corporate

In June, Samsung hit New York to launch its Galaxy SIII smartphone, hosting a late-night party to show off the device's features. The entrance to the event was a tunnel filled with voice recordings of frustrated smartphone users, designed to contrast with the setting inside.

The Paintbrush ball in Chicago celebrated Marwen's silver anniversary with ubiquitous pops of the metallic hue. Guests entered the dinner tent through a tunnel of silver balloons.

The Robin Hood Foundation returned to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for its annual gala May 14 with a subway theme. Rattling sound effects set the scene in the entrance tunnel.

As guests entered New York's Metropolitan Museum through the Great Hall for the Costume Institute gala, they met a 24-foot-tall cynlinder covered in 40,000 roses from Colombia and Ecuador with a lip pattern inspired by Schiaparelli and Prada designs. A team of 150 staffers worked to prepare the floral decor.

During Coachella, a huge crowd packed into an airport hangar in Thermal, California, for the Armani Exchange and T-Mobile's Neon Carnival. Guests entered the space through a dramatic up-lit corridor.

In a playful take on the normally static step-and-repeat, artist Andrey Bartenev had costumed performers interact with guests at the Watermill Center’s gala in 2007.

Breaking away from the step-and-repeat to interact with the crowd, actors including Uma Thurman served as waiters at a 2007 Sundance event. They wore T-shirts listing their first jobs on the front and their breakthrough films on the back.

Digital photo booth projections, like this one from Mark van S. at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2006 benefit, have become an event staple for mixing interactive entertainment and decor.

Waiters didn’t have to remember what they were serving (and guests didn’t have to ask) when now-defunct Match Catering printed T-shirts with food descriptions for a 2004 BizBash event.