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By Michael Durand

There have been so many wonderful people who have helped me throughout the years. Here are a few of my most trusted partners.

Brad Macneil

Brad Macneil is as professional and responsible as he is delightful to work with. Brad has contributed in so many ways to quite a few productions of "All the World's a Stage," Pasadena's Television of Arts and Culture. Everything from On-Camera Talent to Craft Services, Brad is dedicated, intelligent and has a great artistic eye. His love and knowledge of history - especially the history of his beloved Pasadena - is inspiring. I always look forward to working with Brad and I hope we continue this great partnership for many years to come.

Michael Bingley

I met Mike through community television. He is one of the few people there who have the right attitude about what public access is supposed to be. Mike has taken every role he's played very seriously, but always with great humor. Mike Bingley was bitten hard by the television production bug and has produced and been on-camera in dozens of episodes of "Kaprow's Kitchen" and "The Fork in the Road." I have been on his crew and he has been on mine and we have always worked very well together. We get the job done right and we have a good time doing it.

Kevin Plagman

Kevin Plagman is the President of the San Francisco public relations and advertising firm Communications West. I have know Kevin since 1978 and have worked with him on several video projects for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and on a series of celebrations for St. Anthony Foundation's 50th Anniversary. Kevin is smart, energetic and has more fun in life than than just about anyone I know. Kevin gained a new love when he picked up the guitar for the first time in 2002. He credits me as his music teacher, but, the truth is, after I instructed Kevin on the basics, he took off on his own and learned enough songs to fill three music binders. In so many ways, Kevin Plagman is amazing.

Peter Miller

If I couldn't plan my own event and I needed to hire the best event planner I could find, it would be Peter Miller of Creative Planning. I have had the great pleasure to both work for Peter and to have Peter work for me. In all instances over 17 years, Peter Miller and I have maintained a respect for our clients, the events' participants, each other and ourselves. I can't imagine a career in this business without him.

From the Los Altos Town Crier:

It's all in the details

By Elizabeth Cloutman / Town Crier Staff Writer

Creative Planning organizes special events, meetings and incentive programs

"The devil is in the details," warns a familiar adage. However, Peter Miller said that by using his service, Creative Planning, businesses can be spared the innumerable details of planning corporate meetings, special events and employee incentive programs. It's a service he enjoys providing.

Miller, a Los Altos resident, has spent the past 17 years helping clients by coordinating all the arrangements for corporate events - from recommending sites and themes and negotiating vendor contracts to post-event billing reconciliation. "I do all the research, I give my two cents as to what I recommend, but the ultimate decision is up to them ... The most important thing to me is whatever it takes to serve my customers, that's what I'm going to do," Miller said.

Coordinating employee incentive programs - corporations rewarding outstanding employees with group trips - makes up about 60 percent of Miller's business. The remainder of his time is divided evenly between planning corporate events and meetings. He has both regular and one-time clients.

As a student taking courses at Foothill College and the College of San Mateo in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Miller had envisioned a career in television production. However, he was hesitant to leave Los Altos, where he had lived since the age of 16 months, to move to Los Angeles. Instead, he found a job with a small Mountain View TV station. Then, in 1983, he found a position with a firm that did corporate event planning, a new concept at the time.

In 1991, when the firm suddenly closed down one Monday morning, he decided to begin Creative Planning. "In less than 72 hours, I was up and running: the fictitious business name, cards printed, money in the bank from my customers."

Miller said the skills he acquired in his television production class translate well into event planning.

"It may sound strange, but from the inside, they're the same. You have to know everything from the beginning to the ending," he said. "Both jobs entail a great deal of detail. Your flexibility is always put to the test. No day is ever the same."

Incentive program planning is what Miller said he finds the most creative.

He has coordinated trips to locations as near as Spanish Bay and as far as Marrakech, Morocco.

Details may include site inspection, arranging plane and hotel reservations, arranging ground transportation, planning group meals and entertainment, and sometimes even individual gifts. Miller, leaving nothing to chance, even prepares travel checklists for individual participants.

Even local corporate events can involve complicated logistics, such as contracting to reserve an entire restaurant for an evening and arranging group transportation to the site, Miller noted.

Miller does much of his planning using the Internet for research. He communicates via e-mail with both clients and regular vendors in various localities rather than traveling extensively.

"With my wife and young children, the least interesting part for me is the long travel. I travel eight weeks a year in total," he said.

Miller said he found he could even use the Internet to locate U.S. State Department travel advisories online after a terrorist bombing of a tour bus in Cairo in 1996. Thus, he could quickly assure his client that the corporate excursion on the Nile that he'd coordinated would be safe.

In spite of - or maybe because of - its challenges, Miller thoroughly enjoys his career. "There's never been a day in 17 years when I have said, 'I really don't want to go to work.'"

For more information, logon to www.creative-planning.com.

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