Jared Judge: 0:00

What's up, Denver event professionals? Welcome back to another episode of the Denver NACE podcast. I am your host, Jared Judge, violinist and music director of Extreme Strings, and I am joined by our president, President Desiree Kelly, whose term was just renewed for another couple years, one more year, one more year, yep, yep.

Desiree Kelly: 0:20

So after that, I am not. Immediate pass is what I will be. So after that, I'm not. Immediate pass is what I will be.

Jared Judge: 0:25

Awesome. Well, congratulations. And we are here to recap last night's event. It is Wednesday, december 11th, 2024. And last night was our annual Naughty or Nase event, hosted at the Curtis Hotel. So I'm curious, des, tell us a little bit about that event, like what's kind of the overall concept Naughty or Nace?

Desiree Kelly: 0:46

Well, naughty or Nace is basically it's been around for a very long time and it is the end of the year. We are all burnt out party, so there's typically never any education. There is typically not a whole lot of an agenda other than installing the board and you know it is just come have fun, blow off the year and dance it out. So that's what we did, yeah.

Jared Judge: 1:15

And it was a super fun event. I loved it. I identify as an introvert and I felt like there was stuff for me too. So I guess, how do we want to want to go over this event? Because we've never done one of these post event recaps?

Desiree Kelly: 1:30

I know Well, why don't we just start with like what, all of what, what it looked like when we came in? So I'm going to share my screen and go for a few little pictures, if that's okay with you.

Jared Judge: 1:44

Perfect.

Desiree Kelly: 1:45

Oh my gosh, bonnie and Amelia just went all out with like just the fun on this one, and so we've got everybody's names on these cool disco ball glasses. And it was kind of fun because, um, you know they all look the same too. Because you know they all look the same too. So having your name on your drink was a good good thing, and you know it was a fundraiser as well. So we were doing oh, I can't get my little arrows to the next one we were doing the disco ball necklaces for a fundraiser, which was kind of a fun little game. I think maybe next time we'll only do one prize, because we did four prizes and you know four giveaways and we were just giving and giving and giving that night.

Jared Judge: 2:33

So yeah, for sure, we should probably mention. Why is there so many disco balls? There was a theme to this event yes, there was, it was.

Desiree Kelly: 2:44

It was a disco holiday and so it was very 70s. It was very swanky, it was very glittery, some people wore light up things, so it was amazing.

Jared Judge: 2:57

Yeah, and some of our members also wore like their best 70s outfit. Brian Howe of Howe Eventful wore his best ruffled shirt, which was amazing.

Desiree Kelly: 3:10

It was like 70s style. So this was our style board and it was. It was so great, so many wonderful outfits last night because you know it's nice, Everybody loves a good party, everybody loves a good party and.

Jared Judge: 3:25

I see this picture here. This was one of the VIP tables, which I think was a first for our chapter.

Desiree Kelly: 3:32

Yes, yes. So they had champagne service. They had their own little lounge area and it was kind of nice because I did see you out in you know how eventful VIP area. You know cause he he's in. You know how I Ventful's VIP area, you know because he's like. You know I seem like I'm an extrovert, but I kind of need to recess a little bit sometimes when there's a lot going on. We had 85 people last night. It was big. It was big. There you are. Yep, there you are.

Jared Judge: 4:03

Yep. So Brian Howe invited me to sit at his table, and on the table, in addition to the champagne, were some lovely 70s props, including those disco glasses that had fake disco ball earrings hanging off. So I was rocking those for most of the night.

Desiree Kelly: 4:19

That was awesome. And then behind you, this is something I had never seen before those fans that projected like an image, and Scotty, with Interaction Denver, brought those to highlight the sponsors.

Jared Judge: 4:33

Yeah, that was really cool Because usually, you know, if it's like an educational program, there's a PowerPoint that shows the logos of all the sponsors. But being that this was not educational, those like fans were basically projecting a three-dimensional cube with all the sponsor logos on.

Desiree Kelly: 4:49

it was so cool yeah, absolutely, and it was. It was so neat to look at and it just looked like the logos were floating in midair. Talk about outfits. Jason gorley, this was fantastic. He said he actually went to a costume shop for his so here's our board getting installed, which was awesome. Um, maggie glass wasn't there. We missed her, but I know she just started a new job with insta work and, uh, josh riggs I mean not at the immediate past, but a past president installed all of our officers, which was great.

Jared Judge: 5:27

Yeah, for sure, and Josh Riggs is currently one of the sales managers at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Right.

Desiree Kelly: 5:32

Yes, he sure is. He sure is, and there's a little cameo of Devin the photographer. Photographers never get their pictures actually taken usually. And this is Sam. He plays saxophone, and I started following him on Instagram. He's kind of a cool guy. I'll have to follow up with him, so, and Bonnie, of course, getting down.

Jared Judge: 5:54

Yeah, bonnie Vidal, our current, our newest director of marketing communications.

Desiree Kelly: 5:59

Yes, yes. So she's going to be rocking that here in January. So she's already been doing the emails. So, and here is my hubby. He decided to wear his parade of lights costume. He's going to be wearing on Saturday for Brighton's parade of lights with this Cub Scouts from Commerce City.

Jared Judge: 6:20

Oh cool.

Desiree Kelly: 6:21

And then there's me at the end of the night.

Jared Judge: 6:23

I'm done.

Desiree Kelly: 6:26

Frank's done too.

Jared Judge: 6:28

For sure the little mascot. Is that the official mascot of Denver Nays?

Desiree Kelly: 6:33

It is Frank the Moose, the official mascot.

Jared Judge: 6:36

Yes, I didn't even know. We had a mascot.

Desiree Kelly: 6:38

Oh yeah, he gets in all kinds of trouble, all kinds of trouble. And then, of course, the gift booth from a custom look we can get in GIF and in picture form.

Jared Judge: 6:52

That's awesome.

Desiree Kelly: 6:54

Yeah, so, oh my gosh. So let's talk about what all of the sponsors did. So, of course, the Curtis hosted it and it was the perfect room to have it in. They had all those lights that kind of dangled down. It was amazing, amazing. All digital did the photo and video. I saw them taking video of quite a few different things. So I can't wait to see what comes out of that. Elite, the dance floor, the dance floor, I mean the DJ, the lighting, so amazing. So amazing. How'd you like the linens Jared?

Jared Judge: 7:28

Oh, they were so sparkly and sequined, it was awesome. Oh my gosh.

Desiree Kelly: 7:32

Oh my gosh, I was in love with the linens. I was wondering how I get those in my life.

Jared Judge: 7:37

Yeah, and BBJ just had their launch party for their their office, like last week they did.

Desiree Kelly: 7:42

They have a new showroom, so I'm excited to go see it. I didn't actually get to go to the party, even though I provided all the desserts. I was just coming back into town from vacation the very next day and I just it was swamped, I couldn't do it. Event designed by Scott and Katie. Do you remember what they did?

Jared Judge: 8:02

I don't.

Desiree Kelly: 8:03

Ah, he did the big letters, the nice letters that were against the wall.

Jared Judge: 8:07

Oh, very cool.

Desiree Kelly: 8:09

Let's see if I can find them there. They are there, they are Jinx those. So let's see if I can find them there. They are there, they are jinx. So, yeah, big, big letters, and I mean he's pretty famous for those, but he also does a lot of lighting. I believe he actually uplit these trees as well, still up lights in there, so he did those all the little things that happen to make your event awesome. And then, uh, allegra wedding and event she provided all of these trees and so she actually texted us uh the day before saying, hey, does anybody have some time to uh do some fluffing on some trees? I got 13 of them and I was like, who owns 13 trees? Amelia, seriously, apparently, amelia does. Uh event rents lots of rentals, glassware, all of the food plates and everything it was all so cool.

Desiree Kelly: 9:00

Whatever word I was trying to say cool and good, the same word. I get ahead of myself sometimes, but the place where these rectangles and they have these little handles on them, they were so neat. I was in love Custom look, of course, murray with his photo booth, and I loved his outfit. Oh, his outfit was so good, so good.

Desiree Kelly: 9:20

but he had a blue, sparkly blazer oh, yeah, yeah and then interaction denver with his uh fans so awesome, mean it takes a village it really does to do all of this. So I mean the fans, the sparkly linens, the decor, the lounges. I believe Biscuits and Berries actually sponsored all of the fun little doodads and stuff that were in the booths and what everybody was wearing on their heads.

Jared Judge: 9:55

The cups and everything too.

Desiree Kelly: 9:56

I think nace bought the cups. I want to say about the cups yeah so for sure, and I was.

Jared Judge: 10:02

I was talking to I think it was bonnie about the cups, or maybe it was um someone else. They said that to do all of the nace lettering on the cups, they'd spent like three hours two nights ago with a Cricut machine which is like a die cut yes, cut out shapes and letters.

Desiree Kelly: 10:20

Oh my gosh.

Jared Judge: 10:21

They were so into it, they wore gloves so that they didn't get their fingerprints on the disco balls. I'm just impressed by that effort, wow.

Desiree Kelly: 10:29

I didn't even know that. That's amazing. You know, we did that once. We had the dog a party at the dog park and we wanted bandanas for the dogs and so I cut all of the the um vinyl with my cricket. And then we had a potluck at my house and we uh ironed on all of the vinyl onto the the um bandanas and it was. It was actually a lot of fun. So I'm I'm sure they had a blast doing that and I'm sure alcohol was involved.

Jared Judge: 11:05

For sure that's awesome. I mean, these events take so much behind-the-scenes effort that you don't see when you're just attending it, but it makes all the difference.

Desiree Kelly: 11:15

Right, absolutely. I mean even things like Pipe and Drink behind the dance floor. I'm not sure anybody really noticed it was there, but man does it. It makes a huge difference. Huge, and like the light inside the christmas tree. Who who thinks of that besides scott? So yeah, it was. It was pretty impressive. Look, there's light in the christmas tree and you were sitting right next to it. Did you notice it was there?

Jared Judge: 11:38

I didn't like consciously recognize it, but but like subconsciously, it just creates that atmosphere, that feeling that like wow, this is a really elevated event, feels very special.

Desiree Kelly: 11:47

Absolutely yeah, and I think all of these disco balls are Amelia's as well. I think she provided all those from her stock and look at that vinyl records and it just just it all came together so nicely.

Jared Judge: 12:01

It looked so great oh, and here's dick doing a card trick doing a card trick wowing the ladies.

Desiree Kelly: 12:08

So and oh, there's those, uh, rectangle plates, those were so cool so cool and these are the ladies from the curtis hotel, so he's always wowing me somehow. Yeah, he comes strutting down the hall. He was wearing platform shoes and he goes I can't walk any other way in these shoes and I was like, well, it's very appropriate, it's awesome, that's awesome and I love that they can change the colors on the dance floor too yeah, so that's, that's elite entertainment's dance floor.

Jared Judge: 12:40

and, in case people aren't watching this video and they're just hearing it on podcast, we're looking at like an infinity mirror dance floor. Where it's, it's a grid, so, like every other square, is opaque with a color, and then the other ones are an infinity mirror that, if you look down, it just keeps going and going and going, which is so cool.

Desiree Kelly: 13:03

It is so neat, it is so neat, it is so neat to dance on.

Jared Judge: 13:08

So there was a competition during this event to slash fundraiser.

Desiree Kelly: 13:13

There was yes, we decided that we would like to incorporate a little bit of fundraising into every meeting, basically just to kind of help the chapter do more fun things like buy disco ball drinks.

Desiree Kelly: 13:31

And so we were going to do heads or tails and we had a few bottles left over from another event that we did. And so then Amelia was like, well, let's make a basket. And then Bonnie was like, let's make four baskets because everybody loves stuff, right? And so what we did is we sold disco ball necklaces for $5 a pop and that gets you a entry into a game called heads or tails, and so it was basically just a donation to the chapter, and then you get the chance to play to win for one of these four baskets. And so, basically, you would grab your head or you would grab your tail, and I flipped the coin and then read off whether it was heads or tails and the. If it was heads, you stayed in, if it tails, you either went out or offered up one of your necklaces. And you, my friend, I think, are the best at heads and tails that I've ever seen.

Jared Judge: 14:30

I did go on an impressive run there. I think I guessed correctly seven times in a row, something like that.

Desiree Kelly: 14:35

It was. It was very impressive. And we're like Jared, nobody's going to win against this guy.

Jared Judge: 14:41

Go buy a lottery ticket.

Desiree Kelly: 14:43

Exactly Someone told me go buy a lottery ticket. It was so much fun and that fundraiser raised $240. So we'll be able to do something fun with that for the next meeting, so that'll be fun.

Jared Judge: 14:56

Yeah, that was so fun and, honestly, like it was very well planned, because those necklaces that you're talking about, those were your entry tickets to Heads or Tails, but they also kind of acted as your immunity idol on Survivor. So if you lost you would have to give up one of your necklaces, and these necklaces had disco balls on the bottom of them, so it was like perfectly in the theme. So bravo to whoever picked those oh, that wasn't this bonnie.

Desiree Kelly: 15:23

Bonnie, she's just a rock star. So awesome. Oh, it was so much fun and we got to see so many people that we don't always see. So, like jules gray, rocky mountain bridal show and white buffalo photography, we got to see her and you know uh, brian howe came out and lots of people we don't normally see on a day-to-day basis.

Jared Judge: 15:44

So it was fun, emily from Lux Llama Productions.

Desiree Kelly: 15:49

Yep, yep, so lots of really good people.

Jared Judge: 15:53

Yeah, so this is a great event. I would say it was a smashing success, would you agree?

Desiree Kelly: 15:58

I absolutely agree and I look forward to it for next year.

Jared Judge: 16:01

Yeah, same, and not all of our like. Some of our events are just fun parties where it's great to see people you don't see in a while and just hang out and blow off some steam. But then some of them are more education based and I think it's great that our chapter has a nice balance of those. So if you want fun and partying, you get that. If you want education and ways to and partying, you get that. If you want education and ways to grow your business, you get that too.

Desiree Kelly: 16:24

Yeah. So, and you know, with NACE we have requirements that we have to do six educational programs a year. That means the other six we can do whatever we want to do. So if we want to just get people together and go do, like you know, a community service project, we can do that. If we want to just do a happy hour, we can do that. So it's all just, you know, about getting people together, because how are you going to build your relationships with your vendor friends if you don't see them very often? So it's really important to to connect with people on a monthly basis, not just quarterly.

Jared Judge: 17:04

It's funny. I was talking to somebody at Naughty or Nace exactly about that. They said they're not members of Nace yet but they said they do all these events and typically they only see other vendors of events at the events that they do. This was their first time feeling a part of a community of event vendors and I think that really left um left an impression on them.

Desiree Kelly: 17:26

Yeah, well, that's wonderful, that's wonderful. I uh, I stopped by um Nolia restaurant with Lily black today to get a gift certificate for an employee and she was like, oh, we are going to, we are going to have such a hard time getting all of my desserts done and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, well, what do you need? Let me help you. And I mean, I met Lily through NACE and had we not had that relationship, I couldn't have helped her out.

Jared Judge: 17:51

Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, very cool. Anything else about Naughty or NACE that you feel our listeners should know if they didn't attend?

Desiree Kelly: 18:01

Oh, it's just the energy there is amazing. The energy in NACE is amazing. I just I love the community and it makes you feel so good and so jazzed for days.

Jared Judge: 18:11

So yeah, for sure. I think we did pretty good at this recap episode. I felt a little bit like Caesar Flickerman, the host of the Hunger Games in the movies, Because I don't usually talk about glitz and glamour and stuff.

Desiree Kelly: 18:24

but this was great, awesome, very cool. Maybe we'll do it again.

Jared Judge: 18:28

All right Sounds good. Well, thanks so much, des, for sharing your insights and for putting on such a lovely event. We're excited for another year of your leadership. Yay, let's go All right. Well, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Denver NACE podcast. To find out about our next meeting, which will be in January 2025, please visit our website, which is nacedenvercom National Association for Catering and Events. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next year.

Desiree Kelly: 18:56

Awesome. Thanks, Jared.

Jared Judge: 18:59

You're welcome.