New Concepts

With a "Painted Garden" theme, Macy's Flower Show is ringing in spring in New York. The event features a giant high heel made of live flowers. The larger-than-life accessory, designed by Macy's and landscape design company Ireland Gannon, used more than 9,000 succulents to create a covering of floral "suede." A suitably enormous bouquet sprouts from the heel of the shoe. The show runs through Sunday.

Zagat's "30 Under 30" series honors young talent in the culinary industry, and an event to celebrate Chicago's winners took place at Nellcote on March 25. Shiraz Events produced the sleek affair, which focused squarely on the evening's honorees with an award ceremony and a branded wall of fame. Showcasing the young winners—who included food truck owners, chefs, and pastry chefs—the structure held 30 head shots that were illuminated from within. An oversize rendition of the event's logo was at the center of the wall.

The 2013 South by Southwest music, film, and technology festival wrapped March 17, with an estimated 150,000 people turning out for all or part of the 10-day event in Austin, Texas. USA Network used a new "video paint" technology to promote its original drama series Graceland. On the evenings of March 9 and 10 attendees were invited to a pop-up location in downtown Austin's busy bar strip, where they could use a digital paint-brush roller to project Graceland images on the walls of buildings.

To launch its Z10 smartphone with Hollywood-style panache, BlackBerry hosted a celeb-packed event at Cecconi's West Hollywood on March 20. Guests— including actors Josh Duhamel, Christina Ricci, and Rachel Bilson—were given the new devices upon arrival. "We created a group BBM number, and guests were encouraged to share the love of their new device via BBM messages sent to the group number," said Studio HS creative director and vice president Ryan Johnson, who produced the event. "The messages were then projected onto the screen graffiti-style for all the guests to see."

Resembling a canopy bed, Croscill's table at Dining by Design was covered in a bright pink quilted tablecloth and surrounded by clear Chiavari chairs.

In March, the Philadelphia Flower Show included an activity known as the Make & Take Room, where guests could design their own floral fascinator (headpiece), wristlet, or magic wand. Thousands of creative D.I.Y.-ers took part.

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BrownHot Events used Signature Systems Group’s "Seagrass" sisal carpet at the tent for Veuve Clicquot’s Polo Classic event in October.

Machines don't have to be mobile to be intelligent, as is the case with the TweetingSeat, a product U.K.-based designer Chris McNicholl created. The interactive park bench is activated when someone takes a seat, uploading images from two cameras to a live Twitter feed. Imagine interactive furniture that automatically snaps shots of guests and creates content for social media platforms.

The idea of 3-D printing has come a long way, and now there are devices that can produce three-dimensional objects like clothing, jewelry, and headphones. A couple of companies are taking the concept to the consumer space with photo booths that can print miniature figurines of its subjects, like Japanese creative agency Party's Omote 3D pop-up, or replicas of people's heads, like the one MakerBot debuted at its New York store.

Touch screens have made computers with keyboards and mice look clunky. And now there's a company making touch screen monitors seem out-of-date. Displair is a device that uses "touchable" air, that is, a thin stream of air infused with microscopic water particles, to display images. What's more, users can interact with the air, navigating the screen with their fingers. It's essentially a touch screen without the screen, which, if used at events, potentially could eliminate the need for bulky computer stations.

Projection mapping—also known as 3-D mapping—has become a wildly popular tool for event marketers, and a Microsoft Research project extends the use of that technology even further. Designed as a form of immersive entertainment, a prototype dubbed IllumiRoom captures the forms and layout of a room via a Kinect for Windows camera and, with a projector, expands the visuals beyond the screen in real time. The system can even make it look like a room is moving.

Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde and construction company Heijmans Infrastructure have come up with a way to make roads better for drivers. The Smart Highway concept not only includes roads treated with photo luminizing powder (which absorbs energy from sunlight to glow in the dark) and lanes that can charge battery-powered cars, but also dynamic paint that becomes visible when temperature fluctuates. In the prototype, snowflakes appear when it's cold and the roads are slippery, signaling the changing conditions to drivers. The paint could have interesting event applications, whether it's to highlight an entrance or exit, or change the look of decor.

Imagine temporary structures made from sand or soil. That's what Petr Novikov, Inder Shergill, and Anna Kulik from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia did when they developed Stone Spray. The project involves a robotic 3-D printer that binds soil or sand to construct solid, if temporary, architectural shapes. It's eco-friendly, too, as the robot can be powered by solar energy.