PAVE has announced it will host an inaugural event for GlobalShop on Tuesday, March 24, from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at Light Nightclub at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to kick off the three-day retail design trade show. The Opening Night Bash will feature the theatrical performances of Cirque du Soleil.
In addition to three live performances by the circus-art group, and music provided by headlining DJs, the event will include, what PAVE calls, “the ultimate food and cocktail experience.”
At the Bash, there will be recent PAVE design competition scholarship winners present to “meet and mingle with the crowd,” PAVE president Denny Gerdeman says. “The last two years there have been design and visual competition winners attending and this has been very beneficial for them to see how large the industry really is and meet potential employers.”
PAVE’s vp of education, Brian Davies, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP), encourages GlobalShop attendees to stop by the PAVE booth (2323) and introduce themselves to the group’s participating students.
By connecting students with established retail influencers, and engaging them with future retailers through the organization’s annual Student Design Competition, “new ideas are encouraged and shared,” says Davies. “PAVE also connects emerging talent by offering educational scholarships to those with a passion for the industry who need, and have earned, our support.”
Scholarship winners for 2015 will be announced at the A.R.E. Design Awards directly preceding the Opening Night Bash. This year, Gerdeman says, the PAVE board approved an increase in annual student scholarship and educator support to $150,000 on an annual basis.
Tickets for the event can be purchased through PAVE and proceeds support the volunteer organization’s efforts to “connect design students, educators and professionals who support the design industry in a vibrant, meaningful and mentoring format,” explains Gerdeman.
VMSD is an official sponsor of the PAVE 2015 Opening Night Bash. For more information about PAVE, visit www.paveinfo.org.