For one night only, KCI’s new terminal became the city’s premier event venue; Here’s how they pulled it off

Transforming an airport terminal into a high-profile, elegant celebration and then back to an airport terminal within 48 hours is no easy feat, Whitney Butler said, but the women-led PlatinumXP team was up for the challenge.

Ellen Sherman, Lauren Rios, Olivia Morini, and Whitney Butler, PlatinumXP; photo by Adri Guyer, PlatinumXP

“We were creating within a venue that will never be able to be used as an event venue again. We have several different divisions in-house here at Platinum, and it took every single division — as well as dozens of outside vendors — to make these events happen,” said Whitney Butler, the director of business development and event planning at PlatinumXP.

PlatinumXP is a single-source, full service event planning agency with divisions in planning, destination management, AV, graphics, fabrication, media, floral and virtual events. The Kansas City-based agency won both the bid for KCI’s private celebration of the new terminal and the bid for the public open house.

“I have no doubt that [we won both bids] because we can provide so many of these services in-house, under one roof,” Butler said. “Although we have different leads for each division, we all work together as one team. It’s pretty incredible what we can accomplish here. We’re a high-energy, passionate team, and our industry is very intense — but when you’re excited about the projects, it shows.”

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The check-in hall at Kansas City International Airport's new terminal on the day of a private gala celebration of the project; photo by Adri Guyer, PlatinumXP

The check-in hall at Kansas City International Airport's new terminal on the day of a public open house; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News

Private celebration

About 850 airport executives, sponsors, partners and prominent leaders within the Kansas City community gathered at the new terminal on Thursday, Feb. 16 for a private celebration of the project. The event was emceed by actor and Kansas City-native Rob Riggle, as well as featuring more than a dozen performers and speakers, Butler noted. 

Dancers from Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey
perform during a private celebration of KCI’s new airport terminal; photo by Adri Guyer, PlatinumXP

“Platinum built the video wall, the stage; our floral arrangements had custom centerpieces that we created in-house,” she said. “We played into the aviation theme but also made it our own with things you don’t typically see at these events. We had swag boxes for sponsors that included a custom whiskey glass with the engraving of the new terminal. There were just a lot of those fun pieces.” 

Working within a venue that is not intended for large scale events came with the need to quickly problem solve, added Olivia Morini, the event coordinator for PlatinumXP. 

“There was a Dunkin Donuts in the terminal that we didn’t know was there, so working around these permanent airport features was a bit of a fun challenge,” Morini said.

“We showed up and they had installed three of those CLEAR kiosks right in the middle of where the stage was supposed to go,” Butler said. “We actually had to get those removed from the ground so that we could put the stage in.” 

Check out a gallery below from the one-night-only event, then keep reading.

With the older KCI terminal (now permanently closed) still operating in mid-February, the PlatinumXP team also had to work around staffing shortages, Butler said. 

“From a security standpoint, they didn’t have an extra 20 security officers to come work this event,” Butler said. “We also had to figure out parking and make sure traffic didn’t get too crazy, so those were some of the logistics we had to work around. 

“We did have people show up for a flight in the middle of the celebration Thursday night with their suitcases and everything,” Butler continued, laughing. “But Rob Riggle made a nice joke that we’d had our first guests at the new terminal!”

For the services that PlatinumXP could not provide in-house, the planning team was intentional to include women and minority-owned businesses with both events, said Ellen Sherman, the event manager at PlatinumXP. 

“We had a really diverse variety of entertainment and vendors,” Sherman said. “Over half were minority or women-owned businesses, which we knew was very important to the airport [executives].”

The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and Eboni Fondren perform during a private celebration of KCI’s new airport terminal; photo by Adri Guyer, PlatinumXP

Public open house

Less than 48 hours later, the airport was transformed into an open house event the morning of Saturday, Feb. 18. 

“Thursday and Saturday were two very different vibes,” Morini noted. “Thursday was about  turning an airport into this really nice venue, whereas Saturday was all about showing off the airport for everything that it is. It was a big mindset shift that we had to do overnight.”

“The open house had a lot of really fun family activities,” Butler added. “We had a balloon artist come in, a scavenger hunt and kids who completed the scavenger hunt got their own pilot’s wings. The public also loved the four custom-created selfie ops we designed and built.”

Open house amenities crafted by PlatinumXP at the new KCI airport terminal; photo by Adri Guyer, PlatinumXP

With about 10,000 people registered to attend the open house, PlatinumXP had to build a special registration site and manage checking in 245 individuals every 15 minutes, Sherman explained.

“When you’re dealing with the public, it’s just a whole different ball game,” Sherman said. “We had to think about everything from building a registration site that’s capable of managing tens of thousands of people all trying to register at the same time — to making sure each persons’ concerns were heard.”

As the point person for registration, Sherman quickly realized how the open house was an opportunity for the community to feel confident and comfortable when they travel in the future, she said. 

“I had a lot of people reach out to me and say, ‘I’m legally blind and am traveling in two weeks. I would like to come to the open house to have a person guide me through this process, so that I’m able to do it by myself next time,’” Sherman recalled. “We had a couple with a daughter who has Down syndrome want to experience the sensory room, so that they would feel comfortable coming to the airport when it was time to do so.”

Members of the public explore the new KCI airport terminal during an open house event; photo by Adri Guyer, PlatinumXP

The feedback from the private celebration and public open house has been overwhelmingly positive, Butler said, noting that the PlatinumXP team is excited to continue elevating the bar for local and national events. 

“There’s a lot of big events from the NFL Draft to The World Cup coming to Kansas City, which we have no doubt will help us grow this event planning division,” Butler said. “We’ve already had people reach out about future projects, so I expect to see nothing but a really positive impact in our pipeline to grow!”

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