The Social Book “Event of a Lifetime”: “The Emerald City at Discovery Green-15 Years of Wicked Success” Revisited as The Social Book Turns 30!
Fifteen years ago, January 21, 2010, The Social Book prepared to unveil its annual launch party. The Social Book began in 1996 and was called The Houston Calendar of Social Events. When the holiday season approached, its owner, Warner Roberts, invited those who subscribed to a gathering of light bites and wine to pick up their latest book copy. This went on for several years, and after Warner sold the book, I continued her efforts and convinced several hotels and venues over the years to provide an excellent location, along with plenty of food and cocktails, so subscribers could enjoy an evening out and celebrate the release of the new book. In 2004, the party would take on a new life.
The Social Book was asked by the newly built Hobby Center for the Performing Arts to launch the next book and unveil and inaugurate its first class of Houston Treasures there. Restaurateur Michael Cordúa held the rights to the landmark Hobby Center fine-dining restaurant and had the on-premises alcohol license. At our first meeting, he said, “Scott, we are happy to provide the alcohol for the event, and we want a premier presence as a food station. Why don’t you spread this around to your other restaurant and catering advertisers and let them enjoy some notoriety for an evening?” I thought, what a great idea, and within 15-20 phone calls, the food was taken care of for 600-700 guests. This continued until the 25th and last launch party in January 2020 at Neiman Marcus.
Now that the history of the 25 launch parties has been chronicled, around July 2009, Todd Johnson, owner of Aztec Tents & Events, had just partially showcased his unique two-story all-glass tent at the Shell Houston Open Golf Tournament. He asked if I would consider having my annual launch party at his office so people could view this incredible tent. I didn’t think that his area would give him the wow factor he needed, and also, the parking situation would have posed significant problems in accommodating the number of people I believed would attend. I approached my friend Joe Cooper at what is now HoustonFirst, which controls Discovery Green Conservancy and their interest was immediate. Joe remembers, “I first met Scott Evans with The Social Book when he proposed an event at Discovery Green. We were all in from the get-go after his pitch at our initial meeting! Scott presented an event with a two-storied tent and an adjacent one-storied tent on the Jones Lawn. The themes were GREEN, The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz and Wicked. The event was surreal … and fun!” They requested that we construct a one-story tent along with the featured two-story all-glass tent, as they wanted to use the one-story tent for their upcoming gala. As Aztec was the tent of choice at Discovery Green, and had poured all the concrete piers in the park to secure that exclusivity, Todd Johnson and Aztec agreed to do that. Todd also graciously agreed to do all the rentals and décor so that one company would be responsible. It was a huge undertaking. He gave us a great ambassador with whom to work, Felicia Crowley. She helped us choose chandeliers for the tents, tablecloths, china, glassware, silverware, chairs and whatever else we needed. They were our event hero and we were forever in their debt!
Once we had a date, location and major sponsor chosen, in August 2009, The Social Book approached Paul-David Van Atta, Director of Catering at Hilton Americas-Houston. He was excited to participate with us, and his goal was to help us create an event that would be remembered forever! He succeeded in every way! At the first lunch meeting with Paul-David, Jeff Henry, and myself, I had already investigated what remaining features would still be in the park on our event date. Once I mentioned the hot air balloon’s continued presence, a lightbulb went off in all our heads simultaneously, and The Wizard of Oz theme was born. Within seconds, we devised “The Emerald City at Discovery Green,” and Paul-David tagged it “Fifteen Years of Wicked Success.” He also wanted to marry the themes and ideas of The Wizard of Oz with The Wiz and Wicked, which were drawing record crowds on Broadway. This was genius, as it gave him so many colors, patterns, musical choices and more with which to play. His vision became other-worldly. The Social Book’s responsibilities were to bring the event players to the tents, so to speak, and off I went to make hundreds of phone calls and send out what seemed like a millennium of emails, but get the best, I did. One of my first calls was to Linda Limb at Limb Design, who created The Wizard of Oz invitation to get our creative juices flowing.
Paul-David used the one-story tent as a VIP pre-event reception to thank the sponsors and unveil the 2010 class of Houston Treasures. As mentioned previously, this tent was left in place for Discovery Green to use the following week. David Gugino and Lester Sorsby (DGLS Events) signed on to produce the VIP area. Renowned caterer and rental company Swift + Co. was asked to provide its sumptuous cuisine and signature rental furniture. Richard Brown Music featured string players for the hour-long reception. Bright Star Productions created their divine ambiance in Oz colors of red, green, yellow and white. Susan Christian, Director of Mayor’s Office of Special Events presented The Social Book with a proclamation declaring January 21, 2010 as The Social Book Day! Houston Treasures Creator Warner Roberts, Scott Evans and sponsor Martha Turner presented the 2010 Houston Treasures Honorees to a standing ovation. Floating in from the North throughout the reception was J&D Entertainment’s “Glenda the Good Witch” inside a giant clear plastic bubble!
Now, on to the “Star of the Show,” the two-story all-glass Aztec Tent with an indoor and outdoor balcony. The tent was conveniently positioned at the end of the sidewalk (“Yellow Brick Road”), which extended about 40 yards, from the corner of Avenue of the Americas (across from George R. Brown Convention Center) and down Dallas Street to the tent. Frank Billingsley glorified each night of its week-long construction on Channel 2’s Weather Moment. Its camera was directly in front of Hilton Americas-Houston and spotlighted the daily happenings in the park. Who wouldn’t love free press for a week!?! The walkway was lit in yellow brick, courtesy of LD Systems and lined on both sides with apple trees, courtesy of Darryl Murchison.
Paul-David chose all the interior décor for the big tent from Aztec, including chandeliers, linens, glassware, china, silverware, bars, and much more. He divided the room into “Good” and “Evil.” The good side consisted of “Kansas” and “The Emerald City,” while the bad side was filled with the “Enchanted Forest” and “The Witch’s Castle.” The food and dessert stations were divided up and placed within the sections best suited for their food offerings. Nino Shbeeb and his Flowers by Nino provided his luxurious signature roses on the stages in both tents, on every food display table and each ballroom table. Staffing for the bars was provided by Ceci Kammer and her company, Capitol Beverage. They happily poured 360 Vodka, in all its flavors, all night long! Renowned hospitality company Crew Staffing, owned by Tony Gutierrez, beautifully handled staffing for the VIP tent and event staffing. Cake artist Who Made The Cake created a stunning sugar replica of the Emerald City with its cake in rainbow colors, while pâtissier Finale by Glenna designed the Wicked Witch’s Castle, complete with a 3-foot chocolate witch peering into a clear sugar globe containing The Wizard of Oz characters! Featured cuisine providers included Benjy’s, Sushic, Grotto, Mariposa at Neiman Marcus, and many others. Ice Designs created two sculptures, one of Emerald City and one of the Witch’s Castle, with a luge carved into it. 360 Vodka poured out of it till the event ended!
The center of the room held Bright Star Productions’ state-of-the-art L-E-D dance floor, which kept guests on their feet all night. Bringing the entertainment to the party were Richard Brown Music’s orchestra, Broadway singers from J&D Entertainment to sing Wicked’s “Defying Gravity,” and children from Ensemble Theater singing The Wiz’s “Ease on Down the Road.” Local warblers included songbirds Yvonne Washington and Kenneth Gayle. Houston models Miami Johnson and Matt Johnson partnered with makeup artist Matthew Abraham to become “The Scarecrow” and “The Tin Man,” respectively. Neiman Marcus provided designer clothes in the colors of yellow, green, and red, modeled on stairways and pedestals by Page Parkes Texas. LD Systems’ black L-E-D fiber-optic curtain created a starry ambiance for stage backdrop, which partnered well with Gene Ruple’s Grand Draping & Lighting, who did a beautiful curtain surround and intricate pipe and drape!
Sound, lighting and special effects were among some of the most essential elements inside and outside these innovative and landmark tent structures. Sound and lighting companies showcasing their event excellence included Southern Sound, Bright Star Productions, LD Systems, J&S Audio Visual and Stage Directions. The latter, owned by Richard Hoggatt, took the original The Wizard of Oz film and superimposed the characters of The Wizard, Dorothy, The Wicked Witch, Glenda the Good Witch, The Scarecrow, The Tin Man and The Cowardly Lion with the faces and voices of Houstonians who supported The Social Book. Yours truly became The Wizard, The Wicked Witch was masterfully cast with Warner Roberts, Leisa Holland-Nelson Bowman was Dorothy, the late Martha Turner was Glenda the Good Witch, Jeff Henry took the reigns as The Scarecrow, Sami Shbeeb (a Social Book partner) signed on as The Tin Man and event producer Paul-David Van Atta “put his dukes up” as The Cowardly Lion. Stage Directions made a short 4-minute video highlighting our acting styles and the crowd gave an equally timed round of applause for all our efforts!
The icing on top of the event cake was the hot-air balloon, which guided us to create the theme. The balloon took guests on a sky-high trajectory over downtown and the event itself. When people ask my opinion on how to make an event memorable, my response is usually a combination of many factors—an interesting theme sets it off, a superb location that will make it easy to attract attendees, an event planner who is well-versed in creating magic and designing a flawless program, delicious food and sumptuous spirits, engaging entertainment, dynamic and clever theme-based décor, a stellar host committee, community-conscious chairpersons, honorary chairs and honorees and a sense of joy and group effort in the event and its celebrated cause. Our 15th anniversary event to launch Discovery Green had all of these just mentioned in spades (I mean “poppies”), and fifteen years later, people still consider it to be the “emerald” standard of event excellence. A quote from Paul-David Van Atta sums the evening up nicely: “Producing this historic event was among my favorite professional endeavors, and I was honored that Scott, Jeff, and Sami trusted me with this monster celebration! It was a manifestation of Houston’s finest talents swirled into an experience unparalleled to this day. I felt like a kid in a candy store, having every possible asset to play with. A giant toy chest provided by Aztec Tents and Events paired with the brilliance of nearly every special events vendor, decorator, lighting designer and culinary talent made for a spectacle that will be long remembered.”
Oz never looked so good!
