Alliant Event Services, Inc. partners with 20th Annual Mayoral Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease.

Kelly Karbacz from RENT and Robert S. Woods from One Life to Live Share Their Alzheimer’s Disease Care giving Experiences with Audio Visual provided by Nathan West and Robert Grater of Alliant Event Services.

New York – November 23, 2004 – More than 900 family caregivers and professionals attended the 20th Annual Mayoral Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease, which took place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The event was produced by Nathan West of Alliant Event Services, with Robert Grater as the Project Manager. Underwritten by the Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, the conference is presented by the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA) and the Aging in New York Fund, in collaboration with the New York City Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Robert Grater from our East Coast team did an excellent job as Project Manager, with Nathan West and Dave Schwab overseeing client relations. Pomona’s Kishan Patel setup a Power Point Email box so that conference Presenters could send their presentations in advance. This enabled Robert’s Graphic team to sort the presentations in advance, and collate them to the proper Breakout Rooms and General Session in a seamless fashion.

Numerous celebrities were on hand to help raise awareness of the importance of the family caregiver to Alzheimer’s patients. Robert S. Woods, who plays Bo Buchanan on the TV show One Life to Live, shared his experiences as caregiver for his mother and his sister, both of whom died of Alzheimer’s disease. Attendees also enjoyed a performance from the hit Broadway show RENT, sung by 16 cast members including Kelly Karbacz, who stars in the leading role Maureen. Karbacz is a caregiver for her grandmother who has Alzheimer’s.

The RENT production offered a few challenges as Robert had to convert a Conference Audio System into a Broadway Concert System in 15 minutes. The RENT singers were using 10 Wireless Handhelds on stage. Thanks to Robert Grater’s and our A1’s foresight in presetting the mixer channels and EQ’s, the *Broadway* section of the General Session was crystal clear. Many people in the audience were visibly moved by the performance, and afterwards congratulated Robert on the clarity of the audio and the beautiful look of the stage.

Overall the entire show was an outstanding success. Robin Fenley of the New York Fund for Aging (conference planner) said “Nathan, Alliant Events really did provide top-shelf A/V programming for our Mayoral Conference. You made a believer out of me - I went into the conference being somewhat skeptical of needing all the kinds of equipment, but judging by my own observations and feedback from participants, you lent a professional air to the event.”
Alliant Event Services is a nationwide audio, visual, lighting and computer rental services company.