No overnight success, it has taken more than 20 years and a fair share of trial and error on a path that was previously undefined. As the local pioneer in the field, LANDMARK literally had to write its own book, back then when even the term “Special Events” was new.

The company started out designing and creating costumes for carnival and stage sets for theatre and developed those skill sets as a spring board to bigger things. “We did not know what we were building… we were feeding our creative needs, having fun. Who knew that it would mushroom into a sector… we were fulfilling a tiny niche in a small market..

Objective, mission, driving force, raison d’etre… all in one phrase! Rising above expectations and thinking beyond boundaries, Landmark Events sees itself as the company by which milestones are set and standards are measured. Born out of a marriage between two trendsetting industry leaders (Jen-S Designs and Renta Tent Plus), this hybrid company is defining a new service frontier for the Special Events sector in St. Lucia.

A member of the Landmark Group established over 20 years ago and growing quietly on a reputation of originality and professionalism, Landmark Events now offers the region’s most comprehensive range of products and services spanning event planning, production, infrastructure and custom designed décor.

“It’s a unique company” says Admin and HR Manager Jeanine Fricot-Miller who recently joined the Group as part of an evolving corporate structure. “I actually look forward to coming to work each day because of the dynamic atmosphere and sheer creative energy… At Landmark Events it’s never the same day twice!”

“That dynamic energy is exactly what attracted me to the Group” says Sales and Marketing Director, Tracey Warner-Arnold. With years of experience in tourism and telecommunications marketing, and a healthy dose of planning and managing Cricket and Jazz events, it has proven to be a near-perfect fit. “Landmark Events is very serious about the growth and development of its team as well as its corporate position as a regional leader… We’re responsive, market driven and open to new ideas, and want to maintain these fundamentals as we continue to grow.”

That’s exactly why the company has gone about quietly reinventing itself, redesigning its internal systems and putting the right people in place. The result is a company positioned to offer one-stop shopping to the growing events sector in St. Lucia and beyond.

An impressive range of customers include private individuals planning a small family gathering, to international corporations staging product promotions and incentive events. Besides its association with annual fixtures like the Bank of St. Lucia’s AutoMax and First Caribbean’s Home Show, the company also owns and operates several successfully branded events of its own, including the Kalalu World Music Festival, Jazz Afterglow, Word Alive and Rituals Carnival.

The new and improved, Landmark Events continues to produce events from concept to completion irrespective of size. With an eye on creativity, value and quality, an intimate waterside wedding with a modest budget is likely to receive as much attention and enthusiasm as a regional conference or a million dollar opening ceremony.

As a single seamless service provider, Landmark Events is a genuine partnership of people and ideas, bringing clients the region’s most diversified in-house special events inventory. This includes a variety of tents, lights, tables, chairs, décor items, stage equipment, linens and cutlery, as well as a six-acre special events facility at Samaans Park, Choc Bay, which comprises three venues in one. Well into its second operating year, the park has accommodated a diversity of events from tradeshows and music festivals to parties, pageants and poetry readings.

The real asset however is the company’s service. Landmark Events now offers both standard décor packages and custom designed solutions, which means almost any event that can be conceived can be successfully created with a sense of style and drama attributable to its origins in the carnival arts and theatre. Their in-house capacity covers everything from supplying skirted tables to scripted speeches, live music to living mannequins, flowing fountains and forest scenes complete with rising mist and birdsong.

Over the years the group has undertaken projects as diverse as Cricket World Cup, Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural reception, and the visit of a Papal Nuncio. At home in St. Lucia, they have feted American Presidents and British Princes, managed corporate launches as smoothly as state funerals, and seated heads of state and government.

Further afield, the Group has provided set design, lighting and stage management services to festivals in Anguilla, Guadeloupe and Trinidad, exported costumes to Martinique, Latvia and Mexico, and produced an array of stunning events across the region.

This track record of cost effective creativity earned the Group the Chamber of Commerce “Service Exporter of the Year Award” for 2007, and since then the accolades and enquiries have poured in.

“It’s a badge of honour to be recognised in this way” says a thankful CEO Adrian Augier, recently featured in the Who’s Who of St. Lucia Business and clearly the company’s artistic and entrepreneurial epicentre. A trained economist and talented artist, his unusual combination of heart and head may well account for the dynamism of the Landmark model and the company’s admirable ability to bridge that uncharted space between Art and Commerce.