The Sequoia-produced and designed Governors Ball drew inspiration from nature, interpreting the theme into a glamorous look that included massive vertical garden walls from Mark's Garden and a starry ceiling designed by Larry Oberman in association with ELS. The event's copious plants and greenery came from GreenSet.
New this year to the Oscar-party landscape was the Vanity Fair Social Club, a lounge located in Hollywood’s WeWork creative co-working space that provided bloggers and online journalists space to write, work, and be entertained. The setup, with production by the Projects, was billed as the first social club of its kind to be held during Oscar week.
At the pre-Oscars Essence luncheon, a clear-top cocktail tent included a Target-sponsored “Power of Our Presence” wall where guests could pull a message of inspiration; as the messages were removed, images of some of the event's honorees appeared beneath a star-shaped installation.
TNT's ambitious activation for Dallas on February 24 involved turning a Manhattan gas station into a flagship for the show's fictional family's business. The network's agency Grey also took over billboards and wrapped oil tankers with signage that read, "You can't strike oil without getting dirty" and "Fill 'er up."
On February 11, the James Beard Foundation was honored at the 21st annual Destination and Travel Foundation Dinner and Dream Auction at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Because the event was held in the midst of a long, cold winter—and because of its food-centric honoree—planners opted for a design scheme with springy green centerpieces that contained actual fruits and veggies. Your Event Solutions created the centerpieces.
The early February event had both "Big Brothers" and sisters and "Little Brothers" and sisters in attendance, so planners catered to both age groups. Kid-friendly decor included highboys with chalkboard surfaces. Jars of colored chalk let guests—both young and old—doodle as they sampled appetizers and drinks.
On Valentine's Day, in the midst of one of Chicago's coldest winters in decades, the Chicago Botanic Garden hosted a tropical-theme event to celebrate the opening of its new Orchid Show. Pink "Paradise" cocktails nodded to the rosy hue of the surrounding orchids.
Culinary Landscape handled the catering and served dishes like mini coconut cream pies on plantain chips.
Doodlebooth is a Chicago-based company that puts a hand-drawn spin on traditional photo booths. Illustrator Jana Kinsman, who's designed custom illustrations for clients such as CB2, sits with guests and quickly sketches their portraits. She gives the pictures out as keepsakes, and can also scan them into online albums that guests can digitally share.
The Gillette Leading Man Cam sponsored the Unite4:Humanity event in Los Angeles on February 27. Backstage, Gillette created a "charity wheel" that famous guests, including Robert De Niro (pictured), spun. The charity that the wheel landed on the most, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, received a donation from Gillette.
The National Association of Broadcasters is offering something new to the nearly 100,000 attendees expected to attend the show in early April at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Six free, self-guided audio tours will be available through the event’s mobile app. One tour is a general guide to the show floor and its more than 1,550 exhibitors while the rest are categorized by topic such as online video, television, and radio. For a $25 fee, attendees can participate in a 30-minute preshow briefing offered each morning. Organizers are also offering two guided tours, one targeted to C-level decision makers and the other for content, advertising, and brand executives. StoryTech developed the content for the audio and in-person tours.
A roving team of helpers known as MyCES assisted the more than 150,000 attendees and exhibitors at the International C.E.S. at the Las Vegas Convention Center in January. Team members, identified by the tall, colorful flags on their backs, carried Sony tablets with custom software created by Map Your Show that included information about exhibitors, booth numbers, conference sessions, awards, events, and social media. All of the data was accessible offline so team members did not have to rely on an Internet connection as they fielded questions in the center’s main hall. Organizers said they received good feedback on the service and plan to expand it next year.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society provides trolley service—in the form of an extra-long golf cart—to transport attendees from one end to another down the main aisle of its show floor. For this year’s event at the Orange County Convention Center in February, organizers estimated the one-way distance was nearly a mile, with six trolley stops along the way. In addition to providing a service for attendees, the concept also was a sponsorship opportunity: organizers sold signage space on both the trollies and at the stops. The 2014 conference was the association’s largest to date with nearly 39,000 attendees.
The SEMA Show—short for Specialty Equipment Market Association—positions its more than 2,300 exhibitors on the show floor based on 11 categories, such as tires or racing and performance, so buyers can easily find products that match their interests. New last year, the association worked with a graphic artist to create icons and other custom artwork for each section that was used in signage, collateral materials, advertising, apparel, and more. “We wanted each section to have its unique look and feel, and we wanted it to resonate with our attendees on a visual level. We got a lot of positive feedback that demonstrated to us that they got it,” said Peter MacGillivray, the association’s vice president of events and communications.
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo offered several guided, two-hour tours at its show last fall at the Orange County Convention Center, which was its largest in 10 years with nearly 1,100 exhibitors. One tour was targeted to first-time attendees while the rest were grouped by theme, for example for buyers looking for inflatable products or those focused on water parks. Buyers paid a fee—$20 for association members and $30 for non-members—to participate. The expo is the largest trade event in the world for the $24 billion attractions industry, attracting 27,000 attendees from more than 100 countries.
For the New York Yankees 2014 Homecoming Dinner honoring Mariano Rivera, Chris Koch, and Andy Pettitte, invitations arrived with all three honorees spotlighted in the form of custom baseball cards.
Zagat honored its local list of the 30 best chefs under 30 years old—Zagat’s “30 under 30”—in Austin with an event where drink coasters referenced other celebrities and personalities, real and fictional, who achieved fame by the same age.
Every year for Essence magazine's annual Black Women in Hollywood event—an award luncheon that takes place during the week before the Oscars—producer Caravents creates a gallery of framed oversize portraits that are also pictured in the magazine's special issue. The artistic tributes hang in the Beverly Hills Hotel's grand stairway, which acts as the entrance to the celeb-mobbed event.
This year's Essence Black Women in Hollywood event also included a Target-sponsored “Power of Our Presence” wall, where guests could pull a message of inspiration; as the messages were removed, images of honorees appeared beneath the star-shaped installation.
The Museum of Modern Art honored Quentin Tarantino in 2012, choosing not to plaster the walls with explicit references to the filmmaker's iconic movies. Instead, the New York art institution crafted a more subtle homage with a color palette of indigo and a commissioned sketch of Tarantino. Nathan Milner's sketch—artwork commissioned by Tarantino that depicted the director and iconic characters from his films—was incorporated into visuals, used on the step-and-repeat, and printed on the dinner program.
A scant 200 guests made the invite list for Elle’s Women in Hollywood event in 2008 at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, where Moët & Chandon bottles bore the names of honorees.
In honor of Tommy Hilfiger receiving the C.F.D.A.'s Lifetime Achievement award in 2012, the Princeton Footnotes performed a live tribute to the designer. Naturally, the all-male a cappella group was outfitted in head-to-toe Tommy Hilfiger clothing.
The Children's Defense Fund's Beat the Odds award ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2012 honored five Los Angeles high school students who overcame personal obstacles and achieved academic excellence. To incorporate the teenagers into the night's visuals, the organizers used a gallery of black-and-white portraits as the backdrop for the stage.
The Gene Siskel Film Center honored Gwyneth Paltrow at its 2013 fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago. Instead of simply presenting the actress with an award, the evening included an hour-long onstage Q&A session. Amanda de Cadenet, host of Lifetime TV's The Conversation and a friend of Paltrow's, led the discussion. The event's menu also included dishes inspired by Paltrow's films.
For the first-ever event marking its annual list of Game Changers in 2010, the Huffington Post wanted to produce an interactive experience that would appropriately honor the leaders and innovators selected by the five-year-old news site's readers. The awards were bestowed on 100 individuals, people who used new media to make a global impact in fields as diverse as business, politics, sports, and food, and scrolling projector displays mimicked the way the Huffington Post presents content online. The changing text also served to educate attendees on the works of each Game Changer honoree. David Stark produced the event at Skylight Soho in New York.
TD Bank's employee recognition dinner—called the “Wow” awards—got a major format change in 2009, meant to avoid the feeling of a typical dinner and presentation. The event shrunk from 2,000 people to 100, with the 27 honorees, their guests, and TD Bank senior execs all siting at a single amoeba-shaped table. Lucite easels displaying photos of the evening's honorees lined the hallway.
The party following the A.F.I. Lifetime Achievement award presentation at Los Angeles's Sony Pictures Studios in 2011 drew inspiration from honoree Morgan Freeman's blues club in Mississippi. Nods to the club and city came in the form of decor, flowers, and a Southern food menu from Wolfgang Puck.
Mashable teamed up with HBO’s Silicon Valley to present its Mashable House at the Austin festival. Visitors to the venue were able to nap or watch a motivational video while relaxing in energy pods from the upcoming TV show.
For a memorable photo opportunity, Mashable created its own wrecking ball as tribute to Miley Cyrus and the controversial music video for the song "Wrecking Ball." Participants signed waivers and posed for photos on the swinging globe marked with the Mashable logo.
To promote its new show, The Strain—and offer guests respite from the crowds—FX brought nap pods to its Transformation Station. Available by appointment, the pods were outfitted with pillows, sheets, and a tablet to watch previews of the program.
Using 3-D technology, Oreo set up a vending machine that customized Oreo cookies, including the color and patterns of the cream, based on Twitter trends and the consumers’ preferences. There was also a milk bar with a variety of milk options.
Pennzoil teamed up with Nintendo to devise a real-life Mario Kart go-kart racetrack, complete with power-ups to catch and turtle shells to avoid. Helmets were outfitted with GoPro cameras, which sent video and statistics to the racer’s email.
Instead of a straightforward Twitter feed, Samsung opted for dynamic projection art. The installation displayed words tweeted with the lounge’s hashtag falling down a wall and clustered together on the stationary shelves.
At the Samsung's Galaxy Vine Studio, participants created their own Vine videos using professional studio equipment and the guidance of Vine experts.
3M encouraged attendees to contribute ideas using the hashtag #3MIdeaExchange. With each tweet, a balloon filled with a little bit of air. The person whose tweet caused the balloon to pop won $500.
AT&T’s lounge allowed visitors to explore Austin without leaving the convention center. The Teleport Dome activation let guests experience local spots like Waterloo Records and the Roller Derby.
Friskies introduced its new Seafood Sensations shrimp flavor to the crowd at SXSW with a promotion that saw Grumpy Cat serve as the “worst mate” of the S.S. Holy Shrimp Boat. The activation—which Allied Experiential helped produce—brought the famous Internet feline, along with 25 fans, to the Mashable House, where she posed for photos. Friskies donated 25,000 meals of its new flavor to Friends of Austin Animal Center. Additionally, for every photo uploaded to social media with the hashtag #HolyShrimp between March 7 and 9, the brand donated an additional meal to the local charity organization.
A new addition to HBO’s traveling Game of Thrones exhibit, Ascend the Wall allows users to experience climbing the iconic wall from the show through Oculus Rift virtual reality. At SXSW, participants donned a headset and headphones to completely immerse themselves in the scene, which was developed by Relevent, with graphics created by Framestore, the same company behind the visual effects of Alfonso Cuarón's film Gravity.
NBC brought New York burger institution Shake Shack, which will be opening locations in Austin later this year, to SXSW. The truck offered free burgers and fries to those who waited in line. Additionally, NBC sponsored free bike rentals at its pop-up lounge.
Chevrolet offered attendees the opportunity to try out the car company’s new 4G LTE connectivity through test-drives or by catching free rides to any destination.
At Allison&Partners’ Late Night Saloon, Dominique Ansel debuted his latest creation: the chocolate chip cookie milk shot. The New York-based pastry chef brought along his famed Cronuts, too.
Brand strategy and design firm Lippincott's "RVIP" was a roving karaoke party bus that aimed to answer the question: “Where are we going?” Festivalgoers were encouraged to hop onto the bus, meet new people, grab a drink, sing, and make new connections.
In front of a replica of the A&E show’s namesake motel was a vending machine distributing free fake pot brownies to passersby.
Hulu premiered Deadbeat, an original TV series, at SXSW this year and, to further promote the show, allowed attendees to interact with holographic ghosts. The activation was designed by NVE: The Experience Agency, using the same technology as Coachella’s Tupac hologram.
After visitors texted a question to the Ouija board, a staffer hidden behind the wall would spell out answers to the guests.
The three-lane, three-story, neon-lit slide at IFC’s carnival allowed three people to glide down on burlap sacks. For those not partaking in the ride, there was a spot where they could take selfies.
In honor of an upcoming episode of Portlandia, Coolhaus served two celery-flavored ice creams: cherry-bourbon-celery and peanut-butter-raisin-celery.
Representatives from snack brand Kind handed out flowers to passersby outside of Wanderlust Yoga’s the Great Escape, where attendees took spin and yoga classes, as well as grabbed juices and bites to eat.
Attendees of Pepsi's Bioreactive Concert got a visual experience via Lightwave, a wearable technology that takes the user’s biometric data to control surroundings, like light. DJ A-Trak performed at the event.
Airbnb collaborated with artists Snoop Dogg, Capital Cities, and Allen Stone to design unique pop-ups for the company’s outdoor park. Participants were encouraged to Instagram “Welcome Home” signs, and winners selected by the musicians were able to use the temporary venues as their own V.I.P. lounges.
In exchange for tweets and Instagrams marked with a dedicated hashtag, Web site-building company Squarespace gave out T-shirts and flasks at the Heartbreaker Banquet, an event held at musician Willie Nelson’s ranch outside of Austin. The brand, which sponsored the daylong concert, also built the Squarespace General Store, to host special performances.
Visitors to Spotify House were able to create personalized digital mosaics using albums covers from their top listening habits at the photo booth, designed by Brigade.
Also inside the music-streaming service's activation, guests could play music trivia through touch-screen social tables, designed by Beak Labs.
Along with playing with Spotify programs, visitors were able to add their own songs to the Spotify House Playlist, which will be emailed to guests after the festival.
The Fader returned to SXSW with the Converse-sponsored Fader Fort, a four-day party that this year featured performances by Erykah Badu, Rick Ross, and a slew of other musicians. As first-time sponsor of the magazine's activation, Mazda served as the official vehicle for the venue and offered free rides for fans; a lucky few were surprised by The Fader artists in the backseat.
Glass Is Life, a sustainability movement that encourages glass usage, created a space for people to come and pick out a colored glass bottle to paint, Instagram for a print, and place on the shelf display.
DirecTV filmed Guitar Center Sessions on the roof of the Starr Building for three days and, for those mulling about below, projected the stream on the side of the building.
Filter magazine’s presence was widespread this year, covering several buildings on Rainey Street, daytime shows at Cedar Street Courtyard, and the Guitar Center Sessions. It also included the Dr. Martens House, where people were asked to scribble what they stood for on white footwear.
Vans released daily reissues of its limited-edition sneakers designed by bands including Rise Against. All proceeds from the sales went toward SXSW Cares.
Truth partnered with Vans to share information about tobacco use as part of its youth campaign. Attendees tagged photos or tweets and received a free shirt with a Truth fact printed in the place of a label.
To promote its new music-streaming radio station, MixRadio, Nokia brought an on-site musicologist to Spin magazine's Day Party. The musicologist asked users questions about their musical tastes and then prescribed a playlist, which was shared through an N.F.C. tag.
AT&T and Vice’s Motherboard hosted a three-day showcase dubbed the Mobile Movement. Touch-screen tablets set up at the back of the concert area allowed users to control the 2-D and 3-D effects of the stage in the front of the hangar.
