The 6th Annual Internet Week New York Festival
Empire Entertainment once again had the pleasure of producing the 6th annual Internet Week New York festival, which featured hundreds of events around New York City from May 20 -23, 2013. IWNY returned to Metropolitan Pavilion and the Altman Building for the festival’s headquarters, the location for 2010 and 2011.
With more than 10,000 visitors over the week and hundreds of companies represented, including Google, AT&T Adworks, MLB Advanced Media and Aereo, the space was strategically organized to create more intimate spaces, including two stages, a classroom and a lounge furnished by official design partner Design Within Reach.
Highlights of the week included:· The opening day party at Internet Week HQ featuring Performances by HITS and DJ sets from The Juan Maclean, Benji B and Brendan Fallis· A keynote presentation by Vice Media Founder Shane Smith and former MTV CEO Tom Freston· Keynote presentation by Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times, who answered the question “When Everybody’s a Reporter, What’s a Reporter to Do?”· Surprise appearance by Fred Armisen who had a sit-down conversation with NYC comedian and covered everything from SNL to zoo animals to brunch, with a little bit of Internet thrown in the mix.· Joan Rivers’ brutally honest conversation about the Internet’s impact on comedy, the role Twitter is playing in her career and her entry into producing short-form wed video.· Randi Zuckerberg sat down to talk about her growing media empire, her vision for the future and her passion for helping people untangle their modern wired lives.· Architect David Rockwell shared his thoughts on how to create new experiences through interactive environments and the increasingly dynamic role technology plays in design today.
The festival again include activations in two separate theatre spaces to accommodate longer presentations and conferences. Taking place in the Altman Building, Mediapost held two daylong conferences, OMMA Social and OMMA Data Driven Marketing. CM Summit hosted their 2-day conference on bridging data and humanity. On the 2nd floor of the Metropolitan Pavilion, the second theater hosted #Twitter4Brands Conference and AdAge’s Marketing and Technology Summit.
Empire oversaw the 6th Annual Internet Week New York festival headquarters from conception to completion, coordinating registration for the thousands of guests, stage management and producing all of the presentations in the theater and on both HQ stages, and managing the event sponsors from the design process for their footprints in the space and all of their needs from load-in to load-out.
Empire is a leading producer of trade events, expos and event marketing / presence marketing installations with extensive experience in the technology industries.
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent