New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/09/2021 -- Van Wagner, one of the world's leading sports and entertainment firms and producer of the sport presentation for 11 Olympic games, 37 Super Bowls, multiple NCAA Final Fours, College Football Playoffs, U.S. Open Tennis Championships, The Kentucky Derby and many of the world's top sporting events, will be showing the corporate event world why global sports choose Van Wagner to produce their most important events. Van Wagner is excited to showcase their event production and audience engagement expertise to the corporate event marketplace at IMEX America, November 9th – 11th at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. More than 10,000 attendees have registered, making this one of the biggest hospitality trade shows in the past two years.

Since helping the NFL present its virtual NFL Draft in 2020 by transitioning the live event to a virtual one, then later a hybrid event with live and virtual elements, Van Wagner Productions partnered with visionaries and leaders in corporate event planning to create lasting impressions and memorable events in ways never before contemplated in the event world. Van Wagner has proven to excel in producing elite-quality event presentation, content development and brand engagement, using its industry leading talent and production staff.

"We take whatever messaging a company intends, and elevate it to a level that makes a lasting impression with audiences, both live and extended virtually," says Bob Becker, Wagner's Executive Vice President, who will be joining the executive sales team at IMEX America. "We truly take each event as an opportunity to partner with you and make something memorable and impactful."

Becker has decades of experience producing some of the most complex global sporting and corporate events on the planet, and will be available to share production opportunities and trends at the Van Wagner Productions booth.

As COVID shut down business in 2020, industry leaders turned to Van Wagner for their virtual event production. Van Wagner partnered with Adobe to produce their annual summit, as well as their annual awards ceremony for creative excellence, both virtually. Boston Beer Company, Honda, and NYU also entrusted their annual events to Van Wagner Productions and were thrilled with the overall presentation, show-calling, unique targeted programming, graphics, editing, broadcast-quality streaming and overall production value that helped these and other companies create brand awareness and memorable messaging.

Plan Your Next Event with Van Wagner Event Productions:
The Van Wagner productions team will ensure the successful execution of your live event, hybrid or virtual occasion, no matter the scale. Clients enjoy access to our award-winning event production team, innovative technology and unapparelled service. Contact us at (212) 699-8400 or info@vanwagner.com to get started today.

About Van Wagner
Van Wagner, a wholly owned subsidiary of Van Wagner Group LLC, is one of the preeminent sports marketing and media sales organizations in the world. It is an acknowledged innovator in property consulting and branding solutions and a global leader in naming rights, team and venue services, high-impact visible TV signage throughout the MLB, NBA, NCAA, MLS, and internationally in soccer, advertising and sponsorships sales, premium ticketing, technology design and integration, and in-venue content production. Van Wagner assists teams, organizations, and properties in creating and selling advertising; sponsorships; and media that maximize revenue potential, and helps clients develop effective and powerful customized brand campaigns. Van Wagner works with more than 300 professional and college teams worldwide. www.vanwagner.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Van Wagner's Award Winning Talent Being Recognized Again!

New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/12/2021 -- Van Wagner Productions, the industry leader in live sports event presentation and production for nearly 40 years recently announced the hire of a new business development director, Patrick Colomer. It's no surprise with the talent Van Wagner is known to recruit that in his first month, Patrick was honored in Las Vegas last month by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) for his role as leading the MPI Greater New York Chapter over the past two years and recently accepted the 2021 MPI RISE Award for Marketplace Excellence on behalf of the chapter.

The MPI RISE Award for Marketplace Excellence is given to event industry professionals across the globe that demonstrate excellence in leadership, impact, and innovation. Effective July 1st, Patrick now serves as Immediate Past President of MPI Greater New York and had to demonstrate incredible leadership and innovation to the industry during the devastating pandemic that threatened the demise of the event industry. Patrick stood up to the challenge by completely revamping the chapter strategy in all facets of the organization.

MPI Greater New York chapter hosted the new, industry changing program this past October called MPIGNY EdX & The Genies. MPIGNY EdX (or Education & Expo) was a half day fully virtual event produced live from Broadway. The keynote session focused on "Disruption Mindset Shift" and was presented by Sekou Andrews. The event featured three concurrent breakout sessions on virtual meeting design, a case study on hosting hybrid events during COVID-19, and a session on elevating your LinkedIn profile during the challenging times of a global pandemic. MPIGNY closed out the event with their annual awards show, The MPIGNY Genie Awards where chapter leadership honored their members for their incredible service to the hospitality industry.

"MPI Greater New York was honored to receive the 2021 RISE Award for Marketplace Excellence. This award is in recognition of an event that was six months in the making. Our entire Board of Directors worked tirelessly throughout the spring and summer ensuring that this program was executed flawlessly. It was a team effort across the board. To be recognized for our efforts during the heart of a global pandemic is something that we will never forget." Patrick Colomer, Director of Business Development

"Van Wagner is honored to have Patrick on our team and thrilled to support the event leading to this honor. We're excited to see the big events in store for us with Patrick joining the team. His leadership and innovative approach to event packaging will be in the news again shortly," says Vice President of Business Development, Chris Brahe.

Interested in learning more about what Van Wagner can do for your virtual or hybrid event? Van Wagner's award-winning production team has you covered. Contact us at (212) 699-8400 or info@vanwagner.com to get started today.

About Van Wagner
Van Wagner Productions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Van Wagner Group LLC, is one of the preeminent sports marketing and media sales organizations in the world. It is an acknowledged innovator in property consulting and branding solutions and a global leader in naming rights, team and venue services, high-impact visible TV signage throughout the MLB, NBA, NCAA, MLS, and internationally in soccer, advertising and sponsorships sales, premium ticketing, technology design and integration, and in-venue content production. Van Wagner assists teams, organizations and properties in creating and selling advertising; sponsorships; and media that maximize revenue potential, and helps clients develop effective and powerful customized brand campaigns. Van Wagner works with more than 300 professional and college teams worldwide and has produced some of the largest sporting events in the world including: 9 Olympic games, 37 Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours, College Football Playoff National Championship, the US Open, and many more.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

The leading live event production company produces NYU graduation ceremony enabling family and friends to join remotely.

New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/21/2021 -- Van Wagner Productions, the industry leader in live sports event presentation and production for nearly 40 years, partnered with New York University in producing and honoring NYU's 2021 graduating class. The first-ever hybrid graduation for the prestigious institution took place on location at the Skirball Center for Performing Arts in New York City on May 19, 2021 from 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. ET.

Working alongside the NYU University Events, Media Production, and staff at the Skirball Center, Van Wagner deployed a team of producers, directors, content creators and engineers dedicated to creating a world-class virtual commencement experience for graduates and their proud families and friends. Van Wagner provided overall production management, creative vision, scripting, show-calling, staffing, talent management, live music coordination and engineering services for the ceremony that was streamed live on YouTube and Facebook around the world.

The virtual commencement ceremony contained a mix of pre-recorded content and live speeches by NYU leadership and faculty including President Andrew Hamilton, Vice Provost Clay Shirky, and President of the NYU Alumni Association Dasha Rettew. Additionally, 14 students participated onsite in the ceremonial presentation of degrees representing NYU's 18 schools, and Van Wagner recreated the iconic Ceremony of the Torch. Close to 1,000 students showcased their NYU pride – surrounded by friends and family – in an exclusive Zoom Watch Party and were featured throughout the once in a lifetime ceremony. In addition to the Zoom Watch Party, Van Wagner integrated live social media posts from friends and family across the globe using NYU's partner Flockler.

"We chose the leaders in event production to ensure we created a ceremony that was meaningful for our graduates, would be an interactive and engaging experience for our worldwide audience, and represented NYU's high production standards," said Regina Drew, Director of NYU's Office of University Events.

If you'd like to see what the Van Wagner corporate event production team can do, you can watch the 2021 NYU Virtual Commencement Ceremony here.>>>

"It was an honor and privilege to collaborate with so many talented individuals who were committed to delivering a stellar production worthy of the University's motto – Perstare et Praestare" said Executive Producer Greg Kwizak. "Our goal was to seamlessly blend the virtual format with a dynamic live production at the Skirball Theatre and celebrate this momentous occasion for all graduates and faculty. We congratulate and salute the entire class of 2021!"

Interested in learning more about what Van Wagner can do for your virtual or hybrid event? Van Wagner's award-winning production team has you covered. Contact us at (212) 699-8400 or info@vanwagner.com to get started today.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

The leading sports and entertainment firm announces the hire of two Business Development powerhouses from the hospitality industry.

New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/07/2021 -- Van Wagner, one of the world's leading sports and entertainment firms and producer of the sport presentation for nine Olympic games, 37 Super Bowls, multiple NCAA Final Fours, College Football Playoffs, US Open, Kentucky Derby's and many of the world's top sporting events demonstrates further commitment to their new Corporate Event Production division. Van Wagner hired two new Directors of Business Development from the hospitality industry.

Van Wagner settles for nothing but the best in every facet of its' business. It should come as no surprise with their award-winning sports and entertainment production crew that recruiting sales professionals is no exception. "We strategically pursued sales talent from the hospitality industry knowing the corporate event market has traditionally been owned by this sector," said Chris Brahe, Senior Vice President Van Wagner Productions.

Van Wagner brought both Chelsea Crowe and Patrick Colomer on as Business Development Directors to build the team out further; another indication that Van Wagner is fully committed to the corporate event production division's success. Both Chelsea and Patrick have hospitality sales leadership experience. Chelsea has 18 years of hospitality sales experience with her most recent global sales responsibility being with Marriot International. Patrick has 15 years of hospitality sales experience including Director roles with Starwood Hotels and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. He has also recently served as the President of the New York chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) for the last two years.

The larger sales team is already raising the bar on corporate event production with its recent sales; Adobe's Annual Summit with hybrid event production, the 2021 NFL Draft, Honda's Campus All-star Challenge, and NYU's graduation to name a few.

Plan Your Next Event with Van Wagner Event Productions
The Van Wagner team will ensure the successful execution of your hybrid or virtual occasion, no matter the scale. Clients enjoy access to our award-winning event production team, innovative technology and unapparelled service. Contact us at (212) 699-8400 or info@vanwagner.com to get started today.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

The leading live event production company was back in the saddle to create an unforgettable fan experience at the crown jewel of horse racing.

New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/18/2021 -- Van Wagner Productions, the industry leader in live sports event presentation for nearly 40 years, added another chapter to its impressive resume with its 7th in-venue production of the Run for the Roses at the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby. Returning to its traditional calendar slot of the first Saturday in May after COVID forced the previous edition to be held in September 2020 without an audience, Churchill Downs welcomed back 52,000 fans, who were treated to Van Wagner's award-winning on-site entertainment throughout the entire week leading up to the big race.

Working alongside the staff at Churchill Downs, Van Wagner deployed an on-site team of producers, directors, content creators and engineers dedicated to creating a world-class entertainment experience for all who attended the most iconic venue in horse racing throughout the week. Beginning with Opening Night, the traditional kickoff of the spring meet in Louisville, Van Wagner provided overall production management, scripting, show-calling, staffing, talent management, live music coordination and engineering services for five full days of racing. Van Wagner also provided directorial and creative support for the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby Draw Shows that streamed live online and broadcast through Fox Sports 2 (FS2), while also working closely with NBCSN and NBC, the broadcast partners for the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby, to seamlessly coordinate shared executions and timing throughout the week.

In addition, Van Wagner worked with the Churchill Broadcasting Team to supplement their broadcast control room with RF cameras, CG graphics, live social media and additional replay machines to support a show separate from the already comprehensive simulcast broadcast produced daily by Churchill Downs. Two on-site content creators were dedicated to creating content for one of the world's largest video boards throughout the week. Remote workflows were also implemented to lower the on-site footprint of Van Wagner staff where possible as an added safety precaution in the midst of the ongoing pandemic.

"The excitement, tradition and pageantry of the Kentucky Derby holds a special place in the world of sports," said Kelly Reed, Executive Producer for Van Wagner who oversees the on-site operations for their team. "It's truly a unique experience not just for those who participate or attend as fans, but also for us as sports event producers.

"With a full day at the races being 10+ hours long, we focus each day of Opening Week on creating compelling and entertaining content and creative presentations that engage the crowds through fun and games, highlighting traditions, capturing live moments in the stands and on the track and encourage fans to raise their level of participation with each race. It's a creative challenge to continue to enhance of the event for all constituents, from Jockeys to sponsors to fans, and everyone in-between."

With attendance at a fraction of the Churchill Downs capacity due to COVID restrictions, some traditional elements of Derby week were staged virtually. Van Wagner's industry-leading virtual and hybrid events capabilities allowed event organizers to easily adapt coverage of these events. For instance, the annual Survivors Parade on Kentucky Oaks day, which celebrates breast cancer survivors, was converted from a live parade on the track to the "Survivors Moment," which was a virtual ceremony featuring the honored survivors integrated with a live music performance at the venue. The traditional Fashion Contest was converted to a virtual event and promoted via social media technology on the video board. Instead of the dressed-up fashionistas walking the pink carpet in front of live fans and celebrity judges, the event was broadcast online and also shown on the in-venue video screen. Van Wagner also re-worked venue host presentations to respect social distancing, while still giving fans an intimate behind-the-scenes look at all the happenings at Churchill Downs from first gate to the finish line.

Van Wagner has been the turnkey sport presentation producer for Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby since 2014, and has continued to deliver an exceptional experience for race-goers year in and year out.

"Ramping up from regular racing to entertaining 150,000+ fans on a normal year is an enormous task. Van Wagner has the professional staff and vast resources to do that. In order to produce multiple levels of in-venue, simulcast and live streaming shows during Derby Week, we have a fully collaborative effort between Churchill Downs Broadcasting, Marketing and Van Wagner. This allows us to efficiently and seamlessly use all our resources. Besides being a great partner and very good at what they do, Van Wagner has a great group of people which really makes the difference," said Keith Wetzler, Executive Producer, Churchill Downs Broadcasting.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

The leading sports and entertainment firm developed the website to meet soaring demand for virtual and hybrid events produced by Van Wagner Productions.

New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/12/2021 -- Van Wagner, one of the world's leading sports and entertainment firms and producer of the sport presentation for nine Olympic games, 37 Super Bowls, multiple NCAA Final Fours, College Football Playoffs, US Open, Kentucky Derby's and many of the world's top sporting events, today announced the launch of a new website – virtual events.vanwagner.com

The site was developed to meet the growing demand from sports teams, corporations, organizations and fans who want to experience the ultimate in hybrid and virtual events.

Van Wagner has been at the forefront of developing hybrid productions, using its world-class sports and event presentations expertise to launch innovations that stage compelling and cost-effective live and virtual events. The new website exhibits Van Wagner's virtual and hybrid event production capabilities, while also spotlighting Van Wagner's Event Productions division, which produces world-class events and conferences. Included are samples of the hybrid and virtual events that Van Wagner has successfully produced for major organizations, including the NFL, Adobe, The Boston Beer Co., UCLA Athletics, NYU, U.S. Open, and ORTHO Summit, to name a few, all of which have helped define a new way of doing business effectively.

"Van Wagner's innovative technology has been used in nearly every notable sporting event across the globe," said Van Wagner Group Chief Executive Officer Richard Schaps. "With Van Wagner Event Productions, we're proud to further extend our hybrid and virtual event offerings to deliver exceptional experiences for our clients and partners."

Van Wagner collaborates with visionary organizations across all industries to produce engaging events designed to expand audience reach, extended engagement and deliver impressive ROI.

"It's been exciting to be part of the transitional shift in event presentations," said Bob Becker, Executive Vice President, Van Wagner Productions. "After leaning heavily towards virtual events over the past year, our team has been evolving into designing hybrid events that maximize an organization's resources and touch points, which is proving to be very effective."

Van Wagner's ability to manage virtual and hybrid events at any scale has seen private audiences from intimate gatherings to more than a million worldwide for one event. Production of the 2020 virtual NFL Draft shattered viewership records as the most-watched draft in NFL history, netting more than 55 million television viewers and overwhelmingly positive press coverage on the event's flawless execution.

"Van Wagner Productions has been a trusted vendor for the NFL for the past 35 years. Their team's consistency, expertise and commitment to quality is the reason Van Wagner is our go-to for Live Event Productions," said Tim Tubito, NFL Director of Event Presentation and Content.

Van Wagner Productions' premier performance and unrivaled expertise that employs broadcast-quality equipment, secure systems, multiple custom platforms and expert production staff has made an impact in the hybrid and virtual event world.

"We didn't just pick the right partner," said Adobe Executive Marketing Senior Manager, Simon McPherson. "In fact, we picked the perfect partner."

Plan Your Next Hybrid or Virtual Event with Van Wagner Event Productions:

The Van Wagner team will navigate the successful execution of your hybrid or virtual occasion, no matter the scale. Clients enjoy access to our award-winning event production team, innovative technology and unparalleled service. Contact us at (212) 669-8400 or info@vanwagner.com to get started today.

About Van Wagner
Van Wagner, a wholly owned subsidiary of Van Wagner Group LLC, is one of the preeminent sports marketing and media sales organizations in the world. The leading innovator in sports venue production, high-impact TV visible signage throughout MLB, NBA, NCAA, MLS, and international soccer, advertising and sponsorships sales, technology design and integration. Van Wagner assists teams, organizations and properties in creating and selling advertising, sponsorships and media that maximize revenue, and helps clients develop effective and powerful customized brand campaigns. Van Wagner works with more than 300 professional and college teams worldwide. www.vanwagner.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm