NYC event

The setting from architecture and interior design firm Bortolotto let guests feel as if they were dining in a construction site overlooking the city's skyline.

Commute Design used its instillation to showcase the beauty of handmade objects. The setting featured a hand-scraped dining table, and there were rules of Victorian dining laser-cut into the installation.

Designer Joel Loblaw brought elements of the outdoors inside. Inspired by childhood memories of camping or visiting a rustic cabin, the installation contained firewood, enamelware camping plates, and peat moss.

Guests received a minibar kit that included recipes for three cocktails and the ingredients needed to make them, like Red Bull, Goldschlager, and candy drink stirrers.

The welcome totes also included a trifold vanity kit. Each day of the conference had its own corresponding pouch of items. The “Get Ready” section included bath salts, an aromatherapy candle, and a box of matches. The “Engage” pouch had a tube of mints, lip balm, and massage cream. The “Glow” pouch featured items intended for use at the gala event, like nail polish, a mirror, and a portable kit with Band-Aids, blotting papers, and fashion tape.

In the presentation room, each seat held a “Bento Box” of items intended to optimize their experience.

The boxes included pencils, sticky notes, a journal, mints and candy, and “Thinking Putty," a Silly Putty-like product to keep guests’ hands engaged. “We wanted to make all of the gifts as lightweight as possible so that people would be able to take them home in their luggage,” says Susan Arak-Turnock. To that end, the boxes were made from thick paper board.

Flexible branded paper cubes served as easy decor throughout the conference. Custom USB cards included event information as well as all 250 attendees’ contact information, which avoided the need to pass out business cards.

Name badges doubled as an icebreaker: the number of crystal charms on the tag identified how many times the badge-wearer had attended an Engage! conference. Veteran attendees had nine balls, while first-timers had only one.

Kristy Rice of Momental Designs created programs featuring watercolor illustrations detailing the conference's various events.