2003 Wall Street Journal
"Plots & Ploys" by Sheila Muto

Sensory Stimulation
A bright red wall greets visitors. The games Kerplunk and Mr. Potato Head are stashed on the tables. Hammocks, a chaise lounge and hot-pink and lime-green pillows around a low table offer a host of places to sit.

It may sound like someone's kitschy apartment, but it's a new space recently opened in Chicago where a handful of companies are holding meetings, foregoing the staid conference rooms and hotel suites that some businesses use to host such gatherings. The former site of a sausage smokehouse and a herring-packing plant, Catalyst Ranch offers three meeting rooms ranging in size from 700 to 3,300 square feet.

The business is the brainchild of Eva Niewiadomski, who set up a space similar in style at PepsiCo Inc.'s Quaker Oats unit, her former employer. But that room only accomodated about a dozen people. "These types of informal environments make people energized, and it stimulates them to come up with better ideas," says Ms. Niewiadomski. Still, "a lot of companies don't want to give up space for that type of meeting room."

"The brightly colored walls and the toys transform your way of thinking," says Ellen Taafe, vice president of marketing for Quaker Snacks, who says she has held a meeting and attended two others at Catalyst Ranch.

 

"I think people come up with different ideas than if they were in a formal environment wearing a suit," says Ms. Taaffe. "People are more engaged even though they may have a Slinky in their hands."

2004 Chicago Crains
"Layoff leads to startup" by Lisa Holton
Entrepreneur taps severance for meeting space.

Right before Labor Day 2002, Quaker Oats Co. marketing executive Eva Niewiadomski got the news: After surviving waves of layoffs since PepsiCo's 2001 acquisition of Quaker, she was out. "The place had changed," she says. I was ready to go and start something new."

But what the CPA-turned-product development executive did next is something few furloughed workers would consider in the midst of a recession: She put every dime of her severance and a second mortgage on her house into launching her own business.
Her year-old company, Catalyst Ranch, is positioned to be an antidote to mind-numbing meeting space. Located at 656 W. Randolph St., the 9,000-square-foot loft is separated into three meeting spaces splashed with color and stocked with toys, antique furniture, even a large hammock.

Her total investment was $115,000 but after 15 months, the business is profitable.

"While I was working at Quaker, I always found it a challenge to find space that was comfortable and interesting ...space that was fun and would fuel people's imagination," she says.

Passion is a powerful motivator for entrepreneurs, but it must partner with an intelligent business plan and a reasonable amount of start-up capital. Downsized executives who want to launch a company should poll former clients, vendors and others for insights.

After exiting Quaker, Ms. Niewiadomski started typing out a business plan. She queried her old vendors, primarily meeting facilitators and consultants, to learn their pet peeves about meeting sites. She asked them to rate the top 10 things that would lead them never to book a meeting at the same location again.

"I kept hearing the same things: uncomfortable chairs, bad food, bad service, unexpected charges, your stuff not being set up in the room after you've taken the trouble and expense to ship it," she says. "I set out to do the opposite."

Ms. Niewiadomski decided Catalyst Ranch would make everything but full meals inclusive in the rental price: snack and beverage service, toys and meeting supplies, up- to-date audio/visual equipment, computer, printer and online access.

She charges a daily room rental rate of $1,000 to $1,800 for 25 attendees, depending on the room they choose. So far, the business is running at 30% occupancy and generating about $8,000 per week.

Hotels easily beat her rental rates for meeting rooms, which go for about $250 to $400 per day. But once a la carte items are added – such as snacks and audio/visual gear – Catalyst Ranch is competitive.

The business employs five. She paid off the last of her loans last spring and has paid herself back "all but a small amount" of her own investment.

2005 Chicago Tribune
All About Eva; A life of collecting at home and abroad is reflected in an Andersonville condo
Entrepreneur taps severance for meeting space.

Look around Eva Niewiadomski's apartment and you will know the story of her life.

A goddess statue from Thailand. A bedroom set from a local antiques store. Collections of decorative birds from Eastern Europe. Niewiadomski grew up in Humboldt Park before her family moved to what she says was a "good Polish, Greek, Irish, Italian neighborhood" on Chicago's Northwest Side. Her parents are Polish immigrants who worked hard and taught their children to make do with what they had.

After putting herself through college, Niewiadomski spent four years as an accountant followed by 15 years at Quaker Oats, most recently in product development for snack foods. As a veteran meetings facilitator, she under-stood how a stimulating, colorful space could add spice and creativity to a group meeting.

While at Quaker, she converted a large closet into a "creativity room" where co-workers could meet and brainstorm. In November 2002, after leaving Quaker, she opened Catalyst Ranch, an expanded version of that creativity room and perhaps Chicago's most unusual meeting and special-event space, used by such Fortune 500 companies as Pepsico, Unilever and Wrigley.

Catalyst Ranch's large, vibrant rooms offer abundant sunlight, unconventional furniture and a jamboree of toys and art. Niewiadomski's apartment in Andersonville has the same sweet, quirky look.

Drawn to Andersonville for its ethnic diversity, she found a neighborhood of well-maintained buildings. Her twobedroom condominium is filled with a delightful blend of vintage and ethnic furnishings.

"I have very few new pieces," she says. "Most things are really old, either refurbished or original. I picked up almost everything in my travels or at local markets. Most of the art is ethnic."

Her knack for putting things together enabled her to mix styles easily. In the living room, wicker couches mingle with armchairs from the '40s and '50s.

When she moved in, the apartment was half furnished. "But I wasn't worried about getting it all done in a matter of a month," she explains. "I slowly build up the pieces and, of course, after 15 years of collecting, you retire certain things. It becomes a jigsaw puzzle of switching things around."

Every year she has taken a big trip. Her travels have taken her through most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti, Hong Kong, Thailand and Brazil. "I've lugged and shipped some amazing things," she says.

Her dining room rug was shipped from Greece. Vases, bowls, glasses, a tea set, collections of puppets and flutes and much more hail from every corner of the globe. "I love things that are unique," she says. "It was always about things you couldn't find in the U. S."

What doesn't come from abroad was found in local antiques shops. In a corner of the living room is a turn-of -thecentury rocking chair Niewiadomski says she "dragged home because it was in such horrifying condition."

Refinished with the help of her father, it is now a "nice, solid piece," she says. "My dad and I took apart every spindle and numbered them so we could remember how to put them back together. My dad's got this interesting technique when the varnish is really old and dried-he doesn't believe in using chemical strippers. He takes broken pieces of glass and uses the sharp edge [to scrape], and it comes off with a highly polished finish. Then we restained it, put it back together and he reupholstered it for me."

Decorating her bedroom was another family affair. After years of living with off-white walls, Eva decided she "wanted to play around with color and would practice in the bedroom." She painted the room orange because "I love orange and didn't have orange anywhere else in the house. So I bought tangelo for the ceiling and a Chinese red that's a little more orangey." Her father painted the ceiling, her mother consulted on color.

Eva used a design element from an Indian sari bedspread to create a pattern and hand-painted it around the ceiling of the room. "I created a stencil out of cardboard with an X-Acto knife and then I hand-traced the arch with the stencil and filled in the rest of it by hand," she says.

Always busy with a project, Eva's now pondering what to do with the apartment's two ceiling fans. "I want to either paint or cover each blade with a Mexican art form," she says. Whatever she decides, it surely will be done with her inimitable light touch and unerring eye for whimsy.

 

RESOURCES
Kitchen: 1940s distressed kitchen table-Sandwich, Ill., Antiques Market; Belgian lace curtains by owner, fabric-Vogue Fabrics, Evanston; 1930s green corner bookcase-Chicago Antique Centre, Chicago; Mexican folk art wall hanging-Evanston Ethnic Art Fair. Sunroom: Filipino wicker couch-Raphia, Miami Beach, Fla.; 1940s drapes - Antique and Resale Shop, Chicago; Indian mirror pillow on couch-Dragonfly Collections, Chicago; red silk and silver work pillow on couch-Cassona Home Furnishings, Chicago. Living room: Filipino wicker loveseat-Raphia, Miami Beach, Fla.; antique Irish chest-Sandwich, Ill., Antiques Market; Mexican yarn and Afghan bag- Edgewater Antique Mall, Chicago; antique lamp-Brownstone Antiques, Chicago. Bedroom: hat boxes -T. J. Maxx; wrought-iron bench-Chicago Antique Centre, Chicago; Mexican placemats sewn onto pillows-Pier One Imports; pink and orange pillow -Cost Plus; chenille pillow-Open Air Market, New York City; Indian turquoise pillow-Dragonfly Collections, Chicago; antique Afghan wall hanging-Edgewater Antique Mall Inc.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Subjects: Antiques, Collectibles, Interior design
Document types: Feature
Column Name: INTERIORS
Section: Magazine
ISSN/ISBN: 10856706
Text Word Count 1047
Document URL:

News 2008 WBEZ

November 6, 2008
As part of the Eight Forty-Eight Morning Program, Steve Walsh interviews Bobbie Soeder and Paulette Eastman from Catalyst Ranch about Proposition 8 (same-sex marriage ban in California), gay “weddings” and commitment ceremonies.

Catalyst Ranch has been named to the Inc. Magazine's list of 5000 fastest growing private companies in America!

To bring it a little closer to “our home” we’re officially ranked #87 on the list of top 100 fastest growing companies in the great state of Illinois!

We're thrilled to be in the company of such giants!

Thank you to our clients for making it happen!

Places to Stay in Downtown Chicago

Lodging near Catalyst Ranch in the West Loop neighborhood

Is your meeting trending?
Then choose one of these hotels near Randolph Restaurant Row or in the Fulton Market District!

Hoxton Hotel

(Walking Distance)
200 N Green St,
Chicago, IL 60607
Call them direct for
Catalyst Ranch rates:
312-761-1700
Learn more about the Hoxton Hotel

Status LEED Silver Certified
and good for all size groups!

The Crowne Plaza West Loop

25 South Halsted St,
Chicago IL 60661
312-829-5000
Learn more about the Crown Plaza West Loop

Great to mid to large sized groups!

The Emily Hotel

311 N Morgan St,
Chicago, IL 60607
312.764.1919
Learn more about the Emily Hotel

New to the neighborhood!

Hampton Inn by Hilton™ and Homewood Suites by Hilton®*

(Walking Distance)
*The hotel is LEED Certified
Chicago Downtown /
West Loop
118 North Jefferson St.
(312) 586-4811
Learn more about the Chicago Westloop
Hampton by Hilton

Learn more about the Chicago Westloop
Homewood Suites by Hilton

Great for mid to larger groups!

The Publishing House Bed & Breakfast

108 N. May Street
(312) 554-5857
Learn more about the Publishing House Bed & Breakfast

Great for small groups
up to 11 rooms!

Hyatt House West Loop

105 N. May Street
312-492-0000
Learn more about the Hyatt House West Loo

Downtown Chicago Hotel Accomodations

The Location was Fantastic

“The guests were ecstatic about The ACME Hotel.  And for me, Dani made all the difference.  She is a dream!  She worked and worked to get everyone in and make sure all was set.  The guests loved it!  It was very consistent with the 'out of the box' experience they were having with Catalyst Ranch.  And the location was fantastic!”

- Carol Punos, Consultancy

Downtown Chicago

Other hotels we’d invite to the Rodeo!

Virgin Hotel

203 N Wabash Ave,
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: (312) 940-4400
virginhotels.com

Allegro Hotel

171 W Randolph St,
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: (312) 236-0123
www.allegrochicago.com

Hotel Monaco

225 N Wabash Ave,
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: (312) 960-8500
www.monaco-chicago.com

W City Center

172 W Adams St,
Chicago, IL 60603
Phone: (312) 332-1200
www.wchicagocitycenter.com

Chicago Athletic Association

12 S Michigan Ave,
Chicago, IL 60603
Phone: (312) 940.3552
www.chicagoathletichotel.com

Kinzie Hotel

(River North)
20 W. Kinzie St.
Chicago, IL 60654
Call them direct for
Catalyst Ranch rates:
312-395-9100
www.kinziehotel.com

Great for mid to larger groups!

ACME Hotel

(River North)
15 East Ohio St,
Chicago, Il 6061
Call them direct for
Catalyst Ranch rates:
(312) 894-0990
www.acmehotelcompany.com

www.acmehotelcompany
.com/corporate-travel.aspx

Great for smaller groups up to 25 rooms!

Got a Big Group to Wrangle?

No Big Deal.
These preferred partners in transportation will make getting here half the fun… Really!

Windy City Limo

www.windycitylimos.com

Chicago Limo Service

The Barrel Run

www.thebarrelrun.com

The Barrel Run - Get around Chicago and have fun