Event Producer Keeps the Beat in Staging Celebrations

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As the new senior vice president and executive producer of Santa Monica special event company Campos Creative Works, Don Kobayashi wants to put more show in corporate events.


“We touch on so many things within marketing communications,” he said. We train, purely entertain, we do hospitality events like for Lexus at the U.S. Open.”


He got into the business of events when he started working for Robert F. Jani Productions, a creator of shows for Disney (including the Main Street Electrical Parade), the Super Bowl and Radio City Music Hall.


Kobayashi helped produce two of Singapore’s 25th Anniversary Celebrations with Jani, including a live television presentation and two pavilions at an international trade exhibition.


“It wasn’t something I aspired to do necessarily,” he said. He had played drums for years in a band producing contemporary Christian music when the genre was just starting to emerge. But he knew he didn’t want to be a musician forever.


“I had this talent for seeing how pictures and music with certain timings could be very effective in communicating a message,” he said. That talent served him well when a colleague got him a job in production at Disney and he met Jani.


In 1990, Kobayashi transitioned into a job at Jack Morton Worldwide, an experiential marketing firm that produces events for corporate clients. Most recently Kobayashi was vice president and senior executive producer with the company working on the Millennium Village at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center, Mazda’s National Dealers Meeting, product launches, special events for Amgen, and his most memorable project, Home Depot’s 20th Anniversary Celebration in Atlanta.


“It was such a moving experience for us as producers because the company will never have a moment like that again when all the founders are on the stage together,” he said of the several-day event. He organized everything from conception to registration to business meetings and a closing ceremony with entertainment by Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh of the Eagles.


Kobayashi said he came to Campos Creative Works Inc. in order to learn from the company’s president, Julio Campos, known for his creative talent.


“Jack Morton is the largest of its kind, Campos is the most creative,” said Kobayashi. “Working at Campos is different from working at a big corporation where I’m just one of many.”


In his new post, Kobayashi is working on an event with a leading biotech company. Right now he is scoping out business development opportunities and making plans to produce events around them. “I am not only responsible for the client relationship but all the administrative parts.”


He considers the client’s budget and objectives as well as the demographic of the audience. He scopes out a venue for the event, gets necessary approvals, does scenic design, coordinates with media, produces digital components, and invites guests.


“We aren’t creating the same widget over and over,” he said, and the diversity is what keeps him interested. So does the ability to put on a show for the audience.


“So much of corporate work is entertaining. The audience is the common denominator,” he said. “You might not have live music numbers but you are using entertainment elements to communicate a message. Audiences come into a room with a certain mindset and a preconceived notion about what they will be receiving and feeling. When they leave the theater, ballroom, or arena, I want them to feel a certain way about the message and to take action on what has been communicated.”


Kobayashi lives with his wife of 22 years, Ruth, and two daughters in Newport Beach. He likes to golf, but most of his time outside of work is spent with his family.

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