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EVENT REPORT

Law Firm Hosts Women-Only Evening With Chocolate, Diamonds

Golden State, Land of Oz Inspire Santé Tasting Events

New York's Buddha Bar Inspires Hospital Benefit

New Nokia Products Make Movies (and Take Drink Orders) at Gen Art Event

Nestea Launches New Beverage With a Twist on Afternoon Tea

Crown Royal, In Touch Host Friday-Night Derby Fetes in Louisville

Barefoot Wines Targets Feet, Promotes Safe Beaches at Outdoor Event

Bridgepoint Fund-Raiser Adopts French Café Theme

Volunteers Throw Breast Cancer Benefit With No Budget

L.C.B.O. Launches California Wine Promo With Celebrity Look-Alikes
 

GUEST QUESTIONS

Fashion Week Tent Poll: What Do You Think of the Shows?

Fashion Week Tent Poll: What Do You Think of the Location?

Hollywood Entertainers Impress Guests at Clinton Gala
 
 
MY FAVORITE VENDORS   05.08.08 2:24 PM
Hugo Boss Canada Relies on McNabb Roick Events
Dawn Bellini
As the director of marketing and public relations for Hugo Boss Canada, Dawn Bellini handles all advertisement components, editorial loan-outs to editors, and the planning of all of the company's events. Bellini has been with Hugo Boss since 1994 and plans roughly seven large events a year, such as the annual Boss Benefit, held in a private home for 400.

Production: "I cannot live without McNabb Roick Events. Jeff Roick is like my right hand when it comes to events. We work with him on everything—coordinating the rentals, staffing, decor, the DJ, and catering. Every event we work on he has a hand in, and he’s on the Boss Benefit committee. He even hosted my baby shower last year, he’s that close."

Sound, Lighting, Staging: "Through Jeff, we came to work with Westbury National Show Systems. When we do our fashion show for Boss Benefits, they set up the runway. They also do big concerts, so they already have the tech riders, which is what the artist requires to perform, like a certain type of piano, soundboard, and microphone. They are able to anticipate what the performer will need." READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS Hugo Boss Canada, Hugo Boss
VENUE NEWS   05.08.08 1:48 PM
Grace Opens With Seasonally Inspired Menu, Historic Photographs
The dining room at Grace
Photo: Courtesy of Grace
After almost three years in Los Angeles running the restaurants Bella, Parc, and Shag, Lesle Gibson returned to Toronto and launched Grace on Tuesday. Located in the space that housed her former restaurant Xacutti (and beside another restaurant she used to co-own, Teatro), the 60-seat room is decorated in shades of cream and blue with antique accents. "I wanted to make it feel almost like you're in somebody's house for dinner," Gibson says. READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS Lesle Gibson, Susur Lee
THE WALKTHROUGH   05.07.08 4:46 PM
Spice Route Features Asian Antiques, Outdoor Koi Pond
The dining room at Spice Route
Photo: BizBash
Nick Di Donato of the Liberty Entertainment Group and Charles Khabouth of Ink have collaborated on a second venue following the opening of Tattoo Rock Parlour, their first joint venture, which launched late last year. The pair opened the doors to Spice Route, a bistro-bar on King Street West, on May 1. The pan-Asian restaurant features 8,000 square feet of space inside—including two private rooms—and a 3,000-square-foot patio that looks onto the street and wraps around the east side of the building.

Designed by Nadia Di Donato, Liberty Entertainment Group's creative director, Spice Route incorporates a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Indian aspects. The entranceway features antique teak Asian doors, flanked by two water urns and flaming torches. "We're not going to do any signage. I think it's going to speak for itself," Di Donato said during a tour. "People are going to know where it is." Inside, many of the artifacts that dress the space are imports. But several pieces, including the hand-carved Burmese goddess that graces the reception area, are from Di Donato's personal collection of Asian antiques. READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS The Liberty Group, Ink
EVENT REPORT   05.07.08 11:55 AM
Crown Royal, In Touch Host Friday-Night Derby Fetes in Louisville
The Crown Royal Lounge
Photo: Playboy/James Trevenen
Several big-name brands showed up in Louisville over the weekend to host events surrounding the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby. Dubbed the Run for the Roses, the horse race has become a breeding ground for tabloid-friendly celebrities—and where celebrities go, endorsement-seeking brands follow. (Ubiquitous types like The Hills' Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, model Molly Sims, Entourage's Adrian Grenier, and former Miss USA Tara Conner were on the scene.)

"The Derby is one of our favorite events," said Hi-Fi Marketing Group partner Brian Gefter, who produced Friday's In Touch Weekly Parlor party with his partner Mike Satsky. "We do all of these parties around national event properties like Super Bowl, but the reason the Derby is appealing to us is that it’s very celebrity-driven but it’s less cluttered. There's a real chance to make a huge impact in an area where there aren’t as many events going on, as, say, the Super Bowl."

Playboy division vice president of creative services Donna Tavoso, who produced the Crown Royal Lounge on Friday night, said, "I think as more and more people realize that the Derby is a celebrity event and a great consumer event, they are drawn to the whole idea. It's not surprising that others want to throw a party [on the Friday night before the Derby]. That said, we know the level and quality of the party we throw, and we rest on that reputation." READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS Kentucky Derby, Barnstable Brown Gala, Playboy, In Touch Weekly, Pama, ProFlowers, Crown Royal, Grey Goose
EVENT REPORT   05.07.08 9:25 AM
Barefoot Wines Targets Feet, Promotes Safe Beaches at Outdoor Event
Barefoots Wines' display at Yonge-Dundas Square
Photo: BizBash
Barefoot Wines held a beach-themed promotional event at Yonge-Dundas Square yesterday morning, offering free pedicures and wine samples to passersby. Jennifer Wall, the California company's winemaker, worked with Praxis PR on the product awareness and fund-raising event. For every pedicure given, Barefoot pledged to donate $100 to Blue Flag, an eco-labeling program for beaches. The program is operated in Canada by Environmental Defence.

"We have a longstanding policy that we don't do any paid advertising, so instead we partner with nonprofit organizations for promotions and local events," said Wall, who flew in from Los Angeles. Jennifer Valentine of Breakfast Television broadcast live from the event, which started at 6:30 a.m. READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS Barefoot Wines, Breakfast Television, Environmental Defence
THE SCOUT   05.07.08 9:15 AM
Getting Guests on Film—and an Event on YouTube
A movie in the making
Photo: BizBash
Toronto-based event management firm Event Marrin is offering a new take on interactive events—and it doubles as a viral marketing tool. The concept, called a Movie in the Making (M.I.T.M.), incorporates the shooting of a short film into an event's proceedings. A product launch might include the new offering in a '50s-style comedy, for example.

Marrin consults with clients to create a script and sends professional actors, a director, and a producer to the event. Guests receive their lines as they arrive (or they can choose not to appear on film—Marrin with alter the script depending on the number of interested participants). The movie is shot throughout the course of the event, and within three days, a copy of the final cut is emailed to everyone who attended. READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS Building Buzz With Online Videos
EVENT REPORT   05.06.08 5:33 PM
Bridgepoint Fund-Raiser Adopts French Café Theme
The Nu Rhythm Band
Photo: Tom Sandler Photography
Organizers of "Fandango! Soiree Guinguette," the sixth annual benefit for the Bridgepoint Health Foundation, wanted guests to feel as though they were walking into a French café on the bank of the Seine River when they arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel on Saturday. Krista Slack & Associates hung strings of patio lanterns and placed a mural of a café entrance behind the band. A sold-out crowd of 430 guests—encouraged to dress the part—arrived wearing berets and boas.

“The committee decided to take Fandango around the world. Last year we took people to Argentina; this year we are in France,” said Fandango 2008 chair Ann Kerwin. “Next year we’ll go somewhere else.” Red-and-white-checkered tablecloths gave the room a picnic feel. Wooden chairs surrounded the tables, topped with simple flowers and baskets of bread. READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS Bridgepoint Health
NEWS   05.06.08 3:25 PM
Ad Age Looking for Innovative Magazine Events
As an alternative to the National Magazine Awards (which the American Society of Magazine Editors presented Thursday at Jazz at Lincoln Center), yesterday Advertising Age columnist Simon Dumenco announced the launch of his own prizes, "the American Magazine Vanguard Awards (AMVAs), which recognize both big and small innovators: magazines that are taking new, smart, necessary risks in extending their franchises off the page." His column lists examples of appropriate entries, including Dwell's Dwell on Design event in Los Angeles from June 5 to 8. Submissions are due (via email) September 29.

He also offered an answer to the question "Do magazine people really take the National Magazine Awards seriously?" READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS Advertising Age, Dwell, American Society of Magazine Editors, National Magazine Awards
FROM THE EDITORS   05.06.08 3:01 PM
Tribeca Film Festival Mixes Thriller Zombies, Big Premieres, and Sponsored Lounges
FROM NEW YORK The Tribeca Film Festival wrapped up Sunday, completing 12 days of indie movie screenings, big-budget studio premieres, sponsored lounges, lavish parties, outdoor events, concerts, and more. (Spokespeople confirm that the total attendance was just under 400,000.) We covered a variety of the offerings, from Thriller zombies at the Drive-In to American Express's new entertainment and hospitality lounge. And we talked to Joshua Cicerone, vice president and creative director of Dalzell Productions (the company that produces the festival) to hear about a typical day during the festival and how he works with city agencies to coordinate the event's logistics. You can find an archive of all of our coverage here.   

RELATED TOPICS Tribeca Film Festival
NEWS   05.05.08 5:57 PM
Wall Street Journal Names Top Business Gurus
The Wall Street Journal published its ranking of influential business thinkers today. The top five are Harvard professor Howard Gardner, writer Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Gates, columnist Thomas L. Friedman, and, coming in at number one, “strategy guru” Gary Hamel.

It may seem like a motley crew, but one thing they all seem to have in common is how much money people will pay them to speak at events. “Speakers' bureaus say most of the top-echelon business speakers charge between $50,000 and $75,000 a pop,” writes Erin White. “Among the most in-demand are Good to Great author Jim Collins, Death by Meeting author Patrick Lencioni, Dr. Hamel, Prof. Porter, and Our Iceberg Is Melting author John Kotter, speakers' bureaus say.” READ MORE

RELATED TOPICS The Wall Street Journal
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