Experiential

Guests sat on haystacks covered with bright orange blankets and chevron-patterned pillows at a Belvedere-sponsored party during the 2012 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.

At the City of Hope gala in Los Angeles in June, guests were seated in lounge-like vignettes. Organizers provided blankets to help everyone ward off the chill.

White couches and low tables made the dinner setup feel more relaxed at the Museum of Modern Art’s Party in the Garden in New York in May.

Matching the blue used in the Turner Media Plus graphics, Triton Productions fashioned a brightly illuminated entrance tunnel that led to the reception inside Jazz at Lincoln Center's atrium. The structure placed by the elevator effectively hid other parts of the venue, directing guests to the designated space.

Keeping the design clean, but on-brand, the producers cloaked the reception space with LED backdrops, hung disco balls at varying heights from the ceiling, and placed a 40-foot-long bar made of ice and printed with the Turner Media Plus logo on one side of the room. Behind the bar, a performer on a platform acted as the focal point.

At the rear of the reception, white lounge furniture was arranged in groups and placed atop elevated platforms illuminated by an LED border. Flower arrangements matched the modern design, with single stems of white roses placed in tube-like glass vases.

Designed by Star Theodos Kahn and built by Atomic Design, the striking set for the presentation in the Rose Theater had a clean, linear look. This gave producers an uncluttered backdrop for the various stunts that took place on stage. The opening sequence saw Gretchen Colon, Turner Broadcasting Latin America's senior vice president of ad sales, attacked by motorcyclists, who were thwarted by a S.W.A.T. team, football squad, and other action movie-style characters.

Just as the evening's M.C., comedian Andrew Kennedy, was delivered to the stage via an overhead rig, so was Rick Perez, Turner's general manager of movies and series networks for Latin America. The concept was designed as a parody of action movies, which are shown on channels like TNT and Space.

As a tongue-in-cheek play on the presentation's overly dramatic opening sequence, Turner's news channels were introduced by a newscast parody, with CNN en Espanol's Fernando del Rincon and Patricia Janiot interviewing the "victims" and eyewitnesses of the attack.

After putting voice-over actors and a foley artist on stage to dub a scene from a series live, Turner's presentation had a 100-piece marching band storm the theater.

Barry Koch, general manager of Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Tooncast Latin America (pictured, left) was part of the marching band and stayed on stage when the group left to talk about programming for kids and teens.

To introduce its Trends network cluster—which includes TBS, TruTV, and MuchMusic—and its general manager Felipe de Stefani, Turner showed Kennedy in a mock music video before bringing out reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee (pictured).

When the presentation finished, guests moved from the theater to the Allen Room. Outside the after-party space, a step-and-repeat and carpet marked with the Turner Media Plus logo encouraged guests to pose for pics. A photo booth on one side snapped more shots, which were projected onto a screen in the Allen Room.

Like the reception, the after-party was fairly modern in design, with chandeliers, a disco ball, and a mirrored dance floor reflecting the lights around the room.

The evening finished with a performance by Flo Rida.

Above the Solutions Showcase, colorful, chandelier-like signage indicated the five topical areas of the floor.

Inspired by the 2012 Public Sector Forum’s theme, “The Road to Transformation,” 2020 Exhibits (800.856.6659, 2020exhibits .com) created a neighborhood environment for BMC Software that included fabricated stoplights and highway signs.

The concentric design of Motorola’s CES 2012 booth created by George P. Johnson engulfed guests in the brand experience. The outer ring was lined with a 19-foot fringed curtain of silicon tubes that functioned as a screen for projected media. At the center of the exhibit was an interactive zone where attendees could experiment with products.

The Paintbrush ball in Chicago celebrated Marwen's silver anniversary with ubiquitous pops of the metallic hue. Guests entered the dinner tent through a tunnel of silver balloons.

During Coachella, a huge crowd packed into an airport hangar in Thermal, California, for the Armani Exchange and T-Mobile's Neon Carnival. Guests entered the space through a dramatic up-lit corridor.

At this year’s Rolling Stone Live Super Bowl party, producer Toast created a "trashed hotel room" where guests could take photos and pretend to live the rock star life. The event took place at the Bud Light Hotel, a Wyndham property in New Orleans rebranded for the weekend.

At last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Abel McCallister Designs created a movie-themed space for Chase Sapphire. Interactive photo booth installations allowed visitors to enter the worlds of well-known films that originally premiered at the festival, including Dogtown and Z-Boys. The photo station had guests stand on a skateboard set next to a sideways backdrop of Santa Monica beach; the printed photographs were then turned horizontally to make it look like guests were captured mid-trick on a skateboard ramp.

For this year's iteration of the Chase Sapphire activation at Sundance, Abel McCallister Designs created several new photo booth installations based on movies, including Hairspray, Hoosiers, and Little Shop of Horrors (pictured).

At the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s gala in Miami, guests could pose for photos behind an oversize golden picture frame. Shiraz Events provided decor for the event, which drew 600 guests to the JW Marriott Marquis Miami and Hotel Beaux Arts in December.

At the Lipton Uplift Lounge at the Sundance Film Festival in January, guests including Lil Jon could pose for photos while sitting in a real ski-lift chair set against a snowy, branded backdrop.

Groupon hosted its Camp Groupon event last July at the Swissôtel Chicago. Kehoe Designs spruced up the hotel with thematic decor for the weekend, including a photo station area with a woodsy backdrop that included life preservers, boat paddles, and bundled logs.

To celebrate the release of Girls season one on Blu-ray—and to hype the second season—HBO hosted a cocktail party at Toronto's House of Moments in December. Guests were encouraged to snap Instagram photos in front of a backdrop based on Central Park in New York City, where Girls is set. The Big Apple-inspired area had lampposts, trees, shrubs, and backdrops decked with New York City architecture.

David Copperfield helped produce the L.A.'s Promise "A Night of Magic" gala in October. The producers at Chad Hudson Events worked with Copperfield's team to set up a photo booth that made it look as though guests were floating in midair in front of the famous magician. In reality, the station had a potted plant placed sideways against a wall, while attendees stood on a metal stand that was hidden from the camera by clothing and feet.

To introduce its new line of men's grooming products and promote its partnership with Space Expedition Corporation to send 22 fans on a flight beyond Earth's atmosphere, Axe built its own space academy in January. The brand turned the Cullman Hall of the Universe at the American Museum of Natural History into its secret space headquarters for the launch event, placing a moon-landing-inspired photo op area up front.

Last fall’s New Yorkers for Children gala had a "light the way" theme, inspired by the nonprofit's mission to improve the lives of young people. David Stark handled the decor, embellishing a photo backdrop of a forest scene with white birch trees, lush greenery, and a path lit by lanterns.

In November, NBC once again hosted Democracy Plaza at Rockefeller Center in New York, a free interactive, election-focused exhibit and promotion for the public that also served as its election-night coverage hub. Inside the Rockefeller Plaza concourse, people lined up to have their photos taken in side-by-side replicas of the White House press room and the Oval Office.

For Dos Equis's "Most Interesting Masquerade," held in Chelsea's historic Masonic Hall in New York and produced by Mirrorball, body painter Craig Tracy drew half a lion's face on the sides of two models. When the models sat back-to-back inside a gold picture frame, the full face of the lion was visible and formed the backdrop of a photo op.

For last year’s American Heart Association gala in Seattle, event designer Matthew Parker created a photo backdrop for the Kentucky Derby-themed event that included a life-size papier-mâché horse made from more than 5,000 individually placed construction-paper strips.

To promote its new line of Outdoor Life apparel, Sears built a campsite-themed area in New York’s Times Square last October. Guests could pose in a photo op area that was set up to look like a real campsite, with a tent, faux grass, a fire pit, and outdoorsy props.

Transitions Optical, working with chef Robert Irvine, had a two-story activation at the recent South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s Grand Tasting Village. Inside the structure, guests posed at a Mad Hatter's tea-party-themed dining set with props, including cutouts of Irvine’s face.

For a recent wedding in New York, Oh Snap Smile constructed a unique photo booth environment: Guests were shot from above while lounging in a bed strewn with custom pillows to use as props.

For e-commerce company Vente-Privee USA's one-year anniversary party held last November in New York, StudioBooth set up a custom photo set with fall leaves and vintage props, designed to mimic the company’s fall campaign. The images were turned into animated GIFs that were emailed to guests.