As the 2010 Grand-Am season kicked off, SunTrust entertained 45 guests at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The jam-packed weekend started with pace car rides, a tour of the Daytona 500 Experience museum and a welcome reception and dinner at the Shores Resort with the SunTrust team drivers.

Quick pose with the team!

On Saturday, guests enjoyed a garage & transporter tour, photos with the team and the opportunity to run through the pouring rain back to the suite!  Once comfortable in the warm and dry Tower Suite, the guests watched the on-track action all day. As the evening approached, the guests were entertained at the a|i|m motorhome in the infield with a campfire, s’mores, drinks and a great fireworks display.

First, you take the mallow...

On Sunday, we woke to find the SunTrust #10 car has a rough night in the garage and would fight tooth and nail for their 6th place finish.  A long but exciting weekend for all!

SunTrust guests posing for a quick shot near the infield

We’re back and we’re in one piece! Last month, a|i|m made its annual trek to Nashville for Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust, a fun-filled weekend celebrating NASCAR and country music.

We’ve been a part of the event since day one and it’s been amazing to see it grow over the past few years.

The weekend kicks off with a concert featuring country music stars (we were lucky enough to have Hank Williams Jr., Vince Gill, Chris Young and Danny Gokey to name a few), but this year was particularly special as the performances took place at the historic Ryman Auditorium.

Hank!

The next day saw the Fan Festival – if you’re a NASCAR fan, you don’t want to miss it. From current and historic showcars and sponsor displays to country artists and NASCAR driver autograph sessions and on-stage Q&A, the event is one of the best ways to get geared up for the upcoming race season. Dale Jr., Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kyle Bush, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Petty and Michael Waltrip were just a few of the drivers who participated.

Can you name everyone?!

No matter where you looked, you saw an a|i|m team member doing something – from assisting at the information booth to managing all of the on-stage activities.

On the night of the Fan Festival, we make a huge move over to another venue and hold a private party for sponsors, artists and drivers, which includes an auction, sit-down dinner and performances from more country artists.

As we headed up to Nashville, we knew that winter weather would play a role in some of the logistic plans, but we had no idea that it would stop us dead on our tracks. We found out the DAY OF the Fan Festival that our venue for the private party had closed its doors, due to weather problems in and around the city.

With hard work from many different people, groups and team members, we were able to successfully move the event to another location and it went off without a hitch.

A private and imtimate performance to close the weekend

Sure, there were sore backs and feet that hurt, but at the end of the event, we walked away knowing that we pulled off a small miracle. Everyone who took part in the event thoroughly enjoyed themselves – and knowing that made the all of the hard work worth it!

It’s a week from Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust.  Weather people are calling for cold temperatures and snow.  Seriously?  This news would be a serious pre-cursor to the weekend and affect how the event would unfold. The drive up was a nice dusting of snow on the roads and visibility reduced a little bit, but overall not bad and we all arrived in Nashville safely.

Upon our arrival, Lauren put us straight to work organizing gift bags, labeling boxes and other miscellaneous tasks to get ready for the big weekend.  Our hospitality team was entertaining close to 100 guests that include bank executives, Sports & Entertainment bankers as well as clients and prospects of the bank – this constitutes a high visibility event where you do not want ANYTHING to go wrong.  The college national title game is being played that Thursday night as well and I remember last year, filling out section numbers and times on autograph passes.  Tyler and I are determined to get everything done by kickoff….this doesn’t happen.  Just before halftime, we finally finish up and head down to the sports bar to meet up with everyone else on the Sound & Speed team for dinner and relax for a few while Texas made a strong comeback to make it a game.

Friday began with set-up for the SunTrust Rock Band display for fans to enjoy throughout the day, but not just any Rock Band…the country version.  The display was being used as a way to promote the SunTrust SkyMiles card to fans where they could register for a trip to any motorsports race or Sound & Speed artist concert they wanted.  Upon being signed up, they were given collateral on the product as well as an airline based branded premium: neck pillow, headphones, mp3 player and peanuts were all given to fans.  The concert at the Ryman Auditorium that night was a lot of fun and blue glow necklaces were seen all throughout the seats. Each fan was given one from SunTrust as they entered the auditorium and it showed.  The night ended at the sports bar with our client to discuss the next day’s events, current sports headlines and the upcoming NFL playoffs.

That's not Ringo...

Saturday was an early morning at the Municipal Auditorium to ensure everything is set up properly for a successful day.  We were set up by the time gates opened and our staff arrived.  We used a mix of bankers who volunteered and hired additional staff for this event.  This is the best mix because you have the bankers who work the local event to interact with the fans and give out business cards and also paid staff to help out with anything that is needed.  At about  10:00 am, we find out that a water main break off of 2nd Avenue in downtown has closed down the roads near the WildHorse Saloon-the location of the VIP event that night called The groove.  The groove is where the stars come, it’s why sponsors come and it raises the most money for Victory Junction and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Everyone from a|i|m comes together for a meeting to discuss the situation, determine options and figure out where everyone can help out.  During the meeting we find out The groove is now going to be held in the Municipal Auditorium…the SAME building we currently have autograph sessions, displays, etc. set up in.  This changeover for The groove is going to be a huge undertaking, but everyone is confident we can do it and frankly we did not have a lot of options.  After shutting down the display, which was a success for the day, everyone working on the SunTrust account began to help the Sound & Speed team. Everyone had their roles whether it was food, bars, registration, tables organization, silent auction, signage, red carpet….whatever it was, someone was working on it so we could flip this venue in an hour and a half.  Mission accomplished as we pulled off the event and received numerous compliments as people who had left the building to go shower and change clothes came back into the venue to a totally new event and new look.

And so it begins...

Guests enjoying the dinner, auction and live performances.

All in all, it was a great weekend for the SunTrust account team, but ultimately for a|i|m.  We came together as a company and showed everyone the quality of work we can do and with determination and teamwork, anything can be accomplished.

Last year, we teamed up with the Clean Air Campaign (for those avid blog readers, you may remember this blog) and just recently were featured in an article as part of their “Featured Partners.” Clik THIS to read a little about our partnerships and the benefits that have come from it!

We recently blogged about one of our new projects “College Football Country.” A few people have wanted to hear the show in it’s entirety, so please visit College Football Country! for a few recent shows hosted by Diamond Rio and Josh Turner.

We are also happy to announce that the program made “Country Aircheck Today” last week as they highlighted the upcoming show featuring Luke Bryan. This is what we like to see!

Luke Bryan with one of the College Football Country producers (Darrell Smith)

We started dating in January 2005, after having been introduced by mutual friends, 3 months prior.  On my birthday last year, after 3 ½ years full of laughter, Justin asked me to marry him.  Deciding where to have our wedding was pretty easy; Justin’s family lives in Albuquerque, NM and my Mother lives in Taos, NM. We quickly decided that accommodating our family was the best route to take. Once that decision was made we spent the next 16 months planning our wedding for September 13th, 2009.  Justin was a rare Groom in that he helped every step of the way. He designed everything and it really set the mood for the rest of the details. We took a laid back approach to the wedding planning, ignoring traditions and zeroing in on who we are. Our best friend, Chris, officiated. Our little black pug, Leelu Dallas Multipass,  was our Ring Barer and was walked down the aisle by our Flower Girl and niece, Reagan. Instead of a sit down meal with assigned seating we had Tapas and encouraged mingling. Instead of a traditional wedding cake we had 5 flavors of mini cupcakes. Our close friend, Jen, even made cake toppers for us; a little Sasha, little Justin and even a little Leelu!

Times are tough so we were concerned that few would be able to make it out to New Mexico for the wedding. Several of our closest friends were able to attend so we made it an action packed wedding weekend with the culmination being our Wedding Day. After days of rain off and on, Sunday arrived beautiful with the sun shining. The day went off without a hitch and we 80’s danced the night away. In the end, Sasha von Holck & Justin Hanna became Mr. & Mrs. Von Hanna!

Now we will live happily ever after in Cabbagetown, in our home filled with love and laughter. – Sasha

Over the past couple of months, we have been working with a great company called SpeedTracs.

SpeedTracs has developed training equipment for athletes of all ages to enhance their speed, agility, strength and injury prevention. The focus of the equipment revolves around “team” training, due to the equipment allowing up to 75 people to train at one time.  The equipment also includes tracking software that allows coaches to input data of an athlete/student to track their progress.

We are currently creating a marketing plan, sponsorship strategy and developing a new logo as well as branding for them.

Stay tuned as we are very happy to see this project unfold…

We’re happy to announce that we have been working on a brand new project called “College Football Country.” In conjunction with MRN and Fishbait Marketing, CFC is a weekly radio show highlighting college football – the cool thing is that each week, the show is co-hosted by a different country music artist.

It is chock-full of segments, including flashbacks to great games, “where are they now?” segments, plus features on tailgating and restaurants to hit while on the road to the big game!

Although the show just took off, some great guests, including Josh Tuner, Phil Vassar, Mark Richt and Vince Dooley, as well as the Deen Brothers (who highlighted a great tailgating recipe) have all participated. Be sure to check your local MRN affiliate and catch the show each Saturday morning!

Want a preview? Click here

Tentative version of the CFC logo!

Emptying out the camera is always fun…

Old School Style

No matter your position in the company, food preferences never change.