Sacred Acre Book Release

A week ago today our staff had the opportunity to work on a very unique event in small town rural Iowa.  If you are not familiar with the Ed Thomas story, I encourage you to take a minute to watch this short video on Ed's life.

This tragic event shook the Aplington Parkersburg community but as Coach Thomas taught them, you have to get up and dust yourself off to move forward.  With an incredibly resilient spirit, the community has come together and rallied after this tragic event, led again by the Thomas family.

Coach Thomas’ life and legacy has now taken another step towards being properly remembered in a book titled the Sacred Acre.  The book captures the story of Ed Thomas’ life and the remarkable path of forgiveness and grace which the Thomas family and the community showed after this tragedy.

Last week we had the opportunity to produce the national press event and official book launch of the Sacred Acre. It was truly an honor bringing together family, friends, government leaders, local and national celebrities, former players, NFL standouts and community members into a powerful night, launching the book and celebrating the legacy of Coach Thomas. 

Sacred Acre Book Launch

We we're also joined by an artist we absolutely love working with, Michael Sarver, who performed 3 powerful songs for the event.

Michael Sarver

Coach Thomas' life work lives on in every member of the community. From the moment you drive into town, Falcon Pride is as strong as ever and the values and lessons Coach taught for so many years are present throughout the town.

While getting ready for this event we had some time to visit main street of Parkersburg where we were welcomed like it was home. Going in and out of local stores, visiting with store owners, residents and a few town guests, you couldn't help but be floored by strength, resilience and warmth of this small Iowa town. In almost every person or family we met, we hear a story about Coach and the lessons and values he taught.

Parkersburg, Iowa

A common theme among Parkersburg residents was that they were better people for knowing Coach Thomas.  We couldn't agree more. What an incredible town, incredible story and incredible event. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have spent time in the A-P community and with the Thomas family.

For more information about Coach Thomas or to learn more about the foundation his family has created in memory of him click here.

And be sure to order or pick up your copy of The Sacred Acre today!

What's new at Bow & Arrow

It’s been longer than normal since we’ve given you an update on our blog and for very good reason.  In the past few months we’ve literally traveled coast to coast having the opportunity to work in some amazing venues.  In this post we’ll highlight some of our summer travels and preview a few new things coming to Bow & Arrow this fall.

Line Leaders

The summer season started in Orlando with a week long corporate forum event.  These meetings are extremely content heavy so our clients rely on our staff to help them incorporate their content into the technical aspect of production.  For us this is more than clipping on microphones and playing videos.  Many times we are working through speeches, powerpoint presentations and print material. We enjoy this process because it gives us the opportunity to assist our clients in creating a lasting impression on their audience.  This event was also the first time our Aluminum Frame set which will be previewed in our next blog post.  

           

DPA

In the first week of June we held an event in historic Union Station just blocks away from the White House in our nation's capital.   As you can see, the beauty of the venue made our job extremely easy from a scenic standpoint.

Union Station, Washington D.C.

We also had the opportunity to bring in one of our favorite bands, Big Shot. We absolutely love working with these guys and would recommend them to any of our clients. 

Big Shot performs in Union Station

Big Shot

President’s Conference

In July we headed to San Francisco for an event in Davies Symphony Hall.  This had been a huge technical undertaking and took many months of collaboration between our staff, the venue and the headline artist, Carrie Underwood.  Jim Jacobs, Davies Symphony Hall Technical Director, who has been with the venue for over 20 years said our event was by far the biggest production the symphony hall has seen to date.

Stage for the San Francisco Symphony Hall

Bow & Arrow Producer Mike Mars with headliner Carrie Underwood

Set pieces on the San Francisco Stage

SGA worked with our team to develop custom stairs for the client's recognition ceremony.  This is the second time we've had the chance to work with Corey Ploetz of SGA.  Corey will be highlighted in our next edition of the Quiver, our Bow & Arrow Newsletter.  

SGA's build of the stage. 

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Our staff can't thank our clients enough for giving us the opportunity to work in these beautiful venues and the chance to travel across the country.  Of course, our vendors continue to be exceptional extensions of the Bow & Arrow staff and we cannot thank them enough for their support.  We look forward to an exciting fall and winter events season and some new materials to further help our clients with their events.  

This summer has also been an opportunity for us to use utilize some new scenic pieces.  In the photos below you will get a glimpse of these new pieces which are all designed to fit in many different venues.  We now have three new scenic looks that can be mixed and matched to create different combinations and figurations to fit many different venues.  We're extremely excited about presenting these pieces to our clients and discovering new and innovative ways to communicate their message.

Check the summer edition of our news letter for more on some of our exciting new sets!

Tragedy at Indiana State Fair

After seeing the shocking video from the Indiana State fair this past weekend we want to extend our deepest sympathy to the family members of those who lost their lives in this tragic incident and wish a speedy recovery to those injured.  

One of our close vendors spends their summers working state fair shows throughout the midwest and has  used structures identical to the one that failed in Indiana.  He responded to the accident by saying, "We have always been criticized for being overly cautious in situations like these so we can only hope this is a wake up call to those in the industry who don't understand how quickly things can go wrong."

Bow & Arrow show with outdoor stage in Maui

Over the past few years we have used similar stages in multiple climates and weather patterns.  As I watched this footage last night I couldn't help but think about what I would do if we would have been responsible for this type of incident.  This only reinforces the statement above, you can never be too cautious and reminds us that equipment can become dangerous wether it's a speaker on a stand or an outdoor stage.

For those of you who haven't seen the footage, below is a video uploaded from Youtube.  Again, our deepest condolences from the entire Bow & Arrow staff goes out to those involved.  

- Chris Mars