The Toshiba America Corporation's 50th Anniversary Celebration
June 2015. New York City, R Lounge, Renaissance Hotel Times Square
When Toshiba America sought to commemorate the milestone of its 50th anniversary in the United States, they turned to Empire to help them design and execute the perfect celebration.
Held in the R Lounge of the Renaissance Hotel overlooking both Times Square and Toshiba’s massive Toshiba Vision LED billboard, which is viewed by millions during the annual New Year’s Eve Ball Drop, this intimate event hosted VIP customers and senior Toshiba leadership from across America.
Empire’s knowledge and experience serving Japanese clients through both its New York and Tokyo headquarters, along with our familiarity with presenting events to C-level business audiences made us the perfect partner for this launch.
Empire’s design team transformed the R Lounge space into a Toshiba America branded environment. Guests were welcomed by a series of hostesses who greeted guests, checked them in on Toshiba tablets and led them to a photo receiving line with senior Toshiba America executives.
Inside the reception, the VIP guests enjoyed premium sake, wine and cocktails and passed delicacies while interacting with displays showcasing the breadth and scope of Toshiba’s products, including a solar-powered hydrogen generator which creates clean energy to power homes and businesses. All of the showcases demonstrated Toshiba’s Leading Innovation under the banner of “Human Smart Community”— a concept that speaks to technological advance while maintaining commitment to human values and sustainability.
A 60-second countdown played on Toshiba Vision LED billboard and monitors throughout the space indicating it was time for guests to move into the R Lounge overlooking a busy Times Square at sunset. Cyber Illusionist Marco Tempest took the stage as the evening’s emcee and welcomed a series of speakers including Masaaki Osumi, Chairman & CEO, Toshiba America, Taizo Nishimuro, Adviser to the Board Toshiba Corporation, Richard Parsons, Senior Advisor Providence Equity, Scott Maccabe, President of Toshiba America Business Solutions and His Excellency, Reiichiro Takahashi, Ambassador & Consul General of Japan to the United States.
At the conclusion of remarks, Marco took the stage and performed a series of illusions entitled “Anniversary” in which he used augmented reality and other technologies to make magic for the audience. As a finalé to the stage program, Marco invited two audience members to join him onstage. Next he called out to the audience to shout out their own lucky numbers, which he then wrote onto a board for all to see. The audience volunteers then added up the numbers on Marco’s board and read the number aloud: 201563. When Marco asked if that number had any special meaning, he then inserted a comma showing that the number was actually the day’s date: June 3, 2015 and the date of Toshiba’s 50th Anniversary. The audience was even more amazed when Marco gestured to the Toshiba Vision Billboard, displaying the same number in a grand reveal moment.
Following the performance, guests remained in the glass-enclosed R Lounge and enjoyed cocktails while watching their candid photos appear on the Toshiba Vision billboard overlooking Times Square.
Empire is proud to serve Toshiba America on this occasion of its 50th Anniversary. Empire has had presence in Japan and Asia and for over two decades and we opened our Tokyo office over 10 years ago, allowing us to serve both Asia-based clients around the world as well as to support global businesses with their events and projects throughout Asia.