All work, all play: Fun Productions gets serious about having a good time.

• Author: Wartell, Matt
• Position: Company overview

It doesn't sound like the stuff of business: adults racing tricycles equipped with toilet seats for saddles while cheerleaders egg them on from the sidelines.

"It was awesome," recalls Freddie Templeton, Rocky Mountain regional director of the International Special Events Society. "We loved every minute of it."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The tricycle race, planned and orchestrated by Aurora-based Fun Productions, was part of a February gathering of 100 members of the special events group in Denver.

The husband and wife team of Tim and Dawn Abbott built Fun Productions around showing other people a good time

"Periodically, businesses like to reward their employees for a job well done," says Tim Abbott, Fun Productions president. "Sometimes it's a company picnic, a banquet, a casino night. That's where we come in."

Activities range from cerebral quiz shows to banquets and after-dinner games held at Invesco and Coors fields. The games menu in the company's catalog includes climbing inflatable mountains, sumo wresting (with plastic padding that instantly packs on the pounds), standup comics, and its fastest growing staple: casino nights.

The company was founded in 1991, when Tim Abbott quit his job in a party equipment rental company and began organizing casino nights.

"We kept poker, blackjack and craps tables in our garage," Dawn says. "We would load up our van, go to the party site, set up the tables. Then we would change into our formal clothes and deal the games."

By 1996, Fun Productions was ready to expand.

Spurned by banks, the couple maxed out their credit cards and borrowed money from their families.

They bought tents, booths, inflatable games, Velcro climbing walls and gladiator jousting games. Then they contacted high schools and began doing after-prom events.

The company now operates out of a 12,000-square-foot facility in Aurora, with more than 30 full- and part-time employees. It coordinates an average of 50 different special events a week.

Warm months are mainly devoted to company and organizational picnics and outdoor-team building activities, Tim says. Cold weather months favor casino nights as part of Christmas parties and company banquets. Fun Productions often provides food catering as part of a turnkey service.

"We operate in the ski resorts and in Wyoming and New Mexico," Dawn says.

Fun Productions markets it services through a full-color catalog and an interactive video CD. The firm has a core of approximately 150 companies...