THE SCOUT
50 Budget-Friendly Ideas for Holiday Parties: Food, Gifts, Decor, and More
MoMA's pop-up centerpiece Photo: Courtesy of MoMA Design Store
1-3. Skip cupcakes for a fresh, high-quality sheet cake. Bleeding Heart Bakery in Chicago makes spice cake with apples, brown sugar frosting, and streusel; a half-sheet for $130 feeds 45. Mäni’s Bakery in Los Angeles makes an organic carrot-raisin cake, which costs $160 for a half-sheet and serves 65. Miami’s Yummy Cakes and More can make its chocolate explosion cake, with a half-sheet (enough for 65 guests) starting at $65.Cool Shooter shot mold , available for $12.95 each. Broadway Party Rentals in New York, which rents for $30 and up. Or, to dress up a plain bin and keep things cool, Classic Party Rentals provides the 6 Velon chilling wrap (prices vary).
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Corporate Holiday Parties , iStar Financial , Paul Wilmot Communications , The Economist
THE SCOUT
Cort's New Line of Glowing LED Furniture
Cort's Luna Lighting collection Photo: Courtesy of Cort Event Furnishings
Cort Event Furnishings recently launched a new line of LED furniture called the Luna Lighting collection. Rental items include bars, bar-height tables, and pedestals that are lit from within by battery-operated LEDs that last up to eight hours. The lights come in eight colors (red, white, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, and purple), and can be programmed to illuminate the pieces in a solid hue, or fade or flash from color to color. Brushed stainless steel tabletops and frames give the collection a polished look and help make the pieces sturdier. The modular design of the collection offers flexibility as well. The bar can be configured in circular, serpentine, or perpendicular shapes. Pedestals can be turned into tables with round or rectangular tabletops, and can also be connected to create glowing columns. The pieces are available throughout the U.S. and the company will deliver to Canada, depending on the size of the order. Prices range from $56 to $600. —Lisa Cericola
THE SCOUT
6 New Products Spotted at the BizBash New York Expo
Cloth Connection's new overlay Photo: BizBash
FROM NEW YORK
More than 200 exhibitors displayed a range of products and services for events at the BizBash Expo at the Javits Center on Wednesday. Here are some new items that caught our attention on the bustling trade show floor.Cloth Connection just released a line of overlays called the Artistic Braided collection. The sparkly linens are available in an array of colors, including gold, silver, black, copper, red, turquoise, and purple. The linens are available throughout the U.S. and pricing varies, as the overlays are created to order.
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Bizbash New York Expo
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New Company Offers Affordable Video for Events or Web Sites
Video stills from Your Story Everywhere projects Photo: Your Story Everywhere
Recently launched video production company Your Story Everywhere specializes in affordable minute-long films for Web sites, whether viral marketing campaigns or informative documentary-style pieces. The Columbus, Ohio-based company can also handle longer projects like tribute videos or footage for award shows, which are available on DVD. For short films, typically the time from shoot to finished video is approximately 14 days. The company sends clients periodic updates as a film is being edited so they can follow the video's progress and request changes. Unlike other video production companies, prices for projects are deteremined by the length of the video. A fully produced and edited 60-second video is $1,000, a 90-second video is $2,000, and a 120-second piece is $3,000. Longer videos are priced on request. Travel costs and a la carte options like high-definition cameras and motion graphics are additional. —Lisa Cericola
THE SCOUT
4 Ideas for Food-Focused Events
Chef Robert Danhi leads walking tours of Little Saigon. Photo: Robert Danhi
Working on a food-centric outing? Explore these four rental, cooking, tour, and gift options.Town & Country Event Rentals is offering a new cooking demonstration table that provides a view for guests to watch the action. The set consists of a 3- by 6-foot swiveling plexiglass mirror that can be adjusted to various heights and a brushed steel frame with interlocking casters. The 6-foot by 30-inch table affords a large work area, and a shelf below can be used for storage during the cooking process. The unit rents for $295.Robert Danhi leads groups on walking tours of Little Saigon. The chef takes guests through markets, with stops to sample treats at small shops, and to a tofu factory for samples. The tour concludes at a local restaurant where Danhi will demonstrate a recipe from his book Southeast Asian Flavors: Adventures in Cooking the Foods of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia & Singapore . At the end of the tour, participants receive one of the chef’s cookbooks. The ideal group size is fewer than 20 people to keep everyone together; larger groups can be accommodated in a modified format. Base price per person is $100 for the tour and includes a book, tastings, and a meal. Customized tours are possible.
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Teambuilding
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Budget-Friendly Invitation Makeovers
Kira Evans Design's 2008 and 2009 invitations for an ERA Real Estate event Photos: Courtesy of Kira Evans Design
ERA Real Estate's Leadership Team Awards The Parsippany, New Jersey-based company holds an annual dinner for its employees. Last year, Los Angeles-based Kira Evans Design created an Art Deco-inspired invitation with heavy silver foils and an embossed logo.2009: ERA scaled back and went with a rain-forest theme, which allowed Evans to use nature photography to create an invitation for one-third of the price. Four-color printing also reduced production costs, but still resulted in a high-impact look.
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Invitations
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A New, Attention-Getting Format for Meetings and Presentations
"The Morning Show With Scott Bloom" Photo: Scott Janelli
Looking for a way to spice up a conference presentation or sales meeting? "The Morning Show With Scott Bloom" is a new talk show-style format for business meetings. Hosted by Scott Bloom , a Los Angeles-based M.C. and moderator with 15 years of experience, the program is customized to fit each client's needs. Bloom can host a scripted question-and-answer session with a C.E.O. or presenter or act as a moderator or an M.C., moving speakers from topic to topic. Bloom can also provide introductions and banter to warm up an audience, then turn over the stage to the presenter. Because staging and audiovisual needs are minimal, "The Morning Show" can take place in venues ranging from hotel ballrooms to large conference rooms. A riser and two stools are ideal, but some companies may opt for more elaborate settings with pipe and drape and branded graphics. Planners can provide their own backdrop or have Bloom's team source items for an additional fee. Pricing starts at $13,500, which includes a customized program as well as Bloom's hosting duties. Travel costs are additional. —Lisa Cericola
READERS' FORUM
What's the Weirdest Request You've Heard From a Guest?
Jack Morton Worldwide's Sarah Shulman
“For a corporate event, one of the big shots wanted to know what hotels in Chicago would let him bring a skunk, because he wouldn’t go anywhere without his pet. Someone in our office was able to find a bed-and-breakfast that agreed to make arrangements for him.”Katherine Parris, Events by Parris , Toronto Sarah Shulman, director of program management, Jack Morton Worldwide , New York Amanda M. Burks, manager of corporate relations and special events, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio
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THE SCOUT
Seating With Customizable Upholstery
Lounge 22 offers customized upholstery Photo: Courtesy of Lounge 22
Two major event furniture providers have new, customizable options that allow you to emblazon seating with logos, customized designs, or photographic imagery.Lounge22 's new upholstery service makes it possible to cover the company's modern-looking Congo line of chairs and sofas with customized images. The available fabrics are a heavyweight poly-cotton canvas or a polyester with the look and feel of heavy silk. Planners work with Lounge22 to provide the patterns, and the turnaround time for the upholstery is about three weeks. The Congo chair with custom printing is available for rent starting at $325 each, and the sofa rental starts at $500 each; the company can also store the custom covers for future use at no extra charge. Rentals and the upholstery service are available in the U.S. and Canada.MORE >>
INFLUENCES
New Louis Vuitton Book Focuses on Integrating the Brand and Art
Jun Aoki & Associates' terrazzo façade of the Louis Vuitton Ginza boutique in Tokyo is embedded with translucent marble squares.
Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion, and Architecture documents the iconic French luxury brand’s collaborations with leading international artists, architects, designers, and photographers. The 400-page anthology (with 400 color illustrations), out today from Rizzoli New York , includes an A-to-Z list of those who have worked with the company over the years—Vanessa Beecroft, Frank Gehry, David LaChapelle, Takashi Murakami, Stephen Sprouse, and Zaha Hadid, among others—on advertising, fashions, boutique designs, and commissioned art projects.
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Louis Vuitton
