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500 of Chicago's Top Meeting and Event Professionals Meet Together At Hereschicago.com's BASH!
08/27/2008 - By Here's Chicago .COM Mobile 1 Cirque USA Contortionist performs at The BASH!
On Monday night, August 25th, 2008, over 500 Chicago meeting and event professionals celebrated the end of the summer with Hereschicago.com at the Chicago Meetings and Hospitality Industry’s 2nd Annual End of the Summer “Talent” BASH! at Sound Bar.
View Video (Part 1 of 2)Video produced by Here's Chicago.com Video Site Tour Partner VRVCOView Video (Part 2 of 2)Video produced by Here's Chicago.com Video Site Tour Partner VRVCOOn Monday night, over 500 of the 865 registeredmeeting and event professionals celebrated the end of the summer with Hereschicago.com at the Chicago Meetings and Hospitality Industry’s 2nd Annual End of the Summer “Talent” BASH! at Sound Bar, 226 W. Chicago Ontario St. Chicago, Il. The Sound Bar provided for a perfect venue for this exclusive private event to bring the 1.3 billion dollar Chicago meetings and events industry into one room to celebrate the end of the summer. Attendees enjoyed networking, music and cuisine provided by The Entertaining Company, one of Chicago’s top caterers for Chicago meetings and events."We were thrilled and honored to be the hosting venue and would love to do it again next year. It was a great crowd and great energy. Your creative ideas coupled with the amazing partners was instrumental in throwing the best networking event to date. So happy we could be part of it." Nicole Heavrin, Sound Bar
From the entrance to the dual levels of the venue,’s top meeting and hospitality professionals enjoyed mingling and meeting with others while Hereschicago.com provided them with both “eye candy” and “ear” candy. A jazz trio in the alley entrance supplied by Upbeat Music Productions entertained all attendees prior to entering the venue. In addition, an Aerial Chiffon Artist from Cirque USA entertained the attendees prior to entering the registration for the event. Chicago
Once inside, attendees were treated to music supplied by Pipe Dream, the “house” band for the “Suppliers”, a newly created project to showcase meeting industry’s talented people who supply to the meetings and hospitality industry but also have talents such as singing, playing drums, guitar, etc.
Dennis Debondt,’s top magician and comedian provided strolling magic and added yet another “entertaining” aspect. Chicago Sports Games provided the ultra popular Wii machines where attendees became their own “rock star” and bowled competitively. Chicago 
VRVCO, Hereschicago.com's video site tour partner captured the BASH! on video. Official BASH photographs were taken by Hereschicago.com Planner Preferred member, EventGallery Photography.Special thanks to friends of Hereschicago.com in attendance:Cara Carriveau - Chicago radio personality of Chicago's 101.9 FM and Cara's Basement,Marcus Riley of Chicago's NBC 5 Street TeamTheresa Carter of TheLocalTourist.comJen Chicago of JenChicago.com and The NBC 5 Street TeamPhotos Courtesy of EventGallery PhotographyAdditional Photos and Event Coverage:Visit: Red Carpet Concierge website for additional photosOur BASH! Venue Sponsor said..."Great event last night. Hope you were happy with everything… I’m happy Sound-Bar was the presenting venue for the event…it worked out well."Our BASH! Catering Sponsor said..."I think it was great publicity for Entertaining Company. For all of you who made it to the Here's Chicago event at Sound Bar on Monday I hope you had a wonderful time! For those of you who didn't, you sure missed a great evening. Sound Bar is unarguably a great place to host an event, and Here's Chicago knows how to do it. Nice work Jim. Thank you much!"Our BASH! Entertainment Sponsors said..."I’m finally back in the office today and had a chance to finally get to my e-mails. Thank you so much for extending an invitation to me for this event. I’ve been telling everyone about how great it was. Constant entertainment around every corner. It was really nice how there were so many different things to do. It made networking for me (an out of towner) a heck of a lot easier. I met some really great people and got some great exposure. I’m so glad you told me about this event.Whoever had the idea of Rock Band at the event is a genius in my book! I had a blast playing. I’ll definitely be back in September as Sound Bar has booked a few things with us which I’m excited about. It’d be so great to get more work out there. I got a few cards that night that I plan on following up with. I truly hope you enjoyed our entertainment…did you even have a chance to watch her performance? I know you were running around a lot. Hopefully you were able to get a glance."Katy Knapp, Vice President, Special Events, Cirque USA, Inc."Thank you again for including me in this years bash! Also, thank you so much for "feature" of Upbeat which put us first page of Google for Chicago Corporate Entertainment...wow!"A word from BASH Founder and Producer:"This event accomplished our goal by showcasing our meeting and event industry's talented professionals on stage in front of their peers. This was a record attendance setting 500+ event that brought meeting and event professionals together for a night of unique fun. We always give you a reason to party on a Monday night, but we can't guarantee you a reason to get up on a Tuesday morning"Jim Grillo, CMP, Hereschicago.comSAVE THE DATE: Upcoming Chicago Meetings and Hospitality BASH! Events:Winter BASH - Park West, January 12, 2009St. Pat's BASH - Fado Irish Pub, March 2, 2009Post Your Comments and/or Suggestions BELOW to help us improve future BASH events. Thank you :-)
Comments
Comments
Here's Chicago does it again - one of the largest networking events I have seen in a long time! - Sandra
Date: 08/27/2008
Here's Chicago does it again-one of the largest
networking I have seen in a long time. Sound bar
was jumping with fun and excitement.
Congratulations on a wonderful event - Cheryl Wellington
Date: 08/27/2008
Congratulations on a wonderful event. It was a pleasure to finally meet the man behind the name. Kathy has spoken so highly of you and I can understand why. You can count your friends on one hand and you have obviously made her very short list.
You made the evening enjoyable and fun. You are a great MC and entertainer. I will follow up with an email from my personal email. Just wanted to say Congrats, Kudos to you and thank you for including me in your year end event.
Regards,
Cheryl
Cheryl Wellington
Protocol Liaison Officer
Mayor's Office of Special Events
Owner - Show Pro Ltd. - Richard Curran
Date: 09/11/2008
I looked forward to this event for weeks. Sadly, due to a last minute booking, I was unable to attend (gotta take care of biz first, right?).
From what I saw on the video, I missed one helluva bash.
Kudos to Jim Grillo and co. for all the time and effort that I know went into this excellent networking event. I will certainly do my best not to miss the next one.