedy before he performed at an event for us. I also got to introduce Barack Obama to Muhammad Ali. There are certain situations where it’s hard not to walk away and not acknowledge the cool factor.
What is your favorite thing about being in events?
The variance from one event to the next has always been my favorite part. We’re rarely in the same venue with the same client doing the same type of event. That being said, regardless of the scope of the project, the overall procedure of putting together an event usually has certain recurring operational processes. By having a constantly-expanding set of experience based on new venues, timeframes, scenarios, entertainment and technologies, you’ve got a great pool of resources to be able to apply takeaways from one client to another. There are always new challenges and scenarios, which keeps things interesting.