FILO Joins MOA in Paying Respect to Veterans

This Veterans Day, FILO Productions teamed up with the Mall of America to put on a fantastic event: the 1st annual Veterans Day Chef's Challenge presented by Star Tribune. The premise was simple: start with eight teams (of two people), and work your way down to one final winner. There were four rounds, with each round lasting one hour. Teams had to use a different MRE (Meal-Ready-to-Eat) as part of their dish each round. Teams were comprised of one service member with cooking experience, and one professional chef from a Mall of America restaurant. The team members had never met before, so it was a unique challenge to work together, while trying to create a dish that would impress the judges and carry their team on to the next round.

In addition to the load-in and load-out of all equipment for the Challenge, FILO’s role during the competition was to support the contestants and make it as easy as possible to complete their dish each round. Whether it be restocking necessary items, removing, cleaning and replacing dishes, or letting the contestants know where they could find certain ingredients and equipment, FILO had it covered. Time moved fast during the competitions, so everyone had to work together. Between rounds, FILO would reset everything, as well as clean all equipment and make sure everything was set for the upcoming round of competition.

It was a long (but worthwhile) 16-hour day, as load-in started at 6am; competitions began around 1pm; and the champions were crowned just after 8pm.

In the end, the team representing Hard Rock Café was awarded first place.

It was truly an honor that FILO had the opportunity to execute such a fun and meaningful event, watching two complete strangers come together in an attempt to show-off their cooking skills, while paying respect to our Veterans. Everyone deemed the event quite a success, with record crowds stopping by the rotunda area to watch the competitions.

FILO looks forward to working with the Mall of America for next year’s Veterans Day cooking challenge, and many more events to come.

NBA RENS Event (#2) in NYC

On Monday, October 17th, FILO’s own Luke Hvidhyld hopped in a box truck and drove out to New York City for the New York RENS 2016 Gala event, marking FILO’s participation in the event for the 2nd consecutive year. The New York RENS is an amazing program that encourages personal development through the sport of basketball as well as in the classroom. This wonderful organization works hard to accomplish goals though their AAU teams of all ages, and through their strong mentoring program(s). The RENS Program is a great organization that is strongly rooted in the New York Basketball community and had been praised for developing young, talented, and motivated individuals.

Come Thursday, October 20th, RENS hosted their 2016 Gala in the Cipriani Building at 55 Wall Street, New York. The Gala dinner was in efforts to raise funds to continue to support the AAU athletes and the mentoring programs around New York City. Both Luke Hvidhyld and Brian Buron of FILO were on-site to provide a basketball hoop, wood-grain court, and custom-signage for the main attraction!

8 lucky tables were chosen, at random, to attempt a half-court shot for the chance at a $100,000 donation to a specific group, team, or program of their choice! Unfortunately, no contestant hit the big shot, but the event was a major success and FILO is very proud to have been a part of it!

FILO’s responsibilities included transportation of all equipment, both to New York and back to Minnesota; loading/unloading equipment on-site and in the NBA-warehouse; setup and teardown of the basketball hoop and court in the ballroom; installing custom RENS graphics; securing hotel accommodations; and coordination of the basketball portion of the event with the RENS group.

Once again, FILO is very proud to have been a part of such a wonderful event for such a wonderful cause. RENS believes that the sport of basketball can teach young adults very important life lessons, and FILO is happy to be aiding in their mission to spread their passion and enthusiasm for the game of basketball!

Happy Halloween From FILO

On October 25th, FILO had the pleasure to help with the design and management of the Annual Pearson's Candy Halloween Bash and once again, the event was a huge success. This is the 3rd consecutive year FILO has executed the one-day Halloween event, held in the yard of Pearson's Candy Headquarters.

The FREE event for families and kids, featured all the favorites from previous years with Norm the Magician, bouncy houses and customized magnet picture frames to take home.

But this year, Pearson’s wanted FILO to pump up the haunted décor to a whole new level…and that is exactly what we did! If it wasn’t the foggy, spooky cemetery equipped with a horse drawn hearse and 7-ft. tall grim reaper, or the grungy pirates and their treasure being attacked by a giant sea urchin, then the mad scientist with smoking gadgets and bubbling experiments was sure to have attendees in awe. Spectators couldn’t get enough, taking tons of pictures to post on social media or keep as mementos.

FILO also added a couple of creative activities, which were a hit, including an enormous chalk board for the kids to get artistic with a fancy Halloween drawing, and face painters who never stopped working from start to finish.

As always, a portion of the proceeds from this event went to the Ronald McDonald House and even with a bit of rainy, cold weather, this year was a record breaking year in sales.

Pearson's was over the moon with the ideas and concepts FILO dreamt up for this wonderful event. We, at FILO love the opportunity to participate in events that not only bring the community together, but also give back at the same time, and this event allows us to do just that!