Wow! What an Event
May 2, 2024 – We were honored to be chosen to provide photography and video imagery for the annual Strategic Hotels & Resorts conference, titled ‘The 2024 Strategic Leadership Conversation’. This year’s Conversation was held at the beautiful InterContinental Hotel in Miami in April. Strategic owns and asset manages 16 Luxury and ultra–Luxury Hotels and Resorts in partnerships with Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Inter-Continental, JW Marriot, Regent, Westin St. Francis, The Fairmont, and Waldorf NY.
We knew the event was going to be epic since we had worked with the event organizer Wayne Harth for many years. Wayne Harth, Principal Owner of Kaleidoscope Vue Consulting, along with his business partner, Drew Stacy, designed an ‘over the top’ event for Strategic. They worked closely with Strategics’ CEO Andre Zotoff, who also wanted to show the attendees what could be done at their hotels to impress and create impressive events for their guests.
The event theme was F$$K FEAR and each event encouraged the hotel General Managers and their directors to get past their fears to provide remarkable and memorable experiences at their hotels and resorts across the country. The guest speakers and events were all designed with this theme in mind, and they even devoted an afternoon to playing a Fear Factor game, creating teams who had to overcome various fears to win all while traveling through various areas of Miami Beach. Bill Rancic, co-owner of the RPM Restaurant Group, and Giuliana Prosecco appear regularly on numerous daytime broadcast and cable television programs such as Today, The View, Rachael Ray, Steve Harvey, and various CNBC programs emceed the weekend program for Strategic and kept everything on time and focused.
We had never seen an event so focused as this one in many years of covering corporate events. It was so much fun capturing the memories and with so many visuals, we were like kids in a candy store capturing everything happening. Everywhere we turned there was a photo op, or scene to capture on video. We captured an incredible amount of beautiful imagery for them.
From discussion panels with experts in the luxury hospitality industry to featured speakers Cindy Estis Green, a finance guru from the hotel industry, and Michelle Poler, author of the book Hello Fears: Crush Your Comfort Zone and Become Who You’re Meant to Be, the programs seemed non-stop and extremely interesting.
The final evening Awards Gala was a site to behold. The dinner and show were held at The Temple House, a unique event venue and one of the most iconic Art Deco properties in the Eastern United States. The space was a synagogue for 70 years before being purchased by Daniel Davidson who acquired the closed space to make a private venue complete with 360-degree permanent projection systems. Again, the visuals were amazing!
The entertainment included Ariana Savalas, an American singer, songwriter, and burlesque performer who served as the evening’s, in her words ‘the femcee’. She also worked the crowd offering simply hilarious jokes and joking with (picking on) the hotel execs every chance she could. She performed in between the other entertainment which was Donna Hood and her Tease Production performers who provided exceptional entertainment and the best burlesque dancing we have ever seen. Their show was one of the highlights of the evening.
“I have worked with Bella Photography for years and they never have disappointed, and they documented the Conversation in ways I never thought of. The creativity and dedication to this project surpassed my expectations. Rick and Jodi, I can’t thank you enough. Get ready, Conversation 2025 in NYC will be your next masterpiece.” – Wayne Harth, Principal at Kaleidoscope Vue Consulting
Many thanks to Kaleidoscope Vue Consulting and Andre Zotoff for the opportunity. We will be ready for next year when the event will take place in New York! We can’t wait to see what they ‘dream up’ to top this year’s event.
-Rick & Jodi Bella, Bella Photography Studios – Chicago and beyond
-And thank you Joe Hasik for the assistance with video coverage for this event. It is very much appreciated. Start packing for NYC!