Event Recap: Dine N Dash 2018
Event Type: Celebrity Client / Large Scale Non-Profit Simultaneous Events
Number of Attendees: 4,500+ attendees
What We Did: Planning, Design, Production and On-Site Execution + PR/Marketing
Venue: 39 restaurants in the 14th St and Penn Quarter neighborhoods + a pop-up at National Union Building, and after-party for MGM National Harbor at Studio Theatre.
Theme: José Andrés’ annual summer culinary event, Dine N' Dash brings thousands to ‘dine-n-dash’ at numerous locations throughout the city. Focus beginning with curated menus but ultimately being the philanthropic aspect - raising life-changing funds for the work that the chef’s nonprofit, World Central Kitchen does.
RGI's Favorite Creation: MGM National Harbor sponsored the DND afterparty where we created a fine art driven replication of this local resort’s gaming food and beverage offerings as a pop-up environment at Signature Theater. A particular favorite aspect, was our artist painting a live rendering of the event in real-time as it was happening.
Biggest Challenge: Simultaneously prepping, setting, and opening 39 logistically spread out event locations – some with lengthy and complicated set-up parameters – opening at the same time across the city. It required an immense amount of organization, strategy, and management of volunteers and staffing to ensure seamless execution. Also, how we shuttled all attendees across both corridors in managing transportation throughout the evening – such as branded buses and pedicabs.
A lot to be included in a few short hours but, luckily, that’s where RGI thrives – under pressure.
Each year celebrity chef Jose Andres hosts annual summer culinary event, Dine N' Dash benefiting his nonprofit World Central Kitchen. For one night, guests were able to leave their wallets at home and enjoy endless food and drink in dine-worthy Penn Quarter and 14th Street neighborhoods of Washington, DC.
RGI was brought on to handle the design, planning, management, pr/marking, and on-site execution; including the recruitment, training, and management of 150 volunteers. This corporate event was different than most, in that our team wasn’t just running one large scale event in a single venue, but rather managing 39 different events, in 39 different venues, including guest registration and attendee management, staffing, entertainment, print materials, food and beverage, and much more across the city simultaneously, including a VIP kick-off and closing party to book end the evening.
Founded by Andres in 2010, World Central Kitchen has paved the way among chefs for philanthropic endeavors numerous times in the face of disaster. This year’s event celebrated its most recent accomplishment in feeding over 3.5 million victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, making it the largest hot-meal emergency feeding operation on the island, an aspect RGI wanted to translate into the event.
The event proved to be a huge success garnering lots of media coverage and raising over $600,000 for the charity.
Scroll down for a few of our favorite photos…
