9 Best Ideas of the Week: ESPN's X Games, BET Awards 'Pre' Dinner, and Cosmopolitan en Español's 40th Anniversary

BET hosted its sixth annual pre-show dinner June 30 at Union Station in Los Angeles to celebrate the award show, which took place the following evening. For an eclectic look, and marked by a color palette of orange and nude, the venue was outfitted with an array of mismatched furnishings, contrasting linens, and plenty of orange-hued flowers.

At the X Games in Los Angeles, Hot Wheels set up a life-size replica of a double-loop stunt for toy cars. The giant orange race tracks were part of the "Double Loop Dare," which broke the world record Saturday when it brought two vehicles to race through a 66-foot double vertical loop. The stunt drivers, rally-car driver Tanner Foust and stuntman Greg Tracy, started on two different tracks and accelerated to 53 miles per hour before entering the loop, reaching seven times the force of gravity.

During the menswear shows in Paris, Thom Browne took to a garden in the Left Bank to showcase his spring 2013 collection. The Sunday-evening event saw male models line up in a grid pattern, each individually encased in a silver, Slinky-shaped contraption, which were later dropped to reveal colorful outfits worn beneath.

Cosmopolitan en español celebrated its 40th anniversary with a Fab @ 40 Smirnoff Beach Bash for more than 200 guests at Miami Beach's Nikki Beach Club June 30. Activities included a Polaroid photo booth, color hair extensions and washables at the Splat station, and a roving swimwear-fashion show.

On Tuesday, Tide unveiled a 6,000-square-foot rendition of the American flag in New York’s Bryant Park, which included a performance by Katharine McPhee. To create the oversize version of the Stars and Stripes, Procter & Gamble invited consumers to submit personal stories to serve as inspiration for the U.S. Olympic team.

The theme of the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce 11th Annual Gala Awards Celebration, “The Orange Gala,” even extended to the performance artists. The June 23 event at the Hilton Miami Downtown Hotel drew nearly 600 guests. The color theme also applied to the highest-selling silent auction item: a basketball signed by the N.B.A. champion Miami Heat players, which fetched more than $3,000.

On June 26, the Paris Opera Ballet performed Giselle at the Harris Theater. Drawing on the ethereal, ghostly set of the famous ballet, designer Bill Heffernan brought a moonlit-forest look to the tent that housed the ensuing gala in Millennium Park. The “dining space was filled and overwhelmed with gigantic transparent suspended cubes, projected with provencale branch patterns, and hovering low over square dining tables,” he said. Ferns and white freesia decorated the table tops.

Anticipating that the upcoming summer games will boost requests for Olympics-inspired activities for corporate groups, teambuilding companies have been developing new programs. One example is Team Bonding's Olympic-style games activity, which opens with a ceremony—complete with a torch lighting and national anthems—and closes with medals awarded to the winning team.

TechWeek took place at Chicago’s sprawling Merchandise Mart June 22-26. With more than 70 educational sessions and some 200 speakers, the conference had a relaxed atmosphere replete with video games, bars on the expo floor, and free foosball for all attendees.