Season 14 is on sale
The lights go down. The room leans in.
Gatherstone produces conferences, festivals, galas and corporate gatherings for audiences of 200 to 20,000. We build the stage, run the doors, and make sure every person in the room knows what is happening next.
- 46 events last season
- Audiences of 200 to 20,000
- Crew of 120 on our biggest nights
- 13 years producing
Run of show
On the calendar
Six productions we are staging this fall and winter. Some are ours, some belong to clients, all of them get the full Gatherstone crew.
- Sep 18 to 20Signalworks Conference: three days on product design and dataThe Kiln Hall, Foundry QuarterConference
- Oct 3 to 4Riverlight Festival: two nights of music on the north bankRiverlight GroundsFestival
- Oct 24Lanternhouse Gala for the Children's Reading FundThe Glasshouse AtriumGala
- Nov 7Northbeam Annual Summit: sales kickoff and awardsFoundry Quarter BallroomCorporate
- Nov 21 to 22Open Loop: a two-day creator and technology conferenceThe Kiln Hall, Foundry QuarterConference
- Dec 12Winter Ember Gala for the Foundry Quarter Arts TrustThe Glasshouse AtriumGala
Set times, room assignments and door times move right up to the day. Registered attendees hear about it directly.
What we do
Four disciplines, one crew.
Most clients hire us for one of these and end up with all four. They share a production office, a run of show and a single point of contact from kickoff to load-out.
Production
Stage design, audio, lighting, video and rigging, built by an in-house team of 32 and scaled with vetted crew. Run of show is timed to the second and rehearsed the day before.
Registration and attendee experience
Ticketing, check-in, badging, wayfinding and the small details that shape how a day feels: coffee at the right time, signage that is readable in the dark, staff who know the answer.
Venue and logistics
We scout, hold and contract venues, then run the plan behind them: load-in windows, power, permits, parking, security posts, catering timelines and a weather plan that has been tested more than once.
Sponsorship activation
Built environments, lounges, product moments and stage integrations that give sponsors a reason to come back. Designed with the show, not bolted on after.
What the room feels like
Four moments from last season. No two productions share a look, but they share a standard.
Last season, by the numbers
- 46
- events produced
- 138,000
- attendees through our doors
- 120
- crew on our largest night
- 0
- shows cancelled for weather
Two weather holds, one stage move, zero cancellations. The plan is the point.
The event-day playbook
Every event is a live show. We run it like one.
The morning of, the production office opens at 5:00. Every department checks in on one channel, every change goes through the show caller, and every decision that touches attendees goes out to them within minutes, not at the next session break.
That last part is what most events get wrong. A stage move, a parking closure or a session running late is only a problem if the people in the room find out from a rumor. So we treat attendee communication as a production department, with its own lead, its own schedule and its own place in the run of show.
- Production office open from 5:00 AM to final load-out
- One show caller, one source of truth for every change
- Attendee updates sent directly, not posted and hoped for
- Weather plan rehearsed with the venue before doors
A thunderstorm rolled in forty minutes before our headliner. Gatherstone moved the set, told twelve thousand people what was happening, and the field was full again by the time the sky cleared. I did not get a single angry message that night.
For attendees
When the plan changes, you hear it first.
Gatherstone uses Blasts to reach registered attendees, VIP guests, sponsors and crew with schedule changes, arrival details, session reminders and weather alerts, delivered straight to their phone or desktop.
You connect once when you register, choose which tracks and topics you care about, and hear from the production office directly. A stage move, a parking closure, a session starting in fifteen minutes: it reaches you where you are, not in an inbox you stopped checking at the door.
You are in control the whole time. Mute us during a session, set quiet hours, pick only the stages you follow, or disconnect the moment you leave the grounds.
- All attendees
- VIP and lounge guests
- Speakers and presenters
- Sponsors and exhibitors
- Volunteers
- Production crew
DirectToAttendees is the event version of Blasts Hub: attendee audiences by day, track and role, event campaigns timed before, during and after the show, and one place for the production office to send from.
Communications powered by Blasts. Credits sourced through BlastCredits.com.
Blasts is the direct communication platform at Blasts.app. Attendees receive Blasts on their phone or in their browser, approve who can reach them, and can revoke any sender instantly.
- EmergencyWeather hold: main stage moving
Lightning within eight miles. The 8:30 main stage set moves to the Pavilion Stage at 9:15. Take shelter in the Pavilion or your vehicle now. We will update when the hold lifts.
To: All attendees - FYIArrival and parking this morning
Doors open 8:00. Use the East Gate; the rail yard lot is full. Overflow parking is at the Foundry lot with shuttles every ten minutes. Badge pickup is in the atrium.
To: All attendees - EventDesign Systems at Scale starts in 15
Room B2, second floor. Seats are first come. The talk is being recorded if you cannot make it.
To: Product design track - VIPLounge open on the mezzanine
The VIP lounge is open until midnight. Show your lanyard at the mezzanine stairs. Two drink tickets are loaded on your badge, and the chef's late plates start at 10:00.
To: VIP and lounge guests
The people behind the curtain
Producers who still work the show.
Three leads run every Gatherstone production, backed by a full-time staff of 32 and a crew bench of more than 300.
Theo Marchetti
Founder and Executive Producer
Started Gatherstone in 2013 with a rented sound system and a festival nobody thought would sell. Still calls the biggest shows himself.
Dana Okonkwo-Reyes
Head of Production
Runs stage, audio, lighting and video across all 46 events a year. Writes the run of show and rehearses it until it is boring.
Sam Lindqvist
Attendee Experience Lead
Owns registration, wayfinding and every message attendees receive before, during and after an event. The one who decides what goes out and when.
Working with Gatherstone
What working with Gatherstone looks like.
Conferences, festivals, galas and private corporate gatherings. A production starts with the date, the headcount and the feeling people should leave with; a producer takes it from there.
Reach the production office
Our studio and warehouse are in the Foundry Quarter, next to the old rail yard. Producers are reachable by email year-round and on site during every show.
- Studio hours Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 6:00
- Show days: production office open 5:00 AM to load-out
- Warehouse tours by appointment