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FROM NEW YORK

Masked Raconteurs Tell Tales at Moth Ball, and I Have a Blast

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Us Weekly Takes to Voyeur With Scantily Clad Models, Burlesque Feel

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$4 Million MOCA Gala Breaks Fund-Raising Records

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News Archive for Design Exchange

EVENT REPORT 11.03.08 3:39 PM

Guests Get Bubbling Drinks, Psychic Readings at Design Exchange Gala

The dining area at the Design Exchange gala
Photo: George Pimentel

The October 30 date of this year's black-and-white fund-raising gala at the Design Exchange led organizers to invite guests to put on their Halloween costumes a day early. It also enabled the hosts to use haunted-house decor and to play up a longstanding rumor about the Design Exchange building, formerly the Toronto Stock Exchange.

"People have said that the old trading floor is haunted, and I wanted to play up the history of the building," said the Design Exchange's senior director of special events, Gillian Hoff, who borrowed footage of people working on the floor in the 1930s from the National Film Board, and projected the eight-minute loop on the walls amid dry ice. "The video gave a sense of ghosts from the past," said Hoff, adding it also drew attention to the gilt and chrome ceiling, one of the architectural highlights of the building. MORE >>

Design Exchange, Joe Fresh Style

MY FAVORITE VENDORS 06.12.08 5:17 PM

Design Exchange Picks Eventscape, Archetype

Gillian Hoff

Gillian Hoff has been the senior director of special events for four years at Design Exchange, Canada's national design centre. In the old Toronto Stock Exchange building, Design Exchange is a museum as well as a venue, with all revenue supporting the museum. Hoff produces some 400 events annually, including fund-raisers, fashion shows, exhibit openings, and red-carpet galas. She has worked in the industry for 20 years.

Props: "Eventscape is one of my favorite prop suppliers. They supply enormous stretch fabric panels and structures. At our Steel Blue Gala, we created an amazing cityscape from 30-foot and 20-foot columns. I was re-creating Fritz Lang's Metropolis—the columns and arches are amazing to work with, and you can create some fantastic lighting effects by uplighting the fabric.” MORE >>

Design Exchange

TOP 100 EVENTS 05.16.08 12:23 PM

Toronto's Top Benefits 2008

The 2007 Look Good, Feel Better ball
Photo: Courtesy of Look Good Feel Better

1. Bloor Street Entertains
With 23 exclusive boutiques in the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood hosting gourmet dinners, this annual fund-raiser for Canfar is the most prestigious beneﬁt in the city. The 2007 event, which attracted 848 people, was marred by a bomb threat outside the Royal Ontario Museum, which led to the last-minute cancellation of the venue’s after-party. (Canfar staged an online auction in early December in an effort to raise additional funds.) The 2008 event will be held at the ROM on November 26. MORE >>

Toronto's Top 100 Events, Canfar, H2O Africa, HealthyKids International, Right to Play, SickKids Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Toronto Public Library Foundation, Design Exchange, Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, Art Gallery of Ontario, Jeanne Lottie, Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research, Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Canadian Opera Company, Children's Aid Foundation, Reach for the Rainbow Foundation, Grocery Foundation, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada, Villa Charities Foundation, Mount Sinai Hospital, Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care

EVENT REPORT 10.30.07 2:12 PM

Design Exchange Honours Its Home at Touchy-Feely Gala

Entertainment included ballet dancers on platforms.
Photo: Tina King/Presidential Gourmet

In addition to Eb Zeidler—the architect behind Ontario Place and the Eaton Centre—Design Exchange's black-and-white fund-raiser on Saturday, October 20, honoured its venue, recognizing the 70th anniversary of the historic Toronto Stock Exchange building. That guests could walk through the physical space of that landmark honoree fit this year's theme, "Feel This," which was chosen to suggest the visual and physical elements of good design.

Even the invitation played with texture by incorporating raised mini-circles that felt like braille. Inside were sketches by Zeidler that also appeared as silk-screen prints on cushions throughout the gala. MORE >>

Design Exchange

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