The launch of “Business of Fun”

We have been brainstorming this event for years. A week ago it was finally time for a beta run. The general idea is to gather a panel of action sports experts from different fields of expertise and let it be known to college and high school age students that if you let your passions lead the way, there is probably a job that will make you happy.

We worked with the Colorado University Freeride Club which is the largest college club in the country to kick off this 1st event. Many industry partners kicked in time, promotions and product to also light a fire under the event. There was catered food, plenty of free Red Bull, TONS of give away product from all the involved companies (snowboard, bindings, outerwear, hoodies, magazine subscriptions, shoes, etc. etc.), and a poster signing by Chris Davenport.

The event started off with 4 short films and then the panel introduced themselves and explained how they were able to get their current jobs. The most consistent themes were “chasing what you want without ever giving up” and “being unique”. Got to love Steve “Stix” Nilsen and his stories and antidotes. He told a story about a potential hire telling him she was way to overwhelmed as her house burned down the night before. So he sent her a smoke detector. Persistence with humor.

Then things transitioned into a Q&A session with the students asking about everything from how to become a pro skier to how to sell photos to a magazine. The panel was amazing and provided insight from all different angles.

We look forward to the next Business of Fun and keeping the conversations going here in this blog and also on the Facebook site. Always open to any and all feedback.

The panel was:
Chris Davenport – Helly Hansen Pro athlete
Jake Knigge – Helly Hansen regional athlete and current CU student
Shay Willams – Freeskier Magazine photo editor
Mike Basher - Snowboard Magazine editor
Deric Gunsor - Aspen Ski CO marketing
Trent Bush – Brand Base (Technine, Nomis & Sound) co-founder
Steve Nilsen – Pabst Blue Ribbon marketing manager
Ian Fohrman – Helly Hansen sports marketing
Marily MacDonald – Outdoor Divas marketing manager
Frank Phillips (moderator) – The Public Works, LLC

Huge thanks to all the people that made this first event a huge success. Video of the event coming soon.

Lucky winner of an autographed copy of Chris Davenport’s book

Our newTrailball table seeing its first action

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Public Works Client and Vendor Visits in Chicago

We just had a great trip out to Chicago.  Toured the 80/20 facility and got to spend some great time with the founders and marketing team.  Check out their product at 8020.net. The Public Works has been using their “industrial erector set” in everything from library furniture to skate ramps. Great to see where it comes from and meet the crew.
From their we were off to McDavid sports equipment. Once again a great crew. Also amazing to walk through a door and see 100,000+ sq feet of manufacturing going on. A little different view than the doom and gloom you hear on CNN about American manufacturing!
We also had a chance to stop through the Chicago office of DraftFCB, which is one of the largest creative agencies in the country. We’ve done an assortment of work for them over the years and it was good to check out their massive Chicago set-up.
In the mix of all this Frank was also able to pick up his new Jetta TDI wagon. It will soon have Public Works produced bio-diesel pumping through it. Seems like a solid car as we proceeded to put about 3000 miles on it within 48 hours. One big fat raccoon was almost a victim but probably only lost a couple hairs off its tail.

Selkirk

Another Helly Hansen photoshoot at Selkirk Wilderness Skiing produced and managed by the Public Works.

“Statistics don’t do Selkirk justice. Sure, 78 square kilometres (30 square miles) is big. Bigger than all of Vail and Whistler-Blackcomb combined. With only 24 skiers maximum per week, visitors to Selkirk Wilderness are guaranteed over 80,000 vertical feet of untracked bliss. But, like we just said, statistics don’t do it justice. “

The lodge is beautiful and comfortable, the food is amazing and plentiful (bacon breakfasts and constant cat ride feeding rendered some serious heli-belly by the end of the week), the staff was friendly, fun, knowledgeable, and accommodating, and the terrain was endless.

For most of the shoot we broke into two groups… the group with sleds and the cat group. The sled group was basically just the MSP crew: Murray Wais filming, Blake Jorgenson shooting and Mark Abma, Eric Hjorleifson, and James Heim skiing. The cat group was John Roderick on motion, Mark Gallup on stills, and JP Solberg, Lisa Filzmoser, and Chris Davenport riding.

Check out a few photos:

[note: the tree burning, while extremely fun (especially when the tree is lit with a roman candle), is actually fire mitigation and prevents the red trees from burning in the summer when the whole hill could go up... so please no angry patchouli-scented comments.]

Helmet Display Case

Here is a display case we built to display Chris Davenport’s helmet and  14ers book.  Built for Red Bull to go into Jimmy’s Bar in Aspen.

Edit Bays for Woodward at Copper

We just finished installing Red Bull branded edit booths in the Woodward retail store at Copper Mountain.

Not only is it the only shop in Colorado with a built in skate bowl but now it has a brand new set of editing bays where anyone can come and do their best MSP, Absinthe, Coen Brothers impersonation.

Brand new Macs coming soon.

Making of Qwest Bat

We’re going to do out best to keep this blog updated with video from our most recent projects.

Bat

Big bat

Spill

We recently finished and installed a Red Bull water feature at Spill in downtown Denver. The feature is about 8’ tall and estimated at around 1000lbs of concrete and steel (keep in mind this estimate was made after carrying it out of the truck and up a narrow steep set of stairs onto the rooftop bar). We delivered the feature just in time for Spill’s 4th anniversary party. After getting the monster up the stairs and installed we had plenty of time to sit back to share some drinks with Spill owners Chris and Kevin and enjoy a perfect summer night on their beautiful rooftop bar.Thanks to Chris and Kevin and especially to Dan who’s amazing concrete work made this piece what it is.