The Incentive Research Foundation's Incentive Invitational
The invitational took place May 27 to 31 at Trump National Doral in Miami. The welcome dinner was held poolside and featured appetizers on a swing-set-like structure decked with patches of grass. The snacks represented the host cities of different Trump properties. New York, for example, came to life with a variety of miniature cheesecakes.
Photo: Moris Moreno
At the long-term pop-up Samsung Studio L.A., hosts Bill and Giuliana Rancic partnered with Top Chef's Marcel Vigneron to lead guests through a cooking experience. The chef used Samsung appliances in the pop-up kitchen for the cooking demo, and attendees followed along using appliances at their own long tables arranged classroom-style.
Photo: Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Samsung
As guests arrived at Samsung's event, they borrowed Galaxy S6 devices for the evening, which they could use to capture photos of themselves in action. Then staff prepared and sent guests home with customized cookbooks using snaps from their experience on the same night and featuring the recipes they helped make.
Photo: Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Samsung
![Spirits brand Patrón has held dozens of interactive cocktail events around the country, including mojito and margarita making. “A lot of my events are not my own, so I have to come alive [as a sponsor] in someone else’s event. So how do I get people talking about my brand?” said Patrón planner Pam Dzierzanowski. She said these experiential programs are the answer: “I’ve done these all over the country for years. People will stand in line for 45 minutes—I’ve never seen anything like it.'](https://img.bizbash.com/files/base/bizbash/bzb/image/2015/07/muddle_bar.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&q=70&w=400)
Spirits brand Patrón has held dozens of interactive cocktail events around the country, including mojito and margarita making. “A lot of my events are not my own, so I have to come alive [as a sponsor] in someone else’s event. So how do I get people talking about my brand?” said Patrón planner Pam Dzierzanowski. She said these experiential programs are the answer: “I’ve done these all over the country for years. People will stand in line for 45 minutes—I’ve never seen anything like it."
Photo: Courtesy of Patron
Among the components of PatrĂłn's cocktail-making experiences is a personalized takeaway of a muddler, juice squeezer, or other bar tool guests used to make their drinks at the event.
Photo: Courtesy of Patron
To kick off the summer season right before Memorial Day weekend this year, Captain Morgan hosted an event in Los Angeles where guests formed three teams for a mixology competition using an array of available ingredients as well as the brand's spirits.
Photo: Alesandra Dubin/BizBash
At the Captain Morgan event, the three teams each got a name that corresponded with a flavor of the brand's spirits: grapefruit, coconut, or pineapple. Corresponding fruits held flowers at each team's table.
Photo: Alesandra Dubin/BizBash
For a back-to-school event in New York last year, Pottery Barn brought in a professional chef to lead attendees in making healthy brown-bag-style lunches.
Photo: Beth Kormanik/BizBash
At the Pottery Barn event, guests assembled their own sandwiches on the spot using various popular ingredients to suit their personal tastes.
Photo: Beth Kormanik/BizBash
The format at the Barilla Interactive Dinner at this year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival included a chef demonstration on how to make various dishes, while guests followed along at their tables.
Photo: Dylan Rives/Getty Images For SBWFF
Using electric appliances, guests in logo chef hats participated in the Barilla cooking experience.
Photo: Dylan Rives/Getty Images For SBWFF
Last February in Toronto, Giada de Laurentiis and five Canadian chefs lead teams through a three-course cook-off for the fourth annual Chef’s Challenge: the Ultimate Battle for a Cure, which raises money for cancer research at Mount Sinai Hospital. In order to cook alongside the pros, participants registered online and collected donations in the months leading up to the event.
Photo: Nick Lee/BestOfToronto.net
Attendees in the audience were not left out of the cooking challenge: They could also participate in a competition such as a doughnut-decorating battle.
Photo: Nick Lee/BestOfToronto.net
The winning team left with a whimsical trophy decorated appropriately with cooking utensils.
Photo: Nick Lee/BestOfToronto.net
Alzheimer's Association National Capital Area Chapter Brain Ball
The charity hosted its fund-raiser at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington on May 8. Ridgewells handled catering, and festive menu items included pours of champagne over popsicles for dessert cocktails.
Photo: Tony Brown/imijphoto.com
The evening’s specialty cocktail will be the Red Carpet, a mix of pear-infused vodka, St. Germain, and champagne, complete with a paper Oscar statuette frozen inside an ice cube. "It's Oscar on the rocks," Boulud quipped.
Photo: Lauren Matthews/BizBash
In July at Travel & Leisure’s annual World’s Best Awards in New York, sponsor Patrón displayed a sleek wall that housed five tanks of Patrón-based cocktails from which guests could pour their own drinks.
Photo: Diane Bondareef/Travel + Leisure
So Cool Events created an ice and moving-water bar for one corner of the after-party.
Photo: Elizabeth Renfrow for BizBash
Trend: Food and Beverage Carts
Inspired by the food truck craze, Abigail Kirsch in New York created roving carts to bring guests desserts and beverages, like gelato with dipped miniature cones and toppings, or sangria and punch.
Photo: Andre Maier
Guests at Stella McCartney's 2011 spring preview were treated to shaved ice by People's Pops in New York.
Photo: Andrew H. Walker/WireImage for Stella McCartney
The menu of dishes was similarly color-coded. For instance, the truffled quail egg on a miniature English muffin (pictured) was designed to represent yellow, while grilled lamb with a black sesame seed crust was meant to symbolize black.
Photo: Nilaya Sabnis
Los Angeles Food & Wine
In one of the Lexus grand tasting's inspiring food presentations during L.A. Food & Wine, Big Sur's Post Ranch Inn served mini shaved ice cones in a metal bucket set up like a beach scene, with sugar for sand. Ingredients for the dessert came from the venue's garden.
Photo: Courtesy of Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival & Tyrone D. Washington
The caterers used tree slabs as trays for passed hors d'oeuvres.
Photo: A. Jesse Jiryu Davis
Among the creative presentations of passed hors d'oeuvres in the Breakers Mediterranean Courtyard was one that included chalkboard signage.
Photo: Lila Photo
Pulled pork sliders were placed atop an appropriately pig-shaped platter.
Photo: Lila Photo
In Chicago, Truffleberry Market puts a twist on mozzarella sticks with its molten Brie with balsamic fig jam appetizer. "We typically serve it with cherry ale, but we had a client who loves apple ale, so we've used apple ale as another version," said executive chef and owner Brittany Ferrin.
Photo: Logan Beck
Cones in Sand
At the Celebrity Chef Golf Tournament at Turnberry Isle Resort, mini cones nestled in a sand trap. Chef José Andrés hosted the event, and the bites came from his restaurant Katsuya at SLS Hotel South Beach.
Photo: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Food Network SoBe Wine & Food Festival
Cheers to This
Now available in Toronto through the Idea Hunter, Original Beverage Toppers are edible disks that can be branded with corporate logos, colors, and taglines. The discs float on top of hot, cold, iced, or frozen drinks and are easy to apply.
Photo: Courtesy of the Idea Hunter
