Screen-Direct is a connectivity solution from Shodogg, a media technology company. It allows a presenter to use a mobile device to pull up any cloud-based content and share it on any other Web-enabled screens or devices. For example, a presenter can use Screen-Direct to pull in PDF files, photos, PowerPoint presentations, or content from Dropbox, YouTube, or Google. Audience members—participating in person or virtually—connect to the presentation by clicking on a URL in an email invitation. The system is set up for two-way communication, so audience members can submit questions and feedback through Screen-Direct, and multiple presenters can control what the audience sees. The product launched in beta in July.
Ramblehook, a new app from New Foundry, acts as a timekeeper for speakers and also allows audience members to give real-time feedback. The presenter activates the app by creating topics and allocating a time limit for each one. Audience members follow the agenda by opening the app on their mobile devices. From there, they can also choose from three feedback options: slow down, on topic, or speed up. The speaker sees that input in real time, allowing him or her to adjust the presentation as necessary. After an event, audience members can submit ratings and comments to presenters. The app is expected to debut at Apple stores in November.
SlideKlowd launched in January and released an update Monday that offers integration with Twitter and Facebook. Presenters use SlideKlowd to push content to any mobile device running the app or accessing the system through a browser. There are 12 widgets that can be added to slides to get audience feedback—for example, Likert scales, multiple-choice ratings, and comments—and the presenter can choose whether to make the information visible. The new version gives users the ability to post comments to social media with the event hashtag and presenter’s Twitter handle automatically included. Audience members can also take a picture of a slide (called a “KlowdPic”) to include with comments. Following an event, the system provides analytics such as how many people shared and the feedback on individual slides.
The Metropolitan Opera celebrated the opening of its latest production, Otello, with a post-show reception and dinner on October 9. Designed and produced by Tyger Productions and held on the Met’s Grand Tier, guests sat at 24-foot mirrored tables that reflected the dramatic architecture. Tall gilded crystal candelabras holding boxwood topiaries ran down the center of the tables, while gold Venetian glass chargers and flatware added to the look.
The Ontario Science Centre hosted its fund-raiser, the LG Innovators' Ball, in late October. In honor of the new exhibition “Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration,” the sixth annual gala had a retro "Fly Me to the Moon" theme, designed by McNabb Roick Events. In the dining room, retro rocket ships acted as centerpieces with red and orange flowers standing in as a "flame" at the base.
The women’s board of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra hosted the Symphony Ball on September 29. After a concert conducted by Ricardo Muti, guests headed to a dinner-dance at the Fairmont Chicago. To underscore the “Seize the Night” theme, designer Jeffrey Foster of Event Creative lit centerpieces with glowing fiber optics.
The 13th annual Storybook Ball was held October 20 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Sound of Music-themed decor included centerpieces of wildflowers accented with tiny guitars, designed by Winston Flowers.
For the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Dinner by the Sea fund-raiser held at the New York Aquarium on October 4, Kerry Quade: Handmade Quade designed centerpieces that included minimal flowers: Tall cylinder vases were filled with black branches, succulents, and colored sand.
The greater Washington, D.C., chapter of the National Association for Catering & Events held its Capital Style gala on November 11, which had a "Once Upon a Time" theme. Several of the dinner tables, designed by Edge Floral, displayed dramatic branches growing out of a base of greenery, peonies, and roses.
Caviar Dreams produced a pink-carpeted gala for Total Impact Resource Centers at the Penthouse at AT&T Center in Los Angeles on October 27. Candy-colored centerpieces sat atop crystal candelabras, and aqua-blue glassware popped against silver linens and Chiavari chairs.
The Lyric Opera of Chicago kicked off its 58th season with a performance of Richard Strauss’s Elektra on October 6. Following the performance, the Opera Ball was held at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, where the moody decor by Heffernan Morgan Designs included towering arrangements of berry-covered branches.
LUNGevity Foundation's second annual Musical Celebration of Hope was held at the Mellon Auditorium in Washington on September 14. Produced by Events by Andre Wells, the event had a Spanish theme. Tables were covered in striped linens and displayed brightly colored tropical flowers in glass containers of various heights. Decor was handled by Design Foundry and florals were by Blue Vanda Designs.
To fete the launch of the "Imagining the Lowline" fund-raising initiative, the project's co-founders hosted an "anti-gala" dinner and exhibit on September 13 at the Essex Street Warehouse in New York. Van Wyck & Van Wyck brought in reclaimed wood dining tables and decorated them with candlelight and centerpieces of potted rosemary, lavender, mint, geranium leaves, and olive branches.
The Knock Out Abuse gala held at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington had a Moulin Rouge theme, designed by Events by Andre Wells. Amaryllis topped dinner tables covered in black-sequined linens with centerpieces of black plumes and deep red roses.
To showcase Kenneth Cole’s fall collection, Mark Addison of EventStyle produced an intimate dinner for fashion and beauty bloggers. Held inside the brand’s flagship store at Grand Central Terminal, the table design was inspired by the textures, colors, and materials from the new line. Cole’s love of found objects led the EventStyle team to design metal pipe candelabras that were placed at each corner of the table. The dinner was based around eight theme words, which were projected onto a fringed light installation that hung in the center of the space.
The Chicago Botanic Garden’s fall fund-raiser, the Harvest Ball, took place on garden grounds September 22. To underscore the autumnal theme, Botanicals' arrangements of roses also held golden gourds and pumpkins.
In September, New Yorkers for Children celebrated its fall gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. David Stark’s table designs had an organic look with high and low glass containers filled with moss, ferns, and candles, and low arrangements in birch-wrapped vases.
The Miami Children’s Hospital Foundation’s Diamond Ball was held on October 27 at the JW Marriott Marquis in Miami. The theme, “A Frosted Masquerade Affair,” was translated by WOW Factor Marketing Group to glitzy effect in the ballroom: Tall structures dripping with crystals alternated with centerpieces of chandeliers enclosed in Lucite boxes and Lucite candelabras holding white floral balls on dinner tables.
The Breeders' Cup took over Santa Anita Park on November 2 and 3. Kicking off all the festivities was a reception at the mayor's residence, the Getty House, on Halloween night. BrownHot Events' masquerade-inspired design for the affair included giving the tables a dramatic look with tall black candlesticks and Chameleon chairs from Classic Party Rentals.
The Hammer Museum’s 10th annual Gala in the Garden was held in Los Angeles on October 6. The tables, featuring floral arrangements by Dandelion Ranch, were covered in black velvet and topped with mirrored glass hurricanes containing square pillar candles and surrounded by bud vases filled with spider mums, air plants, and ferns.
Held in October, the 10th annual After School Matters gala took place in the grand ballroom of Chicago’s Navy Pier. Colorful mosaic-decorated flower pots—created by teens in the Mosaic Collaborative program—adorned the dinner tables.
Chicago’s Luna Negra Dance Theater threw a gala in September. Designed by Kehoe Designs, several dinner tables displayed centerpieces elevated on platforms.
Held in late September at Skylight One Hanson in Brooklyn, BAM’s 30th Next Wave gala featured floral decor by Fleurs Bella. Some guests dined at the former bank's deposit slip tables, where the built-in lamps were engulfed in greenery, roses, and calla lilies.
Elle magazine held its annual Women in Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles on October 15. Caravents handled the event design and production, creating a minimalist look with coral-colored floral arrangements set atop matte mirrored Perspex rectangles.
Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer—or what 7-Eleven refers to as "Slurpee Season." To officially ring in the carefree days ahead, the retailer hosted an event on May 22 with actress Ashley Benson at its Hollywood location. Benson took an inaugural sip of a Slurpee Lite, then sat her cup down on a colorful contraption that recalled a Rube Goldberg machine. The weight of the cup prompted a chain reaction that ended in a banner unfurling; the banner read "Slurpee Season is Now Open!"
The 25th incarnation of I.C.F.F. ran May 18 to 21 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. A great place for event professionals to get ideas and inspiration, the show displayed items such as Toyko-based Oodesign's tiny floating vases. The vessels hold individual buds and submerge their stems in water.
Chicago restaurant Allium served a swimsuit-friendly 500-calorie lunch at a recent beachwear fashion show at the Four Seasons Chicago. The three-course menu included beet salad with Greek yogurt, fennel, and mache lettuce; wild Alaskan halibut with smoked fingerlings, pickled ramp bulbs, asparagus, and English peas (pictured); and 99 percent pure chocolate sorbet.
For an upscale camp-themed affair, KG Fare Catering & Events offers a mess-free take on s'mores, displayed on clothespins.
At the Pratt Institute Fashion Show and Cocktail Benefit on April 25, models walked a ribbon-shaped runway. Held at Center548 in New York, the show displayed edgy looks from 17 student designers, and Blumlein Associates Inc. designed the fittingly forward-thinking runway and set. With a design team led by Claudia Castro—herself a Pratt alum—the runway was designed so that the collection could be viewed from any angle in the room.
The Museum of Modern Art’s annual Party in the Garden took place on May 21. Overhead, dense arrangements of tropical plants were suspended between white pillars, creating a jungle-like canopy effect.
Billed as the most successful cancer-related fund-raising gala in Canada, the Daffodil Ball on April 18 had a Great Gatsby theme that brought the 1920s to life at Windsor Station in Montreal. In the cocktail space, a living fountain twirled around slowly.
Donatella Versace debuted her newest Versus Versace collection with a bash for 1,300 guests at New York's 69th Regiment Armory on May 15. Complementing three mini fashion shows and concerts, a pedicab sporting a rotating carousel of rainbow-colored Venus Versace bags made its way throughout the cavernous venue, offering guests the chance to hop on the back for a ride.
Sheraton Social Hour is a premium wine service developed in conjunction with Wine Spectator magazine. To launch the new program at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, a penthouse event on May 15 served vino from a custom bar constructed out of wine bottles. Designed by Level Productions and built by Abunch LLC, the bar was flanked by signage that explained the taste profile of the wines, along with snacks that paired with them.
Need some pool party inspiration? Chandon kicked off the season in quirky style at its American Summer Soiree on May 21 and made creative use out of an inexpensive prop: pool toys. Celebrity guests such as Brittany Snow posed in front of a step-and-repeat that comprised bright blue dolphins, smiling pink flamingos, branded beach balls, and other inflatable toys.
Located in Scottsdale, Arizona’s expansive McDowell Sonoran Preserve, the Brown’s Ranch Trailhead will host its grand opening in October. Named after a former cattle ranch, the trailhead has paths that meander through the desert. Arizona Outback Adventures can lead corporate groups on guided hikes or mountain-biking excursions through the area; group horseback riding is also an option.
Meeting guests at Harbor View Hotel on Martha’s Vineyard can accompany in-house chef Nathan Gould on foraging missions. Best suited to groups of 10 or fewer guests, the outings typically take two to two-and-a-half hours. Guests scour the island for seasonal, island-grown herbs and veggies; in the fall, findings may include sassafras, rose hips, sea beans, and watercress. The foraging mission can end with a cooking class that incorporates the found ingredients.
The Wild Dunes Resort near Charleston, South Carolina, offers a group activity known as the Fall Oyster Roast. The outing starts with a 45-minute boat cruise up to Capers Island Preserve, where wildlife such as sea turtles and white-tailed deer run amok. Once the boat is docked, guests relax by the water while a catering crew cooks a seafood feast. Meeting attendees can divide into teams to learn how to shuck oyster shells.
The new Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado in Santa Fe has teamed up with Adventure Partners to create a series of outings for meeting guests. Aiming to give visitors an authentic taste of New Mexico, the experiences include a three-hour private tour of the Tsankawi Archeological Site. After a 30-minute ride across the Rio Grande, guests walk along ancient trails, ending at a collection of rock engravings and dwellings from the 1400s.
Idaho’s meeting-friendly Coeur d’Alene Resort has a teambuilding activity that will appeal to card sharks and boat enthusiasts alike. The resort’s Poker Runs on Lake d’Alene take groups out on a Cobalt Armada boat. At each of as many as seven checkpoints, guests pull a card, and the player with the best poker hand at the end of the outing wins a prize. One boat holds six guests, and the property has eight boats available.
In Chicago, City Running Tours offers themed jaunts through the Windy City. Professional guides lead groups of as many as 100 guests through sites that pertain to Chicago’s history. The tours typically take 90 minutes and can be tailored to meet guests’ fitness levels. Organizers can arrange for branded event shirts. The company also runs tours in cities across America, including Austin and Denver.
Nothing says fall like apple pie, and the Park Hyatt Washington has a new activity centered on the autumn treat. During interactive culinary classes held in the newly renovated event and meeting space, chefs lead guests through the process of making a fruity, spicy pie and share details about the dish’s history. The classes typically last around 30 minutes and can accommodate groups of any size.
