"Minnesota Public Radio is very proud to celebrate the opening of our new broadcast headquarters with a grand opening gala. This large scale event was a tremendous success serving our donors with a magnificent evening. Cookie Coleman and her team was a key component in providing creativity, professional services, and high speed attention. We are pleased with Cookie’s deep understanding of events of this caliber and her ability to coordinate all of the moving parts. Minnesota Public Radio would quickly call Cookie Coleman if another large scale event was in the works."

- Tony Bol, Director, Live Programming & Events - Minnesota Public Radio, Fitzgerald Theater

"Ms. Coleman has planned two Grand Opening events for the Minneapolis Institute of Arts…both of these events were unqualified successes and both involved layered events for different constituencies, and intricate planning with internal and external staff. Events ranged from a formal, black tie dinner for our high-end donors (attendance 900) to a celebration in the park for the entire community (attendance 15,000).

"Cookie’s oversight of the details of event planning is extremely strong: budget tracking, scheduling, and project management. However, most incredible is Cookie’s creativity and flair, her innovative approach, fresh ideas, and her vast network of extremely talented professional contacts. She is the ultimate professional – listening to what her clients expect, meeting with people involved on a regular basis and keeping them informed throughout each step of the process, and she is flexible in the ever-changing development involved in planning an event."

- Joan Grathwol Olson, Director of Development, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts

"Thank you for the incredible event you produced at the Walker Art Center for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul 2008 Host Committee in our effort to secure our bid to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention. My expectations – and the expectations of our guests….were far exceeded. I am especially appreciative of the work you did above and beyond your call of duty, by soliciting in-kind contributions for our event in order to meet our conservative budget. Everyone worked well beyond their invoice."

- Erin Dady, Director of Marketing, City of St. Paul

"Thank you for the spectacular job on Fairview Legacy of Care Day at the Twins. The event met all of our goals and exceeded our expectations. Great work. We entertained more than 4,000 Fairview employees. We also helped the Twins to set a new standard for corporate events. Finally, thank you for your attention to the details and costs. We were able to feed and entertain 4,000 people and bring this wonderful event in well under budget. Nothing delights a client more than exceeding their expectations while saving them money.

"I hope we have many opportunities to work together in the future."

- Ted Davis, President, Davis Communications Management, Inc.

"Cookie Coleman was a superb partner in helping the Minnesota Historical Society launch its newest venue -- Mill City Museum -- on the banks of the Mississippi. The grand opening lived up to its billing as "a party of historic magnitude" with 10,000 visitors flocking to the museum to take in its unique architecture and exhibits. From Marcy schoolchildren parading across the Stone Arch Bridge and Mayor R.T. Rybak leading a bike parade, to performances from VocalEssence, Iffy and the Daisy Dillman Band, Cookie masterminded opening festivities with class, style, community spirit and perfect attention to detail. We surpassed our opening attendance goal by 100 percent!"

- Lory Sutton, Head of Marketing and Public Relations - Minnesota Historical Society

"Cookie Coleman Company created phenomenal Grand Opening events for the new $100 million museum. Her creativity and extreme attention to detail-not to mention her overall vision for creating a grand opening specifically related to families and science-were really amazing. The festivities definitely wowed the 20,000 visitors who came during the opening weekend."

- Kathy Wilson, Vice President, Science Museum of Minnesota

"Cookie, words don't begin to express my admiration for you and your skills; it has been a joy to work on this final portion of the Symposium thanks to your abilities and your support. It simply would not have happened without you, believe me!"

- Philip Brunelle, Artistic Director, VocalEssence (formerly the Plymouth Music Series)

"I would like to extend my most sincere thanks and congratulations for the terrific job you did as the Local conference Coordinator for the AAM(American Association of Museums) Annual meeting. Letters and telephone calls from AAM Board members and other delegates have been pouring in praising the meeting and citing how much everyone enjoyed Minneapolis and St. Paul. The evening events were wonderful! Cookie, Meg and her staff have told me what a pleasure it was working with you throughout the year and have remarked on both the high quality of your work and your commitment to this enormous task. On behalf of all of us here at AAM and our members, thank you for making this such a successful event."

- Edward Able, Jr. President & CEO American Association of Museums

"Cookie's excellent leadership, planning and execution skills allowed us to have an extremely successful SPAM Museum Jam 2005. She was always a step ahead of us in the planning and was able to anticipate our needs before we knew we had needs! I appreciated Cookie's sense of humor and flexibility in working with a large corporation. Cookie's experience, creativity and professionalism made our event truly SPAMTASTIC!"

- Shawn Radford, SPAM Museum, Hormel Foods