newyork november/december 2008 53

On the mirror-topped table more
visuals included wooden chargers,
a tray filled with berries and leaves,
and leaves used a place cards.
Willis collected leaves and
berries from the flower market
to fill the tray on the table.
The invitation, a piece of birch inside a
Plexiglas box, was designed to imitate the
room, a glass box with a sliver of nature inside.
The hamper was displayed
with its components spread
across a table.
Making use of the venue’s floor-toceiling windows, the event featured
very little in the way of lighting, except
for a logo projection on the floor.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 53
An igloo-like dome separated
the area for karaoke game Lips.
Upstairs, in the section for sports, family,
and music games, white lounge furniture
abounded, creating mini living room
environments for different games.
An Ingo Maurer-inspired chandelier
hung over one station.
Game Plan
PHOTOS: KEITH SIRCHIO FOR BIZBASH
To bring its assortment of games and merchandise to the New York media, Microsoft created a
two-day invitation-only showcase that allowed attendees one-on-one time with reps and Xbox products.
JULY’S ANNUAL E3 Business and Media Summit in Los Angeles brought
out all the big names in computer and video games. And while there was
no official New York counterpart to the entertainment software trade show,
Microsoft Corporation brought its new Xbox products to Manhattan for a
two-day showcase at Splashlight Studios. On July 15 and 16, invited members of the media played with new games and spoke with Xbox representatives during scheduled appointments. Microsoft Xbox’s event team—John
Ellard, April McKee, and Jen Puzio—hired Zed Ink to produce the event
(as well as another incarnation in Los Angeles) with an eye to creating an
intimate setting for orientation and interviews and comfortable lounges
for game testing.
To ease traffic and give editors enough time with the right game genre,
the two-floor studio was divided into three distinct environments. A room
on the first floor held three partitioned sections for orientation and interviews. Specifically, this was for attendees to have one-on-one time with
company representatives as well as familiarize those not well versed in the
video game console. Adjacent to this was a studio just for the hard-core
games—including Gears of War 2 and Halo Wars. Upstairs held the more
family-oriented titles as well as sports and interactive games.
Dominating the visuals at the event was Xbox’s signature green color,
with green light flooding the white studios and projections of the circular
Xbox 360 logo on walls throughout. Accenting this, white lounge furniture,
mirrored tables, and various props formed separate areas for each game
station, with white partitions and dividers creating more formal divisions.
Candy, too, was green—from Jelly Belly beans to packs of lime-flavored
Now and Later—sitting in dishes all around the venue.
In fact, the only non white-and-green section of the event was the
one for Netflix, an area decorated with red props and a large bowl of popcorn. Earlier that week, Microsoft and the online DVD rental company
announced a partnership that will allow Xbox 360 users to stream movies
from Netflix to their TVs through the video
Xbox Holiday Showcase
game console.
Audiovisual Production Scharff
Rounding out the two-day showcase
Weisberg
was a party on the final evening, which
Design Studio Blu Design LLC
also took place at Splashlight. Moving a
Furniture Rentals, Props Taylor
Creative Props
minimum of the furniture placed for the
Production Zed Ink Inc.
product demos, Zed Ink opened up some
Security Meyerson
Associates Inc.
of the studios and added a bar and furniStep-and-Repeat Lounge22
ture to the second floor’s outdoor terrace.
Technical Management Lankey
Approximately 100 attended the daytime
& Limey
Venue, Catering Splashlight
showcase, and 150 people turned up for
Studios
the evening party. —Anna Sekula
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 55
An adjacent indoor room was also designed
as a garden with more hedges as displays.
Most guests, like Simon
Van Kempen and Alex
McCord of Real Housewives,
weren’t shy about touching
and playing with the
various products on display.
Familiar Turf
PHOTOS: JENNIFER GRAYLOCK FOR BIZBASH
To preview its spring 2009 accessories collection,
Elie Tahari fashioned a garden on the rooftop
of its Fifth Avenue headquarters.
TAKING ADVANTAGE of the warm weather—and easy access to the roof
atop its office building on Fifth Avenue—Elie Tahari hosted a summer garden
party August 7 to preview its spring 2009 accessories. As the collection itself
was inspired by the Tahari-owned building, a glass and steel structure designed
by Gordon Bunshaft (who is also responsible for Lever House), the fifth-floor
site was as relevant as it was convenient.
Some 200 guests—press and friends including Vogue senior market editor
Meredith Melling Burke and Carson Kressley—eyed, touched, and snapped
shots of more than a dozen of the designer’s shoes, bags, jewelry pieces, and
dresses displayed around the indoor-outdoor space. To make the colorful items
pop, the company hired David Monn to produce a modern garden setting using
a white-and-green color palette.
To even out and cover the gravel surface of the rooftop, Monn’s team used
white Astroturf (which caused surprisingly few problems for guests in heels),
matching the white carpet of an adjacent room. White café tables and chairs
formed seating areas, and arrangements of white hydrangeas decorated each
tabletop.
In contrast, geometric boxwood hedges acted as the platforms on which the
different products were displayed, and pots of Kimberly ferns and large balls
of moss were scattered throughout to add more
Elie Tahari Spring 2009
greenery to the visuals. Appropriately, caterer
Accessories Collection
Creative Edge passed light nibbles and cocktails,
Preview
including lemonade spiked with vodka, chicken
Catering Creative Edge Parties
summer rolls, and hollowed-out grapes filled
Chairs Party Rental Ltd.
Design, Production David E. Monn
with chopped hazelnuts, cucumber, olive oil,
Sound Timbre Tech
and chives. —Anna Sekula
To create a modern garden setting, Elie
Tahari covered its fifth-floor roof space with
white Astroturf and boxwood hedges.
The bite-sized nibbles from Creative
Edge included smoked salmon with
chive crepes and crème fraîche.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 57
MKG Productions carpeted the Fillmore’s
stage (which became a V.I.P. area for
studio execs) and built stairs and a railing.
Creative Edge passed mini
sandwiches throughout the night.
The carpeted stage area featured
velvet chairs and an antique carpet
in front of a faux fireplace.
Four chandeliers sheathed in gauzy red material
hung above the lounge area where Traitor stars
Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce mingled.
Opening Night
PHOTOS: ALICE AND CHRIS FOR BIZBASH
Overture Films eschewed branding and themes for its Traitor after-party, instead creating
a dramatic (and somewhat girly) setting in a Union Square concert hall.
IT WAS A BUSY week for Overture Films’ Tonya Toone. After producing
a V.I.P. screening of the studio’s new movie Traitor in Los Angeles on
August 18, Toone hopped on a plane headed for New York the next day
to finalize last-minute details for the film’s official world premiere and
after-party on August 21.
Held at the Regal Union Square—which Toone chose because of its
convenient Manhattan location—the film screening garnered some 450
attendees, who filled up a two-story theater. The after-party took over the
normally raw (some might even say dingy) Fillmore at Irving Plaza, where
the look was more girly than espionage themed.
“We wanted something that was reminiscent of Chateau Marmont
in L.A. or the Bowery Hotel’s candle-filled bar here in New York,” said
Toone. To create that vibe, she worked with MKG’s Lauren Austin and
Tina Malhotra to wash the venue in strong red lighting—a tactic that succeeded in masking the grunge, but also had guests rubbing their eyes and
squinting a bit as they entered.
Inside the Fillmore—conveniently located just two blocks from the
Regal theater—the party took over a bilevel concert space, where the
film’s stars gathered in a central lounge area made up of eight red suede
chaise lounges and three-foot-tall laurel branches wrapped with orchids,
to simulate the look of out-of-season flowering branches. “We wanted to
create some height and drama in the room and pull the eye to that center lounge vignette,” said Austin. “The room itself is a very raw concert
venue, so we wanted to hide the walls and ceiling and pull your eye to
what we created instead.”
Unlike at most movie premiere parties,
the film’s stars actually hung around, with
Overture Films Traitor
Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce mingling in
Premiere and After-Party
the V.I.P. lounge area. As midnight neared
Catering Creative Edge Parties
Fabrications Cigar Box
the crowed thinned, and Toone was already
Studios Inc.
moving on to her next project: the Righteous
Flowers Belle Fleur
Kill premiere, which brought nearly 1,000
Production, Fabrications MKG
Productions
guests to the Ziegfeld and Terminal 5 on
Security Elite Investigations Ltd.
September 10. —Courtney Thompson
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 59
During the
fashion show, a
Corvette from
event sponsor
Chevy descended
onto the stage in
a cloud of smoke.
In Macy’s Narcissus Room,
Frost’s Denis Remer masked
a fountain with a giant litfrom-within spandex drum.
For the after-party, Macy’s Narcissus Room
became the Break Dance room, and its entrance
was framed with a silver Mylar rain curtain.
Macy’s display-window props served as
lounge furniture during the after-party.
Eighties Ball
NOW IN ITS 10th year, Macy’s Glamorama (formerly a Marshall Field’s
tradition) took place on August 22. As the lights dimmed in the Chicago
Theatre at the start of the evening’s fashion show, a theme became apparent: From a set backed with Pac-Man graphics to a soundtrack peppered
with hits from Prince, George Michael, and Michael Jackson, an ‘80s
influence was demonstrably at work.
Cyndi Lauper and MC Hammer headlined this year’s show, treating
the audience of 3,000 to live renditions of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
and “U Can’t Touch This”—respectively, of course—as models pranced
out in designs from the likes of Marc Jacobs, Donna
FROM CHICAGO Karan, and Tibi. Event sponsors also found a presence
in the spectacle, with video logos and a full-length Chevy commercial
appearing on a scrim that covered the stage before the show. During the
show, an actual Chevy Corvette (painted an era-appropriate shade of teal)
descended onto the stage in a cloud of smoke, becoming a prop in one of
the scenes.
As a shower of star-shaped confetti (evocative of Macy’s logo) signaled
the end of the fashion show, some 2,500 guests headed to a Pop Candy
Arcade-themed after-party that took over the store’s seventh floor.
According to Greg Moore, director of special events for Macy’s East,
Glamorama staffers have roughly one week to prepare the store for the
after-party. “We work off an extremely tight deadline to magically transform the space without impeding sales in the store,” he said. The week
of the event, Macy’s visual team adds signage, lighting, and backdrops to
the space. “Then three days out, our visual, production, store, and special events team are all hands on deck to get the work done. That’s when
things get intense.”
By Friday at 9 p.m., the transformation was complete. At the party’s
60 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
entrance, vintage games like Q-Bert and Pac-Man stood in the midst of
lounges stuffed with colorful bean bag chairs. Moore said that he and
his team aim to make the after-party as interactive as possible; so along
with playing video games, guests could dance across the FAO Schwartz
keyboard used in the film Big, check out airbrush T-shirt stations, or have
their makeup touched up by artists from Låncome, another sponsor.
Food followed thematic suit, occupying 25 stations with names ranging from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Edibles” to “Mr. Miyagi’s Chop House.”
The evening’s specialty “Purple Mullet” cocktail was a juicy concoction
that event sponsor Tropicana created especially for the occasion. In lieu
of passed hors d’oeuvres, staffers sporting blue wigs circulated with Pop
Rocks and Fun Dip; they also offered glow necklaces and slap bracelets to
help guests accessorize.
Frost’s Dennis Remer, who helped with the after-party’s lighting and
decor, said that challenges involved masking the store’s existing (and decidedly un-’80s) features. In the Walnut Room, Remer covered a fountain with
a 24- by 26-foot dance floor, lighting it with
Macy’s Glamorama
an array of track spots, lasers, pin spots,
Audiovisual Production, Red
and disco balls. “The challenge there was to
Carpet Plus One AV
recreate an ‘80s dance club in this presCatering One Eleven Events/
tigious restaurant,” Remer said. “It’s the
Macy’s Catering & Event Space
DJ DJ Berrie
Walnut Room; usually it’s oak, not Mylar.”
Entertainment Break Dance
Along with showcasing Macy’s fall
Chicago, dGi Management
Lighting, Staging Frost
merchandise, Glamorama serves as a
Printing, Signage Lake Media
fund-raiser for the Art Institute of Chicago;
Services Inc.
this year, the event raked in $250,000 for
Rentals BBJ Linen, Hall’s Rental
Tenting, Red Carpet Partytime
the museum’s auxiliary board and evening
Productions
associates. —Jenny Berg
PHOTOS: BARRY BRECHEISEN FOR BIZBASH
For Glamorama’s 10th anniversary, Macy’s brought back the ‘80s
with the help of Cyndi Lauper, Pac-Man, and Fun Dip.
The evening began with an hour-long
fashion show at the Chicago Theatre
that drew some 3,000 guests.
Glamorama posters
and silver orbs lined the
department store’s walls
during the after-party.
For the fashion show’s finale, Cyndi Lauper sang
“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” as star-shaped
confetti poured down over the audience.
Tru Blood decals plastered bars.
A metal structure supported a 30-foot-tall
bayou-inspired tree with 340 branches.
HBO launched its new vampire series True Blood on the rooftop of Hollywood’s ArcLight
with a party that employed cemetery-style set pieces and plenty of red.
HOW MUCH DOES HBO love Alan Ball, executive producer of its hit Six
Feet Under and its trumpeted new vampire series True Blood? Enough to
send the cable channel’s favorite event planner, Billy Butchkavitz, to the set
to find inspiration for the after-party for True Blood’s premiere on September
4—a first in Butchkavitz’s 14-year collaboration with HBO. And enough to
cover the roof of the ArcLight Hollywood parking
FROM LOS ANGELES structure with 30,000 square feet of crimson carpet, topped with banquettes, buffets, and seats covered in 2,400 yards of cut
red velvet to create a vast vampire-friendly landscape the color of blood.
The evening began with a Cinerama Dome screening of two hourlong
episodes of the Southern Gothic series. Nearly 1,200 guests ascended to
the roof party, where waiters met them with bottles of Tru Blood cocktails
(rum and cranberry and pineapple juices), named after the synthetic blood
consumed by the show’s vampires. Working with HBO vice president of
special events Lauren McMahon, Butchkavitz combined props from the
set with Mexican shrines and wooden birds to create an atmosphere of
creepy elegance.
62 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
Lining the walls were copies of posters decorated with devils that appear
in the show’s vampire nightclub, Fangtasia. The neon sign for Merlotte’s,
the local watering hole where much of the action takes place, beamed over
the party, which was dotted with gazebos
HBO’s True Blood Party
strung with plastic garlic and planted with
Catering Along Came Mary
headstones. Butchkavitz topped tables with
Productions
wooden birds, red Mardi Gras-style beads
Design, Decor Billy Butchkavitz
Design
and cemetery lanterns holding pillar candles,
DJ DJ Pesce
embellished with tarantula magnets.
Lighting Images by Lighting
The series also has a mischievous side,
Rentals Town & Country Event
Rentals
and the party had plenty of fun elements:
Security Special Event
jars filled with plastic fangs, devil masks,
Management (SEM)
Set and Tree Frame
and waitstaff T-shirts and boxes of mints
Construction Event
emblazoned with “Suck on this.” The party
Construction Services (ECS)
was still going after midnight, when revelTree Green Set Inc.
Venue ArcLight Cinemas
ers filled the dance floor to tunes spun by
Hollywood
DJ Pesce. —Irene Lacher
PHOTOS: DALE WILCOX FOR BIZBASH (THIS PAGE, TRU BLOOD BOTTLES), GABOR EKECS (ALL OTHERS)
Blood Bath
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www.bizbash.com/chicago
THE BEST OF 2008
PHOTO: ALICEANDCHRIS.COM FOR BIZBASH
A look at the innovative
strategies, people, and ideas
from this year that are sure to
inspire events well into the future.
Shakespeare's Wild Sisters, artists in
residence for the Watermill Center's
summer benefit in the Hamptons, created
an installation featuring two colorfully
dressed women on towers who controlled
human puppets that crawled in the grass
beside the main entrance.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 65
THE BEST OF 2008
For the opening of the Los
Angeles County Museum of
Art’s Broad Contemporary
Art Museum, event producer
Ben Bourgeois included
a floating stage that
descended from the ceiling
for a dinner performance.
OBO, Sculpted Ice Works, and scenic
designer Jonathon Beck used 1,143 blocks
of ice as a dramatic backdrop for the Y-3
runway show in New York in February.
66 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
For the Kennedy Center’s Art of
Film Music gala, platforms and
backdrops for models (in dresses
worn by actresses at major award
ceremonies) were interspersed
among tables in three rooms.
PHOTOS: NADINE FROGER (TOP), KEITH SIRCHIO FOR BIZBASH (LEFT), JOSEPH ALLEN
SPICED-UP STAGING
Fashion Forward
PHOTO: JILL KITCHNER FOR BIZBASH
Andrew Barrett is driving big sales
increases at LG Canada with large event
sponsorships, including a new series
of fashion industry partnerships.
As vice president of marketing at LG Electronics
Canada, Andrew Barrett has spearheaded the
marketing campaigns for several products—
including phones and HD televisions—since
joining the company in October 2006. Under his
direction, LG expanded its marketing department and increased its budget tenfold, with
roughly 25 percent going to events. Meanwhile,
the company experienced a 30 percent sales increase in 2007, to $1 billion in annual revenue.
Among LG’s event efforts are a runway
show at the foot of Whistler Mountain during
the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival and a
70-yard golf hole in downtown Montreal during
the President’s Cup. Next up: In September, LG
announced a series of fashion partnerships.
To what do you attribute the brand’s success
over the past year?
One of the first things has been a continual investment in innovative new products that have
quickly established a leadership position. The
second area that’s really helped has been the
explosive development of LG brand awareness
among Canadians in the past 12 months. The
Leger Marketing Survey in Canada said we had
the fastest-growing corporate reputation of any
company in Canada in 2007. Our unaided brand
awareness grew from about 27 to 48 percent
… so we’ve seen the brand really explode, and
that’s been based on a massive investment in
marketing and events and PR-related activity.
How has that emphasis factored into LG’s marketing strategy?
We’ve spent a lot of time doing product-dedicated
PR, and there’s always an event component tied
to that. Our second goal has been to increase
the association of the brand as being one that’s
getting involved in Canadian communities, enhancing Canadians’ lifestyles and doing cool and
interesting things.
In Montreal, events and community are very
important to the fabric of the city. So LG coming
in [during Presidents Cup week in September
2007], building the LG Open [a 70-yard golf hole
in downtown Montreal], and giving Montrealers
a chance to get involved in an event, to become
engaged with the brand and PGA golf and feel
the excitement of what was going on that
week—that really contributed to their overall
positive impressions.
LG collaborated with Shan Swimwear for the
launch of the Chocolate phones. What was your
goal in creating that partnership?
I wanted to make Canadians aware of the
Chocolate phones, and Shan—a fashion house
out of Montreal that has a really good global
footprint and awareness for its brand—needed
to boost its profile. We were able to put both
brands together, and we co-launched with the
Chocolate Temptation fashion show in Montreal
and at the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival
in Whistler. In all of our activities, our goal is to
partner with somebody who can get as much
out of it as we can … we have never really tried
to do a stand-alone event.
How do you evaluate or measure the success of
these events?
We measure the PR value. Did we achieve that
PR objective in terms of total value that was
generated, as well as the messaging that was
the result of the event? The second thing we
look at is the consumer awareness and impression created by the event. So, how aware were
the people in Quebec of the LG Open, and what
was their disposition toward that event? We
measure consumer engagement and reaction.
The third thing we measure is, how effectively
did it drive the online traffic goal that we set for
that event? And finally, did it stay on budget?
Where do you see the company’s marketing
strategy going next year?
We need to broaden the geographical footprint
we are appealing to. The second thing that will
change going forward is that we are working
very hard to build some recurring associations—
things like the Canadian Texting Championships
that we hope will become ongoing events for us.
LG unveiled its Fall Fashion Collection in September, which included a partnership with Fashion Television during the Toronto International
Film Festival and a Maroon 5 concert during
Fashion Week in October. What is the significance of this campaign for LG?
What we launched this fall is a foundation for
where we see all of our future events and marketing campaigns being rooted going forward.
We worked on this for close to a year, bringing
in all these really great partners, like the Fashion
Design Council of Canada, Fashion Cares, and
Fashion Television. It’s the biggest thing we’ve
ever done at LG Canada.
What do you hope to achieve with this campaign?
Everything that we’ve done in the last 12 months
to get to here is just a starting point to where
I hope to end up another year from now. We
are looking to further expand our involvement in Canadian fashion. We’re trying to find
ways to go beyond just Toronto. We’re trying
to get more and more Canadians who haven’t
experienced the world of fashion in our country
to get involved, to see it, to be part of it, and to
understand what an important industry it is to
Canada—and along the way, really revere LG for
getting engaged. —Susan O’Neill
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 67
THE BEST OF 2008
DIY Power
One of the green initiatives at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts
Festival in Indio, California, was
Global Inheritance’s energy factory
installation, which allowed attendees
to power devices like cell phone
chargers and misting fans using the
energy generated by pedaling bikes.
A Wild Photo Op
Anthem magazine’s pool party during the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival attracted
a raucous young crowd with plenty of silly
activities. Instead of a traditional photo booth,
planners planted a live donkey in front of a tropical
backdrop as a prop for guests’ photos.
Profit Centers
Elizabeth Baker Keffer has had a busy year. Last
December, she took over Atlantic Live—the
event arm of Atlantic Media, parent of The Atlantic, Government Executive, and National Journal.
She had already worked for owner David Bradley
for 24 years, most recently as publisher at The
Atlantic. Now she’s developing new event models, such as salon dinners that bring advertisers
such as Allstate, GE, and Microsoft together with
journalists, policy makers, and Atlantic editors on
a particular topic. Along the way she’s increased
revenue for Atlantic Live by 10 percent.
How have your years with the company set you
up for this position?
What I’ve seen is the intense interest that clients, sponsors, and advertisers have in big ideas
and in integrated programs that create more of
a three-dimensional message. If done effectively,
it can help us stand out from other companies.
How do your events contribute to the company?
Atlantic Live delivers added-value programs
for advertisers, so we produce events that are
earned through an integrated advertising platform. We’re contributing close to a quarter of
the advertising revenue, and that’s well into the
seven figures. We’ve moved from having a loss
at Atlantic Live to a profit.
How do you increase brand
awareness?
We think that Atlantic Live
has had a major impact in
promoting Atlantic’s name,
since we always have our
talent at the center. At the larger public events
we get more media attention, like the Aspen
Ideas Festival in June, where we had [Secretary
of Homeland Security] Michael Chertoff interviewed by our national correspondent, Jeffrey
Goldberg, in front of 1,000 people. It’s a way to
give our talent and editorial a larger stage.
The smaller events that we’re getting well
known for are the salon dinners [for 20 to 25]. It’s
hard for us to promote those, because they’re by
and large off the record. But there is always such
a highly influential audience that attends that
we feel like, even in a small circle, we’re reaching
important people and increasing our exposure.
What has been the response to the salons from
sponsors and advertisers?
A senior-level client will usually get the fact
that there are some audiences that are hard to
reach. But if you can create an experience that
is unique and content-rich, it’s attractive to that
audience. They immediately get that being a
68 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
part of Atlantic is a way to be subtle about their
outreach and about building very strong relationships. We also don’t want to take on dozens
of partners, because we think part of the beauty
of this is the feeling of exclusivity. We’d rather
work with the same partners on multiple events
across a several-year stretch, because we think
that’s the right way to have an impact, since the
dinners touch so few people at the same time.
Which Atlantic events from 2008 would you
consider most successful?
At the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is our signature event, we had a record 11 sponsors. We also
did a lot more this year to integrate them, ranging from Chevron’s pedicabs to Intel’s Segway
scooters. The other event that comes to mind
is the 100-person State of the Union viewing
dinner, which we held in January at the Plaza
hotel in New York before it reopened, with our
correspondent Jim Fallows there to lead the conversation. —Danielle O’Steen
PHOTOS: BIZBASH (COACHELLA, DONKEY),HECTOR EMANUEL FOR BIZBASH
Elizabeth Baker Keffer has turned
around Atlantic Media’s event
division, sharpening its content-heavy
programs and making them profitable.
Change in
Washington
PHOTOS: RON ARIA (WELLS), PEPE GOMEZ (BEEF), GARY BEECHEY FOR BIZBASH (SUSHI), JOE FORNABAIO FOR BIZBASH (CENTERPIECE)
André Wells offers an
alternative to classic D.C.
entertaining: decor-heavy
evenings ripe with surprises.
André Wells is the go-to planner for companies in the capital looking to break from the standard. He started his company, Events by
André Wells, in 2003, after 13 years on the D.C. circuit at PBS, RSVP
Catering, and Capitol Companies. Now his clients include Microsoft
and Dell, and for BET
Network he produced
two nights of star-studded soirees for its first
BET Honors award show
in January. The afterparty alone transformed
the otherwise bare
Ronald Reagan Building
and International Trade
Center into a purpledraped affair with regal
aspirations. But his most
involved 2008 event was
Washington Life’s “The
Young and the Guest
List” party in February,
where he dressed three
different venues—the
St. Regis, Halcyon House,
and Josephine Lounge—
for three consecutive
events in one evening. Most impressive: keeping everything a secret
from the 350 guests.
How do you prepare for these complex, multivenue events?
You have to be very focused, and you have to anticipate problems. I
always imagine myself as a guest. If you have A, B, and C locations,
you have to wonder, “Am I going to ride a shuttle bus? Is parking
near?” You have to ask those questions. You want the guests to have
an experience and to not have to think about anything.
What’s your favorite space in Washington?
The Mandarin Oriental is a great spot for big events, because they
give you a lot of autonomy. For smaller functions, I’ve always loved
the Decatur House, because it’s cozy and unique and is in a great
location.
How is D.C. different from other cities?
Washington is a conservative town and is known for its cocktail
parties, which start at 5 p.m. and are over by 8 p.m.. But the next
generation of D.C. socialites and business executives is looking for a
different sort of night. So I try to start things at nontraditional times
and look for ways to wow them. You have to reach those expectations and supersede yourself. —Danielle O’Steen
Branding It Both Ways
Inspired by Macbeth, the Folger Shakespeare Library gala in Washington had
mystical elements, including beef tenderloin seared with a pentacle symbol by
Occasions Caterers—a trick that could also work with a logo or other design.
Sushi Platter Shake-Up
Instead of serving sushi on a picked-over platter, Toronto’s Liberty Grand
Entertainment Complex put rolls in stemless martini glasses, complete with
chopsticks, at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Mozart Unlaced benefit.
A Centerpiece With a Second Life
ON BIZBASH.COM
Our coverage of Andre Wells’ work for BET and Washington Life.
For the Robin Hood Foundation’s gala in New York, David Stark created decor
with goods that were donated after the event. XO laptops served as centerpieces and flashed images of flowers, statistics, and a dinner menu.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 69
THE BEST OF 2008
Van Wyck & Van Wyck crisscrossed 3,000
yards of blue, red, and green silk strips above
the dinner tables for a New York benefit for
arts nonprofit Studio in a School.
70 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
Van Wyck & Van Wyck
fashioned a drop
ceiling of interwoven
bands of fabric at the
Whitney Museum of
American Art’s Art
Party in New York.
PHOTOS: JOE FORNABAIO FOR BIZBASH (TOP), MARY HILLARD (LEFT), KEITH SIRCHIO FOR BIZBASH
CEILING MAKEOVERS
David Stark designed a tentlike dining
environment for the New York City
Opera’s spring gala, taking a cue from
the medieval vibe of the evening’s
production of King Arthur.
Scripting Reality
Valerie Brown is promoting Bravo’s new and returning
series with attention-getting stunts and tours.
In television, like fashion, you’re either in or you’re
out, and staying relevant in the still-evolving
medium is not as easy as it once was. Internal
marketers need to approach their existing and
potential audiences from every direction, and for
Bravo director of digital marketing and events
Valerie Brown, that task hinges on creating signature moments to herald the premieres of new and
existing series.
advice seminar with the star of Million Dollar
Matchmaker, and dance classes at Crunch gyms
nationwide to promote Step It Up and Dance. “As
you grow, budgets become more accessible, but
at the same time, you have to maintain profitability,” says Brown. “We pick anchor events to invest
in and to put on a large platform. When you have
the breadth of programming we have, you have to
make strategic decisions.”
FIRST IN A SERIES Brown joined the network in
2004, on the eve of an extensive rebranding initiative. That effort included the launch of Project
Runway, the first series she worked on closely,
collaborating with producers Magical Elves and
IMG Fashion to run the front of the house for the
contestants’ Bryant Park fashion shows. In the four
years since, Bravo has grown each year, posting record ratings in 2007 and then again in the second
quarter of 2008.
A CUT ABOVE In one of the year’s standout
events, Brown gave hairstyling competition Shear
Genius a push for its sophomore season that it
didn’t receive for its first outing. The series’ 11
contestants, along with host Jaclyn Smith, set up
shop in a makeshift salon in the middle of Times
Square, using artistic chairs designed by students
at the School of Visual Arts. “We hit every goal
with that one,” Brown says. “High traffic, iconic
location, working with a creative partner in SVA,
and creating a showcase where we were able to
display the talent of the stylists on the show.”
EXPANDING LINEUP Brown became team
director in 2006, working with Bravo senior vice
president of marketing Ellen Stone. She recently
produced a competition to find a new cast
member for gym reality show Work Out, a dating
GLORIOUS FOOD Trying to achieve all of those
goals moving forward, Bravo’s biggest 2008 event
sees Brown and designer Larry Abel creating 3-D
replicas of all
five New York
City boroughs
in Grand Central Station for
the launch of
the New York
season of Top
Chef. The contestants will cook ethnic cuisines
representative of New York neighborhoods for
guests willing to donate $10 to the New York Food
Bank. Earlier this year, Brown maintained buzz for
the series with “Top Chef: The Tour,” a three-month
promotion in which past contestants gave cooking
demonstrations at Whole Foods markets in 20 cities across the country.
ANOTHER PROJECT This fall Bravo lost flagship
property Project Runway to Lifetime, but it’s hard
for Brown to dwell on the departure. Her network
has a record 24 new and returning series slated
for 2009, and she’s already brainstorming how to
tackle them all. “At the end of the day,” she says,
“I want to create a strategy where we’re creating events for all of our new series and all of our
returning franchises.” —Michael O’Connell
A Dressed-Up
Step-and-Repeat
PHOTOS: BRAD DECECCO FOR BIZBASH (BROWN), LINE 8 PHOTOGRAPHY
Target debuted its new Converse
collection at an unofficial MTV
Movie Awards after-party in Los
Angeles, where event design firm
Caravents framed the retailer’s
and shoe company’s logos on the
press wall.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 71
THE BEST OF 2008
Pools as Performance Spaces
For the Inter-Pacific Bar Association’s conference in Los
Angeles, Pivotal Events hired synchronized swimmers
from Winning Performance to entertain in the hotel’s
pool during the welcome reception.
Return on Investment
As director of distinguished events at the Illinois division of the American Cancer Society
since 2005, Lee Kite oversees the organization’s
blockbuster Discovery Ball. This year’s gala
netted more than $2.1 million, exceeding the
budgeted goal by more than 15 percent and
surpassing the $1.8 million haul from 2007. That
success is due in part to the benefit’s board of
ambassadors, which Kite created to attract the
support of local philanthropists and C.E.O.s.
The board grew, too, from 27 members in 2007
to more than 70 this year. Each board member
makes a financial commitment at the outset
of the ball’s planning process, and Kite and her
team demonstrate where sponsors’ dollars are
going throughout the year.
PROVING THE RETURN “The American Cancer
Society has a national program that provides
heavy training in proof of sponsorship. Sponsors want to see viability and return on invest-
ment, along with an alignment of their brand
to a cause that matters to their employees. It is
our responsibility to show them this proof. We
look at this like a small contract. We have fun
coming up with creative, eye-catching packages, which we deliver to a sponsor post-event
and which demonstrate all of the placements—photos, programs, clip reels, press clips,
etc.—that were promised when the sponsor
agreed to support. We also enclose a commitment form for the following year.”
PERSONAL TOUCHES “Our events are pipelines
to future donors. We want them to be fun and
exciting and beautiful, of course, but we’re also
looking for partners and ways to gain visibility
with attendees. To achieve this, we place special
emphasis on personal touches. For example,
right after the Discovery Ball, we gave our C.E.O.
a list of major donors. He carved out time to
make direct thank-you calls to these people.”
72 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
CONSTANT CONTACT “We try to steward our
donors along a continuum of support for the
American Cancer Society. [In 2008] we invited
many of our [Discovery Ball] partners, donors,
and guests to our patient navigation center at
the University of Chicago—we take every opportunity to show people exactly how their money
is being used. Guests also left the Discovery Ball
with a departure gift and a letter from me and
our event chair, thanking them and telling them
that they’d be hearing from us within the next
couple of months.” —Jenny Berg
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF TRACY KWIKER (TOP), NICOLE RADJA FOR BIZBASH
Lee Kite keeps sponsors coming back—with
more than $2 million for one benefit.
Home Maker
Jessica Meisels launched the
Malibu beach house marketing
pop-up, a format she kept
alive this summer in the face
of legislative challenges.
PHOTOS: ALEN LIN FOR BIZBASH (MEISELS, SHOWPRO), JCMARTINS/FOTOBRICENO FOR BIZBASH
PROBLEM Fingerprint Communications owner Jessica Meisels
is rightly credited with birthing the trend of the Malibu summer
beach house pop-up in 2006, when the L.A.-based firm produced
and publicized a Polaroid-branded property on the coast. The
corporate-sponsored house hosted events for two summers, while
a half dozen or so other
brands rented nearby
properties to piggyback
on the idea and the buzz
it created among local
influencers and international press. Then a
Malibu ordinance limiting
commercial events at private residences to four per
year—a response to complaints from locals about
the traffic, paparazzi, and
other nuisances created
by the events—threatened the concept this
past summer.
SOLUTION Meisels found
a four-acre cliffside house
overlooking the ocean,
a space buffered from
neighbors and gawkers
by the sheer size of its
property. She nixed the
title sponsor, instead calling the space the Project
Beach House and bringing
in a variety of partners. “Malibu publicly announced an order—
which has always been in existence—that all properties that have
more than 100 people must get a permit. It was something that
was very much publicized last year,” she says. “We have abided by all
Malibu laws; we got permits for every event, and we had city monitors on property. The city knows we’re not an out-of-control party
house. We moved the location to create a safer atmosphere, [where]
the paparazzi couldn’t get to us. Once people were in, it was a safe
environment.”
The Washington National Opera’s Opera Ball used illuminated costumes for
performers, including a countertenor who donned a garment plugged into
an outlet at the entrance of the French ambassador’s residence.
LIGHTING TAKES
CENTER STAGE
ShowPro created an
evolving multicolor
light show, blending
light and video
projection at the Los
Angeles launch of
Remy Martin’s limitededition cognac with
a David LaChapelledesigned label.
OUTCOME Fingerprint reports it garnered more than 170 million
media impressions for its Lia Sophia clambake and 150 million for
the LnA Fourth of July party at the house. —Shilpa Gopinath
ON BIZBASH.COM Our coverage of the events featured here,
and the vendors that pulled them off.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 73
THE BEST OF 2008
Campaign Crusader
Yosi Sergant used youth-friendly ideas
and instantly iconic artwork to help
Barack Obama’s grassroots efforts.
ART HISTORY Sergant first talked to Fairey about
contributing to the Democratic candidate’s efforts
at an Adidas party. The next day Fairey emailed his
design, and Sergant went on to deliver the image
to his network of media contacts and coordinate
the strategic placement of the posters in front of
cameras at Obama rallies, as well as in multiple
cities to coincide with local primaries. Sergant has
tracked several thousand domestic and international
media impressions featuring the image, including an
appearance on the front page of The New York Times,
more than 10 inclusions in The Los Angeles
Times, and coverage in magazines that
typically refrain from running political
news, like Juxtapoz and Urb.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE The public latched
on to the image, which began to pop up
on social networking sites the day after
it debuted at an Oprah Winfrey rally for
Obama in February. Sergant fed the viral
frenzy by incorporating the design into
fund-raisers, turning to companies like
Polite in Public to create photo-booth sets featuring
the work and giving guests access to downloadable
images. T-shirt company Hit & Run created shirts
with Fairey’s artwork that went on to blanket
Facebook profiles.
Offline, supporters wanted posters, too. “The
demand was insatiable,” Sergant says. Sergant and
Fairey gave posters to Obama volunteer groups and
supporters, but also sold the work, funneling the
income into making larger batches. They initially
printed 3,500 posters, but soon made more than
300,000, eventually printing 20,000 bike spoke
cards and 300,000 stickers as well. Retailer Urban
Outfitters approached Fairey for exclusive rights to
the T-shirt in the poster’s signature hues and had
Car Talk
Andy Fuzesi revamped the dates of the
L.A. Auto Show, doubling press attendance
and boosting its international profile.
CHANGE AGENT L.A. Auto
Show general manager Andy
Fuzesi helped oversee a campaign to change the event’s
dates from January to November beginning in 2006, a move
that significantly increased its
status on the domestic and
international car show scene
by placing it closer to the beginning of the global
show calendar. The new dates led to increased
media coverage—press-day attendance rose
from 4,000 in January 2006 to 8,524 in November 2007—as well as bigger exhibits and recordbreaking North American car debuts. “Media
coverage is a big measurement tool for us and
for the manufacturers,” Fuzesi says. Last year,
Prime Automotive Research gave the show a No.
2 ranking in terms of media importance, placing
it just below Detroit’s venerable auto show. The
2008 event takes place November 21 to 30.
KNOWING HIS AUDIENCE “There are lots of
auto shows, and although we compete on a
74 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
purchased more than 62,000 units from Fairey’s
company, Obey, by September.
THE FINAL PUSH Sergant and his team used
a portion of the profits from the promotional
products to purchase advertising featuring the
Obama artwork in four states during the primaries,
and 20 in the general election. Sergant also
funneled money into producing the Manifest Hope
Gallery and the free concert called Unconventional
’08 during the Democratic National Convention.
“We easily had 200 media impressions, ranging
from the Associated Press to MTV,” says Sergant.
“We had to turn away 100 people, including
senators.” —Rosalba Curiel
global basis, we’ve always said our niche is different than theirs. We’re in Los Angeles—we’re
not in Detroit or Tokyo,” says Fuzesi. “We’ve
always been mindful about playing up our local
characteristics.” This means a huge luxury car
market and consumers who love to customize
their cars. And it means selling an environmental message in a city where it matters, while
being aware that L.A. also has a significant concentration of non-eco-friendly exotic cars.
THINKING AHEAD Although the date change
occurred in 2006, show organizers announced it
back in 2004. And that’s the kind of time frame
Fuzesi likes. “We have a program with the magazine Green Car Journal to select the green car of
the year. Up until this past year, it didn’t get much
coverage. Last year, it was our opening [event] and
got tremendous coverage. It’s a general concept
for all shows and events: Sometimes you have to
look a few years ahead to see where you’re going.
Not everything you’re going to try is going to
work, but this certainly did.” —Alesandra Dubin
PHOTOS: DARIUS TWIN (SERGANT), JOE ORLANDO (FUZESI), COURTESY OF KOHLER, JOHN CULLEN FOR BIZBASH (BRAZILIAN), BIZBASH (SCIENCE CENTRE), EMILY GILBERT FOR BIZBASH (HIGH LINE)
In February, publicist Yosi Sergant helped launch a
campaign movement for Barack Obama that was
so successful the promotional material inspired
knockoffs, spread virally on social networking sites,
and traveled to Europe. Sergant, a publicist with
Evolutionary Media Group who had also worked
as California media adviser to the Obama team,
decided to leave his official campaign post to
volunteer his PR services. “I wanted the freedom of
developing strategies without submitting them up
the ladder,” he says. As a volunteer, Sergant helped
promote the candidate through what has become
one of the most iconic images associated with the
campaign—the Andy Warhol-like Obama graphic by
street artist Shepard Fairey.
Guests ambled along a zigzag carpeted path to
enter Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art
for a reception to celebrate Kohler’s new faucet.
GRAND ENTRANCES
Murals lined the walls
of escalators leading
into Toronto’s Brazilian
Carnival Ball, and
colorful, parted drapery
decorated the base.
At the Ontario Science Centre’s Innovators’ Ball
in Toronto, a circular black walkway served as a
tunnel linking a lounge to the dining space.
At New York’s Friends of the High Line benefit,
color-coded portals helped guests find their assigned
dining areas, which had corresponding decor.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 75
THE BEST OF 2008
The Rebound
A Multi-Tasking Table
Michael Tavano put together three distinct looks at one table for the New York
Design Center space at Diffa’s Dining by Design showcase. Furniture, place settings, tabletop accessories, carpets, and wall treatments transitioned from traditional to modern to young and contemporary looks.
Cocktail Hour,
With a Twist
For Chicago’s Wonka
Ball, a fund-raiser for
the About Face Theatre,
Calihan Catering served
deconstructed martinis
comprised of an olive
resting atop a piece of
blue cheese and stuffed
with a mini spray-bottle
of vodka.
No Lines at the Bar
At a Gen Art Chicago event, reps from sponsor Nokia used N810 Internet tablets to send guests’ orders to a computer behind the bar, and servers delivered
the drinks within minutes.
76 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
PROBLEM In 2005, the
Chicago chapter of Design Industries Foundation
Fighting AIDS (Diffa) saw
some unfortunate on-site
logistical challenges mar its
annual gala, typically one of
the year’s most anticipated
events. Although the event
was successful in terms of
sponsorship and auction
revenue, problems with the
caterer, valet, and venue
resulted in some unfavorable
guest experiences and, ultimately, a drop in sponsorship
commitments in 2006. “In the
years leading up to the 2006
event, although increasingly
financially successful, we had
endured a number of production challenges that many
of our sponsors felt were falling short of their expectations,” says
Diffa/Chicago gala co-chair Erik Parks. In late 2005, Diffa/Chicago approached Total Event Resources and senior program manager Sarah
Schnell to partner with them to produce the gala. “The Diffa committee sources event sponsors, but because of the challenges faced
with the 2005 gala, they were having a tough time securing sponsorships. And without sponsors, there is no event and less money to
go toward the donor recipients,” says Schnell.
SOLUTION “The 2006 Diffa gala was about rebuilding confidence,”
Schnell says. Total Event Resources helped produce a video about
Diffa’s goals and background to give guests a glimpse into where
their donations go. The company also focused on generating more
dollars through auctions. “We assigned an internal point person to
the silent-auction committee to serve as a thread from year to year,”
Schnell says. “We help with what items sell, how to set up the display,
and when to end the silent auction to max out donations.” In 2007,
Total Event Resources suggested a live appeal during the onstage
auction, with the auctioneer illustrating how donations help people
in need, and instituted a diamond raffle, which, in 2008, sold all 100
$100 tickets for a chance to win gems worth $5,000. In total, the
money raised from these initiatives helped Diffa increase its on-site
income by 63 percent from 2005 to 2008.
OUTCOME After the 2006 rebuilding year, the 2007 Diffa gala raised
more than $450,000, and the 2008 gala raised more than $570,000.
In the past three years, Total Event Resources helped increase sponsorship dollars by more than $125,000. “We were able to give the
Diffa committee the platform of a memorable event to increase its
number of $10,000 and $25,000 sponsors,” Schnell says, “and to obtain a $50,000 sponsor, which had not been secured in several years.”
—Wendy Wollenberg
PHOTOS: LEE HOAGLAND FOR BIZBASH (SCHNELL), FRANCINE DAVETAL FOR BIZBASH (TABLE), BRIAN CHOI FOR BIZBASH (OTHERS)
Sarah Schnell helped Diffa/
Chicago’s gala win back
sponsors—and increase its
revenue by 63 percent.
Slow Fizz
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF KEVIN TRESSLER, ERIC POWELL FOR BIZBASH
Kevin Tressler taught China how to drink Coke in an eight-year
campaign that culminated at the 2008 Olympic Games.
To think of the estimated
$70 to $75 million CocaCola paid to sponsor the
2008 Olympics in Beijing
as a modest sum, one only
needs to imagine how much
the company spent on
advertising and promotions.
The games marked Coke’s
largest Olympic effort in
its 80-year history and
demanded almost a decade
of planning. Leading those
preparations was CocaCola’s director of worldwide
sports and entertainment
marketing, Kevin Tressler,
who worked on projects
like the Olympic torch relay,
emblazoning soda cans
across the world with a
Mandarin logo, and building a 40,000-square-foot
pavilion on the Olympic Green.
Coca-Cola started focusing on the Chinese market
just hours after Beijing was chosen as the host city
in 2000. How did the company approach such a
long-term campaign?
When we look at a host country of a global event,
whether it’s the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics,
there are different phases that the country goes
through. There’s the celebration, because there’s
so much national pride involved with your country
being chosen to host. Then that country goes
through changes. New stadiums are built, and the
people rally around how they’re going to welcome
the world. This whole phase we could loosely call
“anticipation.” Once the torch relay begins, from
the host country’s perspective, the games begin.
It’s a journey full of emotion and pride. Each of
these phases or “moments,” as we call them, have
specific consumer insights, feelings, and emotions
that we leverage to amplify our brand message.
The Chinese seem more reluctant to consume soft
drinks than Western countries. What are the biggest
challenges of trying to grow the brand there?
The industry has been growing by double digits
for the last four or five years in China, and so have
we, so I wouldn’t necessarily agree that people
are reluctant to drink soft drinks there. But one of
the issues we saw in China was that people aren’t
used to drinking cold Coca-Cola, so the strategies
we deployed were really quite simple. We used the
torch relay to create nearly half a billion consumer
connections—physical connections, literally. As
the torch traveled, we interacted with people.
We used that as a tool to give them a chance to
sample Coca-Cola in what we call “the perfect
serve,” which is from the
contour package and at
37.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
We did the exact same
thing during the Olympic
Games. The forecast
before the Paralympics
stands at 26 million
servings in the city of
Beijing during the games.
Coca-Cola, like most
sponsors, had pavilions
throughout Beijing,
including one at the
Olympic Green. What
were you trying to
accomplish there?
That was designed
and set up to ensure
we delivered a perfect
corporate citizenship
message, a heritage message for the company and
the Olympics, and a message around Coca-Cola.
If you went through the whole thing, you’d also
get the perfect serve. It was a combination of a
variety of experiences that would hopefully make
you understand that Coca-Cola is a responsible
corporate citizen because it believes in the
environment, that Coca-Cola is ubiquitous and a
long-standing partner of the Olympic movement;
and let you see how Coca-Cola participated with
the country of China to get its people to express
themselves through art.
Is event and experiential marketing in China
different from other countries?
At the end of the day, I think the primary difference
is the local and municipal laws of the city or the
country. The brand means the same thing all over
the world. We sell in 200 countries. It’s expressed
differently, obviously, based on cultures and
languages, but nothing else is really different.
How does Coca-Cola’s showing in Beijing compare
to its efforts at previous Olympics?
This was our biggest-ever activation at the Olympic
Games. Coca-Cola, in Mandarin, when phonetically
written and directly translated means “delicious
happiness,” and that’s what Coca-Cola stands for.
We had 151 countries around the world that actually
adopted Mandarin packaging during the games,
which we’d never done before.
The Beijing Games were the most-watched event
of all time. Did you expect these Olympics would be
that significant?
Yes, we did early on. One of our strategies was playing
a role in “East meets West and West meets East.” That
strategy was written in 2006, so we knew this would
happen. We’re delighted that it did and that we were
able to be a part of it. —Michael O’Connell
The Shuang Experience Center on the Olympic Green played up Coke’s
contour bottle and what the company calls “the perfect serve.”
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 77
THE BEST OF 2008
BIRD’S-EYE VIEW
Besides educating consumers
about its products, Samsung’s
greatest effort with the pavilion
was environmental education.
78 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
For the 2008
Summer Olympics
in Beijing, many
of the games’
sponsors camped
out around the
Bird’s Nest Stadium
on the Olympic
Green in elaborately
constructed
pavilions. Brands
such as Adidas
and Samsung let
product messaging
take a backseat
to exhibitions on
their environmental
efforts and history
with the games.
By Michael O’Connell
PHOTOS: ERIC POWELL FOR BIZBASH
Cell phone stations hanging from the
ceiling at the Samsung pavilion allowed
guests the chance to sample music,
movies, and television series.
A walk through the Adidas pavilion
culminated in a spiraling, 30-foot tall
LED screen made up of nearly 800 tiles.
The first pavilion that most visitors encountered, Omega sat directly
across from the entrance to the new Olympic Green subway station
Above the Chinese symbol
of yin and yang at the
Volkswagen pavilion, a display
showed a traditional gas pump
with oil dripping from it and
another spouting organics like
water and plants.
Photographs in the “Global Challenges” exhibition of
Johnson & Johnson’s pavilion depicted the company’s
role in aiding international health crises.
A giant likeness of Chinese
basketball player Yao Ming seemed
to burst through the exterior of the
China Mobile Pavilion.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 79
THE BEST OF 2008
Lee Brian Schrager, the man
behind the South Beach Wine &
Food Festival, this year set his
sights on Manhattan, launching
an ambitious sister event.
Games to Get Guests Talking
The opening-night party for Cry-Baby on Broadway nodded to the kitschy
1950s-era of the musical with a faux bake sale manned by prim church ladies
from Classic Entertainment Group who quizzed guests about the show and
rewarded correct answers with boxes of sweets.
A Place to People-Watch
Bloomberg L.P.’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner after-party
in Washington had a high-tech vibe, with monitors airing live footage from
adjacent areas of the party—including the line to get in.
A Picnic to Pick Up
Instead of queueing up for lunch, guests at sneaker brand Superga Italia’s
outdoor boccie festival in Los Angeles got branded tote bags filled with a
picnic spread of a baguette, olive tapenade, brie, salads, and cookies.
80 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
Lee Brian Schrager,
director of special
events and media
relations at Southern
Wine & Spirits, is
the founder of the
South Beach Wine &
Food Festival, which
in February drew
more than 40,000
attendees and 100
chefs, and raised
more than $1.7 million for the School of
Hospitality and Tourism Management at
Florida International
University. This fall
he launched the New
York City Wine &
Food Festival, which
put 18,000 tickets on
sale for more than 50
events at more than
10 different sites over
Columbus Day weekend (October 9 to October 12), with proceeds
going to the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength.
What was the biggest challenge?
Just finding the locations probably took us one year—getting the
right backdrop is very, very important, as it’s what makes South
Beach. I see the meatpacking district as the nucleus of the [New
York] festival. We wanted the festival to be grassroots, local, and to
make the meatpacking district come alive that weekend. It’s important to know that we’re not bringing South Beach to New York;
we’re not looking to replicate or duplicate what we do down there
… and we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re building the
events around the venues, not the other way around.
How about the least challenging aspect?
Getting the sponsors on board, even given the crummy economy. [I
think it has to do with] the history and success of the South Beach
Wine & Food Festival … We have almost $3 million in sponsorship.
A launch party in November 2007 drew 1,800 guests and raised
more than $300,000.
Why did you host the event so far in advance of the actual festival?
I was afraid if we didn’t do an event last year, no one would ever
believe we were coming. So we focused on the forgotten chef—
the pastry chefs. The response was amazing. That night, walking
through the venue, I knew we were onto something. —Anna Sekula
ON BIZBASH.COM Our coverage of the New York City Wine & Food Festival
PHOTOS: ALISON WHITTINGTON FOR BIZBASH (CRY-BABY), LARA SHIPLEY FOR BIZBASH (BLOOMBERG), TONYA WISE (PICNIC), SETH BROWARNIK (SCHRAGER), BIZBASH (CS, COINTREAU), ELEVATION PHOTOS (TUDORS), COURTESY OF EVENTQUEST
Food Chain
For a party celebrating the
launch of a new cocktail
by French liqueur company
Cointreau in New York,
planners created a backdrop
of the brand’s bottles to
replace the typical step-andrepeat in the arrival area.
CS magazine’s green-themed Seeds of Spring
event in Chicago featured lots of eco-friendly
touches, including a chandelier made of
recycled water bottles from sponsor Fiji.
INNOVATIVE PRODUCT PLACEMENT
To show off Allsteel’s new Acuity
chair in New York, EventQuest
created artistic installations that
incorporated the product into
different scenarios, including a cold
room with a chair frozen inside a
block of ice.
For the season premiere of The Tudors,
Showtime worked with One Source
Visual Marketing to turn the facade of
New York’s Sheraton Hotel & Towers
into a castle by draping stone-patterned
mesh vinyl over the building.
bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008 81
THE BEST OF 2008
Off the Books
Comic-Con has grown from a modest gathering
in a hotel basement to a convention that attracts
big-time talent, sponsors, and exhibitors.
HOLY GROWTH, BATMAN! The event has moved
numerous times to accommodate its growing
attendance. Key to its broadening appeal was a
strategy of developing ads that spoke to multiple
audiences. “When we first started, our ads were
specifically geared to genre audiences, and that had
the potential of ignoring a wider audience, who just
needed to be exposed to it,” says director of marketing and public relations David Glanzer. The organization developed more universal ads—ones that could
appeal to, say, both comic-book and sci-fi fans—and
the result was the ability to run a single ad that
grabbed the attention of more potential attendees.
(For example, an early TV ad featured a man dressed
as Thor talking about the event; a later commercial
found a man wearing a shirt and tie in a comic-book
store, surrounded by movie posters and toys.)
HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD? If there was any
doubt that Comic-Con is now mainstream, Paris
Hilton’s appearance at 2008’s gathering to promote
Repo! The Genetic Opera eliminated it. This year’s con
also drew Keanu Reeves, Hayden Panettiere, Samuel
L. Jackson, and Jennifer Connelly, as well as a preview
of Sony’s film Pineapple Express. (The boys of HBO’s
Entourage even paid a visit last season; Glanzer and
Building a Reputation
Tracy Bowie is incorporating eco-friendly
practices throughout Canada’s biggest
interior-design trade show.
As vice president of
IIDEX/NeoCon Canada,
Tracy Bowie is responsible for planning the
organization’s annual exposition and
conference for interior
designers, architects,
and real estate developers. Now in its 24th year,
the event attracts more
than 15,000 attendees
and 400 exhibits—more
than half of which offer green products—and
features 120-plus seminars. In conjunction with
the Association of Registered Designers of Ontario (ARIDO), which owns IIDEX, Bowie and her
team are making the show more sustainable
by using green suppliers and contractors. Here’s
a look at the plans for all aspects of the 2008
show on September 25 and 26 at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto:
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS “Our letterhead
paper, our business cards, and our brochures are
all printed on Forest Stewardship Council paper
[from logging operations that have met strict
standards]. The expense was a little bit more
at first, but we made the decision to do that
because we felt it was important.”
82 bizbash.com/newyork november/december 2008
staff consulted on how to re-create the convention
for the small screen.) The show has grown so big
that it faces accusations of selling out or pandering
to film and television studios; Glanzer notes that
the nonprofit has a long tradition of including movies and TV shows in the convention, having staged
its first film festival in 1976, long before megamarketing existed. And besides: “For us, the big celebrities are the people who draw and write the comics,”
he says. “Matt Groening is just as much a celebrity
on the floor as any A-list movie star.”
HOME TOWN ADVANTAGE Glanzer admits that the
convention’s burgeoning size introduces more than a
few challenges, including space issues. Recent efforts
to expand its footprint include erecting tents outside
the venue, the San Diego Convention Center, and
holding additional events in hotel meeting rooms
off site. Glanzer acknowledges that the event’s
continual expansion raises the question of whether
Comic-Con should relocate to a market that could
better accommodate it. “We’re all from here. It’s a
beautiful city and a great vacation destination,” he
says. “No one wants to move.” —Mimi O’Connor
SETUP Stronco Show Services is incorporating
natural-gas-powered forklifts on site.
DECOR “Although we use the carpet just for
IIDEX, it actually goes from the show, is cleaned,
and is used again. The carpet is not recyclable
carpet yet—that’s coming.”
SIGNAGE Banners are recycled from year to year.
CATERING “The caterer at the Direct Energy Centre is Centerplate, and they recycle all of the food
waste not suitable for food banks. They use recyclable cups and plates … or we use real dishes.”
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS All leftover construction materials at the end of the show are
donated to Habitat for Humanity.
SHOW CONTENT “ARIDO had a drive for the
industry to bring their old jeans to the show, and
Habitat for Humanity came up with a concept
where the jeans could be used for insulation in
housing.” IIDEX also put together exhibits showcasing new materials and trends. —Susan O’Neill
PHOTOS: JONATHAN FICKLES/GETTY IMAGES (COMIC-CON), ARASH MOALLEMI/MMPI CANADA
Comic-Con International had, perhaps appropriately,
underground beginnings. Its first gathering dedicated to comic books and other popular art took place
in 1970 in the basement of San Diego’s U.S. Grant
Hotel and hosted 300 attendees. Now, the event
includes more than 350 hours of seminars, workshops, and panel discussions, and is the largest of its
kind, welcoming more than 125,000 this past July.
And those are just the hard-core Watchmen and
Stan Lee fans. Major movie and television studios
have also jumped on the Comic-Con bandwagon in
recent years, with Warner Bros., Universal, ABC, and
NBC sponsoring and holding events. Coverage of
this formerly fringe event by mainstream press such
as The New York Times and CNN has now become de
rigueur. Executive director Fae Desmond oversees a
board of 13 people, which in turn manages about 80
department heads and committee members. The
mission of promoting comic books and other popular art to a wider audience guides most decisions,
which are generally made by consensus.