Having started only six years ago as a regional production company, Production Group International (PGI), headquartered in Arlington, VA, has grown outward and upward, adding new business lines in the meetings industry. Its latest acquisitions, Ray Bloch Productions and Timberline Productions, are in its core business area-events and business communications. Bloch increases PGI's reach with 54 associates in offices in New York City, New Jersey, Washington (DC), Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley. Ray Bloch also brings along a significant roster of clients including John Hancock Financial Services and IBM. Timberline, founded in 1979, has produced such events as the halftime show during Superbowl XXVI in 1992 and its clients include American Express, DuPont, and Intel. The renamed Timberline Productions/PGI will continue to be based in Phoenix.
PGI's area of greatest growth, also under the events division, is in destination management. Earlier this year, PGI acquired California Leisure Consultants-p;Palm Springs and entered into affiliate agreements with two other CalLeisure branches: Los Angeles and Orange County, CA. (PGI acquired California Leisure Consultants-p;San Diego in 1995.)
Along with the other destination management companies (DMCs) that have become part of PGI, the affiliation with these new partners means PGI reaches coast to coast-and even to Hawaii. Those other DMCs are: ExecuTours in Boston; WashingtonInc. in Washington, DC; Kaleidoscope in Dallas and San Antonio, TX; and Safaris, which itself has a far-flung network with offices in New York City, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Palm Beach (FL), Phoenix/Tucson, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Honolulu, and Palm Springs, CA (which will merge with the newly acquired California Leisure Consultants office).
PGI's Exhibitions division is headed up by Doug Ducate, CMP, chief operating officer and group president.