Jeff Graves and Chad Antcliff have been behind the scenes of several national and local running events.
Anyone who has ever planned a big event knows it doesn’t just happen. Just ask Jeff Graves, President of Vision Event Management in Carmel, Indiana. After 16 years in the promotions, advertising and marketing business, Graves will tell you that attention to detail and follow through are critical to pulling off the next big event.
Graves learned this working in the trenches at Rockford Lightning, Crackers Comedy Club, Adam’s Mark Hotel, Entertainment Marketing and 99.5 WZPL. He followed up those jobs with positions for the 500 Festival and the Mini-Marathon.
He then parlayed those years of experience into Vision Event Management, opening his business in 2006 and hiring Chad Antcliff as Vice President of Events in 2008. Whether planning for a new event or gearing up for an already established event, Vision Event Management prides itself on bringing fresh vision and ideas to the table to bring about fresh results. “We can talk with people from any standpoint of where they are [in the planning process],” said Graves.
For example, Vision Event Management excels at taking an event that perhaps hasn’t met the expectations of the planners in years past and revamping it to produce better results.
Graves and Antcliff handle festivals, parades, nonprofit events, concerts, golf outings and scavenger hunts. They have extensive experience planning 5K races and mini-marathons. As a matter of fact, they were the brains and experience that put together the St.Vincent Geist Half Marathon & 5K in May (May 22, 2010).
Geist is a favorite race for them. “Geist is outstanding, being that that event has only been around two years, and it has over 6,000 participants and over 700 volunteers. … it has raised great money, gives back to the schools, it’s got great course support…. it’s unbelievable what they’ve done in two years,” said Graves.
Many of us enjoy attending big events, but have little understanding of all the planning it takes to pull one off. Graves and Antcliff offer a full docket of services to help with event planning:
- Budget Management
- Consulting
- Crisis Management Planning
- Event Operations and Logistics
- Permits and City Liaison
- Signage Planning
- Transportation
- Vendor Negotiations and Relationships
- Volunteer Management
The Madison Mini Marathon in Wisconsin was the brainchild of Graves and Antcliff.
Over the years they have come to expect the unexpected when planning an event. Road construction, date changes and redoing signs are all things that often happen and necessitate regrouping and Plan B. It’s just a part of the business. And, interesting things often happen on the day of the events as well. Especially memorable was the time during the Madison Mini-Marathon in Madison, Wisconsin when a flock of wild turkeys decided to run the race course with the runners.
While Vision Event Management plans events across the country, they are hoping to focus more on events close to home. “We love Indianapolis and the Carmel area and want to do more things and come up with more fun things for the community to do,” said Graves.
As the business grows, Graves is looking for a college student to intern with their company. A semester long internship would be fine, but a year-long internship would be better just because of the length of time it often takes to plan an event. Any interested students can contact Graves through his website at www.VisionEventManagement.com.
Overall, both Graves and Antcliff work hard to make each event they manage the best it can be—and better than the last one. “Our goal is to produce great events, and the little things matter to us,” says Graves. “It’s important to us that the participants walk away with a great experience …. we really try to make a difference when we work on an event,” said Graves.
