Local event planner scores big with Super Bowl LII

Over the years, Natalie Morrow, Twin Cities Black Film Festival (TCBFF) founder-director, has gained a local reputation as a solid event planner. Now as a Super Bowl LII event planner, her reputation has expanded nationally.

“There are so many events, public and private,” Morrow said of the countless parties and other events planned in the area during Super Bowl week. Her marketing and public relations company The Morrow Group, is assisting with local marketing and outreach — including leveraging local market resources and securing event sponsorship  — for four events this week. All but one of the events are open to the public:

• Super Bowl Gospel Celebration, Thurs. Feb. 1, 7:30 pm at Bethel University in Arden Hills
• Rolling Stone Live, Fri. Feb. 2, 9 pm at International Market Square in Minneapolis
• Playboy’s Big Game Weekend Party, Sat. Feb. 3, 9 pm — 2 am to be held at a pop-up venue in Minneapolis

Snoop Dogg is the featured host among other special guests at the Playboy event, and he’ll also perform at the Gospel show, which will be taped by BET for later broadcast, Morrow explained. The Rolling Stone event features Migos, 21 Gavage, T-Pain and DJ Cassidy — it is the magazine’s seventh Super Bowl sponsored event.

This year they created “The Bold North Special” exclusively for Minnesotans to purchase discount tickets by using the code “Bold North” when purchasing — proof of residency will be required prior to purchase and to be sold on first-come, first-served basis.

“You have to have a Minnesota I.D. to get this discount,” Morrow pointed out. Morrow’s company is also planning a private party hosted by former Minnesota Viking receiver Randy Moss in downtown Minneapolis. The guest list is estimated to be “200 heavy, heavy celebrities and their guests,” Morrow noted.

“Rolling Stone and Playboy have been number-one and number-two for the biggest celebrity parties at Super Bowls for the last four Super Bowls,” said Morrow. “It says a lot that we’ll be the first people you will see coming into two of the biggest parties” as her company is responsible for the “red carpet” for each party, she said proudly.

The TCBFF founder is well-known locally, but Morrow mentioned in a recent MSR phone interview that there seemed to be a few skeptics around the country when she issued press releases about the two events. “I don’t know if they questioned it; I don’t know,” Morrow said when asked why some national outlets did not initially accept her releases. “It’s been a challenge,” she noted.

It seemed to take being quoted in a local daily newspaper to make her “credible and legitimate,” Morrow admitted. After that, “I started to get a lot of calls. Now I got everybody calling.”

Working this year’s Super Bowl is “a real big opportunity” for her company, Morrow stressed. “I already have been asked to work the Super Bowl in Atlanta next year. I’m super excited about that!” She also hopes that her company will be hired to work events for the 2019 Men’s Final Four in Minneapolis.

More importantly, her company’s visibility at the Super Bowl “puts me at a different level where I can go for some of those higher pay events when they are looking for event planners,” especially a marketing and public relations company owned and operated by a Black woman, Morrow noted.

“We are making sure that we meet the needs of the city to have [the events] the best they can be. It’s been absolutely wonderful for my company,” she concluded.  “It’s done wonders for The Morrow Group.”

Tickets in advance of all Super Bowl public parties can be purchased at www.fanhospitality.com. Tickets for the Gospel Celebration can be purchased at Ticketmaster. For more information on The Morrow Group, go to @TheMorrowGroup on Facebook.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

Updated 1/29/2018