Setting the Stage: After a successful 2010, Caravan Ingredients wanted to recognize the accomplishments of individuals across their company. Their alternate goal was to reinforce that doing things “differently and better” was the way to achieve future goals. In the past, Caravan had only held sales meetings. This year, however, they made the decision to hold a companywide meeting. And, for the first time,they hired an outside source to assist in the presentation. Like a good recipe, meetings don’t have to be bland.  Recognizing that every ingredient of their company is important, representatives of each department in one form or another were scheduled to present a success story. Second City Communications stepped in to make sure that listening to almost 40 different success stories didn’t get … stale.

Playing the Part:  Okay, no more bad food references – we promise.  Second City Communications developed programming that incorporated both live and video components to keep things fresh and energetic.

Talk Show / Emcee: To weave together all of the success stories that would be highlighted by Caravan Ingredients’ many employees, a comedic tag team duo consisting of two Second City performers were designated as the main drivers for the meeting. One of them played herself and the other played an egotistical “celebrity” chef and TV host on the fictional “Bakers Channel”, Charlie Ganache. Having two performers on stage (one straight, one a little more out there)to support Caravan’s people helped keep the energy up and the crowd engaged.

Video Interviews: A television host often has a field correspondent who is sent on location to report back details around a specific event or product, so that is an element we used to add even more variety.  Enter an enthusiastic young cohort, Edna Leavening, who is eager to make good with taped reports of eight of the success stories from the Caravan offices, all of them “key ingredients” in Caravan’s success. Peppering video throughout the live show was a great way to add even more variety, which is after all the spice of life. (Okay we had to get one more in.)