| EVENT REPORT 10.30.09 12:42 PM |
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Microsoft Introduces Windows 7 With Cute Kid, Product Vignettes
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 | TV commercial star Kylie introduced Microsoft C.E.O. Steve Ballmer at the Windows 7 launch.
Photo: Richard Koek |
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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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RELATED TOPICS
Microsoft, Windows, Dell, Samsung |
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| EVENT REPORT 07.13.09 4:56 PM |
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N.B.A. All-Stars Alonzo Mourning and Dwyane Wade Host Annual Fund-Raiser in Converted Concert Arena
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 | Planner Martha Velasquez transformed the arena into an after-hours lounge
Photo: Alexis Corchado for BizBash |
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Every summer for the past 13 years, former Miami Heat basketball player Alonzo Mourning and his teammate Dwyane Wade (who joined the event last year) host Zo’s Summer Groove, a five-day fund-raiser for the Alonzo Mourning Charities and Wade’s World Foundation. The event consists of a golf tournament, comedy show and concert, block party, all-star basketball game, and benefit dinner. The gala dinner for 980 guests took place at Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood on Saturday night.
The charity hired independent event planner Martha Velasquez to convert the concert arena into an after-hours South Beach-style nightclub for the dinner, this year dubbed "Deco After Dark". “We thought of the Fontainebleau in the fifties with the Rat Pack performing and combined that resort feeling with jazz and blues to take people back [to that time],” said Grace Castro, director of events, marketing, and PR for Alonzo Mourning Charities.
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RELATED TOPICS
Alonzo Mourning Charities, Wade’s World Foundation, Publix Supermarket, Dell, CBS4 |
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| EVENT REPORT 03.24.09 8:30 AM |
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More From South by Southwest: Playboy, Perez, and Rachael Ray Host Parties and Sponsors
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 | Kanye West at Perez Hilton's One Night in Austin
Photo: Chad Wadsworth |
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FROM AUSTIN, TEXAS Plenty of brands and celebrities maintain a presence at South by Southwest each year without the commitment of a multiday, fully realized venue like Red Bull and The Fader. Playboy, Perez Hilton, and Rachael Ray all threw parties last week with the help of sponsors such as Jack Daniels, Dell Computers, and Rose’s Mojito.
Playboy's Rock the Rabbit party and Perez Hilton's One Night in Austin bash had people talking early in the week about the choice of venue. An old Safeway grocery store, which hadn't been used in years until the Obama campaign cleaned it up for its Austin headquarters, saw its SXSW debut as the home of both events. Playboy and local producers C3 Presents filled the space with Jack Daniels bars, a video gaming station for Namco's Afro Samurai, and a hot-ticket performance by Jane's Addiction at its Thursday party.
On Saturday night, Perez Hilton worked with New York's BMF Media, which produces the blogger's ongoing concert series, and Los Angeles-based Entertainment Fusion Group and Austin's Giant Noise to install a Dell "playground" in the venue he filled with acts such as the Indigo Girls, Ladyhawke, Solange, and the week's second suprise from Kanye West.
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RELATED TOPICS
Playboy, Jack Daniels, Namco, Perez Hilton, Dell, Rachael Ray, Rose's Mojitos |
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| EVENT REPORT 08.05.08 2:57 PM |
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Lollapalooza Adds More Stages—and a Beer Garden—to This Year's Sold-Out Festival
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 | Concert performance screens at Lollapalooza's beer garden
Photo: Eric Craig for BizBash |
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FROM CHICAGO
For Chicago's fourth-annual Lollapalooza, which took over Grant Park Friday through Sunday, festival organizers C3 Presents from Austin, Texas, offered a smorgasboard of choices for music—not to mention art and beer—lovers. Eight stages featured performances by 120 acts running concurrently over three days, while new distractions abounded, from Perry's, an electronica stage named after festival founder Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction, to Lederhosen's Biergarten, a popular stop for brews and brats.
The sheer size of Grant Park coupled with the diverse array of acts—mash-up wizard Girl Talk, gypsy punks Gogol Bordello, and headliners like Wilco, Radiohead, and Nine Inch Nails—could make getting the lay of the land difficult for any concertgoer. However, several helpful tools were on hand, such as pocket-sized official schedules, a centrally located information tower, and hordes of volunteers holding "Fest Info—Ask Me Now" signs. This is the first time Lollapalooza has sold out all three days in Chicago, with crowds upwards of 75,000 attending each day.
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RELATED TOPICS
Lollapalooza, Perry Farrell, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Going Green, Whole Foods, AT&T, PlayStation, Dell |
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