Roseville native Dale Kivimaki, president of Minneapolis’ Freestyle Productions, is schooled in the art of the pivot. He has demonstrated this on countless occasions throughout his career, such as a few years back when a client in Puerto Rico wanted to bring Freestyle’s large-pixel LED screens into a ballroom, a move Kivimaki knew would not look as good due to the pixelation attendees would see. He quickly found an area provider for a smaller-pixel screen, and all was then well with the client and attendees.
Another adaptation developed close to home. “We were doing the Minnesota Ag & Food Summit Hosted by AgriGrowth at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Nov. 7,” he shares, “and in the middle of that, we received text messages from a woman we worked with on the Harris-Walz campaign saying they were going to have an event for Gov. Tim Walz to welcome him home [after the election] the next day.” Kivimaki and his team worked quickly to not only finish work on the agriculture summit, but also plan and execute Gov. Walz’s appearance—his first public remarks following the election—in the Eagan High School auditorium. Both events went off without a hitch.
Freestyle Productions will handle some or all sound, lights, video, stages, and decor for more than 100 events this year, ranging from corporate and nonprofit gatherings to fairs and festivals. Kivimaki’s focus is always on his event-planner partners.
“When we are working with a new client, we find out first what they need and what they are trying to achieve,” Kivimaki explains, “and then we come back to them later with CAD drawings and sketches of what we would like to put in the ballroom at the Hilton Minneapolis, the Armory, The Depot Minneapolis, or the North End Event Center at the Minnesota State Fair, for example. Our job is really to make the experience the best we can for attendees with the money we have available.”
But even with Kivimaki’s considerable skill for visual spectacles, it is the finding of creative solutions to almost any situation that gets him excited. At the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul, for example, he notes, “At the University of Minnesota Bee Lab booth, the beekeeper comes in and takes the top off the beehive, and we set up a camera above that zooms in on the bees, so people who are watching can see what is going on. It’s a really cool demonstration.”
