Jx2 Productions • Our Work
Amherst College Presidential Inauguration
Multi-day, multi-site production for the inauguration of Michael A. Elliott ’92, Amherst College’s 20th president — connecting an outdoor War Memorial setting, an indoor dinner environment, and a fully prepared rain-site plan.
Project overview
Designing one story across multiple spaces.
For the October 28, 2022 presidential inauguration, Jx2 supported a multi-day program spanning indoor and outdoor locations. The production needed to reflect Amherst history, support formal ceremony and dinner moments, and remain ready for weather-driven changes without losing the visual relationship between spaces.
Design challenge
Transform a difficult room without losing the campus story.
One key indoor venue was a glass-roof gym without air conditioning. The room had to support multiple transformations while still feeling intentional, comfortable, and connected to the College.
Design partner Steve Teneyck's design included a custom round stage, planter boxes and live trees, custom-color carpet, historical imagery and banners, temporary air conditioning, and additional power. The same room could be reconfigured as the program moved through dinner, reception, ceremony contingency, and other event moments.
Visual continuity
Bring the War Memorial landscape indoors.
The stage and curved LED wall were proportioned to relate to the outdoor War Memorial inauguration site. Jx2 filmed the mountainside behind the memorial using the intended perspective and lensing so the indoor dinner background could visually relate to the real outdoor landscape rather than feeling like an unrelated scenic image.
Contingency planning
Prepare the indoor ceremony before the weather makes the decision.
Indoor rain site
An indoor ceremony layout was prepared in advance rather than treated as a last-minute fallback.
Prepped technical paths
Camera and audio lines were prepared so the program could move without rebuilding the technical plan from zero.
Overnight flip readiness
Following the dinner the night before, the team was prepared to flip the room overnight if the inauguration had to move indoors.
Planning & contingency
Design the outdoor event, the indoor experience, and the weather plan together.
Build & transformation
Turn the concepts into a working multi-day event environment.
Finished environments
One production language across dinner, reception, and ceremony.
Event photography
The finished inauguration in use.
Production approach
One coordinated plan for ceremony, dinner, reception, and weather.
The work combined event design, staging, LED, video, audio, lighting, scenic, power, climate support, show-site planning, and coordination with College leadership. Outdoor reception spaces, the inauguration site, the dinner environment, and the indoor contingency plan were treated as parts of one production system. See Commencement Production and Corporate Event Design & Branded Environments.
Planning a multi-site institutional event?
Jx2 can coordinate the technical production, scenic environment, contingency planning, and show-site execution needed to keep complex programs connected across rooms, venues, and weather conditions.