To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of O Magazine, The Hearst Corporation planned and presented the Live Your Best Life Weekend in New York City. The centerpiece of the weekend’s events was a one night only, one-woman original show featuring none other than Oprah Winfrey herself. For this major undertaking, Hearst Corporation and Executive Producer Scott Sanders Productions partnered with Empire Entertainment to serve as the production company. The original show traced the arc of Oprah’s life & career, was written by Oprah Winfrey and directed by renowned theatrical director George C. Wolfe. The show was be supported by a ‘living magazine’ backdrop of projected visual media created by Batwin + Robin.

The show, performed live before a full house, was also taped for use on oprah.com and potential future broadcast.On the evening of Saturday, May 8, the O Magazine 10th Anniversary show took place and Oprah Winfrey bought down the house with her powerful, moving show. The presentation featured Oprah talking about all aspects of her life and career, and featured much rare imagery on three large projection panels. At the end of the program the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes came onstage to perform a number and brought out a cake that revealed Hugh Jackman who led the entire house in singing “Happy Birthday.” In the midst of planning this already substantial production, Oprah's production company, Harpo, decided to take this opportunity to also bring The Oprah Winfrey Show to Radio City Music Hall. Responding quickly to this major shift in plans, Empire worked closely with the Oprah Winfrey Show to support the extensive needs of their production within a single, unified production design.

In addition to Oprah Winfrey, the show featured a live performance by Christina Aguilera and, for the first time, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Phil, Suze Orman, and Nate Berkus all shared the stage together on one live program. The show also featured actress Cybill Shepherd and her daughters, Ariel Oppenheim and Clementine Ford, who participated in a "Mother Daughter" fashion segment. For the O Magazine 10th Anniverary show, Empire managed a wide portfolio of responsibilities including production design, technical direction, venue coordination, set design & construction, lighting design, staging and set, audio, lighting, video projection, music supervision, camera and broadcast facilities, all labor coordination, contracting and payroll, performer releases and rights clearances, street permitting, front of house logistics, backstage arrangements and even facilitated a live radio broadcast by Gayle King and Oprah Radio.

Empire is a leading production company in the field of staging live, broadcast events.

Each year Google, Inc. invites kids from all over the U.S. to create their own versions of the Google logo – the ubiquitous six letters that appears on millions of desktops everyday, all over the world. The contest culminates with Google flying 40 finalists to New York City to attend a grand event in their honor. The event is called “Doodle4Google”. This year, Google enlisted Empire Entertainment to design and execute Doodle4Google, one of the marquee events in their marketing event stable. Doodle4Google 2010 began with a celebration of the kids’ work at an awards ceremony at Google’s New York headquarters. A panel of judges, which included Sesame Street star Elmo, gave the kids lots of art-making tips before handing out awards to every child, including the 2010 Doodle4Google winner, 9-year-old Makenzie Melton from El Dorado Springs, Missouri.

At the conclusion of the awards ceremony, the children piled onto luxury charter buses to head up to see their winning entries on display at none other than the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, where their work would be on public display through August 2010. The final stage of the Doodle4Google celebration took place at Central Park’s Great Hill, which was studded with white tents and colorful balloons (in the Google colors, of course), welcoming the children and their parents to afternoon of delicious eats and family fun activities. Google’s own, official “Doodlers” were on hand to sign doodles and talk art with parents and children alike.For this multi-location, precision-timed event, Empire worked closely with the Google events team to develop detailed creative for each aspect of the three separate events.

Empire provided design and decor, set design, stage and technical management, tenting, permitting, catering, activities and coordination of the live events in each location.

Each year TIME publishes the Time 100: A global list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In conjunction with this highly-anticipated editorial event, TIME hosts an exclusive Gala event in New York City attended by many current and past TIME 100 honorees, celebrities, entertainers and world leaders. Heavily covered by global media, The TIME 100 Gala is one of the highest profile newsmaker events in the world. This year's TIME 100 Gala took place on May 4, 2010 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The event consisted of multiple red carpets, an intimate cocktail reception, a seated dinner and program that combined toasts, speeches, performances, and a cocktail party following the dinner.

Performers at the TIME 100 Gala included Prince, Taylor Swift, Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg as well as remarks by President Bill Clinton, Governor Sarah Palin, Dr. Abe - singled out by TIME as one of Haiti’s “heroes”, Neil Patrick Harris, Ben Stiller, Elton John and others.For this high-stature event, all of the evening's production components require seamless execution and Empire was proud to once again assist the TIME Events team led by Christine Rosa, Executive Director of Event Marketing and Events Director Robin Bigelli, as Event Producer. Empire’s responsibilities ranged from securing the performing talent to managing venue, catering (provided by Great Performances), design & décor of all spaces, branding, step & repeat, staging, sound, lighting, video projection, video documentation, live media feed, talent and presenter coordination, stage management, staffing and security.Visit time.com to view a brief summary of this year's Time 100 http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,83166221001_1987389,00.html

Empire Entertainment is a leading producer of high profile media events and is proud to again have been chosen to produce this remarkable program for TIME.

In May 2010, Empire Entertainment returned to Alice Tully Hall to produce the Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual Chaplin Award Tribute Gala. This year's star-studded Gala, the 37th annual, honored Academy Award winner Michael Douglas. The Film Society's Annual Gala Tribute began in 1972 and honored Charles Chaplin – who returned to the US from exile to accept the commendation. Since then, the award has honored many of film's visionary talents, including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Laurence Olivier, Federico Fellini, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, and in 2009, Tom Hanks. This year's gala evening started with VIP cocktails with the honoree in the Hauser Patron's Lounge in Alice Tully Hall and was followed by a seated dinner in the glass-walled atrium.

For the dinner, Empire worked closely the Film Society of Lincoln center events team and with Gala Co-Chair Liz Swig to design a unique, Lucite table with internal LED lighting and a low, geometric centerpiece that contained florals. The dinner décor was implemented fully by Empire Entertainment.Following dinner the 1000+ guests entered the Starr Theater for the all-star program produced by Empire Entertainment. The program began with remarks by this year's event committee chair Ann Tenenbaum and by Film Society Executive Director Mara Manus and Program Director Richard Pena. Then came a career retrospective montage featuring work from Michael Douglas' past films and ending with a clip of the forthcoming, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. NBC Nightly News anchor, Brian Williams, delivered the first tribute of the evening. This was followed by film clips and tributes by writer/director Milos Forman, actress Erika Christensen, writer/director Curtis Hanson, actor Tobey Maguire, actor/comedian Danny DeVito, and actor Frank Langella.

One highlight of the evening was a live performance by Jimmy Buffett, who performed "Margaritaville" and "He Went to Paris." Buffett's performance was followed by remarks by Michael's wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and by his father, Kirk Douglas, who presented the Chaplin Award to his son. Following the tribute program the guests returned to the atrium for a DJ'ed after party with sponsored drinks by 42 Below and Stella Artois.For this high stature event Empire served as overall event producer and was responsible for overseeing creative and coordinating program participation for all participating presenters and talent, working with Lincoln center to provide necessary production design and supervision, creating the run of show and stage managing the event and working with the various film clips and graphics to integrate them into the program. Empire also designed and implemented all aspects of the red carpet and present arrivals, press and step & repeat, VIP cocktail party, dinner design & décor, catering, and after-party design including DJ booking.The program was immensely successful and the client, all of the participating presenters and Michael Douglas were ecstatic with the results.

Empire is a leading producer of high-profile award and tribute programs and is frequently engaged to present programs with international stature talent & celebrities.

When Healing the Divide and The Tibet Center invited His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet to again present his teachings in New York City, they engaged Empire Entertainment to serve as the production company. Following the success of His Holiness’ visit to New York in October 2007, Empire Entertainment eagerly agreed to return. Working in partnership with Healing the Divide, The Tibet Center and Radio City Music Hall, Empire worked on every aspect of the program including set design, logistics and technical production. Over the course of three days, His Holiness' delivered six, two-hour sessions on the topics of “A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life” by Shantideva, and Nagarjuna’s “Commentary on Bodhicitta”. The historic teachings drew full houses for three consecutive days and the public talk entitled “Awakening the Heart of Selflessness”, was introduced by Richard Gere, and was completely sold out.Each session was simultaneously translated into three different languages: Cantonese, Mandarin and Korean. In addition to its role as producer, Empire was able to secure sponsors to donate services in order to keep event costs to a minimum. ABC Carpet & Home generously donated carpeting and staging items while Turning Star discounted their fireproofing services for all flammable items. Empire coordinated the briadcast-quality recording of each session with a four camera, high-definition video package which included one robo-cam to capture His Holiness’ expressions up close. Empire is honored to have had another opportunity to present His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama at Radio City Music Hall. Empire is a leading producer of major public and civic events and programs.

TEDxTokyo 2010, held on May 15th at the Kagaku Miraikan in Odaiba, featured performances and presentations by a wide variety of global innovators including Musician and Composer Jake Shimabukuro, Filmmaker Jin Tatsumura, Brain Scientist Ken Mogi, as well as Techno-Illusionist Marco Tempest.Empire Entertainment Japan is proud to have supported TEDxTokyo 2010 through production of the debut performance of Marco Tempest's Magic Projection, and through helping to secure Symantec Corporation as a Core Partner of TEDxTokyo.Marco Tempest's performance of Magic Projection leveraged the latest application of augmented reality and projection mapping techniques in a perfect fusion of entertainment and technology. p;One website's review stated, "When the robots come to enslave us, Marco will be the only man we can trust to negotiate a truce."TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's "ideas worth spreading" mission, with TEDx events planned and coordinated independently on local basis. The concept has gone viral, and events in more than 60 countries, and a vast number of cities and communities have already been held or are in formative stages. The goal is to spark deep discussions and connections in groups both intimate and expansive.If you would like to find out more about the TEDxTokyo, please visit www.tedxtokyo.com

The Big Lunch, established by The Eden Project in 2009, is an annual event which encourages people to sit down with their neighbors for lunch on one day of the year, in a simple act of friendship and community.Over 750,000 people took part in the inaugural event, but for 2010 The Big Lunch wanted to blow past that initial benchmark and record over 3 million participants in the nationwide July event.Generating heavy media exposure in anticipation of the 2010 event was critical to achieving The Big Lunch's challenging goal of over 3 million participants. The Big Lunch called on Empire Entertainment Japan for a solution to their challenge. Empire enlisted the support of revolutionary 3D 'Trick Artist' Kurt Wenner to create an original artwork that would deliver the world of "The Big Lunch" to viewers and news outlets.

In designing this original work, Kurt Wenner placed emphasis on not only the painted artwork, but also the interactive element of the artwork, helping to underline the community-oriented theme that The Big Lunch represents. The final artwork featured a picnic scene where Londoners interacted with the floating food and other elements picture within the arwork.Kurt Wenner completed the work at a live event at Aberdeen Road in London, and the public, press, and social media response to the work was immediate and overwhelming, with one outlet reporting, "Walking the streets can be incredibly dull. Walking the streets where artist Kurt Wenner has walked before you is generally anything but. Wenner 3D piece for The Big Lunch's kickoff is more than 16 feet by 16 feet and features the largest, most beautiful picnic lunch we've ever seen. This is one sidewalk we wouldn't mind tripping over."

In April 2010, Empire Entertainment Japan had the opportunity to serve one of the world's leading IT companies, HP, in connection with their product launch event in Japan.The launch was HP’s largest Enterprise product launch event in Japan in a decade and was part of several events and initiatives taking place simultaneously across the world.The Japan event was held at Shinagawa Intercity Hall, a large, open event space in the heart of Tokyo city. The event was structured with two sessions for press and customers. For this important event Empire designed and delivered from concept to execution.Empire secured the venue, provided all staging, sound, lighting, created a branded backdrop, catering and premium items and directed the product unveiling scene by the company representative. Additionally, Empire created original videos and graphics for invitations, décor and presentations to deliver a consistent and powerful message underlining the significance of the product launch.Onstage, Hewlett Packard Japan’s President, Mr. Shinichi Koide, was joined by Intel Japan’s President Mr. Kazumasa Yoshida for the unveiling of HP’s next generation mission critical enterprise server the Superdome II.Empire produced both the Press Conference – attended by over 50 members of Japan’s top media outlets, as well as the exclusive customer launch event – attended by over 200 hundred CTO’s CIO’s and top IT professionals of Japan.In selecting Empire Japan as it's producer, HP recognized Empire's position as a leading production company of cutting-edge product launches that utilize state-of-the-art design and technology as well as an effective partner on the ground in Asia.

In 2010 the city of Oran in Algeria hosted the LNG 16 Conference. LNG is the largest event in the world dedicated to the liquefied natural gas industry, attracting more than 2,500 delegates and 200 exhibitors. The LNG Exhibition and Conference takes place every three years with LNG producer and consumer countries taking turns to organize the event.The LNG Exhibition and Conference featured several major sponsored events on each day of the multi-day conference. Empire Japan had the opportunity to produce a party for a Japanese company participating in the exhibition.

The party performances kicked off with a grand opening featuring Japanese traditional Taiko drumming. Next Empire presented a live performance of Japanese calligraphy Shodo performance in which guests could participate. The show closed with a series of mysterious “Geisha Magical Performances.” The international audience responded with thunderous applause. The party was a great success and Empire Japan collaborated with technical teams from Japan and Morocco and managed the shipping of equipment from Germany to facilitate the performances.

Empire Entertainment Japan is a production company with global production experience, able to coordinate and manage flawless productions from the Middle East and Asia to Latin American and Europe.

The setting: The idyllic Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Cancun, Mexico. The purpose: An incentive program for one of the world’s leading communication technology companies. The perfect headline entertainment: International, Platinum-selling superstar Seal.Seal’s participation in the event was kept a secret until the moment he was announced onstage to the excited audience of 500+ guests & spouses. Once onstage Seal did not disappoint. His eighty minute set included several danceable R&B and soul covers as well as all of his biggest hits including “Kiss From A Rose,” “Bring it On,” and “Crazy” which had the audience dancing and shouting for encores. Following the performance, Seal graciously greeted and talked with VIPs for almost 30 minutes, taking photos with all of them. For this incentive program, Empire worked closely with the client’s meeting production company, Swift Media Group, to identify talent candidates, negotiate the performance contract (enticing him out of the studio where we was then recording), and facilitated the development of a working production plan with Swift Media Group and local vendors. Empire also worked to manage complicated logistics including the freight of equipment into and out of Mexico, local musician’s union requirements and work permits & visas.

Empire is a leading provider of headline entertainment for corporate meetings & events and is deeply experienced in overcoming the challenges of presenting headline entertainment outside of the United States.