| TOP 100 EVENTS 07.07.09 3:39 PM |
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Chicago's Top Art & Architecture Events 2009
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 | SOFA at Navy Pier
Photo: David Burns |
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1. Art Chicago/Artropolis
The three-day Art Chicago exhibition takes place at the Merchandise Mart and showcases works from approximately 180 international art galleries. The 2009 event took place May 1 to 4, and drew more than 50,000 attendees.
2. NeoCon World’s Trade Fair
More than 50,000 guests descended on the Merchandise Mart in 2008 for the NeoCon World’s Trade Fair. Some 1,200 showrooms participate in the event, which showcases products for corporate hospitality and residential design. This year’s fair took place June 15 to 17.
3. SOFA
An acronym for “sculptural objects and functional art,” SOFA is Chicago’s longest continuously running art fair. Around 34,000 guests attended the 2008 event, which featured work from some 100 galleries. This year, the show returns to Navy Pier from November 6 to 8.
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RELATED TOPICS
Chicago's Top 100 Events, Art Chicago, NeoCon, SOFA, Diffa's Dining by Design, Diffa, American Institute of Architects, International Interior Design Association |
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| TOP 100 EVENTS 07.03.08 12:38 PM |
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Chicago's Top Art, Architecture & Design Events 2008
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 | Art Chicago at the Merchandise Mart
Photo: Courtesy of Art Chicago |
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1. Art Chicago/Artropolis
Art Chicago, Chicago’s longest-running contemporary art exposition, took place in various venues throughout its 15 years, but found a home at the Merchandise Mart in 2006. The 2008 incarnation, which ran from April 25 to 28, brought together 180 art galleries from 56 cities around the world to showcase the work of more than 2,000 artists. Artropolis, the umbrella event that brings together five simultaneous art shows at the Mart, including Art Chicago, the International Antiques Fair, and Next, was introduced in 2007.
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RELATED TOPICS
Chicago's Top 100 Events, Art Chicago, Artropolis, NeoCon, Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS, Diffa, DuPont Corian, American Institute of Architects, International Interior Design Association, Diffa Dining by Design, Condé Nast |
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| EVENT REPORT 06.11.08 2:14 PM |
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Global Woos Customers With Chocolate During NeoCon Show
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 | A chocolate sculpture by Coco Rouge
Photo: BizBash |
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To celebrate the opening night of NeoCon on Monday, Global—the Total Office (a contract furniture manufacturer and marketer) hosted a two-hour cocktail party in its Merchandise Mart showroom for roughly 400 guests. With about 75 concurrent parties happening in showrooms throughout the Mart, companies entered into an unofficial competition to lure customers. Some showrooms enlisted live entertainment, most had bars, and there were even rumors of a temporary wading pool built into one of the lower-level showrooms. For its part, Global lured guests with chocolate.
"We have several new finishes to showcase this year," said Michael Fishman, director of marketing and design at Global. For the opening-night NeoCon event, Fishman and his team brainstormed several ideas for thematic parties that would incorporate the new finishes' brown hues. After deciding that on-site espresso and coffee bars had "been done," they settled on a chocolate theme, also electing to tie a cherry-blossom fabric pattern featured on some new Global chairs into the event's decor. About a month and a half before NeoCon's opening night, the planning crew sent out scratch-and-sniff, chocolate-scented invites to the architects, designers, and other industry types who would be attending the trade show.
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RELATED TOPICS
NeoCon, Global Industries |
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| EVENT REPORT 06.11.08 1:14 PM |
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Severe Weather Doesn't Deter Nightclub-Themed Diffa Gala
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 | Giant light-reflecting cubes at Diffa/Chicago's 20th anniversary party
Photo: Caleb Caspe for Caspe Photography |
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The Chicago chapter of Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS celebrated its 20th anniversary Saturday night, at a gala entitled "Black to Basics" in McCormick Place West's Skyline Ballroom. The weather, however, was anything but basic, with dangerous thunderstorms brewing and tornado warnings broadcast throughout the area. A downpour occurred right before the scheduled cocktail time of 6:30 p.m., and many guests arrived with drenched umbrellas, but the skies cleared up considerably without affecting the evening's turnout of around 780 design-industry insiders.
Sponsored by DuPont Corian, the annual Diffa/Chicago gala serves as the social kickoff of NeoCon, the furniture-design trade show at the Merchandise Mart. To pay tribute to Diffa's 1980s roots, Diffa/Chicago co-chairs Timothy Smith and Erik Parks worked with Sarah Schnell of Total Event Resources to evoke a decadent nightlife theme. In the check-in area, velvet ropes and bouncers clad in black suits and sunglasses brought to mind the V.I.P. entrance of a dance club. Silver lamé curtains with red uplighting framed the doorways leading to the reception area, where smoke machines helped create the scene of an early-'80s music video. Decor was designed by Pavel Juricek of Kehoe Designs.
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RELATED TOPICS
Diffa, NeoCon |
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| EVENT REPORT 06.11.08 12:01 PM |
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Teknion Treats Clients to Comfort Food and Confetti Drops
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To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Teknion, an international designer, manufacturer, and marketer of office furniture products and systems, hosted about 1,000 clients at an appreciation party at Republic on Monday evening. The party took place on the first night of NeoCon, a furniture-industry trade show at the Merchandise Mart, giving Teknion another reason to celebrate: The company received two design awards for its products earlier in the day. The mood was certainly upbeat in the sprawling club, as Teknion execs and clients gathered together to eat, drink, and unwind after a day filled with conferences and seminars.
Teknion marketing manager Gina Dispenza worked with Britt Whitfield of Revel Global Events to create a "Dancing Through the Decades" theme at Republic. The in-house DJ spun dance hits from the 1970s through the present, while dancers from Elements Contemporary Ballet took to the stage to get the crowd going. Republic's programmable lighting system washed the room in green, blue, and purple hues, which highlighted the blasts of confetti that fell over the dance floor throughout the night. The space itself, with multiple bars, seating areas, and a huge dance floor, also lent itself to mingling and fit the company's aesthetic. "Our designs are clean and modern," said Dispenza, "and this venue fits in with our look."
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RELATED TOPICS
Teknion, NeoCon |
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| NEWS 06.09.08 12:34 PM |
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NeoCon Takes Over the Merchandise Mart
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Some 40,000 guests are expected to attend NeoCon—the National Exhibition of Contract Furnishings—which kicks off today and runs through Wednesday at the Merchandise Mart. The exposition brings together 1,200 showrooms and exhibitions of products from residential and commercial furnishings manufacturers. Product seminars, furniture exhibits, keynote speakers, and numerous networking events are slated to take place throughout the three-day trade show.
A slew of evening events, including black-tie galas hosted by Diffa (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) and the International Interior Design Association, plus numerous showroom parties and off-site events at design-savvy spots around town, also attract thousands of design industry insiders to Chicago. —Wendy Wollenberg
RELATED TOPICS
NeoCon |
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