LAS VEGAS, NV—Avon has been calling on Unlimited Visibility Lighting Design (UVLD) for the last 15 years to meet the lighting demands of many of its corporate events, including their U.S. sales conferences and North America, U.S., and global awards and recognition programs. UVLD’s Greg Norgeot and Paul Sharwell, Avon’s lighting designer and programmer of choice, teamed most recently on the company’s annual Leadership National Conference at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.
ULVD supported Avon in Las Vegas recently for their leadership conference.
The event, attended by 3000 independent Avon Representatives, featured a general session that was both highly educational and theatrical in scope, followed by breakout sessions in four adjacent rooms, a product fair, and a closing general recognition event.
“Greg has always worked to meet our needs, whether it’s an event for 100 people or 17,000 people at the Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas,” says Joseph Billone, Avon’s vice president of communications and events/North America. “I’ve worked closely with him over the past 15 years, and he always delivers a quality product. He’s a joy to work with and has great people skills. Avon is a company built on productive relationships with our representatives, and Greg has developed a great relationship with our company.”
Having forged such strong bonds over the years, Norgeot “knows what Avon is looking for” when it holds events large and small. “The comfort factor is very important,” he says. “Avon usually has a tight timeframe for the shows, which are very cue intensive, so they’re comfortable with me taking the ball and running with it. They know I’ll be ready on time.”
Coming from a background in theater, Norgeot finds that it’s “always fun to do performance numbers” for big conferences like the Leadership event at the Paris Hotel. “The show featured corporate elements interspersed with a live band and singers, so I needed to design for both business communications and the theater. One moment I was lighting a presentation by Suze Orman with video elements and the next I was creating cues for lively musical numbers with singers. For the breakout sessions, I was primarily lighting for IMAG applications. The mix really kept me on my toes.”
Norgeot has also acted as production manager on Avon’s smaller award shows such as World Sales Leaders for top division sales managers from around the world, the North American Circle of Excellence program, and North American President’s Recognition Program for top-performing representatives. “It adds another dimension to my work to take on the production manager’s role,” he points out.
When its event calendar dictates, Avon is sure to come calling UVLD again. “Greg always demonstrates an incredible work ethic, his design is beautiful, and he puts together terrific teams,” says Billone. “He’s a very valuable asset to the team.”
