

In Los Angeles, Wolfgang Puck Catering & Events uses vertical buffets. The bookcase-style shelf takes up minimal floor space and lets guests grab their own dishes from various levels of shelves.



















Teen Vogue’s annual summit took place December 1 at 72andSunny in Los Angeles. The event, which was produced in house by CNX, featured a giant chalkboard where attendees could write why self-expression is important.

The event featured a performance by Olympic skater and commentator Johnny Weir, who wore a festive, green outfit.




























The opening night party for Broadway’s the Cher Show took place December 3 at Pier Sixty. The event, which was designed by Tinsel Experiential Design, had a hallway decked out in streamers of different colors and illustrations of Cher in iconic looks from different decades on the mirrors.

To celebrate the holidays, Target hosted family fun nights at New York’s South Street Seaport December 12 and 13. The outdoor event featured a giant boombox DJ booth, which played holiday songs.

PHD Terrace at New York’s Dream Midtown debuted a season-long holiday pop-up in November. The bar features a festive green, orange, and white color scheme, with a swing photo op, floral installations, and mistletoe adornments. The pop-up was designed and installed by artist Jenevieve Penk in collaboration with Tao Group at Dream Hotels.

The pastry team at JW Marriott L.A. Live created a life-size gingerbread bar comprised of 1,300 pounds of spiced cookie dough and sugar. The bar serves a rotating array of holiday refreshments.

In November, the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto hosted its annual RBC Innovators’ Ball, raising more than $730,000 to support the center’s community access programs. The event featured science fair-style experiences including a hair-raising Van de Graaff generator, an electrostatic generator that uses a moving belt to build up an electric charge.














For the New York Yankees 2014 Homecoming Dinner honoring Mariano Rivera, Chris Koch, and Andy Pettitte, invitations arrived with all three honorees spotlighted in the form of custom baseball cards.

Zagat honored its local list of the 30 best chefs under 30 years old—Zagat’s “30 under 30”—in Austin with an event where drink coasters referenced other celebrities and personalities, real and fictional, who achieved fame by the same age.

Every year for Essence magazine's annual Black Women in Hollywood event—an award luncheon that takes place during the week before the Oscars—producer Caravents creates a gallery of framed oversize portraits that are also pictured in the magazine's special issue. The artistic tributes hang in the Beverly Hills Hotel's grand stairway, which acts as the entrance to the celeb-mobbed event.

This year's Essence Black Women in Hollywood event also included a Target-sponsored “Power of Our Presence” wall, where guests could pull a message of inspiration; as the messages were removed, images of honorees appeared beneath the star-shaped installation.

The Museum of Modern Art honored Quentin Tarantino in 2012, choosing not to plaster the walls with explicit references to the filmmaker's iconic movies. Instead, the New York art institution crafted a more subtle homage with a color palette of indigo and a commissioned sketch of Tarantino. Nathan Milner's sketch—artwork commissioned by Tarantino that depicted the director and iconic characters from his films—was incorporated into visuals, used on the step-and-repeat, and printed on the dinner program.

A scant 200 guests made the invite list for Elle’s Women in Hollywood event in 2008 at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, where Moët & Chandon bottles bore the names of honorees.

In honor of Tommy Hilfiger receiving the C.F.D.A.'s Lifetime Achievement award in 2012, the Princeton Footnotes performed a live tribute to the designer. Naturally, the all-male a cappella group was outfitted in head-to-toe Tommy Hilfiger clothing.

The Children's Defense Fund's Beat the Odds award ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2012 honored five Los Angeles high school students who overcame personal obstacles and achieved academic excellence. To incorporate the teenagers into the night's visuals, the organizers used a gallery of black-and-white portraits as the backdrop for the stage.

The Gene Siskel Film Center honored Gwyneth Paltrow at its 2013 fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago. Instead of simply presenting the actress with an award, the evening included an hour-long onstage Q&A session. Amanda de Cadenet, host of Lifetime TV's The Conversation and a friend of Paltrow's, led the discussion. The event's menu also included dishes inspired by Paltrow's films.

For the first-ever event marking its annual list of Game Changers in 2010, the Huffington Post wanted to produce an interactive experience that would appropriately honor the leaders and innovators selected by the five-year-old news site's readers. The awards were bestowed on 100 individuals, people who used new media to make a global impact in fields as diverse as business, politics, sports, and food, and scrolling projector displays mimicked the way the Huffington Post presents content online. The changing text also served to educate attendees on the works of each Game Changer honoree. David Stark produced the event at Skylight Soho in New York.

TD Bank's employee recognition dinner—called the “Wow” awards—got a major format change in 2009, meant to avoid the feeling of a typical dinner and presentation. The event shrunk from 2,000 people to 100, with the 27 honorees, their guests, and TD Bank senior execs all siting at a single amoeba-shaped table. Lucite easels displaying photos of the evening's honorees lined the hallway.

The party following the A.F.I. Lifetime Achievement award presentation at Los Angeles's Sony Pictures Studios in 2011 drew inspiration from honoree Morgan Freeman's blues club in Mississippi. Nods to the club and city came in the form of decor, flowers, and a Southern food menu from Wolfgang Puck.

Stress-relieving coloring books for adults from Scarborough & Tweed offer a creative alternative to traditional party favors and corporate gifts. Coloring pencils are included. Pricing is available upon request.

Wool and the Gang delivers full “knit kits,” including yarn, chunky needles, easy-to-follow patterns, and a link to online video tutorials, to offices or event spaces for knitting parties. (The repetitive action of needlework can reportedly induce a relaxed state like that achieved with meditation and yoga.) Projects range in difficulty from a clutch, pillow cover, knit snood, crochet snood, and hat; items will change for spring and summer season. The party hosts receive their kits for free, while guests receive discounts on their kits, ranging from $27 for a clutch to $35 for a snood or hat. Knitters can also attend preplanned parties that Wool and the Gang hosts in cities around the country. Tickets are approximately $40, depending on the project; the price includes the materials needed.

The reopening of the renovated Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York took place earlier this month. The event, which was produced by Endeavor Global Marketing, featured an elevator that was transformed into a floral photo booth. Orchids and hydrangeas provided by Boho Blossoms decorated the interior of the elevator.

Pinch Food Design catered the event. Stations included dessert trays attached to oversize helium balloons. Catering staff guided the balloons through the crowd.

To celebrate the launch of Bumble’s first major Canada-only campaign, the dating and social connection app took over Bangarang bar in Toronto on February 14. The event, which was designed by creative agency Narrative, featured yellow candy machines that dispensed conversation starters for guests.
