ideaLand

05/03/2026

One week ago, ideaLand produced the ToolBANK USA National Awards Show in Nashville, TN. It was a huge success, and the team at Nashville Public Television absolutely nailed it! We were so proud to build that partnership between two non-profits, and from this point forward, we will try to find non-profit venues to host these important non-profit events. It is a smart way for non-profits to help each other. And, that is what ToolBANK is all about. Helping non-profits and communities with the tools they need. If you want to see what a REAL non-profit looks like, take a look at this video. We are so proud to do what we do for them!
Thanks to Julie and Trey for trusting us. Special thanks to the ideaLand team: Dave, Kimberley and Tammy. A very special thanks to Paul and all the folks at Nashville PBS. Especially Don! (Iron Maiden is lucky to have you, Dude 😎)

🏆Watch our 2026 ToolBank National Awards Recording!🛠️At our 6th Annual ToolBank National Awards, hosted by Ace Callwood at the Nashville PBS Studios, we ce...

17/10/2025

One of our favorite non-profit clients is the Jeannette Rankin Foundation. They empower women. We love putting our hybrid virtual/in-person event skills to the test on their behalf, and last night was another test and another stellar STAR Party fundraiser with Monica Kaufman Pearson as the perfect program host streaming live to YouTube from GPB Studio C in Midtown Atlanta. With simultaneous watch parties and viewers across the country, it's one of our more anxious-making events.

Karen Sterk, CEO of the Foundation, just called to thank us and say, "It was THE BEST STAR Party!"

They exceeded their fundraising and friendraising goals for the event, and they now have more great content to use as a fundraising and friendraising tool going forward.

The ideaLand team, in partnership with the Rankin team, the GPB team and the Jaros Productions Team, worked hard to make THE BEST STAR Party happen.

Thanks to Misty Kelly, Dave Woelber, Lorelei Marden, Devin Ellery and Mackayla McNeill, who joined the ideaLand Team for the event. Also, thanks to Keeta, Khara, Mimi, Fatina, Eddie, James and the production teams at GPB Studios. And, thanks to James, Heather, Ever, Jason and all the hard-working crews at Jaros Productions. Also, thanks to Gracious Gatherings for the yummy food and beverage service!

And, a special thanks to Karen, Lori W., LaTrena, LaWanna, Maheen, Holly, Geneva, Tiana, Lori S., Sara and Breezy for your great work on the event and, especially, for your great work at the Foundation. It is truly an honor to do what we do for you. And, it was a bonus to get to support GPB while also supporting you.

Onward.

(Oh. And. Thanks, Jeannette. For being a Great Force.)

The Jeannette Rankin Foundation is Jeannette Rankin’s living legacy. Jeannette Rankin lived a bold life. She recognized the inequities in American society th...

05/09/2025

If you are planning an event in the next two years, be advised over the excessive costs to expect due to continuing COVID issues, a poorly managed economy, civil unrest and financial insecurity for most. You cannot use any previous budget as a benchmark. Costs will be tripled in many areas, and sponsorships and ticket sales will likely be reduced for travel to and expensive events.

This is the email I just received about the annual Event Safety Summit which has been happening annually for the last tumultuous decade. "The Board of Directors of the Event Safety Alliance has made the difficult decision to cancel ESA’s 2025 Event Safety Summit, including its pre-conference training courses. The current economic uncertainty in the United States has tightened employer travel budgets and depressed conference registration. Under these circumstances, trying to do business as usual would be an irresponsible financial risk for ESA."

15/05/2025

ideaLand has been busy in 2025 supporting great non-profit organizations like, Giving Kitchen, World Pediatrics, Jeannette Rankin Foundation, GCAPP, Ray C. Anderson Foundation and Drawdown Georgia.

We are very excited and proud to announce that Drawdown Georgia asked us to create a toolkit for planning more green events, and that toolkit has been published today!

Check it out and share it widely with your event networks.

Making green events is easier than you think, can actually help save money and has never been more important than right now.

Discover practical strategies for planning sustainable events in Georgia, from reducing waste to selecting eco-friendly venues, and learn how to lower your event's environmental impact.

03/11/2024

On October 24th, ideaLand once again had the privilege of producing the Rankin Foundation STAR Party that brings together hundreds of people in multiple cities for one night to raise money and awareness for the Rankin Scholarship Program.

The program provides much-needed grants and scholarships to older women who want to go back to school, earn their degrees and change the trajectory of their lives.

The show is a hybrid event utilizing a central studio as the hub for bringing the watch parties together. It requires so many different people to masterfully pull the show together, that there is no way to thank them all by name. But, the show was wildly successful because of the key players like…

Karen Sterk, Cynthia Winter, LaTrena Artist, Jashondra Flanigan and the entire team and incredible Scholars at the Rankin Foundation. Your namesake, Jeanette Rankin, was a beacon of light for women’s rights and education, and your stories and hard work always inspire us.

Monica Pearson, Rob Clark and Kathryn Roley, our MC’s for the evening, who are simply brilliant at their jobs.

Matt, John, Michael and Diane Dillon and the entire team of production pros at Dillon Studios.

Misty, Dave and Devin on the ideaLand team. Misty Kelly, you are THE BEST at calling the show, even from a thousand miles away!

Jason Jaros, Ever Clavel, and the Jaros Productions and Epting Events team in Athens.

Greg, Jessica, Delaney and the University of Montana team in Missoula.

All the watch parties we brought on screen.

All the volunteers helping manage pictures and YouTube and Facebook chats.

Holly Crum and Gracious Gatherings for the food and drink for the studio audience at Dillon.

Renee Roebuck and EventWorks for the tables, chairs and linens.

And, especially, the generous donors who helped the Rankin Foundation raise close to $200,000 in an hour.

In one of the videos we play during the show, the scholars are finding out that they have won the scholarship, and one of the scholars says, through tears, “I will make you proud. I will make you proud.”

ideaLand is very proud to do what we do for the Rankin Foundation.

26/10/2024

RayDay is ideaLand’s favorite event of the year! The people who come to it are usually full of joy and hope and community and are genuinely interested in networking with other stewards of the earth and its life.

Things that are enjoyable are rarely challenging to plan and execute. But, it’s the larger team of teams, all rowing in the same direction, who help make RayDay such a joy for ideaLand and a great success for our client, the Ray C. Anderson Foundation.

So, for the joy-filled 2024 RayDay last week, I would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to:

The ideaLand team: Tammy, Dave, Misty, Sondra, Devin, Jo, Skye, Rayne, Alicia, Halimah and Turner.

Sherry Usher, Renee Roebuck and the At Your Service Staffing great worker bees.

Paige Nathan and the sustainable food trucks, Just Add Honey beverages and the Tippy Tap Cart.

Ron Dudik, Heather Krause and the great carnival rides team at Burgess Amusements.

Jeff Scales, Neil Holloway and the Herc generator team.

Felicia Newberry, Kerrie Robinson and the 4Wall Entertainment AV team.

Tom Staigle and the UMCORP RCAF Solar Trailer team.

Joni Floyd, Madison Kovarik and the Inn at Serenbe and Farmhouse Bar team.

Amy Peterson and the Serenbe Farmhands team.

The Amazing Sven Jorgensen and his acrobatic show and stilt-walking team.

Royal Restrooms.

King of Pops.

Cricket’s Mobile Petting Zoo.

Miss Teacup Facepainters.

Crystal Cubes.

Clash Graphics.

The 63 amazing Eco-Learning Exhibitors.

The 9 EV Showcase Exhibitors.

The guests.

The cast and crew of Stranger Things for making me adjust my layout at the last minute and keeping me on my setup toes the whole week prior. (I was irritated at first, but then I thought, “You aren’t going to upside down my event.”😎)

The land dwellers past and present who allowed us to be there.

The weather.

The planet.

But, especially, I would like to thank the Ray C. Anderson Foundation for allowing ideaLand to produce RayDay on their behalf. It is a true honor and a privilege to do what I do for them.

21/10/2024

It is a true honor and a privilege to do what we do for the Ray C. Anderson Foundation.

07/08/2024

14 years ago today, ideaLand produced Flash Mobs for Harrah's Casinos. 100 people. 4 cities. 2 wrapped buses. 1 day. Whew!

17/11/2023

It is always awesome to look at something from almost a year away and work steadily to make a memorable experience for a crowd AND raise big money for an important non-profit!

The Atlanta History Center is a beautiful canvas on which to paint an event befitting an icon, legend and activist like Jane Fonda and her exceptionally important non-profit, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP). Since 1995, Jane Fonda and GCAPP have been working tirelessly on behalf of Georgia’s future, our youth. In the last 28 years, largely due to their work, Georgia has moved the needle from #1 in teen pregnancy to #15. And, in the last decade, GCAPP has shifted their focus to include mental and physical health, child trafficking, bullying and LGBTQ+ issues. It has been my honor to support Jane and GCAPP’s annual fundraiser for 25 of the last 28 years.

It takes a team effort to pull it all off successfully, so I would like to first thank the ideaLand team, Misty Kelly, Dave Woelber, Tammy Self, Devin Ellery, Jacquelyn Johnson, Lorelei Marden, Halimah Glover and Sondra Landrum. They rocked it!

Felicia Newberry, Alan Kulbacki and the team at 4Wall Productions, Barbara Roos, Chris Macksey and Janet Dockery at Topher Mack Floral and Events, Kathy Evans and Atlanta Party Rentals, Dennis Dean and Adam Shoemaker at Dennis Dean Catering, 12 Oaks Valet, Major Goggins and his security team at Georgia Enforcement Agency and CTN Global Transportation are true event production partners, and I love working with them.

Sona Chambers at 4 A Great Cause is a “modern day Robin Hood” who strategically brings donors and important non-profits together to raise the funds. I hope I always get to help her make it rain!

The Waldorf-Astoria, Intercontinental and St. Regis were great hotel partners for our VIP guests.

Wanda Sykes and her team, the Indigo Girls and their team and Heather McMahan and her team were amazing to work with on behalf of GCAPP. Their energy and generosity are truly electric!

Susana Braner and Anna Lundstrom at the Atlanta History Center deserve a badge of courage for riding the GCAPP roller coaster with me.

Laine Olesen, Nathaly Espinoza, Bev Jones and Eleanor Drake at GCAPP worked their magic to manage all of the guests, donors, media and general melee that accompanies a high-profile event, and I really appreciate their dedication and sense of humor throughout the process.

Non-profit fundraisers are not easy. The budget is tight, and the stress is intense. In the end, with a lot of help from amazing professionals, it is soul-soothing to bring everyone together to make a difference in the lives of people who need our help.

Thank you to everyone who joined me in this Herculean effort.

(Also, I am immensely grateful to the humans and fur babies I live with who have to deal with my evil twin, Lou Anne, during event season. She ain’t “easy like a Sunday morning.” 😊)

17/10/2023

It is a heartfelt honor to do what I do for the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. They rock!

24/08/2023

It started with this phone call from Steve Ginsburg at Halperns' Steak & Seafood. “Sue Anne, can we bring back the Halperns’ Culinary Showcase after the Pandemic hiatus and move it from the Georgia Aquarium to Mercedes Benz Stadium on the field.”

I didn’t hesitate. I already knew the team at the Stadium had a stellar reputation. It’s not easy to find quality venues with stellar teams for big live events in 2023. Quality is a rarity after the last three years.

So, over a year ago, I received that call and said, “Yes. We can.”

And, my very first thank you is to Halperns’ for letting me do what I do for them and giving me a really awesome venue in which to produce the 10th Anniversary of The Halperns’ 2023 Atlanta Culinary Showcase to bring together 100 of Halperns’ top “center of the plate” providers from around the world with Chefs and Restaurateurs from the Southeast.

And, I cannot say enough good things about Carolina, Tim, John and the entire team at Mercedes Benz Stadium. Their “Yes. We can!” attitude, despite our event being sandwiched between Beyonce and the Falcons, and despite the fact that they had never done an event like this, was truly refreshing. From the first walkthrough to the last item off the dock when the event concluded Tuesday night, the Mercedes Benz stadium team was exceptional and restored my faith in quality customer service again.

The ideaLand team was extraordinary as well! Dave Woelber, Misty Kelly, Tammy Self, Devin Ellery, Jacquelyn Johnson, Sherry Usher, Jamese Wyatt, Nicolia Gipp, Halimah Glover and Sondra Landrum were all critical parts of the preparation, setup and ex*****on of this massive event! This team made me proud! And, thanks to Urban Enterprises for always sending their top team to put the best smiling faces at our registration tables.

Renee Roebuck and EventWorks, providing all of the tables, linens and Exhibitor supplies, will always be my go to for these complicated events. They are a fantastic event partner!

Active Production, providing all of the massive pipe and drape needed for 100 booths, along with the complicated Demo Stage setup and production, did a great job as well.

Finally, a very special THANK YOU to Virginia Willis for an outstanding job as MC of the demo stage. Her presence and personality were perfect for this production!

It takes close to 200 people to put on a show of this magnitude, so I thank all of the staff and crew behind the scenes at Halperns’ and the vendors and venues who worked so hard to make the event wildly successful.

It is not easy to envision an event, map it all out, plan for each moment and create the pages that you want everyone to get onto. It is even harder after the last 3 years. I have been despondent about the level of quality in the event industry since 2020.

The Halperns’ 2023 Atlanta Culinary Showcase on Tuesday, August 22nd at Mercedes Benz Stadium definitely gave me a boost and renewed my hope and faith in the industry in which I have immersed myself for 35 years.

So, thanks to all the hard-working, quality-focused humans who made the event a success and raised my spirits to boot! I appreciate you all more than you know.

20/04/2023

ideaLand is proud to be celebrating our 25th Anniversary AND helping take care of the world's children!