![To activate the technology, guests placed their wine glasses—which had R.F.I.D. tags on the bottoms—and their personalized wristbands on the box. The box was pre-programmed with action tweets, which encouraged guests to participate in various activations at the event. The tweets from @Open_Wines included: 'Hey @[user], Damn, you look great. Find our photog @textstyles + pose for a photo so we can remember this FOREVER. #BeOPENparty.'](https://img.bizbash.com/files/base/bizbash/bzb/image/2013/04/4_52.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&q=70&w=400)
At the Gastwerk Hotel in Hamburg, an artist in residence creates art in an on-site "art room" and is available to create works with meeting groups as an inspiring activity.
Energy Floors offers human-powered, interactive dance floors for event rentals worldwide. The eight-inch-deep tiles each house small generators; the tiles compress when stepped on, activating the generators to convert the kinetic energy produced by the dancers into electricity. The power can be used to activate the colorful LED light tubes inside the tiles that respond to the movement of dancers or nearby electrical systems.
The June 12 fund-raiser for the Garfield Park Conservatory couldn't be held at the conservatory because of hail damage to its roof, so organizers worked to bring the spirit of the garden-filled spot to Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. Guests could pose for photos, or just lounge, on brass beds decked with mossy, flowery bedspreads. Plush pillows in bright hues featured the event logo.
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.
On May 21, the fund-raiser for the children's chorus was held at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles. In the past, members of the chorus hand-wrote thank-you notes for the guests, but this year featured a twist: The young singers recorded their thank-you messages onto videos that were loaded onto iPads and placed at each table.
Cars also factored into the Revolt Blended Cultures event held December 6 at Miami's Brisky Gallery. Guests who tweeted with the #MakeYourMark hashtag would trigger a paintball that splattered onto a canvas behind a Toyota Corolla. A screen displayed the Twitter handle of the guest as the paintball fired.
At Social Media Week London in September, shipping crates became “Skypepods.” Each unit was equipped with Microsoft products and enabled with Skype so attendees could get work done or chat with colleagues online.
Valentino chose the Whitney Museum of American Art's former Madison Avenue space in to unveil a six-piece collection of objects exclusive to its Fifth Avenue flagship on December 10. The event was themed on the five senses, and the "touch room" featured a sectioned-off gallery space with dozens of hanging arms that guests could weave their way through.
It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie: a drone delivering beer to guests at a music festival. More than 150 guests at the OppiKoppi music festival in South Africa in August received free cold brews via drone. The initiative was a partnership of Darkwing Aerials, Windhoek Beer, and festival organizers. Guests ordered the beer using an app on their smartphones; staff received the orders and loaded parachute-equipped, single servings of beer (with a lid) onto the drone. Once in the air, the drone used the GPS coordinates of the phone that placed the order to navigate to its destination, where the single beer would drop and parachute down to the waiting recipient. The only area of the festival that was off limits for deliveries was the main stage, where the dense crowd made it too risky to drop beer from the sky. Darkwing Aerials owner Dean Engela said they intend to try the service at future events, using more than one drone to serve guests.
The Bud Light House of Whatever, a new Super Bowl weekend activation, took over a downtown Phoenix hotel and played off the brand's marketing tagline: "The Perfect Beer for Whatever Happens." Produced by Mosaic, the experience ran from January 30 to February 1, and organizers aimed to treat guests to "Up for Whatever," or unpredictable, experiences such as a "Super Fry." In the activity, characters dressed up as superheroes served guests various deep-fried dishes.
About Face Theatre hosted its annual Wonka Ball at Chicago's Moonlight Studios on April 10. The event had a "Warhol" theme, and servers passed shots of bloody Mary cocktails in miniature soup cans that recalled the artist's famous work.
Northeast D.C.'s Union Market district broke ground on a new Latin marketplace concept from chef Jose Garces on June 13. Putting a unique spin on a traditional groundbreaking, Union Market's From the Ground Up initiative enlisted local artists, sculptors, restaurateurs, and international painters to decorate a number of ceremonial shovels for the event. The shovels were accompanied by paintings of Union Market by artist Brooke Bronner.
