SpeedPro partnered with St. Jude Children’s Hospital and Arena Partners on the immersive "Dream Chicago" event, which raised more than $1.7 million for the cause and landed SpeedPro Chicago Loop Studio the highly-coveted title of "Project of the Year" in first place out of 122 studios.

"Dream Chicago" would be the first major Chicago event held since the beginning of the pandemic. And as the first in a planned annual series for St. Jude, it needed to make a big impression.

How big? Its requirements called for more than 4,000 square feet of printing, spread across a swath of the 24-acre Millennium Park in Chicago.  Accommodating over 1,200 guests, vibrantly showcasing the mission and achievements of St. Jude while offering the best in Chicago food, fashion and entertainment, including a special performance by The Temptations.

To rise to this massive endeavor, St. Jude partnered with SpeedPro Chicago Loop and studio owners Rebecca Considine and Eric Lazar.

“Our mandate was to help create a truly immersive and one-of-a-kind experience for guests,” Lazar said. “As the first ‘Dream Chicago’ fundraiser, we knew that the graphics would be a big part of that experience – not just printing them, but installing them in coordination with other partners.”

Requiring a full 10 days to produce the 4,000+ square feet of materials, the process was driven by key areas of the installation.

The first was a descending staircase, with a piecemeal graphic wrap on the front of each of the 30 stairs. Together it created the effect of a multi-colored carpet leading into a 100 foot x 100 foot tent, the hub of an immersive St. Jude “Journey” experience. The tent itself was sectioned to create hallways and rooms – telling the story of St. Jude, the vision of founder, Danny Thomas, and the children the hospital is dedicated to helping. The entry room of the tent featured floor graphics, complemented by swirling light projections, adding multiple layers of spectacle to video introductions that played on jumbo screens.

Guests then arrived at the heart of the “Journey,” a lengthy 100 foot x 10 foot timeline wall visually telling the history of St. Jude using a giant banner, with boards suspended from outriggers to create dimension and call out key moments.

An 82-foot circular rotunda wall designed to make guests feel as though they were on the St. Jude campus had transitional lighting for day and night effects, centered around a replica of the St. Jude Thaddeus statue.

Along with a group of smaller tents, as well as branded flags, banners, signs and other graphics, was one of the most complex elements of the event. An auction wall involved more than 20 boards in a unique configuration that was strung and suspended by fishing line to create a floating illusion.

With an event of this scope, SpeedPro expected the unexpected. Working in tandem with other vendors, their install team discovered that the truss systems holding up the curved graphic and timeline walls didn’t have the desired stability to support the graphics. Complex adjustments to rigging, engineering and cutting by the install team were required under intense time constraints. This was preceded by some client/sponsor changes on the event day, requiring last-minute printing of more than 400 square feet of graphics.

Load-in and setup began close to 30 hours before, mainly concentrated in a 12-hour window, posing a logistical challenge that demanded a high degree of coordination with lighting, sound and structural elements.

While the event itself took place during hot and humid weather, the evening brought rainstorms, which made take-down slightly more challenging. As a veteran-owned business, SpeedPro Chicago Loop brought in nearly a half-dozen veterans to augment the team and support production, installation and takedown, going on to hire one of the vets into a full-time position.

A successful event by any measure, the inaugural "Dream Chicago" raised more than $1.7 million for St. Jude, with the second-annual event planned for Oct. 1, 2022