Serve guest icy cocktails from behind the six-foot Diamond Mirror Bar, $595, from Designer8 Event Furniture Rental.
An embellished croquembouche served as an eye-catching display at the Hallmark Channel event.
Ornaments added glitz to the decor at a Hollywood Pop Gallery-produced event.
In January, Vertigo Sky Lounge in Chicago held an opening-night party with a fire and ice theme that used playful chalkboard signage.
Earlier this year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared insufficient sleep a public health epidemic, and our collective exhaustion is affecting events: Sleep has become a hot topic and a lure for activations, while lack of sleep might be limiting the impact of conferences and meetings. In spring 2014, Arianna Huffington published a book and hosted a conference, both called Thrive, focused on wellness as a part of business success, with sleep as a primary factor. Two different brands included nap pods (pictured) in their installations during South by Southwest in Austin in March. And artists and performers are staging performances and installations where sleep is part of the experience.
Since pop-up shops first appeared a decade ago, they have only become more popular, partially due to trends in real estate, retail, and marketing. Now their spirit is pervading outlets with long-term leases. New York-based Story (pictured) bills itself as “a retail space that has the point of view of a magazine, changes like a gallery, and sells things like a store.” Tristan Pollock, co-founder of the temporary retail space listing site Storefront—which helps brands find venues for pop-ups—says more than 100 hotels use the site to bring cool, local brands to their lobbies.
