After a long Oscar night, host Seth MacFarlane's official after-party included a station from Tkees, which encouraged guests to check their heels (similar to the way they would at a coat check) and pick up a pair of flip-flops—in gold, appropriate to the occasion.
Guests arriving at USA Network's event atop the High Line in New York last summer found a receiving line of umbrella-wielding staffers, who provided shelter all the way to the entrance of the covered bash.
At Lacoste's Coachella pool party in the blazing desert sun, cigarette-style girls, clad in Lacoste gear, passed Kiel's sun-protection products.
When the weather unexpectedly turned sour at South by Southwest this year, ponchos from Warner Brothers served as protection from the rain as well as an opportunity to promote CW television series Arrow.
Bonnaroo attendees could relax in hammocks and enter to win V.I.P. passes in the "Great State Lounge" hosted by State Farm. The insurance company also provided what it called "Bonnaroo Roadside Assistance"—free services such as help with flat tires and dead batteries.
At the WWD Beauty C.E.O. Summit in Palm Beach, yoga on branded mats on the lawn allowed guests to relax and unwind.
More than 80,000 people traveled to a remote 700-acre farm in Tennessee June 7 to 10 for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Knowing the attendees would be outside day and night listening music on multiple stages, brands such as Garnier Fructis provided practical services such as free hair-washing and styling in a 40- by 40-foot air-conditioned tent.
Things tend to get messy at food festivals, tastings, and other events with lots of grub, so Delta provided toothpicks, hand wipes, and mints at the 2010 New York City Wine & Food Festival, a smart way to get the brand in front of attendees.
During Upfront Week in New York last year, Turner Broadcasting held back-to-back late-night events and, to help transport guests from the Adult Swim party to the shindig for TruTV, provided a fleet of pedicabs offering free rides.
For a recent press event in Los Angeles, Paul Frank brought Starring Fragrances for a station that gave guests the chance to take home custom fragrances, made on the spot according to their individual tastes.
At the FN C.E.O. Summit in Miami, guests could charge their smartphones in a luxe lounge—a stylish, discreet solution to manage the task that everyone wants as a convenience at events. The centerpieces during the education sessions were framed instructions on how to reference the summit on social media and log on to the hotel's Wi-Fi network.
MSNBC also had a flip-flop station at its White House Correspondents' Association Dinner after-party, providing relief for folks who had been on their feet all evening.
The Minnesota State Fair, August 22 to September 2, just announced its latest gluttonous offerings. Included: Homemade meat loaf deep-fried and served on a stick with a red pepper wine glaze from Minnesota Wine Country.
At the annual BET Pre pre-award dinner at Milk Studios on July 7, Andre Wells's production and design included vibrant watercolors, peacocks, and an overall ethereal look and feel. At the cocktail reception, Wells's team used tones of red, butter, fuschia, purple, teal, green, navy, and midnight blue to create a vivid look. Club sofas, ottomans, and circle chairs from Revelry were all done in the vibrant tones. A live Twitter wall showed guests interacting on social media.
The South Beach sun gave a summery backdrop for Cosmopolitan en Español’s beach bash, which returned to Nikki Beach for the late-afternoon event June 22. The beauty-themed, indoor-outdoor event infused the beach property with Latin flavor. Event staff wore colorful tunics from sponsor Samsara Imports.
Procter & Gamble celebrated its "Everyday Effect" campaign—the largest consumer event in the company's 175-year history—by hosting a citywide sampling event on June 19. To easily shuttle consumers to pop-up experiences around Manhattan, event producers Citizen Paine and Gigunda offered custom blue pedicabs.
Clarks's annual award dinner took place at Boston's Royale Nightclub June 11. Max Ultimate Catering set the first course on wooden slabs that had the footwear company's logo burned into them. The course included a fire-roasted shrimp stake with heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, radish, and asparagus, all drizzled with a wine vinaigrette.
On June 8, the Big Bang Bash took over the Royal Ontario Museum to celebrate the opening of the "Viktor & Rolf Dolls" exhibition; the gala also marked the opening of the Luminato multidisciplinary arts festival. A conveyer belt served everything from cocktails to cupcakes to poached lobster tails.
Building on last summer's campaign that brought branded bicycles mounted with water coolers to several regions, Fiji Water launched its latest initiative June 1. The new promotion, dubbed "Discover the Finer Things," still involves brand ambassadors on bikes, but this time the pedal-powered vehicles come with attached "vaults." As reps hand out bottles of the brand's water, participants also receive combination codes for a chance to unlock the vaults and receive prizes like Uber and Gilt City gift cards or a trip to the Venetian Las Vegas. If the code fails to unlock the vault, guests still leave with the new, reusable Fiji Straw.
The Chicago Botanic Garden hosted its ninth annual Summer Dinner Dance on June 21. For dinner, a tent decorated by HMR Designs created a garden-within-a-garden setting. Tucked into the venue's lush Rose Garden, the tent was draped in moss silk and strung with nine birdcage chandeliers. The cages, in turn, were strung with white lilies, and pillars were wrapped in trellises.
With a guest list dominated by children, the launch of JW Marriott's new kids' menu offered food geared toward keeping young ones entertained. The lively and colorful event, held last month at the JW Marriott Essex House, was hosted by nutritionist Keri Glassman, who created the menu. Nutritious snacks had easy-to-handle presentations for little hands and included colorful melon balls presented like cake pops.
As the sun went down in Cannes, France, June 17, Twitter fired up a 40,000-lumens Barco projector mounted on a roof 150 feet across a street from the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, the site of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. For the next several hours, a 3-D projection of tweets using the official event hashtag, #CannesLions, appeared on a 35- by 65-foot billboard located 30 feet above the venue’s entrance. The digital activation, created by Incredible Machines, ran for five hours that night and for the next three nights, while during the day the billboard showed a static image of the hashtag printed on canvas.
The first-time event at the Art Institute of Chicago May 16 raised money for local public charter school the Academy of Global Citizenship, and students from the school were on hand to greet guests, give them directions, and remind them of the evening's cause—all while (apparently) tugging on donors' heartstrings. Though the event was relatively small, guests bid high all evening, raising more than $1 million.
As guests arrived at Redmoon's Chicago benefit in 2010, performers wearing giant fists cheered them on and shouted "ooh" and "aah." The moment was a snapshot of the type of surrealist performance art for which Redmoon is known.
Throughout the festival in March, visitors were welcomed to the Austin Convention Center by "Jenny," an interactive digital avatar presented by 3M. The almost disturbingly lifelike avatar spoke to approaching guests and helped them locate panels and events.
Greeters don't have to stand at an event's entrance. A greeter from a Toronto event in 2010 sat on a swing to playfully meet guests as they entered the dining room.
Stilt walkers dressed like cherry-blossom trees greeted guests at the entrance to the event in Washington last year.
At the Los Angeles premiere for the tween-beloved flick in November 2012, staffers dressed like characters from the film greeted guests.
At the Orlando museum bash in 2010, costumed riders on Arabian horses greeted guests at the entrance. The unusual greeters immediately set the tone for the night's Middle Eastern-inspired vibe.
In May, the Absolut X promotion in Miami had a masquerade theme. At the entrance to the event, futuristic models offered guests masks to help them get in the spirit.
At the Peninsula Chicago's blowout bash in 2011, stilt-walking geishas greeted guests on the red carpet.
At Subway's post-convention gala in 2010, planners transformed a section of Chicago's McCormick Place convention center into the "Subway Stadium." Enthusiastic cheerleaders, dressed in the brand's signature hues, greeted guests at the entrance.
At a futuristic benefit in Toronto in 2011, a robot greeted guests on a holographic carpet at the entrance.
The 2012 gala had a playful Alice in Wonderland theme. Young members of the ballet school dressed like the card guards from the classic story and greeted guests on the red carpet.
The Toronto event took place at a private residence in 2012. An elephant from Bowmanville Zoo greeted guests at the entrance of the house, handing (er, trunking?) out flowers as they arrived.
Greeters can help draw traffic at trade shows, too. At Chicago's Sweets & Snacks Expo in May, a smiling, clog-sporting jelly bean was on hand to greet confectionery buyers.
At the anniversary party at New York's Pier 92, staffers offered guests caviar and oysters from an ice bar that had brightly colored plastic sea creatures frozen inside.
To represent the Food Network magazine, artist Clare Herron spent the event inside an 8- by 8-foot Plexiglas cube with stacks of back issues and a pair of scissors. Throughout the evening, she created a collage by taping magazine cutouts to the walls.
On November 9, a tented space in New York's Duarte Square opened as the headquarters for “Talking Transition,” a nonpartisan forum for citizens to express their views to Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s incoming administration. In order to grab the attention of those walking by, black milk crates were stacked outside to spell out the word "talk." Above the entrance, a giant red arrow pointed inside, where more black milk crates hanging from the ceiling spelled out the word "here."
At its booth at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Acura set up several small informational tables that projected images of its cars onto smoky condensation that rose up from the tabletops. Using an iPad-like interface, guests could explore different aspects of the vehicles and make images larger or smaller by putting a hand close to the smoky screen. The event wrapped on December 1.
After the theater's performance of The Tempest at the Koch Theater, guests sat to dinner in a stormy environment designed by Bronson van Wyck. In the theater's promenade, seven 39-foot prop cyclones swirled up to the ceiling. In the dinner space, a hand-painted 180-foot storm scene wrapped one side of the balconies, and handmade paper cyclones stretched from the floor to the ceiling.
A photography theme was prevalent at the event, which benefited the Photography Gala Fund. INDO handled the decor, which included centerpieces made of glowing, vintage slides. To add to the shutterbug-friendly atmosphere, a curtain of slides hung from the second floor balcony. And, naturally, the event had no shortage of photo booths for guests.
The Holiday Chic Suite, a lush pop-up space at the 900 Shops on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, is rife with ideas for D.I.Y. office gatherings or home entertaining this season. Overseen by Debi Lilly of A Perfect Event, the setup features place cards tacked onto green apples with bejeweled pins.
Here's a new idea for breakfast catering: the Mexican breakfast buffet, or Cocina del Barrio, with Mexican hot chocolate, mango-passion-fruit and grapefruit-carrot juices, fruit empanadas, tropical fruit in a bag, pastel pan dulce, egg scrambles with squash blossoms and queso fresco, and tortillas, by Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe in New Mexico.
At HP's live music recording session in Los Angeles, on-site graphic artists translated YouTube users' comments into a highly visual backdrop for the track's video.
New York City caterer Carla Ruben of Creative Edge Parties is offering a new dessert buffet in time for the holiday season. On November 12, Ruben hosted an intimate pre-holiday luncheon to introduce her latest creations, including the company's “Bar Bar,” a selection of bite-size brownies, blondies, and dessert bars in flavors such as peanut pretzel, Oreo cheesecake, and apple crumb displayed in repurposed desktop file sorters.
As part of Miami Art Week, Ketel One vodka debuted "De Nolet"—a replica of the vodka brand's distillery in Amsterdam—at an event in Wynwood. Guests entered through a windmill.
For Art Basel, the Mondrian South Beach pool was filled with massive rainbow-hued inflatables. FriendsWithYou, Paul Kasmin Gallery, and Paper magazine collaborated on the installation with Morgans Hotel Group. The installation will remain at the hotel through January 15.
Pop artist Jeff Koons recently designed a limited-edition sculpture for Dom Perignon, and an event at the Book Bindery in Los Angeles celebrated the collaboration. Produced by RG Live Events, the soiree had a back wall filled with projections inspired by the metallic sculpture.
On Sunday, Chicago's Joffrey Ballet hosted its Nutcracker Family Dinner at the Standard Club. At the dinner tables, a sign read: "In the Land of Sweets, it is proper etiquette to eat dessert first." For guests who wanted to abide by the Nutcracker-inspired protocol, tables held edible-gold-dusted cupcakes from Magnolia.
Samsung rolled out a series of pop-up experiences to showcase its latest gadgets to consumers for the holiday season. In New York, quirky offerings include latte artists that customize drinks.
Here's a creative way to incorporate the trending fuchsia hue into events: In October, Allium at the Four Seasons Chicago hosted a "Go Pink" fund-raiser for the Lynn Sage Foundation. In keeping with the signature shade of breast cancer awareness, all snacks and drinks had a rosy hue. Even the deviled eggs, made with beets, turned pink.
Preston Bailey recently designed two larger-than-life floral installations for Wynn Las Vegas. Inspired by some of his favorite childhood tropes, the installations include a floral carousel that's 16 feet wide and 6,000 pounds. The installations will remain in the property's atrium indefinitely.
SparkleMasters can recreate any photographic or illustrated image entirely out of glistening sequins. The company pin-mounts the tiny plastic discs on individual panels that come ready to hang. When tiled together, each sequin acts as an individual pixel in the image, creating a giant, shimmering mosaic.
Toronto's Vert Catering provides lunch service for meetings via its "Pickle Cycle." Staffers on old-fashioned bikes deliver salads and sandwiches such as ham and cheese with candied apples. Items are served in eco-friendly, reusable takeout containers, which the company picks up weekly to fully wash and sanitize.
At the fourth-quarter meeting at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts near Zappos’s new headquarters in downtown Las Vegas last month, an M.C. picked five volunteers to compete to be the first to swallow a bowl of 10 mealworms to win a $250 Zappos gift card.
Moët & Chandon passed its mini bottles on the red carpet arrivals line.
For the In Style and Warner Brothers party, Thomas Ford of Tom Ford Designs constructed a tent over the Beverly Hilton Hotel fountain and transformed the venue into a space meant to evoke a futuristic galaxy where DJ Michelle Pesce spun for the crowd.
The room was accented by hot and cold contrasts of magenta, plum, and ice blue set against deep blue walls, which were covered in fiber-optic lights.
As the focal point of the room, 3,600 individual squares of multicolored film, connected by 14,400 metal rings, formed what the hosts billed as an “aurora borealis of iridescent color.”
As part of the party, Abel McCallister Designs also constructed a chocolate lounge for Godiva, where a series of sculptural chocolate installations incorporated artistic interpretations of heart images in an homage to romantic film and TV scenes.
For HBO’s party at the hotel’s Circa 55 restaurant and adjoining pool and pool deck, Cindy Tenner worked with designer Billy Butchkavitz to transform the space altogether—including covering the hotel’s iconic pool with a lounge constructed by Special Event Contractors. Overall, the party’s palette was red, camel, and leopard prints and colors. “I always have some heavy inspiration for events like the Golden Globes, but for this year’s design theme, I just wanted to have fun,” Butchkavitz said. He drew ideas from "Diana Vreeland’s love of red and leopard and the over-the-top kitsch of Liberace," he said.
A dramatic 130- by 24-foot wall covered with red and camel damask patterned draperies created a backdrop while also concealing two floors of hotel guest rooms. Chandeliers encased in glass decked the walls.
Large-scale animated projections—a signature feature of the party—from Bart Kresa added movement to the event space.
The “Liberace Lounge” saw the hotel’s poolside Trader Vic’s bar turned into a space befitting the performer portrayed in HBO’s Behind the Candelabra. Liberace stage costumes from the film were on display.
The design of the Fox Golden Globes party was what its producer 15/40 Productions described as “the ultimate New York loft.” Brick- and wood-paneled walls, Chesterfield couches, and oxblood carpeting accentuated with ash-colored wooden flooring decked the space—which hardly resembled a tent.
Patrón and Ultimat sponsored the bars, and Along Came Mary catered dinner, which guests ate at communal tables and other residential-style seating groups.
Arrangements of branches and succulents topped Fox's long tables.
Faux industrial beams added major visual drama to tent ceilings.
Candles decked an open-back bar, which offered a view of the Golden Globes red carpet arrivals line at the Beverly Hilton below.
Producer Best Events had new freedoms this year when it came to the Weinstein Company’s Golden Globes party: The Beverly Hilton recently removed the giant palm trees that have been in the center of the event space every year. This gave the production team an uninterrupted footprint for the first time in the 15-plus years it has hosted the event. Instead of erecting two tents to work around the palms, the event made use of one large 100-foot round tent, cut in half with a 30-foot extension (that created the shape of a D). The party's sponsors included Marie Claire, Fiji Water, Lexus, and Netflix.
A programmable water wall bar backdrop rotated through text and patterns for a hypnotizing effect.
Best Events went with a garden feel for the exterior with 5,000 square feet of Astroturf, trees, and wrought-iron patio furniture, and the inside space had the look and feel of an atrium. To underscore the theme, custom lattice pieces hung from the ceiling, flanked by living plants.
SBE Catering provided the food for the Weinsteins' party, where such bites included Jose Andres's molecular gastronomic take on olives from the Bazaar at the SLS.
Chris Benarroch worked with 15/40 to produce what Benarroch described as “a very sleek look this year" that created "a modern yet luxe environment.” To achieve the look, the team used cream Ultrasuede furnishings, smoked mirrors, and gold and black accents that highlighted sponsor logos.
Chandeliers filled black drum shades, and a raw bar was lit from underneath for some added drama.
The look of the NBC party was inspired by its sponsor Chrysler, with the steel blue and grey tones of the automaker's brand dictating the decor in the space, said Mark Yumkas of event producer Angel City Designs.
Patterned panels added visual interest within the space, which progressed from viewing- to after-party and included a performance by up-and-comers Youngblood Hawke.
In celebration of NBC's partnership with Coca-Cola for the upcoming Olympic broadcast, the beverage brand set up a mini museum of Olympic memorabilia.
The Art of Elysium held its seventh annual black-tie gala known as Heaven—the group’s largest annual fund-raiser—on Saturday at the Skirball Cultural Center with sponsorship from Mercedes-Benz. A theme for the night was "resonance," so a decor centerpiece hanging overhead was meant to evoke an elongated speaker.
Guests bid on the event's handcrafted tables, which will be donated to hospitals as surfaces for children to create art.
A liquid caprese was among the dishes on a so-called "living menu," meant to be nutrient-, antioxidant-, and vitamin-rich.
An understated floral look in red and white decked CBS's pre-award fete.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles celebrated the weekend with its annual Bafta Los Angeles Awards Season Tea Party on Saturday at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. Nominees, execs, celebrities, and Bafta members dined on a spread of traditionally British tea and scones. Flowers filled teapots for eye-catching decor.
The Union Jack figured prominently in various details, including mugs and wrapped vases.
HBO and Mediaplacement invited media and celebrity guests for the annual HBO Luxury Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. At the event, Pandora gifted its rings to guests and provided a mini red carpet—complete with a tiny step-and-repeat wall—for hand photo ops. It was a logical complement to the adjacent manicure stations.
In Pandora's suite, the brand made a game out of gifting. Each guest was invited to open a bow-tied drawer and retrieve a card that corresponded to a gift from the fashion jewelry brand.
It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie: a drone delivering beer to guests at a music festival. More than 150 guests at the OppiKoppi music festival in South Africa in August received free cold brews via drone. The initiative was a partnership of Darkwing Aerials, Windhoek Beer, and festival organizers. Guests ordered the beer using an app on their smartphones; staff received the orders and loaded parachute-equipped, single servings of beer (with a lid) onto the drone. Once in the air, the drone used the GPS coordinates of the phone that placed the order to navigate to its destination, where the single beer would drop and parachute down to the waiting recipient. The only area of the festival that was off limits for deliveries was the main stage, where the dense crowd made it too risky to drop beer from the sky. Darkwing Aerials owner Dean Engela said they intend to try the service at future events, using more than one drone to serve guests.
At South by Southwest Interactive in March, 3M wowed guests with a holographic virtual presenter. “Jenny” could sense people passing by and would speak and gesture to them, offering information about panels and events and inviting them to interact with an iPad displayed in front of her.
The Makr Shakr is a bartender, social sharing system, and alcohol consumption monitor in one robotic design. Designed by the M.I.T. Senseable City Lab in collaboration with the Coca-Cola Company and Bacardi Rums and produced by Italian firm Carlo Ratti Associati, the robot debuted at the Google I/O conference in May. Guests transmit their cocktail orders via the Makr Shakr app, then watch as three large, orange robotic arms mix up the prescribed combination of liquor, syrups, fruit mixers, and ice. The movements are precise enough to muddle a mojito and thinly slice a lemon. A large screen behind the bar displays a variety of stats, such as number of drinks in the queue, approximate wait time, drinks ready for pickup, and most popular spirits by gender. The app also allows users to see what type of drinks others are ordering, rate the drinks, and share photos on social networks. It also aims to promote responsible consumption by monitoring what a person orders and how often. The developers say for now Makr Shakr is a prototype, intended to be a “social experiment that looks at how people might embrace the new possibilities offered by digital manufacturing.”
New systems allow users to participate in meetings and events from afar. MantaroBots TeleMe (left) uses an Apple device or Android tablet mounted on a tall, rolling base. Users connect to it using Skype or another video conferencing application and then control its movement from their desktop. “You have a screen, camera, microphone, and speakers in that nice square that emulates the head. And you can pan and tilt the tablet so you can look directly at people without turning the whole robot,” said Jeremy Parsons, C.E.O. at Mantaro Product Development Services. Anybots QB robot (right) uses an integrated screen, camera, and speaker atop a mobile platform that can be positioned from two and a half to six and a half feet off the ground. Users control and activate the robot using Anybots’ Web-based communications system. The company is developing a new model, the Qx, that will have a larger screen and be available in early 2014. At trade shows, these robots can allow someone off site to engage with visitors in a booth and to virtually explore the show floor. Both systems are equipped with obstacle-detection sensors and laser-pointer devices.
Ford Motor Company has brought its robot, Hank, to several auto shows over the past few years to greet and entertain consumers. The robot is controlled by a staffer hidden from view wearing sensors that transmit his movements to the robot. The staffer also has a microphone to carry on conversations with passersby via the robot.
