Proscenium’s big break
Each month, we’re celebrating 15 moments from the past 15 years that capture the magic, the challenges, and the unforgettable wins of the Proscenium journey.
This month, we’re taking a look at one of the industry's biggest events, Walmart Shareholders.
The unlikeliest win
Proscenium was only a couple of years old when Walmart, who were at the time heading toward a trillion dollars in annual sales, went out to RFP for their annual shareholders meeting: one of the biggest corporate productions on Earth. They chose us. This pretty tiny, pretty new company.
A line-up worthy of a festival
The headline talent matched the enormous scale. Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, Harry Connick Jr., and Reese Witherspoon.
Pharrell opened the 2014 show with Happy, which had just become the biggest song in the country.
If you're producing this kind of event in New York, Las Vegas, or LA, everything you need is already there: the vendors, the equipment, the crews. But this was Fayetteville, Arkansas, which doesn't have quite the same infrastructure. We had to bring everything in on a three-week load-in, pushing the limits of LED, lighting, and live broadcast technology at the time.
The catalyst for our next 15 years
The Wall Street Journal reported on it. The New York Times covered it. And while you can never prove it directly, we would often see a surge in the stock price on the Monday after the Friday show. Just saying…
But beyond the press coverage and the business impact, there was something about the sheer improbability of the whole thing that makes it stand out. Walmart chose this pretty new company to do their biggest show for their most important audience: their associates, their shareholders, and the media that covered the whole thing. And they did it multiple times, with us.
