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We know you're always looking for new ideas, products, and strategies. So let us help. Whether you're looking for creative ways to present silent auction items, food trucks that serve tacos until 2 a.m., or performers who can juggle fire and sing opera, we want to hear your questions—however random or specific they may be. Email queries to style editor Lisa Cericola at lcericola@bizbash.com. Some may be selected—and answered—for upcoming stories.
After five years working in experiential marketing for Spalding Sports Worldwide and Jack Morton Worldwide, Shannon Downey packed it in—into a backpack, that is—and spent seven months traveling the world, visiting countries such as China, India, Egypt, and Spain. “It was one of those times in your life when you realize that you need to be doing something for the global good,” she says of her journey. Downey determined she would continue to work in events, but on her own terms. “I decided I should really be working for myself, and in a way that made sense to me,” she says.
In 2007, Downey founded Pivotal Production, a full-service event design and production firm. Since its inception, Pivotal has designed trade show booths, produced exhibition openings at local art galleries, and handled logistics for events ranging from the Ravenswood ArtWalk to the Museum of Science and Industry’s Science Saturdays program, a yearlong series that invites the public on behind- the-scenes tours of venues such as Argonne National Laboratory.
A student chef at "Cooking Up Change" Photo: BizBash
On Thursday night, some 600 adults paid $100 a head for a school lunch as the Healthy Schools Campaign hosted "Cooking Up Change." Held at Salvage One, the benefit comprised a V.I.P. reception with a cooking demo from Vie chef Paul Virant, a 50-lot silent auction, and passed hors d'oeuvres and cocktails. But "the centerpiece of the evening was the cooking contest," said volunteer co-chair Kelly Dettmann, adding that this aspect also "had the most moving parts."
Involving 15 teams of five or six culinary students from local public high schools, the contest challenged participants to create two recipes—one for a school lunch and one for a cookie—that adhered to "strict health and nutrition guidelines that were developed by the Healthy Schools Campaign," Dettman said. The winning team's reward was a trip to Washington, D.C., where they'll work alongside the Obamas' personal chef to prepare a meal that will be served to members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Budgeting for the coming year is well under way, and planners seem to have good thoughts about what they'll be working with in 2010. In last week's poll, 41 percent of participants said they're expecting bigger budgets than they received in 2009, while another 33 percent think their budgets will be about the same. Fewer than 1 in 5 readers expect tighter budgets, and just 7 percent still aren't sure.
This week we'd like to gauge your feelings on invitations and which kinds feel most appropriate these days. Have your say in this week's poll, which is in the left column of the home page.
Uptown restuarant Ceres' Table is scheduled to open on November 16. Chef-owner Giuseppe Scurato, formerly of Boka and Landmark, will offer a seaonal menu of items prepared with local ingredients. Dishes will include country-style paté made with pork and Sicilian pistachios, gnocchi with rabbit confit and arugula pesto, and flatiron steak with lemon-roasted potatoes and shallot fondue. The 78-seat venue will be available for full buyouts. —Jenny Berg
TV commercial star Kylie introduced Microsoft C.E.O. Steve Ballmer at the Windows 7 launch. Photo: Richard Koek
FROM NEW YORK Given Microsoft's enormous customer base—a January 2009 report put the technology giant's market share at 88 percent—when it launches a product, there's always a certain amount of buzz surrounding it. But rather than replicate the elaborate marketing stunt it produced for the debut of the Windows Vista operating system, Microsoft took a simpler approach to the press event introducing Windows 7. Inside Skylight Thursday, October 22, some 340 journalists, software testers, and executives from hardware manufacturing partners gathered for a six-hour launch that combined art gallery-style exhibits with live demonstrations and product vignettes.
"We wanted to create an event that represented the product and be mindful of the current state of the economy and the broad consumer mindset. So we set a tone that was simple, approachable, and authentic while demonstrating the excitement we all feel for Windows 7," said Windows group marketing manager Ed Chase, who led the planning of the project. To pull it off, Chase collaborated with Pinnacle Exhibits and a crew of other local and West Coast companies.
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Mustachioed participants at a 2008 Movember party Photo: Courtesy of the Movember Foundation
Movember, an Australian nonprofit that raises money and awareness for men's cancers via mass mustache growth each November, comes from fairly fortuitous beginnings. In its first year, founders just sprouted their whiskers for fun, before realizing the conversations started by ironic facial hair could have a positive effect.
"It just came to us over some beers on a Sunday night in Melbourne," said Movember co-founder Adam Garone. "The original idea was just to bring them back for a joke, and 30 of our friends participated for no particular reason that November. Every guy had a lot of fun, but all of us had gotten grief from bosses and girlfriends over the month."
That was 2003. Garone and his friends had enough fun with their month of mustaches to try it again the next year, but to placate their friends and colleagues, they decided to make it a fund-raising effort.
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Lincoln Square's LM Le Restaurant Photo: Courtesy of LM Le Restaurant
LM Le Restaurant opened earlier this month in Lincoln Square. Named after Luc and Mary, the children of husband-and-wife co-owners Stephan and Nicole Outrequin Quassier, the venue offers contemporary French cuisine.
Signature dishes include a torchon of foie gras with fig jam and sea salt, grilled wild sturgeon with hearts of palm, and sautéed veal shortbreads with caramelized onion ravioli. For private events, chef Bradford Phillips, formerly of Blackbird, can prepare canapés, set menus, or buffet stations.
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Helen Devore Waukazoo on the podium with Maria Shriver at the Minerva Awards Photo: Gold/Wong
FROM LOS ANGELES It might be said that 2009 is a year that created a particular need for inspiration and community support—especially in a state like California, where budget shortfalls and the unemployment rate have become notorious. Either in spite of or because of that climate, California's first lady, Maria Shriver, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Women's Conference once again drew masses of women from all over the state to join a packed roster of about 70 high-level speakers and participants at the Long Beach Convention Center.
This year, the program ballooned from a single day to two full days—to accommodate the increasing number of would-be attendees. (Each year, full-day passes to the conference sell out in record time. Tickets this year sold out in less than two hours, beating last year's record of three.) The first day's program, a Day of Transformation, served as somewhat more informal programming, with two 1,500-attendee sessions and six 400-person breakout sessions. "We were getting so much feedback from people who wanted to participate and have access," said executive producer Alexandra Gleysteen. "It's a way to get more hands-on information—how to get a new job, start a nonprofit—all in a spiritual context and a serene environment. It's on a different scale, more intimate, than the main program."
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Waterford Targets More Marketing Mileage With New Year's Ball: Since bringing its signature bling to the New Year's ball drop in New York in 1999, Waterford has been an active partner in the globally watched event. But now the Irish crystal company wants more recognition for that contribution. An upgraded six-ton ball—made of 2,268 Waterford crystals and backlit by 32,256 Philips LEDs—will debut this December after a $2.5 million print advertising campaign. Waterford also committed to an upgraded sponsorship deal, in hopes that some of the one billion people who catch the ball drop this year will also notice who made it. [BrandFreak]
Events Boost Essence Image: Not all magazines are downplaying events, and Essence is even earning praise for them. The title was chosen as one of Advertising Age's top 10 for the year, and the trade credits the Essence Music Festival for being such an appealing brand to marketers. The New Orleans concert series, held over Independence Day weekend, saw 428,000 attendees—up significantly from the already impressive 270,000 it hosted the year before. [AdAge]
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