Forecast: 10 New Products & Ideas for Summer Events

Fontainebleau Miami Beach recently debuted a signature chocolate recipe, Fontainebleau Sapphire Noir, which is made exclusively for the Miami resort. In collaboration with French chocolate brand Cacao Barry, the hotel offers a chocolate bar, signature pralines, and petit gateaux that are sold in the coffee and patisserie shop Chez Bon Bon. The chocolate recipe is also used in desserts in the hotel’s restaurants. A chocolate and wine pairing experience ($25 per person) at the on-site StripSteak by Michael Mina allows guests to taste three wine varietals, each paired with Fontainebleau Sapphire Noir.

Art Smart, which offers museum and gallery tours led by art scholars, has expanded to Chicago, Boston, and Washington. Working with corporate clients, the company uses art to drive conversation and inspire change within companies with tours designed to support a company’s mission and to meet team goals including diversity and inclusion. New tour offerings include the expansion of “Feast Your Eyes,” an interdisciplinary tour that explores culinary history through the collections at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Pricing starts at $1,200 for corporate groups and $400 for private groups of one to four people.

The Lodge at Sonoma recently launched its Sonoma Bike Tour program, created in partnership with Mission Bicycle Company, a boutique bicycle shop in San Francisco. The program features an insider’s guide to spots in Sonoma within biking distance, and the Ultimate Wine Country Bike Tour Package (starting at $344) includes the use of two custom wine-colored bikes made exclusively for the lodge. Plus, guests can go on a scavenger hunt with stops and tasks at participating locations such as tasting the special “Vella” cheese at the Vella Creamery.

For a sweet teambuilding option in Las Vegas, groups can head to Buddy V's Ristorante to learn to bake like "Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro himself. Options include a 25-person cannoli or cupcake class starting at $20 each, a 20-person single-layer piping class at $40 each, a 15-person two-layer piping class at $75 each, or a 10-person double-layer fondant class at $125 each. All attendees get official aprons and can take home their creations.

Taylor Creative Inc.'s sleek new Savile collection is now available to rent in the Los Angeles area. Options include a sofa ($425), a bench ($200), and a lounge chair ($225) made with white velvet, a channel-stitch back, and rolled bronze legs. The company's L.A. office services the entire West Coast and as far east as Texas.

Brooklyn-based event production company Terra Glamping recently launched a new campsite overlooking Gardiners Bay in East Hampton, New York’s Cedar Point County Park. The site features fully furnished sleeping tents with queen-size beds and six-foot decks; two lounge tents; a dining tent; bathroom and shower facilities; and a grilling area and fire pit; plus programming like sunrise yoga. There is also space for an additional 15 event tents with two queen beds each for a total of 65 beds, as well as catering options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or cocktail parties. Group rates are available for groups of 15 tents or more on weekdays only; groups receive 10 percent off the standard room rate. Reservations can be made online for bookings through the last weekend of October.

For a simple and unique vegan catering option, Kiss the Cook catering company in Toronto recently debuted its Eat Idly food station. The D.I.Y. station serves idly, a type of savory rice cake popular in south Indian and northern Sri Lankan cuisine. The rice cakes are paired with coconut chutney, coriander chutney, caramelized onions, dal (Indian lentil curry), and sambar. Pricing starts at $15 per person.

Branded Fruit in San Francisco prints logos, text, and other graphics on fresh, locally sourced produce, providing an eco-friendly, and Insta-friendly, option for promotional items. Graphics create the illusion that the logo was carved into the fruit and can be easily pulled off. Orders start at $5 per piece; the company can accommodate between 50 to 5,000 pieces of fruit in one order.

Cort Events recently announced the expansion of its drape services to Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, northern Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The New York-based rental furnishings company offers dozens of fabric options in a variety of colors and weight with custom pipe and drape.

Orlando-based Play with a Purpose recently launched a virtual-reality game specifically designed for team training and development. Called the Infinite Loop, the game immerses players into a world where they must save one of their players. As they navigate rooms in the virtual world, participants share information and clues with their real-world team, leading to the release of the prisoner. The game works for training programs, meetings, conferences, and for teams working on process improvement and communication skills. It starts at $100 per person and varies based on the size of the group.