Dave's

The Commander-in-Chief's Inaugural Ball took over the National Building Museum. Hargrove, working for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, produced the event.

Sylvia Weinstock’s five-foot-high chocolate cake, iced in red, white, and blue buttercream, created a sweet focal point at BET's inaugural ball in the grand ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental. Events by André Wells produced the event.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greeted the crowd at the Neighborhood Ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, where Beyoncé sang "At Last" for the couple's first dance.

At Google's inaugural event, giant plastic igloos from Inflate created unconventional seating areas. The 2,000-person bash at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium was designed internally by Google. FormDecor Furniture Rental provided furniture rentals.

At the Texas Black Tie & Boots Ball, Kilgore College Rangerettes lined the entryway at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.

In the V.I.P. Maryland ballroom at the Texas Black Tie & Boots Ball, miniature cowboy-boot centerpieces held Texas's signature yellow rose.

Copper bowls of tangerines and place cards with fresh bay leaves contributed to the organic decor at chef Alice Waters's “Inaugural Supper” for 175 guests at the Phillips Collection.

David Stark designed Huffington Post’s pre-inaugural party at the Newseum to incorporate technology themes. Matching 16-foot laptops provided focal points, but guests also were invited to live-blog, tweet, and post video and images to a site linked to the Huffington Post’s home page.

Illinois State Society's gala, held at the Renaissance Washington, recreated iconic locations and events from its home state. In one area, guests walked over a mock-up of Chicago's Wrigley Field, complete with Astroturf and bases.

In Los Angeles, Firefly LA commemorated the inauguration through an installation of artist Shepard Fairey's iconic "Hope" poster at the Hollywood & Highland Center. A 90- by 70-foot projection of Fairey's work covered the walls and main arch of the complex.

During the cocktail reception at the February 2012 fund-raiser in Chicago, dancers dressed in Soundsuits from artist Nick Cave shimmied through the crowd and playfully interacted with guests. The suits were made with fabric, plastic, metal, hair, and other materials that make sounds when rubbed together.

Paul Frank rolled its tricked-out Winnebago up a ramp to the second floor at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for its exhibit.

Intel's 12,000-square-foot booth included an enormous, front-facing LED screen and about 30 plasmas, all topped by a waved ceiling that changed colors to the pulsating beat of the exhibit's music.

Sonicare had a large, central display that showcased several of its newest products. In one area, a bathroom-like setting filled with mirrors and sinks let dental pros test out the new AirFloss.

The chandelier expanded to become a very large ball, then contracted again. The moving fixture was visible from far away and drew guests closer to find out what it was.

Shellback Rum hosted its first "All Hands on Deck" mixology event at the Chandelier Room, operated by Marc Events in the Dallas design district.

Shellback is working with media companies in each of the six cities to identify beverage industry professionals, influencers, and bloggers to invite to the "All Hands On Deck" events. About 70 people attended the first event in Dallas, including editors from the Dallas Morning News, UrbanDaddy, and Living magazine.

Noted mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim taught participants to muddle, shake, and serve modern updates to classic rum cocktails.

Shellback worked with Rebel Industries to produce its "rum hut" campaign. The set includes a boat-racing simulator, a video confessional, and iPads where consumers can sign up to be part of the brand's social communities. The company is taking the activation to major wine and spirits and social events around the country through the end of this year.

In recognition of Shellback's sponsorship of the Oracle Team USA yacht, which will participate in the America's Cup, the rum hut activation includes a boat-racing simulator.

At the rum hut events, select guests who participated in the video confessional received a pair of custom Creative Recreation deck shoes.

Originally scheduled for November 1 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Keep a Child Alive's gala was postponed and held a month later at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Reworked to fit the site's layout and renamed the Black Ball Redux, the high-profile benefit raised more than $2.9 million.

The planning and production team took some of what had been designed for the Hammerstein and fit it into the Apollo's layout. The key for creative director Earle Sebastian was maintaining the night's theme—the empowerment of women—without disrupting the site's existing architecture. Imagery was placed into the video screens at the entrance, part of the cocktail reception's installation was integrated into the check-in area (pictured), and the brightness of the lighting was lowered.

Without the Hammerstein's considerable square footage, the cocktail reception shrunk in size, with bars placed in the section behind the Apollo's theater seating. Some of the design elements that were created for the original venue were scrapped in favor of keeping the space as open as possible for guests.

According to Sebastian, part of the Black Ball's original design had a tubular walkway leading into the reception area, where a blackboard-style wall displayed striking images of African women. A portion of this installation was placed in the cocktail space at the Apollo.

After an opening dance and video piece, the organizers introduced the night's honorees. This year, Keep a Child Alive paid tribute to Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo, and Oprah Winfrey, who, in 2007, founded a school in South Africa for girls from impoverished backgrounds.

Following an auction led by auctioneer Andrea Fiuczynski, which saw philanthropist Stewart Rahr contribute $1 million to the organization, Keep a Child Alive hosted its signature concert. This year the event included performances by Keys, Bonnie Raitt, Brittany Howard, Angélique Kidjo, and Jennifer Hudson.

Hurricane Sandy caused the Whitney to postpone its annual benefit, originally planned for October 30 at Pier 57. On December 11, the rescheduled event took over the museum's Upper East Side home, where a sign at the entrance matched the evening's theme of supporting the local arts community. A portion of the funds raised at the event will be donated to the New York Foundation for the Arts Emergency Relief Fund.

All floors of the museum were open for the gala and to help direct guests; the in-house graphic design team created new signage that was placed by the entrance and the elevators.

As the museum is smaller than Pier 57, the Whitney's planning team—led by special events director Gina Rogak—looked to use every available square inch of the venue for the gala's reception, presentation, dinner, and ensuing Studio Party. That included paying tribute to the night's honoree—philanthropist and photography advocate Sondra Gilman Gonzalez-Falla—at the start of the evening on a small stage set up in the museum's lower-level gallery.

Rescheduling the gala meant finding a date that worked with the availability of co-chairs Allison Kanders, Amy Phelan, and Lizzie Tisch as well as honoree Gilman Gonzalez-Falla.

To accommodate more than 400 guests for dinner, the organizers spread tables between the fifth-floor gallery and the sculpture court. In the latter, a draped tent was filled with hundreds of candles that lent a feeling of intimacy to the space. Rogak also made sure each dining area had a high-profile guest, with the co-chairs seated in the lower-level tent and the honoree, sponsors, and museum leadership spread across the fifth floor.

Concerned the dinner guests might want privacy as Studio Party guests arrived, the planning team placed curtains in the sculpture court's tent. As it turned out, Rogak said the drapes weren't necessary as the diners seemed happy to watch others arrive.

Finding space for the seated dinner wasn't easy, especially with the tight turnaround for exhibitions. However, as the fifth floor was undergoing some roof work, Rogak and her team were able to work with the museum's exhibition management to squeeze the gala between the time the work was finished and the next exhibition was loaded in.

The fifth floor's low ceilings and disconnected layout meant that David Stark's design for the open-plan Pier 57 had to be revised. With a gritty, urban New York concept as their starting point, Rogak and Stark hit upon the idea of decorating the white walls of the gallery, using black painter's tape to create images of broken brick walls and empty cardboard boxes.

Each room on the fifth floor was given a different look, and color-changing uplighting added to the design's optical illusions. Rogak's team, including Peter Henderson, Jessica McCarthy, Veronica Speck, Irene Kao, Gemma Quinton, and Chris Reade, reconfigured the seating at the tables that were spread out across several rooms.

In one room, where the walls were painted black, Stark used white tape and created a 3-D effect by crumpling some segments. The producer also reused some of the pieces from the October 30 event, including mirrored garlands, to dress the tables. Without much space for the caterers, the planning team opted for a family-style meal with side dishes shared at the tables and entrées on passed plates.

The gala's staffers, dressed in traditional black outfits, wore illuminated pins, which helped guests identify them in the dimly lit areas of the museum.

Microsoft's installation at Pier 57 would have been the centerpiece of the Whitney's gala. As the model city couldn't be recreated inside the museum, the technology giant instead used its sponsorship to show off its new Windows 8 operating system with tablets that displayed the evening's content. Ambassadors demonstrated to guests how the new devices worked.

Sponsor Microsoft also set up its paint app on a touch-screen monitor for guests to play with. For a different take on a photo booth, the company installed a series of framed tablets from which guests could snap shots of themselves and then email them.

Designed for the gala's after-party, the Whitney's Instagram project was installed on the museum's lower level. The program invited 100 artists to take photos and upload them to the image-sharing site; the pics were displayed and sold at the Studio Party for $100 each. It was, as Rogak explained, a way to make starting an art collection accessible to the museum's younger patrons.

Designer Adrian Wu filled the Studio at World MasterCard Fashion Week with playful balloon trees. Models walked the runway—a path of green Astroturf—wearing theatrical dresses and masks from the movie V for Vendetta.

Amazon Web Service's re:Play party took over the High Roller Parking Lot in Las Vegas, where two megastructures housed the enormous production.

Attendees participated in kid-style games for adults, contributing to an overall youthful, exuberant vibe.

A vast ball pit held oversize inflatables and 140,000 blue balls.

Nearly 42,000 channels of control fed the complex lighting system.

Guests assembled under a pattern of glowing squares as part of a ceiling installation.

Each structure was 200 feet wide, 400 feet long, and 70 feet tall at its highest point, to house the massive crowd.

A installation called "Light Sync Revolution" allowed attendees to control elements on stage such as lighting, visuals, and special effects.

The kinetic ceiling installation changed throughout the night.

More than 17,000 attendees filled the massive party.