Denver event planner moves north

Advantage Services Group Inc., a Denver-based live-event production company, has expanded into Fort Collins with an eye on a fast-growing market for special-event coordination that comes with a booming economy.

And for Advantage, according to company producer-director Ken Helmers, the angels

Meeting planners and audio-visual companies are good at what they do, Helmers said, but often can't look at an event from the big-picture perspective. Advantage can handle it all, he said.

"Menus, travel arrangements, security, everything from the very start ... all the way through until guests are back at the airport," Helmers said. "We're a one-stop shop."

Plenty of details go into planning a live event, whether it's a sales meeting or an award ceremony for 100 or 10,000 people.

Making sure the room is booked, the lighting is right, the sound system works, the presentations are well-scripted and the presenters are on time can be a fulltime job. But for corporations trying to host such events, sparing a full-time employee for all that planning can be difficult. And handling all those details may take employees out of their realm of expertise.