Empire Produces Bravo's 2011 Upfront Featuring a Live 3-City, Simul-cast

March 2011. 82 Mercer, New York City - Roosevelt Hotel, Los Angeles - Girl & The Goat, Chicago

On March 30th, Empire Entertainment was proud to produce Bravo’s 2011 Upfront with simultaneous live events in three cities. Heavily covered by the media, Ed Martin of Media Biz Bloggers described the event in one review as “The Upfront Event of 2011” and "one of the most ambitious and impactful events of its kind that I have attended in more than twenty years of covering the television business." He also wrote that "Even without the simultaneous Chicago and Los Angeles parties, Bravo’s New York event alone would have been one of the season’s best."Bravo’s Upfront consisted of three parties on the same night in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In an unprecedented innovation, these events featured live remote broadcasts from each party aired during the season finale of the Emmy award winning Bravo series Top Chef: All Stars. Ed Martin wrote: "I believe this … was the first-ever live, full-length telecast of a television program from an Upfront event."New York’s event took place in the cavernous lofts of 82 Mercer in SoHo. Guests arrived for elegant cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres in the first room: a sleek lounge that seamlessly integrated Bravo’s five passion points: Food, Fashion, Beauty, Design & Pop. The room had bespoke draped doorways constructed of white textured Tyvek, which were back-lit with LEDs to give the cocktail room a soft glow. When it came time for dinner, the drapes were drawn to reveal a spacious dining room seating 300 guests. 36-ft long dining tables, custom-built with a wood grain finish and sleek orange diagonal stripes, were adorned with glowing white rock crystal in glass boxes and vibrant orange pincushion protea. The clear acrylic La Marie dining chairs and custom LED chandeliers hovering overhead furthered the chic look.The dinner itself was a Top Chef tasting experience. Once clients were seated among Bravo executives and press, Andy Cohen, EVP Original Programming & Development & host of Watch What Happens Live, took the stage to introduce new programming and Bravo’s celebrities, better known as Bravolebrities. Among the Bravolebrities at New York’s upfront were the Real Housewives of New York City and New Jersey, Rocco DiSpirito, Tabatha Coffey and China Chow. Yet, it is safe to say that the two finalists of Top Chef: All Stars, Richard Blais and Mike Isabella, stole the show. (One of the two finalists would be revealed as the winner of Top Chef before the evening commenced.) In coordination with the Top Chef finale, Blais and Isabella helped prepare the same dinner for the guests that was being judged on the final show.While guests in New York were judging the Top Chef finalists’ food for themselves, the party in Los Angeles was just beginning at the Roosevelt Hotel. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Gail Simmons was giving gracious welcoming remarks at The Girl and The Goat restaurant, owned by Top Chef season 4’s winner, Stephanie Izard.The Top Chef: All Stars finale was broadcast on screens in all 3 cities for guests to view alongside the Bravolebrities including the All Stars season’s Chef’testants. To further implement Bravo’s 2011 Marketing motto: Breakthrough with Bravo, there was one final reveal: for the first time in Upfront history, New York’s guests were invited to be part of the studio audience of the full-length telecast of Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live. One guest at each party could text-in to win, allowing them to ask a question on-air.In another write up, Stuart Elliott of The New York Times described how the Upfront gave advertisers the unusual experience of being viewed by the demographic that they cater toward: “It is the first time that Bravo has opened up this manner the upfront process.”We are thrilled Bravo again engaged Empire Entertainment to produce their Upfront for the second year. Empire Entertainment managed all three Upfront events, and was responsible for development of décor, securing sites, schedules, deliverables, transportation and managing all logistics, creating an experience that TV by the Numbers claims, “redefined industry standards”.Please find the reviews referred to in this article below:www.mediabizbloggers.com/http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/next-on-bravo-ad-executives-and-all-star-chefs/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/03/22/upfront-by-bravo-media-redefines-industry-standard-on-march-30-with-star-studded-events-in-