Taking inspiration from a French garden, New York-based Tyger Productions transformed the Four Seasons' ballroom for the event, which was held May 20 in Boston, with saturated fuchsia lighting, bright pink napkins, and custom-printed gold foil programs. Manicured boxwood topiary centerpieces adorned with hand-crafted feather butterflies proved to be the guests’ favorite decor item of the night.
For the Blaffer Art Museum’s annual gala in Houston, creative studio Matter designed a gilded meteor shower ceiling installation using NASA space blankets—an idea inspired by the space theme of the April 1 event, as well as the metallic trends seen on recent fashion runways. The creative team also created custom floral centerpieces, using the blankets and dianthus plants, that floated above circular mirrors for an anti-gravity effect.
The Thompson Playa del Carmen in Mexico offers up a “Catch of the Day” program, where guests team up with local fishermen to catch fresh fish offshore, which can then be grilled or made into ceviche or sushi for a group dinner. In addition, guests can pair their fish dishes with the hotel's tequila and mezcal flight-tasting classes.
The Towers of the Waldorf Astoria New York offer beekeeping experiences for small groups. Guests can explore the hotel's rooftop hives with a culinary team member and learn how the honey is incorporated into their three-course lunch of honey-infused dishes.
Orange liqueur Cointreau kicked off its artist-curated, cross-country Art of La Soirée tour with a French-theme summer garden party at Cedar Lake in New York on June 15. The custom L'Orangerie bar, which gave guests the chance to craft their own cocktails, served as a makeshift orange tree with a tower of the liqueur bottles that branched out into a lush ceiling canopy.
Lush canopies of natural greenery popped against neon green Lucite tabletops at the Museum of Modern Art’s 2013 Party in the Garden benefit in New York.
Known for creating the show's most visually stimulating booths, IWC Schaffhausen chose a water-theme setup this year, which celebrated its Aquatimer collection and was inspired by the Galapagos Islands, both above and beneath the water. Meant to evoke the feeling of diving into a wave, replica hammerhead sharks hung from the ceiling, surrounding a central chandelier comprising 2,400 individually strung Plexi "bubbles" that hung nearly 30 feet down. Two cross projectors cast deep sea images both vertically and horizontally onto two large curved screens, while a circular bar in the middle of the space housed an information desk and a bar that served cocktails and even caviar.
A rustic, three-piece bar made from wood pallets is now available to rent in the Washington area from Amaryllis. The footprint of the U-shaped bar is about 15 feet long and 6 feet deep, and open crevices on the façade can hold floral arrangements.
With Event Farm's Digital Gifting Wall, guests can have offers emailed to them by tapping a badge. Gifts include coupon codes, music files, and digital content.
San Francisco
#8 Benefit
The grant-making organization that aims to fight poverty in the San Francisco Bay Area has a more casual fund-raiser than comparable events that raise millions of dollars. For this year’s edition, there was a “Bay Area Block Party” at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Alabama Shakes headlined the show, which had about 7,000 people in attendance. In 2016, the event raised $13.3 million. Next: May 2017
Revlon hosted its annual philanthropic luncheon, which supports the beauty brand's Women's Health Mission, on September 27 at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. BMF designed centerpieces of clean white block lettering that spelled out "Spread the Power of Love" with red roses set in black vessels.
The party space was built as a three-dimensional western town and showcased a wall with projections of western scenery.
The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown, Washington, D.C. installed a charging station for electric cars in August. There are two charging stations at the property, and the installation is part of a rollout at the majority of the Ritz-Carlton’s North American locations and select international hotels. The 86-room hotel offers 7,000 square feet of meeting space, including outdoor spaces such as the 2,350-square-foot Urban Garden (which can host as many as 90 guests for receptions) and a 585-square-foot courtyard, which can accommodate as many as 75 people for receptions. The 1,935-square-foot Fahrenheit Ballroom, which has floor-to-ceiling windows and exposed brick, can host as many as 150 guests for receptions. Degrees, a 1,409-square-foot bar and lounge, can host as many as 80 for receptions. Other meeting spaces include the 945-square-foot Brickyard Room, which can also hold 80 guests for receptions, and the 420-square-foot Brickyard Foyer, which can host as many as 40 guests for receptions. For an intimate private event, the Chimney Stack Room seats 12, and is located at the base of the hotel's historic Chimney Stack.
The $1.4 billion MGM National Harbor luxury gaming resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland, is slated to open in December. Located on the banks of the Potomac River, the 308-room hotel and 125,000-square-foot casino will offer 50,000 square feet of meeting and event space. The 16,200-square-foot MGM Grand Ballroom has floor-to-ceiling windows and a 6,000-square-foot terrace. Other event spaces include the 4,284-square-foot Bellagio Ballroom; the ARIA, Mandalay Bay, and Beau Rivage rooms, which are 1,838 square feet each; and two Mirage Boardrooms. Outdoor events can be hosted at the pool deck as well as the Potomac Plaza, which can host groups of as many as 500 people. Live Nation will promote shows at MGM National Harbor's 3,000-seat theater, which has V.I.P. suites and scalable designs for chairs and tables. The multi-use theater can accommodate groups as large as 4,000 people. Technology throughout the meeting spaces includes a video wall, fiber-optic ports in each room, and a 64x64 matrix router that will provide intra-room connectivity to share audio, video, and data throughout any room in the conference center. Boardrooms are equipped with built-in 90-inch screens with video and teleconferencing capability. MGM National Harbor will have several dining options, including restaurants from chefs José Andrés, Marcus Samuelsson, and Bryan and Michael Voltaggio. There will also be two cocktail lounges, an infinity pool, and a destination spa.
The event design of the Wolf Trap Ball, hosted by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, featured screens with scrolling images of the national parks that rotated throughout the reception and dinner. Plants and greenery walls around the dining areas, as well as floral centerpieces, also reinforced the night’s theme celebrating the National Park Service's 100th anniversary. The event was held in September in Vienna, Virginia, and raised $1.5 million.
For the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life gala, which was held in November, Natalie McAdams of Namevents designed a night under the stars—inside a tent in the parking lot below the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles. To recreate the outdoor evening look, the production team built a stage that resembled the moon's surface and used fiber-optic panels to resemble stars.
For nonprofit organization Knock Out Abuse Against Women’s Knock Out Abuse seated gala dinner at the Ritz-Carlton, Washington D.C. in November, florist Millicent Bluford created a mix of centerpieces, including some with thistle, cabbage, and miniature carnations.
An unexpected addition to the stage was a DJ booth.
Thousands lined the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Capitol to the White House. Despite the Presidential Inaugural Committee providing tickets to the grandstand seats, many of them remained empty. The crowds along the barricaded streets were also noticeably less dense than in past inaugurations, though official estimates are not available. The parade saw more than 8,000 participants walking the 1.5-mile route.
Politico turned the top floor of the W Hotel into the Politico Hub on Friday, with live programming of the Politico Playbook, branded lounge areas, and sponsor activations from PepsiCo and Samsung. The event served as an extension of the Politico Live series and previous activations last year at the Republican and Democratic national conventions.
The Newseum hosted an inauguration-day watch party with live news feeds of the swearing-in ceremony and news coverage, breakfast and lunch buffet stations, and discussion panels in the Knight Studio throughout the day. Party Rental Ltd setup a mix of red, white, and blue seating throughout five floors of the museum with views of the big screen in the lobby and the parade outside on Pennsylvania Avenue that afternoon.
The stage decor at the Liberty Ball—one of three official inaugural balls—at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center consisted of multi-dimensional screens at varying heights and depths across which a single image was projected. Images rotated throughout the night depending on the entertainment and included the New York skyline as well as the American flag for when President Trump and the First Lady welcomed their guests. Planners implemented strict restrictions on suppliers who worked on the events that prevented them from speaking to the press about their involvement.
Toby Keith performed at the Make America Great Again! celebration concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday afternoon. This marked the first time a concert of this kind took place as part of the official inauguration events. The inauguration website provided commemorative e-tickets to those who filled out the online form, though they were not required for entry.
The crowd for the Women’s March on Washington exceeded organizers' expectations with more than 500,000 people—more than twice the anticipated number—descending on the National Mall on Saturday. As a result, the march had to divert from its originally planned route to the White House, and spread across two streets. There were lengthy lines for restroom facilities and a heightened need for crowd control from the local police department and the National Guard, but no arrests were made. More than one million people participated in sister marches around the world.
Will Milligan Events coordinated a private party Thursday evening for advocacy firm Goddard Gunster at Top of the Hay at the Hay-Adams hotel. British politician and Brexit leader Nigel Farage hosted the affair where guests received a copy of The Bad Boys of Brexit, a book documenting the rise and behind-the-scenes happenings of the politicians who led the political movement.
Nine technology industry associations and advocacy groups came together on Thursday afternoon to host the Innovation Nation brunch, coordinated by Will Milligan Events, at Joe's Stone Crab where event sponsor Moët & Chandon served its Ice Imperial champagne over ice in branded goblets.
The Women's Wear Daily Beauty Summit took place at Metropolitan Pavilion on May 21 and 22. The meeting had a sleek, all-white design from Shiraz Events. At breakfast, guests sat in clear Miro chairs at communal tables topped with white linens. The floral arrangements were simple birch vases holding cobble moss balls. "WWD aims for all summits to have an environment that is 'digital, modern, and global,' so we chose to work with the space at hand and create a futuristic aesthetic by the use of all white," said Brian Hanley of Shiraz.
The Robey opened in Wicker Park/Bucktown in late November. Housed in a 1929 former office building, the contemporary hotel has 69 guest rooms and a meeting room that seats 15. The street-level restaurant, Cafe Robey, serves French-American fare including oysters and steak and frites. There's also a second-floor lounge that offers work space, free Wi-Fi, coffee, and cocktails. The lounge seats 65 or holds 85 standing. This spring, a rooftop pool and the Cabana Club restaurant will open at the Robey's adjacent sister hotel, the Hollander. The Cabana Club will have standing room for 155 or seat 55.
Eden opened in the West Loop in December. From the team behind Paramount Events, the restaurant has two private dining rooms: Sage seats 10, while Celadon seats 36. The eatery dishes out Mediterranean-inspired fare including umami doughnuts and braised-duck lasagne; many of the ingredients are pulled from an on-site greenhouse. Decor includes galvanized zinc tabletops, black-and-white tiles, and chesterfield sofas.
The Flamingo Rum Club opened in River North on December 1. With a nightly cabaret show that can also be booked for events, the venue seats 80 on its first floor or holds receptions for 100. The second floor has lounge-style seating for 20, or holds receptions for 50. On the menu, Caribbean-inspired tapas include shrimp ceviche and rice croquettes; the bar slings classic rum cocktails including mojitos, daiquiris, and Cuba Libres.
The Davis Theater, a 98-year-old Chicago institution, reopened in December after undergoing a $5 million renovation. The Lincoln Square venue has three theaters. A stadium-style theater has 300 seats; two smaller theaters seat 150 each. The venue can hold corporate events and screenings for groups of 25 to 300. At 3,500 square feet, the onsite Carbon Arc Bar & Board serves American fare and cocktails. The restaurant is equipped with 12 HD TVs. It can seat 143 guests or hold a standing reception for 220.
True Food Kitchen came to River North in November. Specializing in health-conscious fare—think organic Tuscan kale salad and edamame dumplings—the airy venue has a juice bar and an indoor/outdoor herb garden. The restaurant is 7,625 square feet and seats 250 guests. While it doesn't have a dedicated private dining space, it can hold semiprivate events or can be bought out entirely.
Moody Tongue Brewery opened a tasting room in late October. Serving oysters, German chocolate cake, and beers, the space has mid-century modern decor. In all, the venue seats 75 guests or holds 95 standing. It can be bought out entirely, or smaller sections can be reserved. Events can include guided tastings of beers; staffers also lead private tours of the adjacent brewery.
The Barn opened in Evanston in November. The meat-centric restaurant, housed in a former barn, features brick walls, a six-foot chandelier, and a back-lit bar. The restaurant is available for full buyout. It seats 100 guests or holds 150 standing. Chef Nicole Pederson can customize offerings for events, and her regular menu offers fish, salads, and desserts prepared table-side. The eatery also serves Prime Heritage Angus.
Terra & Vine opened in Evanston in late September. Serving casual Mediterranean fare (think brick-oven pizzas, seafood towers, and seasonal pastas) the venue has four private dining spaces. In a nook within the main dining room, the Capri Room seats 12. The three additional spaces—the Portofino, the Naples, and the Palermo—can be combined to seat 130. They can also be rented out separately. The Portofino, located near the bar, seats 28 guests and has a faux fireplace. The Naples seats 60 or holds 75 for receptions. The Palermo seats 40. Staffers can lead wine-tasting classes or wine-focused teambuilding exercises.
The Gwen opened on Michigan Avenue in 2015, and is now renovating its 311 guest rooms. Simeone Deary Design Group conceived the new look for each guest room. The new design scheme is inspired by sculptor Gwen Lux, who created the building's art-decor facade, and luxury travel in the 1930s. Along with a fresh layout, each room will get jewel-toned upholstery, peach-leather accents, and artistic wallpaper. The guest-room renovations will be completed floor by floor, and are scheduled to wrap in April. The hotel also has a lounge and restaurant called Circa, a seasonal terrace called Upstairs at the Gwen, and 15,000 square feet of meeting space.
