Las Vegas has become a hub for experiential entertainment and dining. So naturally, UNLV has begun teaching its students about it.
The College of Hospitality offers a course called "Meetings and Events Culminating Experience." That doesn’t sound exciting. But what its students and faculty have been working on is.
Over the next two weeks, they will be producing an immersive dining event, the first of its kind at the university. It’ll combine a full Italian dinner and comedy actors, call it immersive dining.
The goal of the dinner events: Raising money for displaced and disadvantaged teens, and getting students experience with things like event management, guest service and creative design.
Finley Cotrone is an associate professor at the College of Hospitality heading up the class and dinner show.
It started as an idea, she told KNPR producer Mike Prevatt, but the students ran with it, creating everything from marketing materials to menus to what's on the tables.
"I really came in with a spark and they have blown it into a fantastic wildfire," she said.
The event is called Moronè Family Reunion at the Olive Patch. Here's how Cotrone described it:
"We have what I think is the quintessential catering hall on campus that we use for our culminating classes that involve food and beverage. So we've turned that dining room into the Olive Patch. It's kind of a play on the Olive Garden. And we've created this theme of you know, the Italian family. The Moronè family reunion is the Moronè family joining us at the Olive Patch. So we took that idea and ran with it."
Kate St. Pierre is helping them with this. She's the artistic director of The Lab LV theater Company. She has also worked with Nevada Public Radio, directing its live Area 51 radio dramas. ( By the way, another one will be performed in a few weeks on Thanksgiving Eve.)
"Kate has run with developing the story and getting the actors to play with the audience. Because when you come to the family reunion, you get a name tag, you are a member of the Moronè family, joining the reunion in celebration of 'nonna,'" Cotrone said.
Their college, the college of hospitality, has been working with the College of Fine Arts and the College of Engineering, working toward a master's degree in experience design, but it hasn't been finalized.
"This is really unique, and I hope it continues, and I hope we're able to bring more people on campus to experience what UNLV is," she said.
One of the students in this course is senior Nick Bilt.
He said he got to the hospitality program through art school. He's a fan of Disney and Universal parks.
"I took this class as an opportunity to learn how those organizations produce the environments that are at their theme parks," he said. "Through the event, I've had a lot of ways to apply the marketing knowledge I've learned in all my marketing classes and hospitality classes to promoting this event, coming up with different, interesting strategies, to get the word out about them ... It's been an interesting opportunity also to learn different systems like Eventbrite and managing teams, as well."
The first interactive dining experience event was Nov. 9. The event will also be held on Nov. 10, Nov. 16 and Nov. 17.
Finley Cotrone, associate professor, UNLV College of Hospitality; Nick Bilt, senior, UNLV College of Hospitality
