Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute - Morristown, New Jersey

THE REQUEST:
The Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute retained Faith West Events (FWE) to create a dynamic, interactive, community-centered event marking the opening of their new facility housing the national leader for the research and treatment of cardiac disease.  The Institute is a $200 million, 200,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility opening in Morristown, New Jersey in early 2009.



THE EVENT:
The Gagnon Cardiovascular Heart Healthy Iron Chef
FWE created and delivered an event successfully integrating the concepts of community, health education, nutrition and family, while also ensuring a rich audience experience.  The challenge of the event was to not only emphasize the fun culinary aspect of the day, with audience members watching how well the chefs combined flavors and wielded their knives – but also to emphasize the client’s desire to deliver an educational message and inspire attendees to duplicate the heart-healthy dishes in their own home.

To meet this unique challenge, FWE erected a specially designed “kitchen stadium” using a clear span tent located adjacent to the new hospital.  This clever set-up created an on-site 400-seat venue, filled with guests experiencing the pleasure of talented chefs battling it out for the best in heart healthy cooking.  This live interactive “cook-off” featured audience participation as they tasted the chef’s creations in a “family-style” dinner setting, in tandem with a panel of celebrity judges – ALL LIVE and occurring AT THE SAME TIME.

THE IMPACT & BENEFITS
The on-site, “kitchen-stadium” venue produced high-visibility exposure for the new facility, with personal tours of the Institute being offered to all 400 members of the audience following the event.  The visibility of the Institute was further leveraged throughout the hospital’s service area via the media and PR surrounding the event.

All 400 seats at the event were “sold-out” in 2 weeks, in large part due to the reputation of previous FWE events and a unique twist instituted for this particular event.  Even though there were hundreds of people to coordinate, Faith West Events placed a personal focus on phone reception and individualized interaction with all guests.  This subtle difference left each person with a feeling of being invited to a private celebration and that they were an integral part of the opening and celebration of the new facility.