by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
When you think about throwing a party at home, your primary concerns are food and drinks. If you throw legendary parties at your home, maybe you include live entertainment.
“As long as you’ve got good drinks and good food, you can almost get away with any other fault in your party. That said, when look at doing something a little larger-scale, outside of your house, I have found that the most successful parties are the ones that take you away. You may drive up to the Prime Osborne Convention Center or the Marriot Ballroom, but somehow you can suspend your disbelief when you walk in and feel like you’re in a different place through an aesthetic and the environment and the food and drink and the people that you’re with, you feel like you’re in a different place.”
Scott Hays helps companies and organizations throw parties that guests will remember for the rest of their lives. As a lighting designer and event coordinator, Scott Hays can do it all. He takes an empty room and transforms it into the party of your dreams. From setting up the live band to creating a theme that is consistent throughout the event, he takes care of every minute detail.
“The primary aesthetic is to make the client happy. Through a dialogue with a company or entity or individual client, I need to find out what they want. Often the most difficult part is getting the picture that they have in their head into my head. That’s where the knack comes in. Once we have reached a commonality, we can get started. Then, from the very first step into the environment, I want to impact you. I want that space to be transformed. I want to make it a continual step upward throughout the event.”
Scott Hays has worked for the big presentation companies in town, he’s worked with the big wigs at Presentation Resource (PRI) and Sight & Sound, but he’s branched off on his own. After being nominated for a regional Emmie award for his work on the Jaspers award program in the mid-nineties, Scott found that he did better work when he trusted his instincts than he did when he followed orders that were often dictated by budgets.
“The impetus for striking out on my own was that I felt I could execute better for the client on my own. When you’re part of a bigger entity you are not afforded the contact with the creative person. You are having to deal with somebody who is more looking at a budget and how they can maximize profit, rather than someone who takes it on creatively at first and then tries to craft it within the monetary constraints.”
Although he is reluctant to admit it, Scott is an artist when it comes to creating an experience, especially for a party goer.
“The client is generally going to tell me the filet mignon dinner that they want and then I’m going to come back and tell them the sirloin special that the facility will allow, their budget will allow, and then I will apply my creativity to maximize my budget and get as close to what they want, within a realm of reasonability, and still make it enjoyable for everyone to do. Anyone can rent you equipment, the knack is for how it is arranged and the context that it is presented in.”
If you attended the last Jacksonville Film Festival, you probably remember the Grey Goose Gala at the Haydon Burns building with its “Jet Setting” theme. Scott staged the old library to look like a retro airport complete with stewardesses and projection screens that took the guest away from Jacksonville for a truly spectacular night. In my opinion, that was the best party so far in Jacksonville this year. Scott Hays made that vision a reality.
“I like to give a party a little fluff. That’s how I derive pleasure out of my job. It might not be in the budget, but if I want to see something that I like, something that will really be a good fit, I can’t go to my bosses and ask them to underwrite my creativity, so that’s why I struck out on my own.”
Like an architect, Scott must first consider the practical realities. First and foremost, the party-goer must be able to come into the party and understand where they are supposed to go and how they can take advantage of the concessions available to them. Scott’s first concern is the ease of their experience. After their needs are taken care of, he wants the experience to transcend the doldrums of their daily activities and really take them out of their conventional experience.
“The small touches that I add for my own satisfaction are the things that larger entities can’t do. They just want to execute the event. I shy away from the word, but I guess there is a certain level of art to what I do. I think of it more in the terms of executing it first, so I have to devote a lot of time to the other side of the brain, so a lot of times I’m not afforded the time to give the creativity to it, so I tend to give it a ‘fitting a show in a shoebox’ mentality. I’m going to fit this in there with these tight little constraints and do the best that I can, more than anything else. The creativity and the payoff comes in later.”
Like any other type of design, designing a party serves a number of purposes. You want to make the vision of the party-planner come to life. Utilizing the space provided and the amenities available, the designer must be able to create the theme or concept that the client wants while ensuring that the guest is directed and comfortable.
“When you bring someone to an event, the biggest thing is timing. The biggest thing people can give you is their time, so when they arrive you want everything to run on schedule. Nothing can be left to happenstance. From the very first moment when someone arrives, you want to be in complete control of their experience to make sure that it is a positive experience.”
The design helps the guest identify with the party as well as direct the guest to the concessions provided. Through the design of the lighting, the use of props, and the auditory experience, the goal of the party is to leave the guest with a smile on their face and a certainty that they just experienced something fantastic. Liquor can help this notion, but only a well-designed party can truly deliver.
“Once you’ve established your boundaries, that’s when you reach a jumping off point for your creativity. That’s when you come to the space and say ‘alright, what can we do?’ That’s where I try to make my sell over someone else. There is a tendency to make it a cookie-cutter event. ‘You have a few lights that shine on this area, your podium in the center, screens to one side, a camera here and go!’ They’ll repeat this over and over again to maximize profit for as little effort as they can. The difference is once I’ve defined the box, I try to bend the box. I don’t try to hold steady, I try to bend the box as much as I can without breaking it. When you push on one side it may affect the other side, but that’s when the cool things happen. When you are unexpectedly pushed into a situation you can get a result that you hadn’t even thought of. Those are the cool times that really give you some juice.” for a party goer.
“The client is generally going to tell me the filet mignon dinner that they want and then I’m going to come back and tell them the sirloin special that the facility will allow, their budget will allow, and then I will apply my creativity to maximize my budget and get as close to what they want, within a realm of reasonability, and still make it enjoyable for everyone to do. Anyone can rent you equipment, the knack is for how it is arranged and the context that it is presented in.”
If you attended the last Jacksonville Film Festival, you probably remember the Grey Goose Gala at the Haydon Burns building with its “Jet Setting” theme. Scott staged the old library to look like a retro airport complete with stewardesses and projection screens that took the guest away from Jacksonville for a truly spectacular night. In my opinion, that was the best party so far in Jacksonville this year. Scott Hays made that vision a reality.
“I like to give a party a little fluff. That’s how I derive pleasure out of my job. It might not be in the budget, but if I want to see something that I like, something that will really be a good fit, I can’t go to my bosses and ask them to underwrite my creativity, so that’s why I struck out on my own.”
Like an architect, Scott must first consider the practical realities. First and foremost, the party-goer must be able to come into the party and understand where they are supposed to go and how they can take advantage of the concessions available to them. Scott’s first concern is the ease of their experience. After their needs are taken care of, he wants the experience to transcend the doldrums of their daily activities and really take them out of their conventional experience.
“The small touches that I add for my own satisfaction are the things that larger entities can’t do. They just want to execute the event. I shy away from the word, but I guess there is a certain level of art to what I do. I think of it more in the terms of executing it first, so I have to devote a lot of time to the other side of the brain, so a lot of times I’m not afforded the time to give the creativity to it, so I tend to give it a ‘fitting a show in a shoebox’ mentality. I’m going to fit this in there with these tight little constraints and do the best that I can, more than anything else. The creativity and the payoff comes in later.”
Like any other type of design, designing a party serves a number of purposes. You want to make the vision of the party-planner come to life. Utilizing the space provided and the amenities available, the designer must be able to create the theme or concept that the client wants while ensuring that the guest is directed and comfortable.
“When you bring someone to an event, the biggest thing is timing. The biggest thing people can give you is their time, so when they arrive you want everything to run on schedule. Nothing can be left to happenstance. From the very first moment when someone arrives, you want to be in complete control of their experience to make sure that it is a positive experience.”
The design helps the guest identify with the party as well as direct the guest to the concessions provided. Through the design of the lighting, the use of props, and the auditory experience, the goal of the party is to leave the guest with a smile on their face and a certainty that they just experienced something fantastic. Liquor can help this notion, but only a well-designed party can truly deliver.
“Once you’ve established your boundaries, that’s when you reach a jumping off point for your creativity. That’s when you come to the space and say ‘alright, what can we do?’ That’s where I try to make my sell over someone else. There is a tendency to make it a cookie-cutter event. ‘You have a few lights that shine on this area, your podium in the center, screens to one side, a camera here and go!’ They’ll repeat this over and over again to maximize profit for as little effort as they can. The difference is once I’ve defined the box, I try to bend the box. I don’t try to hold steady, I try to bend the box as much as I can without breaking it. When you push on one side it may affect the other side, but that’s when the cool things happen. When you are unexpectedly pushed into a situation you can get a result that you hadn’t even thought of. Those are the cool times that really give you some juice.”
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