Gordon Ramsay Gala Dinner 2010
Under Pressure! So sang Freddie Mercury, Queen and David Bowie in their hit song from the ‘80s and that’s exactly how I felt in the run up to the annual Gordon Ramsay Gala Dinner in aid of the Scottish Spina Bifida Association.
88 Events have been involved in this event for 4 years now, the last three of which have been as official design sponsor. I was under no illusions that we had to get the design of this event right as the sole purpose was to raise a lot of money on the night for the SSBA.
They need to generate around £1m each year just to meet the costs of running their amazing centre in Cumbernauld where they offer help and support to the kids and families who suffer from this terrible disease.
Deborah Roe, SSBA’s head of fundraising had earlier told me that she had booked a Queen tribute band.
I must admit that I was slightly sceptical at her choice when she first told me as I was not sure that Queen’s anthemic, hands in the air, stadium rock sound would be conducive to getting everyone up on the dance floor.
How wrong was I? The dance floor was packed from the moment the curly haired Brian May lookalike picked his first riff of the night and it was an amazing sight to see so many people (including famous celebrities and business people) partying away the night whilst doing the famous handclaps to Radio Gaga and We Will Rock You!
Anyway, the Glasgow Science Centre can be a challenging venue to work at as it’s so unique but this uniqueness is also what makes it so special. We went for a change of mood right from the outset this year.
Instead of having all the guests upstairs for the champagne reception as we did the previous year, we installed a 32ft long mirror bar in the street area that served a Hendricks Bramble cocktail.
Without doubt, the atmosphere at the 2010 event was more electric than the previous year.
This was due to there being a less formal atmosphere and I guess it had something to do with the fact that the ‘street’ was buzzing with everyone hovering around the bar whilst hostesses served champagne and canapés.
The cocktail went down a storm and this helped create an electric atmosphere before the event. I wonder if Gordon Ramsay himself had a tipple as he was in great spirits, even tweeting a picture of the room set-up to his thousands of Twitter followers commenting on how beautiful the room looked: http://yfrog.com/74fdmmj.
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- The Gordon Ramsay Gaa Dinner 2010
Room Design
After speaking to Deborah, we decided to do a play on a ‘Glam Rock’ theme in tribute to Queen’s early roots.
Rather than go for a ‘platform heel and glitter’ style (which has been done countless times before), we went for something far more elegant and twisted the whole theme on it‘s head.
The Glam Rock era was characterised by bold and bright colours so we used an accent colour of Turquoise combined with beautiful Mocha in our shimmering taffeta range.
Developing the Glam Rock theme further, we added lots of glamour by incorporating lots of diamantés into our design.
Firstly, we manufactured bespoke Turquoise Taffeta chair backs and napkin bands sewn with beautiful diamantés.
For the table centre, we placed a rectangular mirror underneath our new crystal candelabra, ably supported by stunning white orchids and crystal nitelight holders, lit by led’s.
Our latté charger plate was adorned with a beautiful menu printed on translucent paper with turquoise foil blocking. Diamanté picture frames for the table numbers completed a stunning look.
The Atrium, however is a very industrial looking space and so a great table design was never going to be enough. We had to take it right to the max and so we installed a made to order Turquoise velour carpet which acted as a wonderful base for the whole design.
Judging by the wonderful comments we received I was delighted to say the design went down a storm. The money raised on the night was in excess of £100k and this accounts for around 10% of the SSBA’s annual funding requirements so it is a hugely important night.
As such, the room dressing has to be of a standard commensurate with the high calibre of the guests. A flat looking design will mean a flat looking atmosphere and ultimately less money raised.
Here’s what Chef Ramsay himself kindly said about our contribution:
“The design expertise that Sheila Samuels and her team at 88 Events bring to our annual gala dinner in aid of the Scottish Spina Bifida Association is superb. This event is key in ensuring we meet our funding requirements and with so many VIP guests in attendance, it’s vital that the event design is of a superior standard. Sheila makes this happen for us by continually raising the bar each year.”
Gordon Ramsay OBE
Category: Featured Events
[...] Anyway, our good friends at the Glasgow Science Centre have put together their own great video of October’s Gordon Ramsay Gala Dinner. [...]