Venues:
Hilton Minneapolis, Minneapolis Convention Center
Attendees: 1,100
teachers and students
Entertainment: G. L. Berg Entertainment
Caterer: Hilton Minneapolis
Audio-visual: MultiMedia
Event planners: MultiMedia, Jostens
Held on a weekend in July and occupying two floors at the
Minneapolis Hilton as well as breakout rooms at the Minneapolis Convention
Center, the annual Jostens Renaissance National Conference is open to teachers
and students from around the United States and Canada who participate in the
Jostens Renaissance reward and recognition program. Jostens, a Minneapolis company that supplies
class rings and yearbooks, partnered with Minneapolis-based MultiMedia, a
production company that specializes in meetings and events, to plan the
conference.
With the Renaissance program, Jostens aims to create the excitement for academics that’s traditionally reserved for athletics. Any school can participate. Students in the Renaissance program may be involved in activities such as tutoring their peers during a lunch period, entering raffle tickets earned for good grades into a drawing for a plasma TV, or creating a wall mosaic with messages of peace, hope, and acceptance. Increasing teacher enthusiasm and raising the level of community participation in schools are also goals.
The event kicked off on Friday afternoon with a videotaped welcome from Governor Tim Pawlenty, which MultiMedia scripted and filmed. The comp-any also created a high-energy video introducing the theme “Right here, right now” with a popular rock anthem. In the video, MultiMedia incorporated examples of Renaissance projects by conference attendees.
After the welcome, a performance by American Idol star An-war Robinson (a former teacher) fired up the opening session. Then attendees were off to break-out sessions, such as “Freshmen gone wild—ninth grade Renaissance student transition to high school,” that addressed their challenges. Comic C. Willi Miles, magician Tim Gabrielson, and a cappella music group Tonic Sol Fa closed the day with a club-like dance party.
A group of Native American dancers received a standing ovation for their traditional dancing on Saturday morning. Following the dancers, a “star-studded” pep rally featured Jostens employees in the roles of famous Minnesotans, including Jesse Ventura, Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, Paul Bunyan, and Prince. Krissy Wendell, captain of the 2006 U.S. Women’s Olympic hockey team, gave a speech encouraging students to dream and pursue their goals.
Coordinators of the Year and Hall of Fame inductees, who were chosen from among the teachers and staff who guide students in their Renaissance program activities, were honored at the Saturday evening awards banquet. The banquet offered one of the most memorable moments of the weekend when David Nashville Jones made a surprise appearance to serenade JoNan Holbrook—a Hall of Fame honoree who had first approached Jones about performing at the event (but was told he was unavailable)—with his hit song “Kountry Mile.” The banquet wrapped up with more dancing to Boogie Wonderland, a disco cover band.
MultiMedia created speaker support graphics, Flash presentations, and videos for all the general sessions, and provided lighting, sound, and video projection for 20 to 30 break-out sessions each day. As the conference progressed, candid video shots of students and teachers were edited on the fly by the MultiMedia team to be used later in the event.
“When we run an opening session, after it closes, we’re still in the back running [audio-visual] rehearsals,” says Matt Clements, director of marketing for Multi-Media. “A meeting may end a 10:00, and at 10:30, we’re running rehearsals and have to make real-time changes to the program.”
