Media Mogul: former busboy uses technology, spectacle to wow Fortune 500.

IN the high-tech, high-stakes world of new product introductions and corporate strategies, a lot of responsibility lies with Julio Campos.

Not bad for a guy who got his start as a busboy at Chasen's.

Thirty years after slipping into the United States illegally from El Salvador, Campos is serving the Fortune 500 elite. His Santa Monica-based Campos Creative Works Inc. produces large-scale multimedia and interactive corporate events for clients that have included Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Ford Motor Co.

"I've worked hard, but this has been amazing--not in my dreams," he said.

Campos founded the company in 1991 after nearly a decade working in the event production field, starting out at Culver City-based Image Stream, which produced events for Apple Computer Inc. Campos has a full-time staff of 30, along with 40 full-time contract workers and another 200 freelancers tapped on an event-by-event basis. (His wife, Sandra Sande is the chief financial officer.)

"I'd like to say there was some advance strategic vision on our point, but it really was a lot of luck," Campos said.

Bigger visions

He entered the United States at the age of 17 after fleeing E1 Salvador to avoid being pressed into service by the army (a frequent occurrence for young men if they hadn't already joined the local guerrilla movement).

His first stateside job was cleaning ash trays and refilling the water glasses at Chasen's, where he was later promoted to parking lot valet and eventually doorman.

Even then, Campos had bigger visions, although he didn't have much of a formal education. In between parking cars and greeting patrons, he would perfect his English and prepare for his GED exam, which he passed in 1977. Later, he attended L.A. City College.

Campos said he had considered becoming a cartoonist while growing up, but a magazine article on computers caught his attention, and he added computer science to his course load at the college.

When a paparazzo who hung out at Chasen's told him about Image Stream, he quit the restaurant in 1982 and put aside his four-year college dreams. His knowledge of computers led him to a job programming computers to synchronize slide projectors with audio tracks for large-scale multimedia presentations.

After leaving Image Stream in 1985, he tried some freelancing and got his first big job producing on-stage multimedia for the 1987 concert tour of singer Barry Manilow, who employed still, film and live video images synchronized to his music.

Campos got his big break by being named creative director for a team producing Microsoft's 1990 launch of its Windows 3.0 operating system, in large part because he was the only one in a roomful of artists who could speak geek as well as his clients.

While tech events at the time bordered on the lengthy and ponderous, Campos' group suggested a novel format: a conceptual video setting the scene for a short, punchy presentation by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. "The format became the standard for years at Microsoft, and eventually a lot of other companies," Campos said.

His client base continued to be largely high-tech until 1999, when the company produced its first event for Lincoln-Mercury and gradually added other automotive and consumer clients. That diversification proved prescient a few years later when the tech bust dried up much of the core business.

Think simple

At any one time, Campos Creative Works is juggling presentations for a dozen clients that include Cisco Systems Inc., Mattel Inc. and a large automotive clientele.

Volkswagen of America normally holds a U.S.-Canada dealer meeting every few years that requires nine months of preparation. This summer, it asked Campos to follow up the meeting it produced last fall with a special Dallas event in July. "No one thought that anything was less than first class," said Bill Gelgota, Volkswagen's director of dealer relations.

Campos said he often urges his team to think simple when designing an event. Recently, the firm was asked to add a teaser for a golf course dinner the night before Volvo's launch of its VT880 20-ton truck.

Rather than big screen video monitors, Campos wound up renting a helicopter and a booming audio system. The accompanying audio track created a story in which the helicopter's pilot appeared to be spying on the new vehicle and reporting back to his superiors.

"Clients all expect spectaculars these days, but it doesn't all have to be digital," said Campos, who still fondly remembers his roots from a simpler time and place. "Analog works too."

DEBORAH CROWE Staff Reporter