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Paul Ridgeway, impresario, sits in the headquarters of
Ridgeway International, a two-story office building his company owns in a
wooded, residential area of Minnetonka. He’s ready to talk about his
event-management business and the rich vein of opportunities it’s finding within
the GOP convention to be held next September in St. Paul.
Ridgeway’s personal charisma, creativity, and focus have earned his company a who’s-who of customers, including Microsoft, Ford, Saturn, Billy Graham, and the National Football league. Today, with a second office in Denver, 15 full-time employees, and a Rolodex of available-on-demand event professionals that extends to every state in the union, he takes on at least 25 major events each year.
The Republican National Convention, with its endless loop of lavish parties and massive people-moving demands, would seem to be a two-fer of his specialties as an event creator and logistics manager. Ridgeway Events and Ridgeway Transportation, the two divisions of Ridgeway International, are about equal in terms of revenues (which he declines to name), with the events side bringing in slightly more business. And both are in the running for convention contracts.
But that’s not the direction the conversation takes.
"I'm an evangelist," he says. "If you were a doctor, and you didn't tell me I had cancer, shame on you! I have good news that can save you for eternity. I have an obligation and a desire to tell you."
Instead, Ridgeway leans back in a boardroom chair and recounts the day two years ago when he dedicated his company to Christ.
Accompanied that day by George Kenworthy, then pastor of the Wayzata Evangelical Free Church, Ridgeway and his senior staff sat around a conference table and prayed, then walked from room to room throughout the building, taking turns “asking God to bless the company.”
Leah Wong, the vice president who manages Ridgeway’s events division, says the group went to the desk of every employee and prayed for that person, for that person’s family and protection, and for each employee to feel appreciated for his or her work.
“It was a great experience,” Wong says. “You don’t get to do that in a lot of companies.”
When you work with Ridgeway, you get a package deal: part impresario and part evangelist.
