For a recent event at the Perot Museum of Science and Nature in Dallas, Wolfgang Puck Catering employed a "chef shadowbox." Meant to provide a strong visual behind a more standard food station, a chef in a shadowbox prepared appetizers as guests looked on.
Other new stations at Wolfgang Puck Catering include a frozen sushi station. The activation displays fresh fish and sushi rolls atop illuminated ice blocks with frozen orchids and other flowers inside.
In Chicago, Blue Plate Catering brings candy apple stations to holiday parties. Treats include apples dipped in caramel and assorted toppings and sliced up into snack-size portions.
The catering firm also has a new burrata action station. Staffers top the creamy cheese with toasted pine nuts and Italian muscat syrup. The snack is gluten-free.
Toronto catering firm Eatertainment has a new chef action station devoted to salmon gravlax. Salmon is hung from hooks above the station and is sliced to order in front of guests. The raw fish is then chopped and served with root-vegetable crisps, miniature greens, and spiced yogurt.
The Toronto firm is also using bar carts to display food items. One such spread, wheeled to tables at an event, offered snacks such as frittatas, foie gras, sliders, and lobster.
In Chicago, catering firm Limelight has an innovative format for serving fruit skewers. The fruits are inserted into a custom wall with thematic wallpaper design (which varies for different events). Guests approach the wall and pull of a skewer and can dip the fruit in sauces that are arrayed on a nearby table.
Instead of serving French fries at a stationary table, Limelight has used a wheelbarrow to deliver Belgian frites at events. The fries are served in cones, and assorted sauces are displayed on the side.
Limelight's "Smash It" station offers assorted homemade chocolate bark in flavors such as dark chocolate with dried cherries. Mallets next to the sweets let guests "smash" off a snack-size piece of the bark.
Roar Events produced a summertime event at Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa in Southern California. The dinner had a modern Mexican theme and featured an interactive margarita station. Guests chose the type and flavor of their tequila, as well as one of many specialty salts.
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.
