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.
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.
Each year organizers create a variety of lounges where attendees can watch a simulcast of speakers. New this year was a ball pit filled with beanbag chairs and beach balls.
TED invites baristas from around the world to set up coffee stations at the conference. In a workshop hosted by the Specialty Coffee Association of America, attendees also learned about “coffee cupping,” the practice of observing the taste and aroma of brewed coffee.
To encourage attendees to mingle, organizers provided blankets and picnic baskets filled with food for six and invited them to find others to share it.
Steelcase, a TED partner for more than 20 years, provided a variety of seating options throughout the convention center. The company’s personal cubicles provided a semiprivate area where attendees could watch the simulcast and do work.
