14 Whimsical, Travel-Theme Ideas for Events – BizBash

See how planes, trains, road trips, hot-air balloons, and other travel-related motifs influenced the look of benefits, product launches, and other activations.
December 30, 2015
Event professionals often cite travel—both journeys and the destinations—as source of inspiration. Brands and organizations like Stella Artois, Jose Cuervo, Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS, and the American Cancer Society have all drawn upon travel-related themes to create diverse and imaginative experiences for guests. Here's a look at how travel has influenced event decor, activities, and even staffing outfits.

Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Stella Artois

Earlier this month in New York, Jose Cuervo set up a pop-up experiential promotion made from repurposed aircraft parts. The lounge, known as the Rolling Stone Tour Plane Experience, was one segment of a broader campaign for the brand, inspired by the Rolling Stones' rowdy 1972 tour. The tour plane, featuring the band’s unmistakable logo, was the inspiration for the Air Hollywood installation.
Photo: Ben Hider

For its 2009 Once Upon a Time gala in Chicago, the Children's Place Association printed table numbers on cards designed to look like passports.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen for BizBash

Variety and British Airways hosted a Los Angeles event in 2013—at a $30 million private manse—meant to celebrate the publication's “10 Brits to Watch” feature as well as the airline's nonstop service between Los Angeles International Airport and Heathrow Airport on the A380. In the photo op area, guests could highlight the destinations they most wanted to visit by pinning their image to a map board.
Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Variety

Old Navy previewed its spring 2015 collection in New York last year with a road-trip-theme event, where guests could choose their own on-theme backdrops. They then took home prints of the images stamped to look like postcards.
Photo: Courtesy of Old Navy

Signage meant to evoke road signs pointed guests to the various activities and offerings within the Old Navy preview event.
Photo: Courtesy of Old Navy

The American Cancer Society’s Discovery Ball in 2013 in Chicago was dubbed “Passport to Discovery” and had a time-travel theme. As a nod to the nonprofit’s 100-year past, as well as its present and future, the fund-raiser drew inspiration from an old-fashioned train station, with props and decor including suitcases, trunks, and old street lamps. The registration desk was decorated to resemble a ticket counter.
Photo: Jenn Gaudreau

In 2008, the women's board of the Chicago Horticultural Society hosted a dinner known as “All Aboard! Wonderland Express," which raised money for a plant conservation science center at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The event drew its inspiration from an indoor model-train exhibition filled with replicas of Chicago landmarks. To go along with the train theme, catering staff wore conductor caps.
Photo: Dan Rest

To match the train theme at the Chicago Botanic Garden event, lampshades bore map imagery, clock numbers and gears wrapped tall lamps, and suitcases were stacked inside the bars.
Photo: Jenn Gaudreau

AT&T’s Best of Washington event hosted by Washingtonian magazine in 2013 had staffers dressed in vintage airline stewardess uniforms lining the main entrance, directing guests inside as air traffic controllers might direct planes.
Photo: Tony Brown/imijphoto.com for BizBash
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Stella Artois launched its "Host Beautifully" campaign in Los Angeles in May with an open-air event where guests could float above the crowd in tethered hot-air balloons that were branded with the beer brand’s logo.
Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Stella Artois

Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS’s Dining by Design event in Chicago in November included multiple tables with travel themes. One, designed by Gunlocke/HBF, had miniature hot-air balloons soaring above it, as well as a globe, clocks, and maps as decoration.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen for BizBash

Another Diffa table, from Leopardo by VOA, recalled a Moroccan train car with wooden tables, topped with Moroccan tea glasses, which stood beside windows that appeared to reveal passing scenery.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen for BizBash

For a wedding at Union Station in Los Angeles, Sterling Engagements displayed escort cards printed to look like train tickets inside vintage suitcases.
Photo: Callaway Gable Photography

The grand opening of the Miami Airport Convention Center in 2012 served airplane tacos, hand-cut tortilla shells created to look like paper airplanes.
Photo: Harvey Bilt
Alesandra Dubin