The Charles Group, Inc. » News

Bringing hope and connection to those suffering from PNH

lisaK — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:04:20 +0000

There are those conditions you hear about almost every day—heart disease, cancer, and others—and then there are those that are so rare most of us will never come across them. Such is the case with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare acquired stem cell disorder that affects only one or two people per million.

Now, imagine being a patient with this condition; not only having to battle its daily challenges, but also having to cope with the feeling of isolation that comes from having such an extraordinarily rare disorder.

Thanks to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), PNH patients and their families have a place to turn. Throughout the year, at locations across the country, NORD hosts informational meetings, entitled Sharing Hope, for this patient population. The goals of these gatherings are for individuals with PNH to meet others with the condition, share their experiences and have the opportunity to speak with a PNH expert physician. The meetings not only provide critical information, but the encouragement, support and hope that comes from connecting with others in this small community.

Sharing Hope brings that comfort to PNH patients, but managing these meetings has unique challenges. For that expertise, NORD relies on The Charles Group.

The Charles Group serves as the project manager for all of NORD’s regional meetings, including sourcing venues, managing room blocks, coordinating logistics and travel arrangements for speakers and special guests, and handling onsite details for each location. This allows NORD’s team to fully concentrate on patients and families, eager to learn, share and connect about PNH.

Indeed, these types of meetings—bringing patients, providers and pharmaceutical companies together to support a patient population—are a particular specialty for The Charles Group, which has extensive healthcare meeting experience. There are many things to consider and manage beyond the standard event “to-do” list. For example, a key element to any patient-centered meeting is venue selection, because it has to simultaneously foster the effective exchange of information between patients and providers, yet be nurturing enough to meet everyone’s needs—including sleeping accommodations, dietary and logistical needs and much more. For the past three years The Charles Group has been making it seamless and easy for the NORD staff, physicians, patients and their families, because nothing should distract from the meeting’s core purpose: To bring hope and connection to people in need.

Enlightening, empowering and evolving women healthcare leaders

lisaK — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:27:38 +0000

The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Leadership Conference is the industry’s premier leadership development event, named as one of the top 100 such programs for women in the United States. Held annually in different cities, it is a multi-day conference delivering dynamic speakers, inspiring leadership stories, actionable skill development and opportunities to network with peers and senior women leaders from all sectors of healthcare. The most recent conference was held in Kissimmee, Florida, in November 2012, at the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center.

The meeting theme—Where Leadership Paths Converge – Enlighten, Empower, Evolve—was telling in both its promise and delivery. Attendees enjoyed an ambitious schedule that started at dawn and continued until well after dusk. They moved, continually, between three planary sessions; three sessions of workshops with nearly a dozen choices for each; meals; social events; and an exhibit hall.

The Charles Group produces this prestigious conference in its entirety, from site selection, to food and beverage, show production, room set-up, exhibit hall, keeping attendees on schedule and everything in between. The Charles Group is onsite for the length of the conference, from registration until the last attendees depart for home. It’s an intense planning and logistical effort, brought to life every year, since its inception in 1997, by the managerial prowess of The Charles Group team—with stellar results.�

Celebrating survivorship, liberty and soul with Aretha Franklin and 2,500 guests

lisaK — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:46:25 +0000

On a stunning fall day along the Hudson River, with Lady Liberty and the New York City skyline as backdrops, the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center’s 4th Annual Celebrating Life & Liberty event was elevated to new heights with a thundering hour-long performance by the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Cancer patients, supporters and JTCC staff enjoyed an energized set of hits from Ms. Franklin, as well as some new numbers, with a grand finale rendition of her classic, “Respect.”

The sea of guests were either up on their feet, dancing in their seats or singing along—and for just a few hours, were able to put their struggles with cancer aside for a day filled with music, food and fun.

The Celebrating Life & Liberty event is held on Liberty Island for a very special, symbolic reason. In centuries past, millions of immigrants to America endured long and arduous journeys in hopes of a better life. They had Lady Liberty to greet them—a beacon of freedom and confidence. Today, JTCC patients face their own difficult journey of recovering from cancer. And like immigrants of yesteryear, they share a renewed sense of hope and joy in Lady Liberty’s presence.

“This celebration holds a special place for us year after year,” said Susan Dunkelman, managing partner for The Charles Group. “All of us find it incredibly rewarding and wonderful to see the patients and their families experience it. The day is full of inspiration, heart-felt emotion and joy.”

This annual event is free for cancer patients, survivors and their families and includes activities for children and adults, including yoga, music, photography with Lady Liberty, food, raffles and representatives from many cancer advocacy organizations.�

The Charles Group was instrumental in the event’s success—from arranging transportation, to managing the budget, directing the event’s set up, food, entertainment, activities, raffles, and more.

“We have worked on this event since its inception and are proud to support HUMC each year as it celebrates with its patients on winning the fight against cancer,” said Dunkelman.�

“We have worked on this event since its inception and are proud to support HUMC each year as it celebrates with its patients on winning the fight against cancer,” said Dunkelman.

Bringing high-tech networking to a high-tech industry

lisaK — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:30:43 +0000

Founded in 1994, BioNJ is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the climate for biotechnology in New Jersey. Each Spring, for the past three years, BioNJ has hosted its International BioPartnering Conference—a two-day session that attracts senior life science executives from global biotech and pharmaceutical companies, the funding community and entrepreneurs from the United States, Europe, Asia and beyond. The BioPartnering Conference helps foster partnerships between organizations and is a forum for companies to present themselves and their capabilities. The conference is held in Princeton, NJ.

The Charles Group was tasked with managing the conference through biopartnering.com—a highly specialized, web-based partnering software program that helps conference attendees plan and optimize their time before, during and after an event.

Since a fundamental goal of the BioPartnering Conference is to network, biopartnering.com gives attendees access to the global life science community at any time, from any place. Think of it as an enhanced LinkedIn, but customized to biotech industries.

The Internet platform allowed people to see who will be attending the BioPartnering Conference, including company, personal and product profiles; invite other delegates to a meeting; and search attendance lists to identify the types of partners they’re looking for. An elaborate scheduling feature let attendees create personalized event agendas for meeting and conference activities.

The Charles Group has extensive experience in a wide scope of event management software programs, including those for registration, tracking costs and attendance and more—it continually sources, tests, recommends and manages them for its clients. This high-tech expertise made the integration between biopartnering.com and BioNJ’s registration software seamless… and provided an excellent, and highly resourceful, user experience for all attendees.

What to do when a legendary venue is no more

lisaK — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 08:31:35 +0000

In May of 2012, the New York Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA-NY) held its 25^th annual Big Apple Awards, recognizing excellence in public relations and communications. For this special quarter-century celebration, PRSA-NY secured legendary news anchor Dan Rather as the keynote speaker. As always, The Charles Group would serve as the event’s planners and be onsite to ensure everything went smoothly.

This prestigious award winning event represents the apex of the New York public relations industry—and was traditionally and appropriately held in the famed Rainbow Room, overseeing Rockefeller Center. But the upscale restaurant, nightclub and landmark closed. PRSA-NY asked The Charles Group to find a new venue—one that would offer the same aesthetic and culinary appeal of the Rainbow Room, but at a price point that would maintain the client’s required revenue for the event.

The Charles Group conducted an exhaustive review of available venues across New York City. It leveraged its longstanding relationships with hotel chains and venues, highlighting the incredible marketing opportunity of hosting an event like this—filled with potential clients from New York’s public relations elite. The Charles Group finally selected the stunning Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Columbus Circle—a luxurious location offering a bird’s eye view of Central Park and the iconic Manhattan skyline.

The choice was a successful one on every front—it kept costs well within budget without sacrificing the experience this event warranted; there was a boost in attendance, despite an increased ticket price; and reviews from attendees and the client were outstanding.�

Helping inspire more than 2,500 women leaders

lisaK — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:58:43 +0000

Each year, the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Woman of the Year event honors the achievements of remarkable leaders in healthcare. May of 2012 marked the organization’s 23^rd WOTY, celebrating Carolyn Buck of Luce of Ernst & Young as woman of the year, Michael Kaufman of Cardinal Health as honorable mentor, and Nancy Larsen of PAREXEL as winner of the Strategic Transformation Achievement Recognition (STAR).

More than 2,500 attendees joined together for this exciting event—whether in-person at the Hilton Hotel in New York City, or via satellite from San Francisco and Ohio.

Although billed as a single-day event, the festivities actually began days before, with attendees encouraged to connect with WOTY Carolyn Buck Luce for a series of tweets. HBA members then connected via a LinkedIn invitation to join the “WOTY Train” as they donned purple scarves and networked all the way to the Big Apple. The evening before the event lauded 100+ rising stars in the healthcare industry at the “Salute to the Stars” reception. The following morning, attendees networked, made new contacts and caught up with old friends at the “Celestial Connections” celebration, before gathering in the ballroom for lunch and to hear from award winners. HBA members, chapter leaders and guests tweeted highlights from speeches and events all day long.

The Charles Group has managed all aspects of this high-profile event since its inception, nearly a quarter century ago—including site selection, overseeing the event’s budget, registration, table management, sponsorship coordination, and supervising the entire event onsite. As attendance has topped more than 2,000 in recent years, The Charles Group continually streamlines and improves processes and operations in every facet of the event. For this year, it created and implemented a new ticketing system that smoothed the registration process and made it easier for companies purchasing tables to manage their guests and make changes up to the last minute. By making the process as effortless as possible for attendees, The Charles Group’s efforts allow them to break free of day-to-day demands… and to simply enjoy being inspired.

Making an evening of spectacular—and risk free—entertainment

lisaK — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:32:40 +0000

Each year, the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) hosts a city-wide conference for insurers and risk management professionals at different cities across the country. The event features educational sessions, keynote speakers, exhibits, networking and more. As a key industry event, attended by close to 20,000 people, it is both a highly educational and competitive atmosphere. A global commercial property insurance company wanted to make its mark at RIMS, and it turned to The Charles Group to make that happen.

In 2012, RIMS was being held in Philadelphia. The Charles Group’s client wanted to invite 1,000 guests—all of whom had their choice of entertainment, parties and events that night—to a special dinner and concert. It had to promise something extraordinary, something more, to get attention and fill seats… yet still be within the client’s budget.

The event required a venue large enough to accommodate feeding 1,000 people, yet be close enough to a concert hall for that evening’s entertainment. Temple University was a logical choice, however, the environment and menu choices weren’t exactly conducive to an elegant evening. But it was precisely the type of creative challenge in which The Charles Group excels.

To start, the evening’s concert needed a big name—someone contemporary, who would attract people and fill 1,000 seats at the Temple Performing Arts Center. After exploring options and working closely with the client’s budget, The Charles Group secured no other than Grammy award winning pop superstar Kelly Clarkson.

The next challenge was onto the dinner reception, to be held at Temple’s Mitten Hall—a building normally used for student activities, not stylish evening meals. All of this was compounded by the fact that the university’s caterer typically offered the only standard college-type menu. The Charles Group, however, working closely with the university and caterer, completely transformed the hall and revamped the menu into a dining experience its client would be proud of.

All 1,000 seats were taken. In fact, The Charles Group put security and attendance measures in place to allow for crowd control and the best possible experience for all attendees.

After a spectacularly presented meal in the “newly renovated” Mitten Hall, it was concert time! All 1,000 guests were “shown the way” along a red carpet to the Temple Performing Arts Center, where they spent the rest of the evening enjoying a breathtaking performance by Kelly Clarkson. Thanks to the creative abilities of The Charles Group, the evening was a huge succes for everyone.

Making a worldwide insurance company conference a world-class affair

lisaK — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:23:51 +0000

Once every three years, a global insurance company client of The Charles Group hosts a conference for its senior leadership. Since this signature event involves 1,800 employees from around the world, the client opts to hold the event in two waves of 900 attendees each. Besides the obvious logistical challenge of managing meal functions and providing program support, The Charles Group is also charged with venue selection and social activities for this very well traveled group of attendees with high expectations.

The most recent conference, held in Boca Raton, Florida, in March 2012, was as engaging as ever—with a broad assortment of indoor and outdoor activities in the beautiful Boca Raton Hotel and Resort. Guests enjoyed their choice of golf, tennis, spa, tours, biking, water activities and evening dinners and entertainment.

The key to success for this meeting is presenting activities that appeal to a diverse audience of men and women, and are exciting and interactive—and The Charles Group came through with its signature creativity. A highlight was the White Hot Casino, a “giving back” activity where the top three winners choose which company-supported charity would receive their winnings.

Each of the back-to-back meetings had an overlap day, where the first group of 900 departs, as the next 900 arrive. Then, the conference and activities begin again for group two.

A particular challenge is identifying the perfect venue for the conference. It has to be large enough to accommodate nearly 1,000 guests at one time in an upscale golf resort… yet be in a climate that’s conducive to a March meeting timeframe… all while offering a wide assortment of activities and amenities for guests. A tall order, but one The Charles Group has delivered on for three conferences over nine years—ensuring that company leaders from across the globe enjoy a world of entertainment, fun and sun.

What’s up-and-coming in the event biz?

lisaK — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:04:31 +0000

You would imagine, after traveling and planning dozens of events all year long, that Carol and Susan would love a well-deserved breather from their managing director posts at The Charles Group. But no. What do event planners do to stay fresh in their field? They go to an event presented just to educate and update them and their fellow planners… The Special Event Show.

Designed for event planners of every type—from corporate to non-profit to wedding planners—The Special Event Show is the annual industry gathering for all the latest in entertainment, décor, trends in food, technology and more… but the prevalent themes at this year’s event were innovative uses of color and light. As many of you know, Carol and Susan feverishly tweeted their experiences and discoveries at the show, held in January in Phoenix. According to experts there…

• The hot color of the year is honeysuckle… an eye-catching reddish pink. (For those of you who know your Pantone libraries well, it’s Pantone 18-2120 – see the color here.) You’ll see this color, a lot, used in clothing, table wear, and even cosmetics and appliances. It adds a lively, energetic flair to any décor or theme. An interesting note – in tougher times, color trends tend to become brighter or richer.

• LED lighting is quickly becoming the technology of choice for creating room ambience ranging from the subtle to the spectacular. The simple and cost-effective lighting easily “color washes” fabrics, curtains and backdrops to set the tone, any way you like.

• A big influencer right now in the worlds of décor and architecture is Phillipe Starck—one of the best-known contemporary designers in the world. Starck’s style is simultaneously striking and beautiful. The Delano South Beach Hotel is a good example of his work. Check it out, here.

One other takeaway: We learned that taking quality photos of events is critical—so we promise in future issues to bring you a lot more pictures of our events, food and venues!

A successful, sunny, South American symposium.

lisaK — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:14:59 +0000

As the official event planner for GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) physician marketing team, The Charles Group has traveled the world with their client, helping to educate healthcare professionals on the obesity epidemic and the company’s over-the-counter obesity drug, alli. This year’s International Congress on Abdominal Obesity (ICAO), of which GSK was a major sponsor, was held in February in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Attending were over 400 physicians, nurses, healthcare professionals and GSK management, marketing and sales personnel from across the globe. Once again, GSK tasked The Charles Group with creating an unforgettable series of events—that were highly informative and worthy of the GSK name.

The three-day congress, held at the Buenos Aires Hilton, featured a GSK symposium, exhibits, training and compelling presentations by key opinion leaders (called “KOLs” in the industry). The Charles Group managed all travel and logistical needs for GSK, including a GSK-sponsored welcome reception in the exhibit hall; organized training workshops for South American GSK sales personnel; helped accommodate all KOLs; secured translation services; and arranged entertainment and special dinner receptions for key attendees.
Bringing unique experiences to life.

Every event has the potential to bring something wondrous to attendees—something they normally wouldn’t get to experience. One such highlight was a dinner reception at Patagonia Sur—arguably the hottest restaurant in Buenos Aires. With stunning architecture reminiscent of historic Argentinean homes, the restaurant is owned and operated by renowned South American chef Francis Mallmann, a popular TV personality and author. [Link to his book] The Charles Group managed to secure exclusivity at Patagonia Sur for the entire evening, and attendees enjoyed a sumptuous eight-course meal of Chef Mallmann’s signature recipes.

In addition to relishing Patagonia Sur and other popular Buenos Aires eateries, attendees enjoyed a wide array of extra-curricular activities—from Argentinean wine and beef tasting, to tours of quaint marketplaces and shops, to dancing the night away at a tantalizing Tango club.