Another Grand Slam Tour for “Play Ball! Minnesota”

“Play Ball! Minnesota” wrapped up its three-month mobile tour on June 1 at St. Paul’s Grand Old Day festival – marking the team’s 10th stop on the road and 13th event.

This was FILO’s second year producing the “PlayBall! Minnesota” tour, which made its way across the state to stops such as: the Earth Day Half Marathon in St. Cloud, Arthritis Walk in Baxter and the Med City Marathon in Rochester.

“Baseball is beloved throughout Minnesota, and that’s been evident in the excitement and participation we’ve seen on this tour,” said Dan Fosse of FILO. “From kids to parents to grandparents, everyone lights up when they hold a baseball bat and take a swing. ‘Play Ball! Minnesota’ gives everyone the opportunity to experience the love for the game.”

FILO was responsible for managing all aspects of the tour, from pre-launch planning and routing to on-site staffing and activation. Our brand ambassadors registered approximately 350 new emails and handed out thousands of “PlayBall! Minnesota” branded giveaways.The tour touched an estimated 5,000 people, allowing the Twins organization to carry its message across the state and collect important information to communicate with followers and fans of baseball.

"PlayBall! Minnesota" and FILO will come together again this Sunday June 16th when the Twins and the Minnesota Minute Men honor the 2013 Play Ball! Mr. Baseball and Ms. Softball Award Winners at a banquet at Jax Café. FILO recently joined the Minute Men to help market and grow the organization, which exists to do good will through sports.

Grilling for Friends of Farnsworth

On June 4th Farnsworth Aerospace Elementary celebrated its 10-year anniversary and FILO was there to help – managing the audio/visual for the parade and program and feeding the staff, students and families. Our first experience utilizing FILO’s new 8-foot branded bbq grill proved to be a rousing success as we cooked and served 1,000 hot dogs and sides in just over an hour. In addition, FILO provided all the audio/visual components needed to liven up the parade and project the formal program, which took place in the school gym.

“Thank you so much for helping celebrate Farnsworth's 10th Anniversary of Aerospace last night,” Jill Wall, Program Manager, wrote in an email.“Your grilling was top notch, the music truck in the parade, your incredible staff helping, donating the paper products = Farnsworth LOVES having FILO as a continuing partner!”

Now that we have this first grill fest under our belts, FILO plans to offer the service to individuals and organizations in the near future so keep an eye out for the official announcement!

 

FILO Hits The Road Again

FILO has been a key part of the NBA Nation tour presented by Sprint for the last seven years, bringing the league’s interactive basketball experience to fans across the United States and promoting the NBA, its programs and its partners. This year’s tour will reach its midway mark this Father’s Day Weekend with a stop at the Taste of Randolph in Chicago. The first three stops were in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Charlotte, and were all met with great fanfare.

The 2013 NBA Nation Tour presented by Sprint is highlighted by the Sprint Unlimited NBA Experience and includes the Kevin Durant Unlimited Free Throw Competition and Steve Nash’s Fast Break Challenge. 

Other experiences include the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown, a Dribble to Stop Diabetes interactive tent, NBA Fit Clinics and, of course, the Official Ambassador of the NBA Nation Tour presented by Sprint, NBA Legend Darryl Dawkins. There is also an 18-wheel, 53’ interactive show truck where you can play the latest video games or capture your photo with a state of the art mock locker room set-up.

“The NBA Nation Tour presented by Sprint has found success in the first part of the tour and looks to carry that momentum into our next stop in Chicago,” said Tour Manager Andy Acosta. “As the NBA Finals are in full swing the excitement of the NBA is growing and we look forward to finishing the tour on a high note.”

The NBA Nation Tour presented by Sprint will be present at 8 stops across the country (total) and has the potential to reach more than one million people on impressions alone.

Some of FILO’s responsibilities and duties include eight full set-ups and tear downs of a footprint greater than 20,000 square feet, general operations management, signage production, equipment refurbishment, high-level talent management and managing a staff of more than 50 workers.

FILO Productions’ crew had a combined 13 NBA Nation Tours under their belts heading into this summer and for the second half of this season will be visiting Washington DC, New Rutherford, NJ, Philadelphia, PA and Dallas, TX.

 

FILO Launches Summer Internship Program

FILO is launching our first ever Internship Program this summer, bringing on three college undergraduates and an MBA candidate to help our company in a number of areas.

Maddie Wikstrom, Iowa State, and Joe Tobritzhofer, North Dakota State, will both graduate this fall. Isaac Dougherty just finished his first year at Wake Forest and Nathan Aadland is at St. Thomas working toward his MBA. Maddie, Joe and Nathan started this month and Isaac will join us at the end of the month.

“We aren’t starting this program, simply to bring in grunt workers to make coffee and copies,” said FILO owner Kevin Weinhandl. “We want to develop young talent in the event management/experiential marketing field and are giving them real responsibility.”

“Of course they will also do their fair share of grunt work too and pay their dues like all FILOs,” added Weinhandl.

Each intern will spend a week with a FILO in every department to get a holistic view of the company. They will have value-added projects in sales & marketing, business development, inventory management and logistics. Already Maddie is deeply involved in improving our website, Joe has been working diligently in the warehouse and is now at our NBA Nation Tour stop in Chicago, and Nathan has been creating business plans with FILO management.