J. Riccardo Benavides

J. Riccardo Benavides is Founder and Creative Director of Ideas Event Styling in San Francisco. As a graduate of the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design, Benavides began his career in events with Neiman Marcus, transitioning to the hospitality industry with Hyatt Hotels. For over 11 years, he was in charge of crafting the hotel chain's Bay Area corporate and special events as well as its holiday events and displays. This role offered him the space to hone his eye and craft in the industry, giving him the taste of what it meant to mount and curate big events, and piqued his curiosity of creativity beyond the world of the hotel. Following a successful career at Hyatt, Benavides made the leap and launched his own design firm in 1992.

In the 30 years since the birth of Ideas Event Styling, Benavides and his team have been producing large events in both the non-profit and corporate worlds around the country. Ideas and Benavides are known for the style, sophistication, and creativity that maximizes each event’s purpose and goals, and their signature is the immersive experience of each guest. Ideas’ most recent large-scale project was the production of several events for the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit held in San Francisco, including the key event for President Biden with a performance by Gwen Stefani, and a private dinner for the president of China. Ideas also produces the majority of events throughout the year for San Francisco Mayor London Breed and the Office of Protocol.

Non-profit events produced by Ideas and Benavides include the San Francisco Opera Ball, San Francisco Ballet Opening Night Gala, Asian Art Museum Gala, the Opening Night Gala for the Oscar de la Renta retrospective exhibition at the De Young Museum, and the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute Gold Medal Gala in New York City. Among the corporate clients are Bay Area companies Google, Facebook, and Salesforce, as well as numerous clients around the country including a long-standing relationship with the Air Carriers Purchasing Conference based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Coming full circle, Ideas continues to serve in a variety of capacities the St. Regis San Francisco, Hyatt Regency San Francisco, Four Seasons San Francisco and Neiman Marcus.