In the novelty category, competitors were asked to create a cake representing the theme of “Under the Florida Sun.” This entry was inspired by a photo of a woman relaxing at the beach.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
Modeling chocolate, fondant, isomalt, and air-brushing created this entry in the sculpted cake category that was inspired by the Alien vs. Predator movie. This category did not have a designated theme, but entrants were instructed to demonstrate the art of sculpture while defying the laws of gravity.
Photo: Satin Fine Foods/The Americas Cake Fair
The cream-colored layers of this wedding cake were painted with ivory pearl dust and steamed to look like satin, and to allow the edible lace to adhere. The turquoise layer was painted bronze, then covered in shapes painted with cornstarch and gel food coloring, and scratched with a wire brush to make that portion of the cake look distressed.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
In this creation, the plaque on the front of the crate was handpainted with cocoa butter. Stenciling and airbrushing created the honeycomb designs on the cake that serves as the base of the tree, which has leaves and oranges made of modeling chocolate and fondant. Oranges and blossoms on the board are blown sugar.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
This wedding cake was made with edible fabric and lace to look like a sari, a garment worn by many women in India.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
To make the basket, this competitor wove fondant and then painted it by hand. Inside the basket, Rice Krispie treats, fondant, gumpaste, and isomalt created sea creatures, flowers, succulents, and rocks.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
This competitor in the sculpted category created a cake replica of a painting she loves, “The Dragon and the Nightingale” by Omar Rayyan, using modeling chocolate, fondant, gumpaste, pastillage, wafer paper, and hand-sculpted clay molds.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
Orlando baker Mercedes Strachwsky created the show’s huge centerpiece cake, dubbed Fantasy Under the Sea and sponsored by Satin Ice.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
This entrant used powdered food color and vegetable oil to paint wafer paper, and then a bamboo skewer to create tight rolls for this wedding cake.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
Condensed milk and coconut flour created the sand on the base of this novelty cake for the “Under the Florida Sun” theme. Strands of spaghetti were used to support the umbrellas, rollercoaster, and some animals.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
This sculpted cake was inspired by the character Dobby from the Harry Potter series.
Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash
Six foot tall ostrich feather florals are the center of attention in this showstopping cocktail lounge. The Zellerbach room took modern elegance to a new level.
Showready Photo by Irja Elisa
Savory sushi “doughnuts” made with sushi rice, ahi tuna, avocado, pickled ginger, radishes, cucumber, wild Alaskan salmon, black sesame seeds, wasabi seeds, and nori mix, by Abigail Kirsch in New York
Photo: Courteys of Abigail Kirsch Catering
The Faena District's Franchise Freedom
The Faena District took new technologies even further by coordinating Franchise Freedom, which featured 300 synchronized drones “dancing” to classical music. The impressive feat was organized by Amsterdam-based Studio Drift in partnership with BMW.
Photo: Lance Gerber
Tens of thousands of spectators came out to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay park in June. To create an exciting, multimedia show for the celebration, Christie Digital and Asia-based Hexogon Solution created vivid digital projections of flowers and bubbles, which were displayed across the gardens’ eight “supertrees”—tree-like vertical gardens measuring as tall as 165 feet. The 20-minute projection display used 120 light fixtures and 24 flame projectors.
Photo: Rachel Pick
At AdobeMax 2016 in San Diego, WorldStage teamed up with event producer Pix Productions to create a massive projection-mapped display for the main stage. Using a 4K environment, the team created a geometric configuration of multi-faceted screens that measured 200 feet wide and 32 feet tall. The screens were filled with moving patterns, lights, live-action video, and animations, and also supported keynote addresses and presentations. Overall, 28 projectors were used. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Courtesy WorldStage
For the opening of the USC Village complex in Los Angeles in October, Bart Kresa Studio mapped two buildings on the main piazza, as well as the 150-foot-tall clock tower. The five-minute projection-mapping feature was set to a song by Leonard Bernstein that was performed by the university’s full orchestra and choir.
Photo: Gabor Ekecs
The design transformed throughout the feature. WorldStage and Panasonic created the projection system, and Images by Lighting handled lighting design.
Photo: Gabor Ekecs
For the Burrard Arts Foundation’s 2017 Facade Festival in Vancouver, 10 artists were chosen to have their artwork projected on the outside of the museum. Go2 Productions produced the projection mapping. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Courtesy of Go2 Productions
The Temple House in Miami works with United Projection to offer 3-D projection mapping services for corporate and social events. For one wedding ceremony, the room was transformed into a pink cherry blossom forest. As the bride walked down the aisle, motion graphics caused rose petals to “fall” slowly from the trees, creating a romantic effect.
Photo: Jonathan Scott
Bart Kresa Studio created four animated looks for the Game of Thrones season 7 premiere party in July. The evening began with a dragon gliding across the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The image then transformed into flames, eventually subsiding to reveal a frozen tundra with the face of the show’s Night King villain. Later in the evening, the projection transformed into the faces of the show’s stars, and then eventually into a mystical forest projection inspired by the show. The images rotated throughout the night. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Gabor Ekecs
A collaboration between painter Pete Barber and digital artist Rebecca Smith, a Budapest-based project by U.K.-based Urban Projections combines projection mapping with hand-crafted images. Dubbed the “Living Mural,” the live show sees both elements evolving and interacting, creating a canvas of movement, light, and paint. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Courtesy of Urban Projections
Vancouver-based Go2 Productions used projection mapping to create a 360-degree, immersive audiovisual experience at Metropolis at Metrotown, British Columbia’s largest mall, in 2016. Projected content, colorful 3-D illusions, and a mirrored floor and ceiling created a striking, infinity room-like experience for attendees. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Courtesy of Go2 Productions
As part of last year’s Canada 150 celebrations, and to celebrate British Columbia’s annual salmon migration, Christie Digital used projection mapping to transform Vancouver’s Cambie Street Bridge into a virtual ocean. Eight projectors were used to create a colorful, cinematic show, which ran on a daily basis from June to early fall.
Photo: Kirk Tougas
At a wedding for Qatar’s royal family in November 2016, Megavision Arts transformed a 53,000-square-tent into a memorable, moving work of art. Crews built a 30- by 360-foot plywood wall in front of the tent and covered it in white muslin fabric to serve as the projection surface. The result was that as the guests drove up to the event, they saw a massive, undulating 3-D black-and-white animation accented with a custom musical score. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Courtesy of Megavision Arts
An increasing number of sports arenas are using on-court projection mapping to display player stats, accompany halftime entertainment, and increase fan engagement. For New York Rangers and New York Knicks games at Madison Square Garden, WorldStage uses 14 projectors, with each portion of the ice or court receiving 60,000 lumens. Lighting design by Arc3 Design and custom content by Batwin & Robin Productions complement the projections, creating a fully immersive environment inside the arena. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Courtesy of WorldStage
For the Canada Olympic Excellence Day celebration in Montreal in 2015, Go2 Productions created an 18-minute projection-mapping experience leading up to the unveiling of the Olympic rings on the roof of the Canada Olympic Committee’s 23-story headquarters. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Courtesy of Go2 Productions
Urban Projections worked with British artist Mat Collishaw and media artist Dave Lynch to create a mapped installation for the launch of the Jimmy Choo Vices collection in London. Based on the Naica mines in Mexico, custom video footage was mapped around crystal clusters. Lighting, pulsating glows, and shadow effects were overlaid onto footage of tower blocks, rain, and traffic.
Photo: Courtesy of Urban Projections
For a corporate event at the Temple House, the projection changed for each course of the meal, cycling through cities in Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States where the company had offices. For the Istanbul, Turkey-theme course, projections showed the Basilica Cistern. Cuisine from the region was served, and servers dressed in on-theme costumes. Music was also paired with the various projections and courses.
Photo: Jonathan Scott
For YouTube Brandcast 2017, held in New York in May, event producer Good Sense & Company tapped Worldstage to create to create a dynamic presentation backdrop using a mix of automated projection-mapped walls and LED technologies. Obscura Digital, LA Made Creative, ShowMotion, and the event team at MAS also collaborated on the presentation. Click here to watch a video
Photo: Courtesy of WorldStage
Klaxoon
Klaxoon provides a variety of tools to facilitate information-sharing and collaboration at events. Planners can use the system to launch surveys, ask questions, create games, and prompt brainstorming. The system provides real-time results, so planners can track if attendees need clarification on content. The company is based in France, and expanded to the United States in June.
Photo: Courtesy of Klaxoon
Beep
Beep is a beacon-enabled mobile app and attendee analytics platform. The system uses Bluetooth low-energy beacons to track attendee movement and dwell time, for example as they visit an exhibitor booth or attend a keynote session. Beep can also be used to send your guests location-based alerts and content, such as coupons, case studies, and website URLs, and can be set to trigger this content when they are anywhere from five to 230 feet from a beacon. Planners can access their event data in real-time from a Web-based dashboard.
Photo: Courtesy of Beep
Photo Butler
Photo Butler is a new, free photo-sharing app for events. Hosts create a private album in the app and then invite guests to view and contribute their images. Those that choose to participate have all of their photos automatically added to the stream, without the need to text, upload, or email. The app’s algorithm pulls the best photos together into a highlight album.
Photo: Courtesy of Photo Butler
Asembl
Asembl is a new, free event discovery and promotion app. Planners create their event in the app, tag it with descriptive attributes (such as art and theater, fitness, music, etc.) and indicate the cost to attend and the target age group and gender. Users can then filter events based on attributes as well as by what their friends are attending. Events are displayed on a map so users can also search for events within a certain distance.
Photo: Courtesy of Asembl
Ivvy
Ivvy is an event management system for venues and meeting planners. Based in Australia, the company has thousands of users in 13 countries, and this summer launched in North America. The system provides tools for planners to create custom websites, manage registration, coordinate hotel and airline bookings, coordinate speakers and sponsors, accept payments, and more. The venue capabilities allow planners to search, compare, and book event space, catering, and group accommodations by reviewing real-time availability, rates, and inventory. The venue component is available now in North America, and the planning tools will be available in the near future.
Photo: Courtesy of Ivvy
MoveShake
MoveShake is an app that allows users to design, create, share, and store virtual business cards. The cards are interactive, so clicking on the phone number in the image launches the phone’s dialer and clicking on the email launches the phone’s email client. Contacts be exported to a phone’s contacts and synced to the cloud or other applications. At events, presenters can give attendees their MoveShake ID so they can enter it in the app to immediately get their digital business card. Planners can also use the preload the app with cards from their sponsors, so those are immediately available to all attendees. And the app can be used to create digital badges to manage check-in.
Photo: Courtesy of MoveShake
When hiring multiple food trucks, lining the perimeter of a venue with food trucks is an effective way to space them out.
Photo: Courtesy of Ritz-Carlton Orlando
Champions of Pride Event
The Beverly Center and The Advocate magazine kicked off Pride month in Los Angeles on June 1 with an event that celebrated the L.G.B.T.Q. community and the magazine's four "Champions of Pride" honorees. Event decor, which was handled by ESE Lifestyle, included a tree with rainbow origami leaves. PMK-BNC produced the event.
Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for the Beverly Center
Planners considering hosting events at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando receive an interactive floor plan with their proposal letter so they can virtually explore the venue on their own time.
Photo: Courtesy of Orange County Convention Center
Planners using the virtual tour of New York event venue Helen Mills can zoom into the finer details.
Photo: Courtesy of Helen Mills
The high-resolution tour of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis covers everything from the front door to 164,000 square feet of the meeting space.
Photo: Courtesy of Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Photo: Courtesy of Paperless Post
When guests can grab individual portions, they don't leave a mess on a buffet. Wolfgang Puck Catering creates action stations offering dishes on small plates and mini verrines arranged on trays and risers, which is both convenient for guests and also remains tidy.
Photo: Courtesy of Wolfgang Puck Catering
Images from 18 projectors merged together to create one seamless image on a 30- by 360-foot fabric-covered wall. An entrance in the middle led guests into the tent that housed the wedding party.
Photo: Courtesy of Megavision Arts
Peter Callahan
For a winter wonderland-theme party, New York-based Peter Callahan used actual snowballs to serve cocktails. The tray was laid with shaved ice to hold the snowballs in place, and the team carefully measured the amount of the drink to commensurate with the time the guest could comfortably hold the snowball—no gloves required.
Photo: Courtesy of Peter Callahan
Wolfgang Puck Catering
At the opening of the new City Market Social House, Los Angeles-based Wolfgang Puck Catering debuted “Rose and Lemongrass Infused Dew Drops.” Chefs used a spherification process that allowed guests to eat gazpacho right off of a fresh-cut rose bud.
Photo: Courtesy of Wolfgang Puck Catering
Creative Edge
Creative Edge in New York created "Fenced In," a dish comprised of heirloom green tomatoes, burrata, smoked pepper pesto, and micro herbs underneath an edible lattice dome. For certain events, the catering firm serves it with a small wooden hammer, allowing guests to break the lattice apart and create a crouton effect.
Photo: Courtesy of Creative Edge
Love Catering
For the premiere of the latest season of American Horror Story, Los Angeles-based Love Catering worked with FX Networks and Industria Creative on a menu of black-color appetizers. Highlights included a smoked charcoal yucca with cauliflower-squid ink mousse (pictured), plus a reverse spherified charcoal vodka lemonade cocktail.
Photo: Courtesy of Love Catering
Eatertainment
Toronto-based catering firm Eatertainment created an Enchanted Forest-theme dessert station this year, which included s'mores cones, matcha green-tea cookies, and black forest-flavored cookies.
Photo: Courtesy of Eatertainment
Eatertainment
Also part of Eatertainment's Enchanted Forest set-up were pre-batched cocktails served in glass suspension funnels. The "Tropical Twisted Vodka Cocktail" (left) featured Asian apple vodka, tropical fruit juice, grenadine, and red edible shimmer powder, while the "Pineapple Gin Cooler" (right) included gin, fresh pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, and gold edible shimmer powder.
Photo: Courtesy of Eatertainment
Patina Catering
Los Angeles-based firm Patina Catering created a hollow sea urchin filled with yuzu granite. The urchin is brought out on a bed of rock salt that has clove, cinnamon, and juniper, and it is torched until fragrant.
Photo: Courtesy of Patina Catering
Blue Plate Catering
At a fund-raiser for the Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago-based caterer Blue Plate created a five-course dinner inspired by how a child with autism experiences the world. The first course, called "A Play on Expectations and Disorientation," was served on a Jacob's Ladder-inspired serving dish. (Jacob's Ladder toys are used to release energy and combat anxiety.) The dish included a corn-saffron push pop, sweet white corn bisque, elote with poached langoustine and chorizo, and baby corn.
Photo: Courtesy of Blue Plate
Blue Plate Catering
The fifth course at the same Blue Plate dinner was called "Things Aren’t Always As They Seem." It was meant to surprise the guests, with cheese molded to resemble summer fruits, pumpernickel “dirt,” chocolate-covered “grasshoppers,” edible “pebbles,” and grilled bread.
Photo: Courtesy of Blue Plate
Love Catering
Love Catering created an on-theme meal for H&M and Moschino's fall collaboration. Working with the Gathery, the caterers helped execute the event's 1990s MTV theme, creating a twist on the classic Salisbury steak TV dinner. The tray-passed dish featured an elevated array of mini bites, including pan-seared filet mignon topped with brown butter gravy, and a tri-color carrot disc with wild mushroom and tarragon aioli.
Photo: Courtesy of Love Catering
F10-Catering
F10-Catering in Palm Springs, California, created an Indio corn station featuring a variety of dishes all made with local corn. Items included Indio corn fritters, made with bacon, arugula, and sweet chili sauce; corn blini, made with creme fraiche and caviar; corn panna cotta; corn and roasted papilla chile tamales; and more.
Photo: Jakob Layman
Patina Catering
For Los Angeles restaurant Venue 66, Patina Catering used Saku tuna, ponzu, yuzu granite, and furikake to make a unique, visual dish. Spoons of tuna were placed on streaks of green scallion puree and furikake, and the granite was spooned over the tuna.
Photo: Courtesy of Patina Catering
Centerplate
National food and beverage corporation Centerplate recently added beehives to the top of the Javits Convention Center in New York. The company uses the hives to source their own "Jacob's Honey," which head chef Alex Reyes uses for salad dressings and desserts, such as the cardamon panna cotta with rose water honey syrup (pictured). Jacob's Honey bottles are also given as gifts for partners and clients.
Photo: Courtesy of Centerplate
The Purple Pig
The Purple Pig in Chicago serves a turkey leg confit. Large turkey legs are cured overnight with fennel seed, black peppercorns, cayenne pepper, salt, and sugar, then confited in pork fat with rosemary, sage, thyme, and garlic. They are served with a salad of endive, fresh parsley, and crispy fried lentils, and finished with agrodolce.
Photo: Courtesy of the Purple Pig
