Denver event planner moves north

Advantage Services Group Inc., a Denver-based live-event production company, has expanded into Fort Collins with an eye on a fast-growing market for special-event coordination that comes with a booming economy.

And for Advantage, according to company producer-director Ken Helmers, the angels are in the details.

Meeting planners and audio-visual companies are good at what they do, Helmers said, but often can’t look at an event from the big-picture perspective. Advantage can handle it all, he said.

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“Menus, travel arrangements, security, everything from the very start – all the way through until guests are back at the airport,” Helmers said. “We’re a one-stop shop.”

Plenty of details go into planning a live event, whether it’s a sales meeting or an award ceremony for 100 or 10,000 people.

Making sure the room is booked, the lighting is right, the sound system works, the presentations are well-scripted and the presenters are on time can be a full-time job. But for corporations trying to host such events, sparing a full-time employee for all that planning can be difficult. And handling all those details may take employees out of their realm of expertise.

The event-production company, which expanded northward from its Denver base in September, can handle events of all sizes from conception to completion, said Ken Helmers.

Aside from good planning, Advantage brings something else to events, too.

“What we bring to the table is enhanced production value,” Helmers said.

With extensive background in broadcast journalism, Helmers and Advantage president and general manager Ron Jensen also can handle surprises as they arise, saving a good event from going bad.

Last-minute script changes, speaker no shows and the like don’t derail Advantage, Helmers said. But that’s no surprise if you hear him tell tales of his college internship at a Rapid City, S.D., television station. During a commercial break, some set lighting exploded, setting ablaze the anchorman’s blazer. In 90 seconds, a quick-witted stagehand extinguished the flames, ripped the blazer from the anchorman’s back and set him straight in his chair. All the audience saw was that the anchor didn’t have his blazer when the broadcast resumed, Helmers said.

Putting out those fires – both literal and figurative – is Advantage’s strength, Helmers said. A strength that comes from that strong broadcast background, Jensen said.

Jensen was a broadcast journalist from 1964 until 1985. His credits include production and engineering manager for KWGN-Channel 2 in Denver. Helmers has been involved in film, video and live events for 20 years.

Founded in 1985 and incorporated in 1987, Advantage has been organizing national conventions and producing live events since 1986, Jensen said. The company’s clients include AT&T, Lucent Technologies, the National College of Physicians and the American Nurses Association. Collectively, Jensen said, Advantage has worked with 30 major corporations and 20 national associations in every major city in the country.

The company has seven permanent full-time employees and 17 permanent part-time employees. When it produces an event, it draws from a pool of more than 350 freelance workers across the country.

Last year, the company’s profits totaled about $280,000, Jensen said.

The move to Fort Collins was prompted partly by the US West merger with Qwest, Jensen said.

“US West was our largest client, with the Qwest merger we dropped about $400,000 in annual business on the corporate side,” he said.

Helmers, who lives in Loveland, had been working with the company, but not for it, for years. The Qwest deal prompted the expansion to Northern Colorado and placed Helmers in the new Fort Collins office on Linden Street.

“We felt it was a good opportunity to move into the northern market,” Jensen said. “There’s a lot of corporations based there. We’re excited about being in the northern market.”

By opening operations in Fort Collins, Helmers is hopeful that Advantage can make Fort Collins a more attractive destination location for corporate conferences, conventions and other events.

“It’s good for Fort Collins that we’re here,” he said. “Fort Collins is a lovely city. It’s a great place to have events. If we can help events based here or help advance events here, it becomes more of a destination.”