We believe in the power of live events and experiences to change the world for the better. That’s why we’re passionate about not only building events for our clients, but also teaching our clients’ and their teams to be self-sufficient, highly-skilled events professionals. We’re so passionate about teaching others about event production that it’s a core part of our mission.

We also understand that not everyone has the staff or bandwidth to dedicate to the detailed and often complex tasks required to dream up an event and breathe life into it. So we’re available to create TURNKEY EVENTS for our clients, as well as take on a supporting role in your event’s CRITICAL PATH to success, like music or alcohol program development and operations, box office and admissions management, or VIP program creation. And for those organizations with the staff to handle the work, but want to tap into the insight and experience of our events industry experts to discover ways to build bigger events, streamline your operations, or find new ways to generate revenue, the Foundation Events team is available to help in a CONSULTING role. We’ll dive deep into your organization’s challenges and opportunities to create plans, processes, and solutions that your team can leverage to produce incredible events in-house.

Whether you have the seed of an exciting event concept or no idea what type of event might achieve your mission, engagement, or financial goals, we’ve got your back! Our team has a decades-long track record of envisioning events and experiences ranging from intimate fundraisers to in-flight, museum, and retail experiences, as well as some of the largest music and food festivals, themed/destination entertainment, concerts, and conferences. We’ll work with you to understand your organization, goals, audience, budget, and other key variables, then craft a vision for your event that resonates with your audience and embraces your business priorities.

From Buffalo, NY to Nashville, TN – and many places in between – our team has built a network of key connections in the events industry, which helps events come to market faster. Need a venue in Nashville that seats 10,000? We’re familiar with so many venues that we likely already have a relationship with a great location for you. We can easily develop site layout, emergency plans, and other systems to ensure a safe and fun guest experience that satisfies the concerns of local fire marshals, health departments, and other jurisdictional entities. If your event requires an indoor or outdoor venue to be upfitted with crowd barricade, generators, bathroom facilities, tents, or staging/lights/audio, we know (or can easily find) the best contractors and gear at some of the best prices.

With a great vision in place and production tasks complete, success hinges on the quality of the logistics effort powering your event. Keeping all the trains running on time is no easy task, coordinating and directing site setup, working to ensure that multiple vendors arrive in the right order for a streamlined and efficient install. From generators to barricade, lighting and staging and sound, to portajons, food handling equipment, and more, our team excels in working with contractors to deliver incredible results, every time. Let’s not forget exhibitors and vendors, admissions and food and beverage ops, VIP experiences, and a host of other event components that must work in concert to create a flawless event experience. And when things don’t go as planned thanks to heavy traffic, weather, or supply chain shortages? We improvise, adapt, and overcome.

Unlike TURNKEY EVENTS, where we take on complete end-to-end responsibility for your events, our CRITICAL PATH SERVICES offer solutions to one or more components of your events. Depending on your event’s needs and budget, we can manage your box office and admissions operations, create an emergency plan, help you find and secure a venue, or any of a number of other critical tasks.

Whether you need help building an event from scratch, developing a program targeted at a specific audience, or simply have room to fill at your event, our team has a long history in developing unique experiences and activations to engage and wow your event guests. Let us help you create main-stage or side-stage musical performances, “battle of the bands” or karaoke contests, “best of” competitions, silent discos, fun and educational hands-on art and science experiences, petting zoos, food courts, VIP programs, carnivals, fireworks, food and alcohol tasing events, casino nights, and more!

Interested in developing a complete festival based around a food or beverage theme (e.g., tacos, mac and cheese, chocolate, milkshakes) or simply creating a food-focused activation as part of a larger event? Our team brings extensive experience working with local restaurants and food trucks, national restaurant groups, and the bartenders and high-end mocktail producers needed to bring events to life. We also enjoy strong relationships with local health departments to ensure food festival and activation vendors are informed of health code requirements and are supported in their compliance efforts.

Live events and experiences typically require many, many workers, from parking and admissions to concessions, merchandise sales, guest services, bartending, security, performer support, and more. Most organizations who produce events simply don’t have a staffing depth to accommodate 20, 40, 60 or more event worker roles. Our hiring managers are adept at identifying local talent to fill these roles and can handle everything from marketing these job opportunities through screening and hiring, day-of-event management, payroll, and other tasks.

If you’re interested in developing a very big festival, fair, or other event, let’s talk! “Very Big” can mean a number of things, from a large site footprint to high attendance count, perhaps high-visibility in your community, long-duration, or some combination of the above. Out team has produced destination/themed events attractions with 1/2 mile and mile long experience “trails,” as well as holiday fireworks shows and concerts spanning 50 acre sites, county fairs, and other events that are high-performers in terms of footprint, attendance, complexity, and length of run.

Our consultants are experts in the events and experiences industry and will work with your team members to develop a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges presented by your organization, its mission, audience, venue, budget, and more. We’ll develop a plan customized to your organization’s reality that will help your team succeed in building powerful, mission-forward events.