Weather or not, his event planning firm's ready

Do you have what it takes to be in a business that is always at the whim of the weather?

A few years ago, Nick Deninno's company, PTG Event Services of Islandia, spent two weeks putting up huge tents at Eisenhower Park for the PGA's senior golf tour. Suddenly, extremely high winds blew across the course, knocking down the tents and trees.

Two weeks of work lay on the ground.

"We had to rebuild everything in two hours," Deninno said late last week, as PTG Event prepared to put the finishing touches on tents it set up at Belmont Park for Saturday's races.

"We live and die by the weather," Deninno said of his business.

But with summer weather coming, Deninno expects to be extra-busy. The summer and fall, with all of the party events that take place, are the busiest time for the company, whose annual sales are now around $4 million. The company has about 25 full-time employees and 60 in the busy season. And for Deninno, it all began with DJ-ing and arranging events two decades ago.

At St. John's College in Jamaica, Queens, Deninno studied marketing and worked part time for rock radio stations in Manhattan. After college, he was an event coordinator for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and he was a DJ on the side. In the mid-1990s, he opened a children's party company in Fresh Meadows.

Then, he said, customers wanted more. "They wanted tents, tables and chairs." He bought three big tents and a van in 2000 and began serving corporate events and festivals.

"We found out we were very good at finding solutions" for people who had irregular lots or backyards and wanted tents. Work came faster. PTG Events worked the Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan in 2003, setting up 100 tents in a downtown neighborhood. The company did one of P. Diddy's White Parties in the Hamptons, and has worked the Oyster Festival in Oyster Bay.

"Business growth has mostly been word-of-mouth," said Liz Cann, PTG Event's client services director.

Not everyone is made for this business. "It's very challenging," Deninno said. "You've always got to be prepared."