We created an intriguing top-secret government installation hospitality suite theme design to pique the interest of company VIP’s attending the 2019 North American Hose & Accessories Dealers tradewshow held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Bellagio Hotel. Attendees are teased to ‘discover the secrets’ inside the Gates hospitality suite – as we universally want to know new secrets that are to be kept from our industry competitors.

Gates requested a unique hospitality suite theme design for their VIP’s – knowing that a large competitor’s hospitality suite would be located directly next door in an  adjacent ballroom. Gates required their theme to evoke a unique inspiration for their VIP’s – specifically avoiding any over-used “Vegas Show” entertainment. Gates initially planned a “Reaching New Heights” hospitality theme as competition drives continual improvement.  Gates sought a graceful and powerful hospitality theme design – with the goal of leaving their competitors saying, “Why didn’t we think of that!?”.

“Reaching New Heights” immediately struck a chord with the location of Las Vegas, Nevada in the high-desert Southwest made famous within the movies “The Right Stuff” and “First Man” – famed movies featuring our pursuit of supersonic & space flight during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. A little research revealed that our supersonic flight programs were based at Edwards Air Force Base (Rogers Dry Lake) in California – with typical supersonic flight paths originating above Idaho/Utah and crossing Nevada just northwest of Las Vegas heading back to California.

2019 also celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon.  The success of Apollo 11 won the space race for the United States, overcoming significant challenges in our competition with the Soviet Untion as declared within President Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the Moon” speech September 1962.

The cold war’s supersonic flight & space race competitions between two technologically advancing super powers created an eloquent metaphor for the Gates hospitality suite as an advanced engineering & manufacturing company locked in competition to improve the hydraulic & industrial hose industry.  VIP attendees were reminded of childhood test-pilot and astronaut heroes as well as the engineering and technology achievements of the period; the race to the moon served as the ultimate competition between super powers driving each other toward previously unimaginable achievements.

Las Vegas is also located 85 miles Southeast of Groom Lake (aka: Dream Land, Area 51) with a long Top Secret history in the development of cold war aircraft and cutting edge technology including the U2, SR-71 Blackbird and F117 Stealth Fighter.  Groom Lake provided a perfect setting for a top-secret base installation providing Gates VIP’s confidential access to the latest hose advancements from Gates continuous pursuit to “Reach New Heights”.

Four very large Zen Panels (12.5′ H x 11′ Wide) were placed in the central ballroom to create a fun historic info-tainment space highlighting three periods of cold war competition including icon based references to the Gates Innovation Process foundations of Materials Science, Process Engineering, and Product Design:

Supersonic Flight: highlights of childhood heroes including Chuck Yeager’s 1947 Mach 1 flight in the X-1 and all speed & altitude records through the X-1, D-558-2 Skyrocket, X-1A, X-2 Starbuster and X-15 programs.

Space Race: highlights of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo manned space flight programs leading to the Apollo 11 lunar landing July 1969.

Groom Lake: highlighting U2, SR-71 Blackbird and F117 Stealth Fighter aircraft developed at the top-secret Nevada desert base.

A fourth Zen Panel allowed creative displays of the latest technological advancements within newly released Gates industrial & hydraulic hose products – presented within the context of a ‘Project Blue Book’ investigation with several ‘out of this world technology’ easter-eggs for inquisitive viewers.  Hint: look to the bulletin board panel to locate the fun easter-eggs.

The top-secret base “Reaching New Heights” theme was incorporated within postcard and email invitations as well as a hallway banner directing VIP’s to the Gates hospitality suite.  A large (8′ H x 8′ W) top-secret base entrance sign solidified the theme messaging including the following warnings:

Restricted Area – Monet 3/4

Gates Top Secret Access

Warning: Hospitality Installation

Merriment & Photography Encouraged

The project required sourcing of public commons images and creation of several original infographics from historical supersonic flight and space race data.  Fun infographics depicting Gates industry improvements also reflect the “Reaching New Heights” theme.

The unique historical infotainment “Reaching New Heights” theme cleverly depicts Gates as the winner in the competition for technological advancements driving the industrial and hydraulic hose industry – with a large competitor’s event held simultaneously in the adjacement ballroom.

The Gates team was very pleased with their hospitality suite presentation and the positive response of their VIP’s:

It went very well!  The zen boards and everything else was a big hit!

Additional hospitality suite entertainment included the popular band, The Fab, playing 1950’s and 1960’s rock-n-roll classics and Virtual Realty simulators providing flight themed experiences.

Click through to watch trailers of the following creative influences for our Hospitality Suite project including:

Project Blue Book television series (2019)

The Right Stuff movie (1983)

First Man movie (2018)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie (1979) – 40th Anniversary release coming September 2019

Review additional Tradeshow / Exhibit projects within our Strange Bird Designs portfolio.