Trade: Firm's creativity attracts corporate clients

Linda Carne didn't worry about the preparations for the staff holiday party for the local Girl Scouts because she trusted Andrea Lyons.

Lyons, who owns All About Presentation, planned the event.

"She handled all the details, and she decorated everything," said Carne, CEO of the Girl Scout Commonwealth Council of Virginia. "She is very creative. I can't imagine doing that all myself. It was a seamless event."

Carne likes the way Lyons tackles a project.

"She does her homework. She gets to know the company," Carne said. "She can work with any budget you give her."

Lyons started All About Presentation, a Chesterfield County boutique event-management firm, in 2007.

The business started as a part-time endeavor while Lyons worked full time for Altria Client Services, which provides support functions for Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Philip Morris USA. She joined Altria in 2004 after graduating from Central Michigan University and left in 2008 to concentrate on her event-management business.

Lyons became interested in event management after planning a supplier trade show for Altria.

"I loved everything about it," she said. "People made new connections and new friends. I really like that element."

Her interest in event planning led her to take courses at the University of Virginia, where she received a certificate in meeting and event planning.

In her first year in business, while handling events part time, Lyons concentrated on social gatherings, including weddings and bar mitzvahs.

After going full time with her business, one of her first corporate events was a product launch meeting and networking session for the Charles Luck Stone Center in Goochland County in 2009.

Shannon Dugan, the stone center's studio manager, has worked with Lyons on more than five events since then.

"All About Presentation is a great company," she said. "They are very reliable."

Dugan thinks that one of Lyons' biggest attributes is her flexibility.

"We tend to plan and go into full mode at the last minute," she said. "She is able to do things at the last minute and do them very well."

Corporate and milestone events, such as retirements and anniversaries, represent about 92 percent of Lyons' business. The remainder is divided among trade-show booth design, seminars, event marketing and meetings.

Lorrie Gore, general manager for Gundlach Plumbing & Heating, worked with All About Presentation during a healthy-lifestyle expo. Lyons suggested the theme "Don't gamble with your health" for Gundlach's booth.

"She had games like beanbag tossing, and people could [sign up] to win a Nintendo Wii," Gore said. "[All of] that brought people into the booth to talk about indoor-air quality. We were packed."

Lyons began partnering with other vendors when clients started asking for services such as lighting design that she couldn't provide.

"The importance of having a great team — staff, contractors and vendors — is to help support a vision," she said. "We look for the best people out there who are passionate about providing their best [work]."

Many of All About Presentation's clients are based in Virginia, but they have events outside the state. Lyons plans events throughout the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, working with budgets from $5,000 to $1.2 million.

She is planning a national sales meeting in Orlando, Fla., for Carilion-Spectrum, a laboratory services company based in Roanoke. The event will take place in February.

Lyons handles 15 to 20 major events a year.

"We do high-end, high-profile, style-minded events," she said. "We don't do weddings or bar mitzvahs anymore. Our core market is 750 or less attendees."

Since 2009, the company has grown 200 percent in revenue.

Lyons donates about 10 percent to 17 percent of what the company makes at each event to charity.

"That is huge for me," she said.

Lisa Bailey, vice president for Express Auto Center Inc. in Chesterfield, said she was drawn to Lyons for the creativity she brings to events. Bailey had Lyons put on a Final Four basketball-themed party for the auto center.

"She comes up with normal everyday items and makes them into extraordinary visual decorations," Bailey said. "She comes up with ideas you would never think of yourself and works hard to make sure your event is perfect."