Everlast Productions — Local services in Dania Beach

We completed a live/virtual event at a 5 star hotel for around 150+ people. Set up was challenging, to the point that 8-10 hours later they told us to go home, they were so far behind. We were assured over and over that it would be perfect, no tech challenges, they were "the best and this is what we do." We still had them role play through the launch of our event featuring a simple 3 minute video and ensuring the virtual feeds worked, sound worked. We stated "this key section absolutely, positively, cannot go wrong or it'd be the end of the event and cost us 100s of thousands of dollars." We were laughed at, reassured, and re-promised we were being silly to even contemplate them making a mistake.

As the meeting launched, didn’t work - the audio started but no video. I stood on stage as the start to the meeting, all energy, etc. was ruined. It was the most embarrassing moment in company history. I had to literally stop the event and say "Sorry. sorry. Let's just start the meeting over. Sorry." Then I waited. They kept going. I had to again say the same thing as the video still didn't work. Again, just awful.

As the meeting continued, they had not checked our app platform and the video would cut off for all virtual attendees if a speaker ran a single minute over. We'd asked them to ensure this didn't happen. It did throughout much of the first of the two days of meetings so anybody online missed the end of every speech/session. Again, very amateur and embarrassing.

Powerpoint advancers did not work in the break out room. Audio in the also did not work to start the day with half the virtual attendees unable to hear for about 20 minutes. We had feedback constantly in the break out rooms from virtual attendees as the levels were off.

Staff would be chatting as we were on stage speaking behind the stage making it difficult to focus. The leaders were contrary and constantly frustrated we asked questions or questioned them, but then didn't have things working. Their salesperson, Javier, is an excellent salesman, but his words are not reality & he is the face of the company - lots of over promise, under deliver, and that comes from a company who anticipated issues, expects little of vendors, worked hard to ensure key ones didn't occur, and yet they still did.

We approached them to explain that we've lost people who normally would re-sign up for the event costing us 10s if not 100s of thousands of dollars. Further, many of those may not have signed on for further services potentially costing us millions. Their response, initially, after paying around $40,000 for 2 days to have 2 cameramen and a handful of helpers, was to offer us about a 3-5% discount for the issues which they eventually came up to 7% - this is about 2-3k or so on 40,000 dollars spent for what amounted to failure. When pressed and provided opportunity to resolve things amicably over the last 3 weeks, we were told that "sh-t happens" and it isn't their responsibility though in our view this is their one job. When pressed further, their out of touch CFO suggested offering a $10 credit (insulting) and when we went to the CEO over the CFO's head we were shut down beyond the 7% or so.

I do believe people make errors and stuff happens. When we make a mistake, we admit it & put our money where our mouth is. We lose a bit of cash on 1 client, but in aggregate profit on successful projects. They have literally told us they "can't go below 10% margins" or they'd lose money. So lose money on 1 deal as you failed.

Had they done a good job sure, make profit - but if you fail miserably, kill the entire start of the event, day one of the break out, and are unable to do what hired to do, you address it and take some losses to help defray the 6-7 figures we've lost.

My opinion is that I'd strongly seek to work with another production company. They will not take ownership of their failures, constantly reminding you that they, first and foremost, must profit off their weekend even if you have lost huge sums and do not have the acumen to deliver...

Our Association has been holding conferences for more than 50 years, however, we began noticing increases in attendance starting in 2014. At that time, we were also transitioning our leadership, and we came to the consensus that the Association not only wanted to, but also needed to elevate the professionalism of our event. In 2015, we were holding our convention in Fort Lauderdale, and quickly contracted with their in-house production company, Everlast Productions. They worked with us on set design to create a theme for the event, that not only incorporated enhancements to our lighting and audio, but also backdrops, scenic elements and visuals for the attendees in audience. We were incredibly pleased with the way Everlast took our show to the next level (and then the next and then even more), and our attendees were also impressed with the way their conference experience was improved and how appreciated it made them feel. Even though Everlast Productions is based in Fort Lauderdale, we have since hired them to produce our Annual Conferences ever since, including 2016 (San Antonio), 2017 (Nashville), 2018 (Phoenix), 2019 (Anaheim) and now 2021 in...

I wanted to take a moment to thank David McCranie and Rick Solari very much for our annual meeting this year.

Alone, we could not have pulled this planned annual meeting in the style, sophistication, and technical wizardry that you and your staff demonstrated this past week.

As well, you both exercised professionalism, candor, restraint, and compassion for our production - given the limited time, and for that, I thank you. It is always a pleasure working with Everlast Productions and look forward to working again the near future

Please thank the entire team for us and continue to...