The Client Spotlight Series
Beginning this week, Schipul will be starting a spotlight series for our amazing clients. The series will highlight a different client each week on Facebook, and will include a monthly blog post dedicated to showing off one amazing client! This post is dedicated to Reliant Park and all the great things they’ve done for the Houston community.
The Contest!
Schipul will be giving away 2 free tickets to a Houston Texans preseason game! To be considered eligible, simply comment on this blog post or on this post on our Facebook page with your favorite story about Reliant Park. You can write an entire novel, or just 2-3 sentences, but either way Schipul wants to hear about it!
Don’t wait too late because the contest ends at noon CST on June 15. All participants before this date will be entered into a random drawing for the tickets. Read on for some examples of Reliant Park stories from the Schipulites. Good luck!
Let’s take a trip to Reliant Park
So much History
Reliant Park needs no introduction to the Houston community, but for the rest of the world: it’s Houston’s largest entertainment venue. Reliant Park holds 5 large venues including Reliant Stadium, home of the NFL Houston Texans, and the Astrodome, the old home of the Houston Astros and Houston Oilers. The park is famous for hosting the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Houston, Wrestlemania, and countless concerts from the world’s biggest musical artists.
A few of Reliant Park’s many notable claims to fame include building the NFL’s first retractable roof stadium with Reliant Stadium, the Astrodome, being the first domed structure of its size, and the city’s METRORail station stop in the park that allows for cheap and easy transportation for site visitors. The park is also known for Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction at the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, and for giving shelter to thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims while they pieced their lives back together.
Our work with Reliant Park
Schipul has been working with Reliant Park since developing their website in 2005. In 2011, Schipul began a new redesign project with Reliant Park to update the website design to reflect the park’s new branding. It was also important to Reliant Park to have a CMS that had content-adding friendly functionality that would include interactive maps with directions for parking, an extensive event calendar with search capability, and an array of rich media addition options to document all of their events.
Knowing that image means everything to an entertainment venue, the Schipul design team submitted multiple designs for the Reliant Park team. With the help of both teams, they were able to produce a functional, media-rich website that truly reflects the new Reliant Park branding. This 6-year business relationship has been maintained through Schipul’s commitment to customer service, and both company’s outstanding communication lines.
Check out the newest Reliant Park website!
Fond Memories of Reliant Park from the Schipulites
After sending out an office email asking my co-workers to send me their favorite memory of Reliant Park, I was surprised to receive a quick response from a large amount of the office. The people of Houston absolutely love Reliant Park and have all had some experience there that they will never forget. Here are some of our stories:
Caitlin Kaluza, Marketing Manager
We definitely have a large Aggie following in the Schipul office, starting with our CEO, Ed Schipul. Caitlin is one of the zealous office Aggie alumni. Her favorite memory of Reliant Park is “having a blast” while watching her fighting Texas Aggies in last year’s Meineke Car Care Bowl in Reliant Stadium. The Aggies were able to pull out their first bowl victory since 2001, with a score of 33-22 over Northwestern.
Courtney Pemberton, Business Development Manager
Courtney is one of the few and proud Dallas Cowboys fans in the office. She was able to buy tickets to the Houston Texans’ and Dallas Cowboy’s game in the 2010 NFL season as a birthday gift for her boyfriend who is a Texan fan. Fortunately for Courtney, the Dallas Cowboys managed to defeat the Texans that day with a score of 27-13. “It was glorious”, says Courtney. She also asks that you refrain from looking at her while you look at her picture.
Rachel Schipul, Consultant
Rachel loves the annual Nutcracker Market. She calls it “a little slice of Texas Christmas heaven”. Every year she and a close friend go through all the food and boutique booths. “Somehow my friend always ends up purchasing some very large physical object that we end up lugging all the way back to the car. Last year it was an ottoman!”
Ed Schipul, CEO
Ed is a known Reliant Park fan who has attended countless events: anything from WWF to dog shows. He most frequently visits Reliant Stadium to watch his Houston Texans. One of Ed’s many hobbies is photography. Check out some of his favorite pictures from Reliant Park on Ed’s Flickr account.
Forrest Purser, Support Team
Of all the times Forrest has been to Reliant Park, his favorite memory is graduating in the Reliant Stadium. Forrest was amazed walking around the ground level of the stadium and walking through the tunnels. He “wondered who else had walked this same walk”. He still says that it can never replace the AstroDome as his favorite piece of Reliant Park history.
Sarah Worthy, Tendenci Community Manager
Sarah has been to so many Reliant Park events, from the Houston annual Rodeo to NCAA Championship games and trade shows; she’s done it all. Her best memories of Reliant Park are taking her son the the circus, and to see his pure joy from the train ride to the circus.
Sarah specifically appreciates Reliant Park’s wide array of vendors and the decongested ride into the park on the city’s MetroRail.
Check out more of Sarah’s circus photos on her Flickr account.
Dharol Tankersley, Data Analyst
Dharol is a season ticket holder to the Houston Texan games, and has also been to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo several times. She enjoys the cleanliness, the cowboy statue, the open dome, and the ability to take the metro there on gamedays. Dharol’s favorite memory is the “unmatched energy” of the Texan fans all the way through the last minutes of fourth quarter last season when they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Katrina Esco, Account Executive
Katrina visited Reliant Park to see John Legend at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo last year. She went with Schipul co-workers Cindi Crigler and Rodney Sabrsula. She loved the carnival, the concert, and how helpful the Reliant staff were. She described it as a “great experience.”
Share Your Favorite Reliant Park Memory & Win!
Now it’s your turn – share your favorite Reliant Park memory in the comments or on this post on our Facebook page to win two tickets (& a parking pass) to the first Houston Texans pre-season game Saturday August 15 vs. the San Francisco 49ers! We will randomly select a winner at noon central time on June 15th.
My favorite Reliant Park memory was Nov 23, 2009 when we played our old “oilers” team the Titans. Seeing everyone cheering for the Texans, knowing that inside many of our hearts we were feeling the bittersweet memory of having cheered for the team we were now playing against — was a moment to remember.
My favorite memory was last year when I watched the game from the sidelines. Texans vs. Browns. I even got a great pic with Toro the Bull as he ran by me. I went to 5 games last year and enjoyed every minute of them.
My favorite event to attend at Reliant Park (though rare for me) would have to be watching the Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggies BTHO of Northwestern in their bowl game in January. Gig ’em!
I’ve only been to one pro football game before (a Texans preseason game a couple of years ago). I’d love to go again!! Schipul love.
Going to a Texans game, their first season, Reliant’s first season with friends who had club level seats. The Texans won and I got to enjoy a football game in a very special manner!
This past year, my husband drank a little too much at the Rodeo cook-off. It was like a never ending nightmare – it was super cold, I wore the wrong shoes that hurt my feet within an hour, no cell phone reception because there were so many people there and my siblings never found us because of the bad cell phone reception. By the time we made it to “the” tent we knew someone at, they were out of food and all that was left was a bunch of beer and “shots, shots, shots, shots”. He got wasted! The part I will never forget was the long walk back to our car parked in literally “Uganda” because it was so far – he yelled at every single golf cart that passed us by “What you think you’re all that because you have a golf cart and we are walking”, my response: “yes, they are!”…. imagine that x 1,000 times.
PS – oh, we did run into my siblings at some point in the night and my husband said hello and joked around with everyone… the next morning, after a few trips to the restroom, he says to me… sucks we never saw your brother and sister… hilarious!
@TaniaSaldiernaCruz Congratulations Tania! You are the lucky winner of two tickets to the first Texans preseason game August 15 vs the San Francisco 49ers! Please email us with your contact info so we can hook you up with the tickets! Email us at sales@tendenci.com.
– Schipul
@Schipul I can’t believe I won!
@TaniaSaldiernaCruz Yay Tania! We also gave you a shout out on our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/tendenci
Happy Friday!
My favorite memory of the Astrodome? There were plenty, because my mom used to work for the HSA at one point so we went to as many Astros games as we wanted to. I remember one game where Alan Ashby hit a grand slam home run (back in the days of the home run spectacular scoreboard), and another where Billy Doran stole home. I remember going to at least one Oilers game and several visits to the rodeo as well.
My favorite memory of Reliant Stadium? Probably the first year we went to see the rodeo and getting to see the new stadium in all its glory. In a way, I miss the Astrodome, but in a way I don’t. It’s kind of strange.
My favorite memory of reliant park was taking my girlfriends father to see ZZ top for first time. She is on the rodeo commitee and has always loved the rodeo. This year she gave me her pass for a night to take her father and it was a blast. I never thought the rodeo was going to be this much fun. Reliant park is a beautiful place and has great vibes associated with it. I have never been to a professional football game and have always wanted to and I have been looking for a way to get a chance to get my girlfriend to a Texans game since it is her favorite team. Thanks for the time.
I love Reliant Park! I just moved to Texas in January and my first visit to Reliant Park was for the 2012 Rodeo in February. What a freakin’ blast that was! Everyone was telling me how great the cook off and the rodeo was and my experience lived up to all the hype! Great BBQ during cook off… fantastic concerts and events at the stadium… fun in the sun at the carnival… all fantastic! Can’t wait for 2013. Better yet, can’t wait to attend my first Texans game! 🙂