For the fourth year in a row, the Executive Council of New York, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering innovation and commerce in New York City, chose Empire Entertainment to produce their Ten Awards program in New York City. This program, billed as "The Academy Awards of Business," annually recognizes the best & brightest in the New York business universe. The host sponsor for this important program was Real Estate giant Cushman & Wakefield. Other sponsors of this year's program included NASDAQ, Zagat Survey, Microsoft, Google, OfficeTiger, Accenture, Loews Hotels, IBM and Philips among others. The Awards program was again hosted by CNBC's Liz Claman and featured a keynote address by former HP CEO Carly Fiorina.

This year's award winners were: CEO of the Year: Jonathan Tisch, Loews HotelsCIO of the Year: Jack Nelson, Mount Sinai Medical CenterDealmaker of the Year: Jonathan Gray, Blackstone Group and Philip Falcone, Harbinger Capital PartnersBest International Non-Profit: Ami Nahshon, The Abraham Fund InitiativesEducator of the Year: Dr. Deborah Kenny, Village AcademiesBest New Product or Service: Are Traasdahl, ThumbPlay and David Rose, Angelsoft LLCCFO of the Year: David Turner, Thomson FinancialMarketer of the Year: John Hayes, American ExpressInnovator of the Year: Jason Finger, SeamlessWebBest Up and Comer: Jared Kushner, New York ObserverBest Executive Team: Tim Armstrong, Penry Price and Craig Nevill-Manning, Google There was also a special Ten Awards NASDAQ Closing Bell ceremony with the winners at NASDAQ's MarketSite in Times Square.

For this upscale event for more than 400 attendees, Empire provided virtually all services including venue selection, staging and set design, sound, lighting, the production of graphics packages, and all program graphic production, catering, stage management, decor, florals, logistics management, security, and signage.

Empire is a leading creative producer of business events, meetings and awards shows worldwide.

When a well-respected, Hong Kong-based production company was searching for the ideal talent to headline an important event for an international jewelry company's top customers, they turned to Empire Entertainment. The entertainment for this spectacular event needed to be suitable for a highly discerning group of high net worth individuals and would have to integrate effectively into the sumptuous visual surroundings designed by the production company. Empire worked with the client to identify several candidates and ultimately negotiated with and secured the client's first choice, Portland, Oregon-based orchestra Pink Martini, to perform at the event in their debut China performance.

Pink Martini are a 14 piece contemporary orchestra, led by Chinese-American musical director Thomas Lauderdale and fronted by female vocalist China Forbes. They have performed throughout the world including at the Hollywood Bowl and the Grand opening of the Disney Concert Hall. Pink Martini play elegant music ranging from jazz standards from the 1930s and 1940's to original contemporary originals. The band performs songs in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, Greek, and English. Their music is elegant, sophisticated and ideal for champagne celebrations throughout the world. For this singular event, every detail had to be precisely managed and Empire and the client worked closely with Pink Martini on elements ranging from song list and sequence, to costuming, hair, makeup, and jewelry.

Pink Martini even agreed to learn and rehearse a Chinese song, which thrilled the audience when it was performed as a surprise. After Guests finished dinner at the event, the stage was revealed and Pink Martini played a 75-minute set which soon had guests up and dancing along with several professional dance couples in costume who had been brought in for the evening. Pink Martini's Chinese song brought applause from the audience and their dance-oriented renditions songs like Brasil and Dancez-Vous kept them cheering for encores. The evening ended with a pink champagne VIP meet & greet with the band backstage with the client's managing directors and top customers. For this engagement Empire worked closely with the production company to contract the talent, manage visas and work permits, travel, hotel & ground transportation logistics, production and creative details.

Empire is a leading provider of headline entertainment to production company partners throughout the world. Through its relationships with these companies and Empire's own Asia and Latin America divisions, Empire is able to offer world-class production & entertainment services whether the venue is in Hong Kong, China or elsewhere.

FilmAid International is an extraordinary not for profit organization founded by producer Caroline Baron that partners with Hollywood studio and sponsors to provide motion picture entertainment in refugee camps around the world. For their first ever gala event, FilmAid selected Empire Entertainment to serve as production company. The gala event was held at the Time Warner Cafe in New York City and was attended by over 600 guests. The event commenced a VIP Screening of "God Grew Tired of Us" followed by a panel discussion with Dan Harris. Afterwards guests moved into a cocktails / hors d'oeuvres reception for which Perrier Jouet and Dewars were champagne and liquor sponsors.

Up next was a brief speaking program with remarks by Caroline Baron and the evening's two honorees, Tribeca Films founder Jane Rosenthal and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.The high-point of the evening was a 20-minute, solo acoustic concert performance by legendary musician Elvis Costello who performed hits including "Allison" and "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love & Understanding?" The event was attended by many celebrities including Ed Burns & Christy Turlington, Danny Glover, Julia Ormond, Matt Dillon and more.For this highly successful, first-time fundraiser Empire provided all production including the Elvis Costello concert, stage management, logistics and coordination and goody bags / in kind andsponsorship solicitation, arranging for sponsorship / donations from HBO, Dewars, Perrier Jouet, Dylan's Candy Bar, Time Out Magazine, Shu Uemura, Judith Ripka, Leading Hotels of the World and others.

Empire is proud to support the efforts of FilmAid International. More information about the charity and information on how to make donations is available at http://www.filmaid.org/

When an important, international charitable organization focused on raising money for education in India needed help, they turned to Empire Entertainment. Pratham USA's Tri State chapter raised over $750,000 during their Annual Gala event attended by over 700 people at New York's Marriott Marquis, Times Square. Pratham is a grassroots non-profit organization that serves over 200,000 children daily in nearly 5,000 underprivileged areas in over 50 cities and 14 states throughout India. The Gala began with a cocktail hour where guests mingled with each other, sipped drinks and indulged in savory Indian appetizers while sizing up the fabulous silent auction items ranging from original Indian artwork to jewelry and even professional photography and spa packages.

Pratham Leadership Sameer Mittal , Sheila Hooda and Anil Shah welcomed the guests followed by the Gala Chairs Drs Leena and Nitin Doshi of Diagnostic Imaging Group who lit the lamp to begin the event in an auspicious Diwali flavor. Emceed by Sreenath Srinivasan, Dean of Students at Columbia Journalism School, the attendees were treated to an electrifying East-West fusion musical performance by the known band Aakruti. The festive event of Diwali added the perfect touch of celebrations to the mood of the attendees. While many got the opportunity to meet their favorite Indian personalities including actor Kal Penn, actress Sarita Choudhury, supermodel Ujwala Raut singer Asha Puthli, socialite Meera Gandhi, Olympian Chetan Baboor, and UN Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor - all sympathetic to organization's goal— to have all the nation's children in school and learning well by 2010.The celebrities demonstrated their commitment to the cause by driving the pledge drive. Socialite Meera Gandhi touched the minds of many with her captivating words as she stressed on the importance of education, "When you educate a child, you're transforming not just one person, but generations to come". Choudhury and Raut, both mothers themselves, expressed how lucky they felt that their children have access to stellar New York City educations and said they wished that the children of their homeland would have the same.

For this major fund-raising event within the New York Indian business and social community, Empire provided all celebrity solicitation, consulting on the overall design and flow of the event and onsite stage management of the program and performances.

Empire is a leading producer of international fundraising events and is an important service provider to India-based businesses and organizations both in the United States and in India.

When a newly-formed charitable organization, led by 17 year old founder Max Cohen, faced the daunting challenges of making a splash in New York City on it's first ever event, they turned to Empire Entertainment and event designer Colin Cowie to make dreams come true. The event would be even more challenging than most on account of the necessity to appeal adult-age donors and sponsors, while remaining cool and relevant to the largely teen audience from all of New York City's elite private and public schools. Empire Entertainment, Colin Cowie and Teens Against Cancer Founder Max Cohen and his committee of friends worked hard to deliver success.

Teens Against Cancer held it's first fundraising event on October 12, 2006 at Gotham Hall in New York City with the goal of raising money for the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. The benefit featured musical performances by SONY Music artist, Teddy Geiger, a concert by The Roots and dance music by DJ Cassidy as well as a fashion show choreographed by Thrash Creatir Sheryl Murakami for Seven Jeans and LeRock. The event also featured a live auction for items such as a weekend at the Atlantis Resort and a Monday night dinner table at Rao's restaurant. For the teenage guests the event offered a raffle for dinner at Ciprianis, sport jerseys and sports tickets.

TAC was founded in 2005 by then 17 year-old New York City student Max Cohen after his mother overcame a terminally ill case of Cancer. Cohen started the organization in hopes to raise awareness in teenagers about the disease and to show them that they also can make a difference. "After my mother became ill with Cancer her endless display of courage and the pain that my family and I fought through inspired me to begin Teens Against Cancer," Cohen said. "I want teenagers to be aware of what Cancer is and to provide support to anyone who has to cope with it in their life."

The event was designed and decorated by renowned event designer Colin Cowie. Entertainment and production were handled by Empire Entertainment. Robbins Wolfe Caterers graciously donated the catering and Lizzie Grubman handled all Public Relations. The benefit was sponsored by Seven Jeans, LaRock and One Step-up.In the end, the event was a huge success, drawing over 500 attendees and raising substantial funds for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

Empire is a leading producer of not for profit events and has the creative flexibility to produce events targeted to any demographic including teen /youth audiences.

Competitive video gaming is poised to become the newest sensation in televised professional sports with the launch of DIRECTV's Championship Gaming Series, a video gaming competition that treats games in the same manner as traditional sports and the players as professional athletes. When DIRECTV sought to premiere its new program with simultaneous press events in New York City and Los Angeles, Empire was called to produce both events. Empire worked closely with DIRECTV's events team to identify and select key event venues that had a buzz factor, a design that fit with the video gaming theme, and a central location. The 40/40 Club, owned by rap mogul Jay-Z, was chosen to host the New York City event because its existing projection, LCD screens and monitors were perfect for client and sponsor branding, video gaming demos, and most importantly, the main presentation.

Since the program will be broadcast in high definition, Empire brought in HD Cam decks and compatible video switchers to upgrade the in-house projection, in addition to bringing in two 63" HD plasmas to air loops of the show after the presentation. Guests munched on a menu of video gamer staples that included miniature cheeseburgers and beef tacos, teriyaki chicken skewers and sweets such as fried Snickers and fried Twinkies. DJ Mighty Mi spun the perfect mix of old school and new hip hop while guests played video games on XBOX 360 consoles hooked up to individual LCD screens around the club.

In Los Angeles, Hollywood nightclub The Ivar, which has been featured on HBO's Entourage and CW's America's Next Top Model, was selected for the West Coast premiere event. To ensure that the presentation looked sharp, the existing projectors were swapped out for more powerful, brighter projectors and Digi-Beta decks were used instead of DVD. Catering was provided by Gourmet Celebrations and featured tasty items such as Chinese chicken salad in mini takeout boxes, mini crab cakes, and mac ‘n cheese bites. Attendees played games including Dead or Alive 4, Project Gotham Racing and Halo 2 on freestanding mobile XBOX 360 gaming kiosks. Hollywood favorite DJ Pesce kept the party going with contemporary hip hop. Empire was responsible for managing multiple elements of both events, including venue, RSVP tracking, guest registration, audio/visual, DJ, catering, XBOX gaming & security.

Many corporations choose Empire Entertainment to produce their high-tech events.

Lift Up America is a collaborative effort of companies including Tyson Foods, Give the Gift of Sight (a Luxottica Group foundation), Starkey Hearing Foundation and Interstate Batteries working with professional and college sports teams and local nonprofit agencies to provide the gifts of food, sight, hearing, hope and comfort to our nation's less fortunate.The objective of the Sept. 12 event in New York City was to encourage individuals and corporations to be "heroes" by reaching out to the less fortunate.

Corporations provided goods and services to Lift Up America that were distributed to the less fortunate at a large, one-day distribution event. These corporations included Tyson Foods (protein), Luxottica (vision care) and Starkey Hearing Foundation (hearing aids) and Interstate Batteries (batteries). Added to this were "hero celebrities", Navy seamen and sport celebrities from the New York Giants and the New York Yankees who helped to load humanitarian aid onto the trucks of 100 "hero agencies" of New York City. These "Hero Agencies" distributed the aid to those in need throughout New York City.

On a sunny, Tuesday morning on the day after the 5th anniversary of 9/11, Empire helped Lift Up America organize a singular aid distribution event at Pier 92. Approximately Seven trailer loads of food and other goods were distributed with the help of volunteers, the US Navy and US Marines who arrived on the USS San Antonio.The distribution event also featured a press conference on the waterfront highlighting representatives from each corporation and partner.The successsful event distributed a great deal of aid in many forms to over 100 local relief agencies.Empire was delighted to be a part of the Lift Up America team and provided staging, sound, lighting, electrical power distribution, rigging, onsite management and stage management.

When one of the world's most sophisticated corporations wanted a keynote speaker who could deliver the right closing message for their important, company-wide marketing symposium, they turned to Empire to recommend appropriate candidates. The chosen speaker would need to be able to hold the attention of an audience at the end of a long day of meetings, entertain and inspire them, and also deliver some important messages that would reinforce and underscore the content delivered by speakers earlier in the program. Empire was able to recommend and ultimately deliver best-selling author and one of the world's leading contemporary voices in marketing theory, Malcolm Gladwell, to deliver the keynote address. Gladwell's insightful best-seller, The Tipping Point, talked about the factors that turn small developments into full-blown cultural phenomena - the holy grail of marketing.

Gladwell's newest book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, is about the power of intuition and the decisions we make based on our first impressions. Understanding of the messages of this book are also essential to understanding the minds of the today's consumers. Gladwell's entertaining speech and question & answer session were able to meet the client's objectives perfectly. Gladwell's anecdotal and often humorous presentations keep everyone engaged until the very end of the marketing meeting and the substance of his remarks complemented the overall meeting content perfectly.

When the Jane Goodall Foundation held a fundraising event on the grounds of the Hampton's home of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and his wife, Empire was delighted to be a part of the all star event team. Overall event management for the event was handled by HWPR's Virginia Coleman while Publicity was handled by HWPR's Paul Lerner. Charles Attal Presents handled overall production management, catering was provided by Robbins Wolfe / Eventeur and the event was photographed by Patrick McMullan. The event took place on a spectacular evening in the Hamptons and featured poolside cocktails, a dinner, program and performance in a large tent on the grounds provided by Stamford Tents. The program included welcoming remarks by Howard & Sheri Schultz, a video on the work of the Jane Goodall Foundation, a rare keynote address by the iconic Chimpanzee researcher, Dr. Jane Goodall, a live auction led by Jamie Niven, a headline acoustic performance by Sarah McLachlan, and dancing with DJ Tom Finn. The celebrity attendees included Candice Bergen, Dina Merrill and Katie Couric. Among the highlights of the evening were the performance by Sarah McLachlan who performed at the piano and on guitar with accompaniment of two vocalists and a guitarist. Sarah's mellow set included several of her hits and covers such as the Beatles' "Blackbird." Sarah's incredible, soothing voice set the perfect tone for the evening.

For this event, Empire Entertainment handled all sound, lighting, video projection, electrical power and concert production management. Empire is a leading producer of high-end not-for-profit events.

When Joe Rigotti, Creative Director of Accent on Cincinnati, the biggest meeting planner and special events company in Ohio, needed a headline concert act to top last year's Hall and Oates performance, he once again turned to Empire Entertainment to secure, book, and produce the talent.There were whispers among the 2300 attendees of the premier insurance company's annual conference that topping last year's entertainment - Hall and Oates, would be impossible. But when the curtain rose and the surprise musical guest was revealed, the crowd roared in excitement and applause as Glenn Frey and his band hit the first notes of the Eagles classic, "Take It Easy," which Frey co-wrote with Don Henley and Jackson Browne.Frey, a member of both the songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, played a greatest hits show that brought the audience to its feet, waving company branded glow balls that were distributed to the entire crowd.

The set list included "Lying Eyes," "Tequila Sunrise," "Take it to the Limit," "Heartache Tonight, " "Peaceful Easy Feeling," as well as several of Frey's solo original hits such as "The Heat is On," "You Belong to the City" and "Smugglers Blues," which is best known for being turned into the smash 80's TV show, Miami Vice.Frey's music, which evokes an endless California desert road trip, was a perfect match for the executive crowd and spouses on hand at Cincinnati's Aronoff Center for The Arts. After receiving a standing ovation, The Glenn Frey Band returned for a rousing encore of "Desperado" and the entire crowd sang in unison for the seventh time.The following evening at the same conference, Empire Entertainment showcased the talents of Greg Fitzsimmons, a stand-up comedian who won four Emmy Awards writing for the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and who has appeared on David Letterman 5 times. Fitzsimmons' stories about his family was a huge hit with the family-oriented demographic.

Empire is a leading booker and producer of major concert acts, comedians, and speakers for corporate meeting and events the world over.