Fire Safety, Anyone?

Last Tuesday night, I attended the Silicon Valley NACE meeting at the Stanford Faculty Club in Palo Alto to hear Natti Pierce-Thomson give a presentation on fire and electrical safety in the events industry. She is the President and Senior Lighting Designer of North American Theatre Technology. (You may recall that Natti also provided the lighting at the ACPWC meeting in February.) One of the first ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians, Natti is also a member of the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association). Who better to teach us on fire and electricity safety than Natti!

She gave plenty of useful tips and information to teach us about how to use extension cords properly, what kind of extension cords to use and not to use in different situations and how to check if a piece of fabric is flammable, among other things. She also showed us the latest in LED lighting technology. Lots of useful information! I also learned that there is a product that is essentially a single-use fire extinguisher about the size of a water bottle. Guess what I'll be adding to my bridal emergency bag from now on!

If you look closely at the centerpiece, you can see that different kind of extension cords have been incorporated and would later be used in Natti's presentation, how clever!

For dinner, we started with an artichoke carpaccio and mâche salad with shaved Parmesan, tomato concassé and balsamic vinaigrette.

The entree was a duet entree consisting of Painted Hills Natural Angus petit filet mignon topped with frizzled leeks and filet of halibut with lemon thyme beurre blanc with white and green asparagus and Gruyère potato strudel.

After the entree, we were treated to a cheese course; various Cowgirl Creamery cheeses with lavender honey, quince paste and herbed flatbread.

Last but not least, the dessert was an Opera cake; layers of almond sponge cake with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache.

All in all, good food, excellent presentation, getting to meet new event professionals and catching up with old ones, what more can one ask for?