ideaLand

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.