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FROM CHICAGO "I can smell truffles in the air," said one guest at Monday night's Food & Wine Entertaining Showcase. Held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the event treated 600 guests to dishes from local chefs, who peppered their offerings with high-end ingredients that—apart from black truffles —included everything from whipped salt cod to apple-cider bubbles and pumpkin consommé.
Now in its 11th year, the tasting is "built around its talent," said Food & Wine's special projects producer, Devin Padgett, referring to the 20 local chefs who dished out sample-size entrées. Padgett said the first chefs he asked to participate were locals who have been highlighted in Food & Wine's annual "Best New Chefs" feature. On Monday, nine such chefs—including Boka's Giuseppe Tentori, Alinea's Grant Achatz, and Tru pastry chef Gale Gand—showed up to man tasting stations.
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A Mario enthusiast posing in the mock Mushroom Kingdom Photo: John Minchillo for BizBash
Mario has been a part of the gaming world since the pixelated plumber first tried to outwit a disgruntled gorilla in Donkey Kong, but he achieved cultural ubiquity with the 1985 release of Super Mario Bros. on the original Nintendo system. So to launch the newest version of the game for its Wii console, Nintendo invited the public into its Rockefeller Plaza flagship Saturday afternoon for free gaming, an early opportunity to buy the title, and a temporary museum of all things Mario.
One of several high-profile releases in 2009—the store had already hosted events for Sports Resort and Indiana Jones—Super Mario Bros.' synonymy with the Nintendo brand made the company choose to highlight the launch with a public stunt. As Nintendo of America product marketing manager Bill Trinen told us earlier this year, communal gameplay is a major factor in the company's decision to make a fuss.
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The premiere for The Twilight Saga: New Moon in Westwood Photo: Line 8 Photography
FROM LOS ANGELES Westwood, being a college town, is accustomed to groups of young people roaming about—but Monday night was no ordinary night in the village. The young people were out, for sure, but many weren't yet old enough to drive, and they were pressed behind barricades on closed streets for the premiere of Summit Entertainment's new installment of the Twilight series, New Moon.
Summit's Eric Kops oversaw the hotly anticipated event, tapping ELS for big-time tasks like crowd control and security, and Chad Hudson Events for roles including theater management and R.S.V.P.s, plus production of the after-party at the Hammer Museum.
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Models at the fragrance preview for Victoria's Secret Pink Photo: Justin Jay/Courtesy of Victoria's Secret Beauty
A week shy of its annual fashion show, Victoria's Secret lured beauty editors to a preview of the new fragrance collection for its Pink brand with short, prop-heavy presentations and mountains of candy. But instead of the usual show and tell, the Thursday event at the New York office of Limited Brands relied on models, rather than brand representatives, to articulate and embody the concept behind the three scents, Hope Pink, Wish Pink, and Live Pink.
Starting at 9 a.m., the presentation was broken into four one-and-a-half-hour sessions and hosted about 80 editors—roughly 20 per time slot—from publications such as Vogue, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, and Seventeen. To produce the event and build an appropriate setting in a space typically used as a conference room, Victoria's Secret Beauty director of public relations Allison Greenberg brought in Patrick Martinez of City Iris.
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Holiday parties are about to kick into full swing, and according to our latest poll, they shouldn't be too over the top. Half of the participants in last week's survey think that informal nights out at bars or restaurants feel appropriate this year. Only 13 percent of readers think that full, catered affairs are in order, but even fewer—8 percent—think festivities should be kept inside the office. Still, another 29 percent feel that parties should be judged on a case by case basis, by the performance of the company.
This week we'd like to see what kind of entertainment you've booked recently. What did you do the last time you needed cocktail party music? Let us know by partipating in the poll on the left column of the home page.
Beer tasting at Advertising Age and Creativity's Idea Conference Photo: Gary He
Looking to distinguish itself from formulaic and sometimes stale industry conferences, Thursday's Idea Conference from Advertising Age and sister publication Creativity introduced some unusual ways to engage attendees. With an overriding theme of reinvention, the trade magazines invited a diverse crew of speakers—from ING Direct U.S.A. chairman and president Arkadi Kuhlmann to the popular and often outspoken Momofuku owner and chef David Chang—and kept the format of the eight-hour event relatively loose, offering its 300 or so guests a variety of seating areas and plenty of opportunities to mingle.
Held at Terminal 5, the fourth annual Idea Conference was overseen by Advertising Age conference manager Lauren Minardo, who focused her efforts on incorporating interactive elements that wouldn't detract from the program or the speakers themselves. To that end, Minardo took advantage of the concert venue's layout and created lounges that had a full view of the stage, eschewed a banquet-style set up for the meals, and added booths where speakers could linger and chat about their ideas. The conference even broke up its afternoon schedule with an informal beer tasting hosted by Dogfish Head brewery at 4 p.m.
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Leo Burnett's employee art gallery Photo: Courtesy of Leo Burnett
In a year of cutbacks and salary freezes, perhaps now more than ever, hard-working employees need to feel valued, even in small ways. Jennifer Savica, TD Bank’s vice president of event management, rewards her staff with little perks throughout the year, like taking everyone out for ice cream in the summer, treating people to their favorite drinks at Starbucks on a cold day, and occasionally allowing casual Fridays. “I try to show appreciation for my team every day by creating a true democracy—asking their opinions, including them in many of the department decisions, and empowering them to do their job,” she says.
Boston Beer Company has a gift policy that prevents employees from keeping items valued over $10 given to them by clients and event sponsors. “If someone gets something over that amount, we raffle it off to the office as a thank you,” says Kristen Smith, the company’s travel and event planner. Past items have included tickets to charity events the company has sponsored, movie screenings, and Red Sox tickets. “It’s nice to raffle these things off and make them available to anyone—and at no cost to the company,” says Smith.
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Louis Vuitton's forest tableau for its launch at Saks Fifth Avenue Photo: Courtesy of Louis Vuitton North America
The outdoorsy aesthetic at Tuesday night's launch for Louis Vuitton's 2010 cruise collection and concept boutique inside Saks Fifth Avenue put a new spin on in-store events. In a decor-heavy show of foliage and goods—courtesy of David Beahm—the French fashion house gave guests more to gawk at than just racks of clothing. As a follow-up to our story, here are more images from the cocktail party.
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The garden setting for Louis Vuitton's launch at Saks Fifth Avenue Photo: Jeff Thomas/ImageCapture
Like its three-part homage to Stephen Sprouse in January, Louis Vuitton's event Tuesday night was anything but subdued. The two-hour launch that heralded the French fashion house's 2010 cruise collection and its first women's concept store in North America planted guests amid a living garden of trees, foliage, and flowers on the third floor of Saks Fifth Avenue.
Hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Louis Vuitton North America president and C.E.O. Daniel Lalonde, and Saks Fifth Avenue chairman and C.E.O. Stephen Sadove, the night entertained a bevy of well-heeled models, editors, and celebrities, including tennis champ Serena Williams, Vogue publisher Tom Florio, and Vanity Fair executive fashion editor Alexis Bryan Morgan.
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Chandelier cookies by Sugarbuilt Photo: Courtesy of Sugarbuilt
These locally made desserts come packaged for swag bags and can be delivered to events.
1. Through Sugarbuilt, Amelia Coulter creates artful, intricately iced sugar cookies, often based on decorative art motifs or architecture like the Brooklyn Bridge. Cookie flavors include lavender, chocolate-red chile, bizcochito (anise and cinnamon), and ginger-lemon. Cookies range from $3 to $20 apiece and a minimum of two dozen is required. Custom designed cookies are also available for a $100 fee plus the cost of the cookies.
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