BizBash | Events * Meetings * Marketing * Style * Strategy * Ideas

OTHER MARKETS

GOOGLE TRANSLATE

OUR TRADE SHOWS & EVENTS

CALENDAR

JOBS

MOST POPULAR STORIES

1. Progressive Insurance Tries Event Marketing With Star From Its Commercials

2. Coty Drenches Union Square in Red Light for Beyoncé Fragrance Launch

3. Dining in the Dark for Foundation Fighting Blindness Was, Well, Eye-Opening

4. Dearfoams Slippers Uses Fireside Chat With Tim Gunn to Herald Relaunch

5. New Brooklyn-Based Production Firm Offers A la Carte Services

6. Apollo Targets Younger Audience With Revised Amateur Night

7. 82 Mercer: Former Manufacturing Facility Opens as Independent Event Venue

8. 5 New Takes on Chocolate Desserts

9. COPE, Preston Bailey, and Marcy Blum Hosting Planner Seminars in Coming Weeks

10. Recording Academy's Grammy After-Party Is "Dark, Mysterious" Circus Spectacle for 5,500

FROM LOS ANGELES

Mixt Greens: Quick, Eco-Conscious Lunch Option Downtown

At New Flower Firm, Juliet Flores Creates Designs From Whimsical to Modern

Recording Academy Co-Hosts Clive Davis's Pre-Grammy Party

Inside the Grammy Parties: Midnight Brunch at the New W, Black Eyed Peas at the Palladium, MusiCares' Neil Young Honors

Recording Academy's Grammy After-Party Is "Dark, Mysterious" Circus Spectacle for 5,500

Grammy Ceremony—on Its Earliest Date Ever—Includes 3-D Jackson Tribute and Haiti Benefit Performance

Hyde Lounge Mammoth: SBE's New Slope-Side Space for American Fare

CBS Films Chooses Historic Hollywood Venues to Debut First Feature

SAG Awards Move From Metallic-Hued Ceremony to Party With Blue-Stained Birch Walls

Delphine: Innovative Dining Group's New French Restaurant at the W Hollywood

FROM WASHINGTON

As Alvin Ailey Lures More Gala Guests, Dance Floor Requires Strategic Location

Bond 45: A New York Steak and Seafood House at National Harbor

Increased Space for Ford, Green Cars Dominate Washington Auto Show

Hundreds of Mayors Return to the National Building Museum for Annual Gala

Abramson to Lead The Post's Conferences and Events

Ping Pong Dim Sum: A Modern Place for Cantonese Small Plates

More Photos From BET Honors: Gilded Mirrors, Branded Bar Stools, and Towering Velvet Letters

V.I.P. Dinner and Late-Night After-Party Bookend BET Honors Weekend

4 Exclusive Locations Now Open for Events

2 New Options for Custom Cakes in Washington

News Archive for Skidmore Owings And Merrill

EVENT REPORT 04.02.08 3:44 PM

Diffa Showcases Big Tabletop Designs in Smaller Venue

David Stark's dining environment for Benjamin Moore was made mostly out of paint swatches and paper.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash

This year, Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS’s annual Dining by Design fund-raiser moved from its most recent home at the Waterfront to the downtown venue Skylight. The new location had a strong impact on the experience of walking through the showcase, which recruits a slate of designers and sponsors to build imaginative dining environments.

Compared with the Waterfront, with its exposed brick and steel beams (and the benefit's previous homes at the Hammerstein Ballroom and Roseland) Skylight's big white box provided a brighter, less distracting background for the designers' intensely layered creations. And the new site's smaller size necessitated a tighter collection of tables (cut down from more than 50 to 39) that made for a more focused—and more easily navigable—forum for locating trends and gathering ideas.

“It’s always a challenge to find a venue here, and for us, [Skylight is] a very user-friendly venue, with two load-in points—plus it’s a blank canvas for us; it’s a gallery,” said Diffa’s special events manager, Steven Williams. “It’s a little more exclusive because it’s smaller, and we have more sponsors this year.”

So, speaking of trends and ideas, how did the designers fill the new location? MORE >>

Diffa, Diffa Dining by Design, Architectural Digest, Benjamin Moore, Beringer, Domino Magazine, Gourmet magazine, Hewlett-Packard, Kravet, Nautica, New York Design Center, The New York Times, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Stolichnaya Elit, Vivienne Tam