FilmAid International is an NGO founded by independent filmmakers that provides displaced people with actionable information about their rights, safety, health, and future. Through video, radio, print, SMS, and digital media campaigns created and distributed in collaboration with refugee communities, FilmAid is able to reach over 400,000 people in refugee camps and urban areas every year.

FilmAid’s 20th Anniversary Power of Film celebration took place early November at the Standard Hotel above New York’s Highline. The evening highlighted the initiatives and powerful impact made by the organization and its new partner, Internews.

The cocktail event and program included moving remarks by FilmAid Founder Caroline Baron and Jeanne Bourgault, President and CEO of Internews, introduced by Internews board member Cristiana Falcone Sorrell. Kati Marton and Tim Blake Nelson spoke as well as More Raça, who travelled from Kosovo to share her personal journey from refugee to filmmaker. Her path was inspired by watching cartoons and Charlie Chaplin movies screened by FilmAid’s Mobile Cinemas as a six-year-old refugee in Macedonia.

Actress, producer, and director, Katie Holmes, presented this year’s Richard C. Holbrooke Memorial Award for Dedication to Humanitarian Service to Participant CEO, David Linde, in honor of his work, films, and activism.

The retro-modern setting with wooden panels allowed photography by National Geographic Photographer, Karen Kasmauski, to stand out. These photos captured the journey of FilmAid’s Mobile Cinema screenings of the film “He Named Me Malala,” in partnership with Participant, at various refugee camps in Kenya and Jordan, reaching over 35,000 female refugees in 2016.

The Power of Film underscores the influence and potential of film to effect positive change in the world. FilmAid and Internews continue to support vulnerable populations and have already expanded into the southern Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo, where political persecution and economic collapse have displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Empire is honored to support the power of storytelling by producing galas and festivals such as FilmAid’s Power of Film celebration.

To learn more please visit https://www.filmaid.org

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Get Global is the summit for international business expansion. The annual conference brings together dynamic mix of global business executives, industry experts, governmental and NGO resources, and business partners to provide networking and tools to facilitate international business growth.

Expansion into foreign markets can pose significant challenges but the rewards can be great given that we live in an increasingly globalized world where ideas and goods flow freely. GetGlobal helps companies find the right resources and partners to succeed.

The two-day conference is a mix of keynote presentations, panel discussions, breakouts, and roundtables discussions. In 2019, GetGlobal took a big leap by expanding in its own right with a move to the Seaside Ballrooms of the Long Beach Convention Center. Over 1,000 attendees registered, with over 40 sponsors participating and 14 exhibiting.

This is the third year that Empire has been responsible for producing GetGlobal. Empire works year year-round with the GetGlobal staff to secure the venue and design the flow of the event within the venue. We coordinate all in-venue AV and food and beverage, set up credentialing systems, and design and manage the graphic look of all the spaces. Empire also assists with logistics for all speakers and presenters, room managers, and exhibitors to make sure the conference runs smoothly.

To learn more visit https://2019.getglobal.co​

As Presenting Sponsor of Wedding Weekend on Madison Avenue, EstéeLauder brought a series of fragrance-related events and activations to engage with brides to be.

The Lowell Hotel’s restaurant Majorelle provided an enchanting atmosphere for brides-to-be to engage in fun activities to help them prepare for their big days.

Brand Ambassadors offered samples of Estée Lauder fragrances, Beautiful Belle and Beautiful Belle Love. In addition, Carson Kressly from Say Yes to the Dress gave bridal consultations, guests participated in fragrance sampling and bouquet-making with Belle Fleur, and a Master Class tutorial with French it-girl, beauty blogger, and Estée Lauder Global Beauty Director, Violette.

Additionally, arranged along seven blocks of Madison Avenue’s busiest shopping areas, stood ten floral installations featuring luscious florals cascading from oversized golden gift boxes each bearing the hashtag #lovebreaksallrules.

Empire was thrilled to support Estée Lauder with this tastefully-branded, weekend-long series of chic wedding weekend activations.

Empire is a leading producer of experiential marketing events for some of the world’s most coveted luxury brands.

To commemorate one week before ONE Championship held its 100th event at the historic Ryogoku Kokukikan, ONE held its very first Martial Arts Fan Fest.

Held at the Bellesalle Shibuya Garden, the ONE Championship Fan Fest celebrated the best of martial arts with the world’s top martial artists and fighting game esports players.

Selected fans received the opportunity to participate in autograph and meet-and-greet sessions with ONE Championship CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, as well as their favorite ONE Championship athletes and ring girls. In the ring there were also special martial arts demonstrations from organizations Shin Karate, Shooto, and Pancrase, including martial arts seminars and open workouts with marital arts superstars Demetrious Johnson, Aung La N Sung, Miesha Tate, and Shinya Aoki.

On the competitive esports spectrum, ONE Esports had partnered with Bandai Namco and Capcom to hold the ONE TEKKEN Invitational and ONE Street Fighter Tokyo Challenge. This gave the community the opportunity to compete against some of the top fighting game players in the world. The winners of these challenges would receive for a combined prize pool of over 3.5 million JPY.

Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series: Japan vs. the World, which will see one athlete earn a USD $100,000 contract with ONE Championship, was broadcasted live globally with Abema TV being the broadcaster sponsorship.

Empire was responsible for event planning, production, managing and operations, producing yet another successful event with ONE Championship.

When adidas Japan wanted to make a statement at Atmos Con Vol. 7, one of Japan’s largest sneaker conventions, they called upon Empire Japan to help design and execute the perfect booth experience.

Held at Hikarie Hall Shibuya, Atmos Con Vol. 7 brought out thousands of sneakerheads for a multi-brand retail experience featuring some of the globes most coveted kicks. This included Nike Sportswear, Asics, Crep Project, Fila, Puma, and Reebok Classics.

Inspired by the design of their latest footwear, the “NMD_R-1 G-SNK”, a glow-in-the-dark all-over snakeskin prime knit, an installation was created that swallowed visitors with designs of phosphorescence snake motif. Including this unique experience, the first 200 people who purchased the shoes & t-shirt set were gifted a silk screen designed tote bag.

Empire Japan handed all aspects of production and operation, producing yet another successful event with adidas Japan.

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In the seventh year in a row, Empire's Tokyo office had the opportunity to produce the leading Japanese IT event for Salesforce Japan. Salesforce.com this year hosted over 13,000 attendees for a two full days of sessions, expos, and events taking place at both the Prince Park Tower and Tokyo Prince Hotel. This exciting event once again gathered the leaders in the IT industry from around Japan to Tokyo where the latest in software, technology, and ideas were showcased.

This year’s keynote speakers included Parker Harris (Co-Founder & CTO, Salesforce) and Shinichi Koide (Chairman, President & CEO Salesforce Japan), along with many illustrious speakers from in and outside of Japan.

This year’s exhibition hall also enjoyed a similar amount of energy as last year with 86 sponsors in total. The Tokyo Prince Hotel, located next to the Prince Park Tower, showcased the Trailblazer Zone, which had large rebranded elements throughout the various zones and served as the main hub for developer experts.

Empire’s Tokyo-based Asia division was responsible for all event design, production and management, including technical production and coordination and continues to support Salesforce in showcasing the latest in technology and cloud services. Empire is a leading producer of global conferences and events in the Asian region and serves as the partner of choice for some of the world’s most sophisticated technology companies to produce their premier business events.

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On the first weekend of October, the New York Times shared its love of food with New York City, launching the first-ever New York Times Food Festival.

The New York Times partnered with Empire to produce both a large public-facing festival in Bryant Park as well as two full days of live Talks programming at The Times Center, uniting more than 20 exceptional chefs and restaurants, food journalists, and experts with thousands of passionate foodies.

The Bryant Park component featured restaurants and chefs hand-chosen by New York Times editors Sam Sifton and Christine Muhlke, including Frenchette, TAK Room, The Beatrice Inn, EmmySquared, Adda, and more. All of the participating chefs sold items not available in their restaurants, all inspired by classic New York City street food.

Saturday morning, The Park opened with a ceremonial “noodle cutting” by Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Times CEO, Mark Thompson, on the Main Stage using an 18’ lasagna noodle in place of a traditional ribbon. The Park’s iconic fountain entrance revealed a playful, yet elevated food festival design with red patterns and clean, picnic-inspired accents. A substantial portion of the Park showcased curated restaurants and chefs to the public to allow for the community to experience the event.

In another portion of The Park, attendees paid an admission to access food and beverage available for purchase. Inside the ticketed area, more than 4,000 attendees over two full days found themselves in a food-lover’s paradise of reimagined street food.

The New York Times partnered with Farm to People to provide the Marketplace, a retail environment selling artisanal food items and New York Times merchandise. Additional partners included The Best of Smorgasburg with seven of the Brooklyn institutions’s best vendors and Ample Hills Creamery serving their new, exclusive Times-inspired ice cream, “The Flavor of Record”.

At the east end of The Park, the NYT Cooking Stage hosted live cooking demos by Thomas Keller, Angie Mar, Alison Roman, Melissa Clark, and many more. A smaller Workshop Pavilion featured specialty sessions including a Fall wine preview with NYT wine critic, Eric Asimov, mixology master classes presented by Tequila Don Julio, Bulleit, Tanqueray Gin, and Johnnie Walker, and cake decorating classes by Instagram wunderkind, Heber Clawson.

The main stage featured sets by DJs Coleman, Aaron DRM, Rich Medina, and Natasha Diggs, who kept the crowd dancing on the lawn, while custom modular seating supported by Uber Eats and picnic tables gave the attendees a place to enjoy their food. Uber Eats also sponsored two clever installations featuring bicycles and takeout boxes promoting their #LetsEat campaign.

Presenting sponsor MasterCard hosted a tent where card holders and attendees were invited to “Experience the Taste of Priceless,” enjoying custom macarons and complimentary sparkling wine pours. Their tent featured a gorgeous logo installation of illuminated florals for their #StartSomethingPriceless messaging while elegant cutouts in the wall lit displays of the macarons in floral scenes of yellow and red, representing the Mastercard logo.

Just blocks away, The Times Center hosted two full days of live journalism, interviews, and book signings in partnership with Kitchen Arts & Letters. Panel discussions included Eating as a Living: Life of a Food Critic featuring Frank Bruni, Ruth Reichl, Sam Sifton, and Pete Wells from the NYT and Bourdain and Beyond, featuring Andrew Zimmern and Pati Jinich in conversation with Kim Severson. Other participants included Massimo Bottura, David Chang, and Action Bronson, among many others.

Downstairs at the Times Center, Johnnie Walker and Bailey’s provided cocktail tastings and Guinness allowed attendees to “Personalize Your Pint” with custom-printed photos in the foam. REI invited guests to customize their own trail mix.

For this first-time festival, Empire served as overall producer of the outdoor festival and Times Center activations. Empire’s role included ideation, layout, design, tenting, permitting, security, staging and technical production, staffing, culinary integration, sponsor ideation and activations, management of registration and operations of stages, and much more.  

Empire is a leading producer of world-class festival and culinary events and we were honored to work with The New York Times Company to help produce this successful, first-ever New York Times Food Festival.

To learn more and sign up for information on next year’s Festival visit https://www.nytfoodfestival.com

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Ranked by Forbes as one of the top five most inspiring conferences, PopTech recently convened its 23rd annual forum, bringing together brilliant minds from all corners of the world. Hosted by Moran Cerf, this year’s gathering featured a robust community of remarkable scientists, humanitarians, technologists, designers, artists, innovators, corporate and governmental leaders, academics, and those who defy easy categorization.

With an overall 2019 theme of “Shift”, PopTech 2019 demonstrated that we are designed to change, to push the limits of possibility, take bold action, lead by example, shape the future. The diversity and deep expertise of each speaker delivered a series of topic-defining presentations that allowed guests to explore future trends in business, innovation, creative expression, and social justice.

The campus-like setting at Point Lookout provided an immersive and enriching environment that facilitated experiential interaction and fostered authentic human connection. The multi-day program featured interactive sessions, shared meals, and a closing cocktail reception featuring locally sourced, sustainable oyster’s delivered by their farmers.  

Many of the highlights of the three-day weekend occurred during the carefully-orchestrated, yet spontaneous evening activities. These included hosted fireside chats, late night debates, stargazing, and collective jam sessions. Each element was designed to help guests discover how shared potential exceeds the reach of individual aspiration.

PopTech programming focused on many of the most pressing issues of our time and was co-curated by Leetha Filderman, President of PopTech, and former hacker, Moran Cerf, Professor of Neuroscience and Business at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, as well as PopTech’s Curatorial Advisors.

The programming line-up covered the topics of Climate Change, The Future of Food, Privacy and Surveillance, Disruption in Higher Education, Artistic Expression, Connectivity, Networks, and Mobility, among others.

A sampling of participants included Internet pioneer, Bob Metcalfe; Earthrise Alliance CEO, Lori Garver; Conservation X Labs Founder & CEO, Alex Dehgan; The Honorable Paul Martin, Former Prime Minister of Canada; Phillip Agnew, Co-Founder the Dream Defenders; Sinan Aral, MIT professor & Founding Partner of Manifest Capital; Nusrat Durrani, visionary media executive & MTV World Founder; Sarah Hurwitz, Head speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama and Former Senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama; Pedro Alonzo, Adjunct Curator at Dallas Contemporary; Assaf Biderman, CEO, Superpedestrian; Chris Riley, geographer and author; Alex Kingsbury, The New York Times Senior Staff Editor; Yves-Alexandre De Montjoye; and many more.

Live performances by composer and electro-acoustic violist, Martha Mooke, Grammy-award winning beatboxer, Rahzel Brown, and singer-songwriter, Jill Sobule, had the audience captivated.

PopTech, founded by Bob Metcalfe and John Sculley, is a 23-year-old non-profit committed to showcasing the vanguard of emerging technology, science, exploration, and creative expression.

The organization is famous for stretching beyond passive idea sharing, as it has cultivated a community focused on robust exchange and a bias for action.

Empire has been proud to work with the PopTech team for several years to produce this extraordinary and inspirational event.

For more information, visit https://poptech.org/

The Global Security Forum is an annual international gathering bringing together a multi-disciplinary network of experts, practitioners, and policy-makers from government, security, academia, media, entertainment, international organizations, the humanitarian sector, the private sector, and beyond to discuss the world’s most pressing security issues. This invitation-only event provides a unique platform for international stakeholders to convene and offer solutions that address the international community’s leading security challenges.

The 2019 Global Security Forum took place at the St. Regis hotel in Doha, Qatar. The two-day conference explored the security challenges posed by the proliferation of modern disinformation and the serious implications this has on an increasingly interconnected world.

The nexus between disinformation and technological advances has produced an unprecedented threat landscape, which requires a whole-of-society approach. The global effects of disinformation–whether via organized campaigns that influence elections or policy decisions, or via misinformation given to individuals or groups engaging in violent acts of perceived retribution–have become common and persistent security threats. All nations are dealing with this phenomenon. Private and non-profit organizations are dealing with the effects as well. Relying solely on governments or the private sector alone to counter disinformation, however, will not work; it is imperative to convene an open dialogue in a multi-stakeholder environment to develop comprehensive solutions.

The 2019 Forum convened officials and experts from across the world, including government, technology platforms, media, advertising and marketing agencies, social media, academia, think tanks, and international organizations, among others. The program was opened by His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior for the State of Qatar. Speakers included Defense Ministers, ambassadors, legal analysts, and news correspondents from over 40 countries.

The two days included moderated panel discussions, workshops, keynote presentations, and fireside chats. Empire was responsible for all production support, speaker logistics, speaker, staff and attendee travel and accommodations, food and beverage, credentialing, press support, and graphics. The entire conference was webcast on MSNBC and Al Jazeera with over 10 news agencies sharing the press platform.

Empire also produced a gala dinner on the first night of the conference. The dinner was sponsored by Qatar Airways, with His Excellency, Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, in attendance. The evening began with a reception that included an Oud player, calligrapher, henna tattoo artist, and live falcon. The dinner was a formal three-course plated dinner with a live local jazz band.

Empire is a leading producer of international conferences and has worked extensively throughout the Middle East and Gulf Region.

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The Hult Prize’s $1 million check is the largest sum awarded to the winners of any social good innovation competition. This is because the solutions the Hult Prize funds are both effective, and especially urgent. The competition, which is open to students around the world, encourages and energizes young entrepreneurs to build for-profit startups that focus on critical social challenges. To date, the Hult Prize has engaged over one million students and deployed over $50 million in capital to winning projects.

Each year, the Hult Prize directs applicants, of which there may be as many as 50,000, to focus on a single, specific issue. In 2017, participants designed innovations to improve the lives of at least 1 million refugees over the next five years, and the winning proposal was an initiative to bring community transit hubs to refugee settlements, solving for the significant mobility gap that migrants face.

The Hult Prize main event takes place inside the United Nations Headquarters, with the presentations by the final six teams occurring in the ECOSOC chamber in the afternoon. Once the presentations are complete, all the participants go upstairs to a reception in the Delegate Dining Room, both inside and on the patio that overlooks the East river while the judges are given 45 minutes to deliberate and select a winner. As in years past, President Bill Clinton has joined them for a final briefing and then he announces the winner from the stage. President Clinton will also announce the next year’s challenge.

Empire’s team was responsible for all production support for the presentation and reception, venue management, food and beverage, accommodations, credentialing, press support, set design, and graphics. We also coordinated with the UN broadcast office to have the proceedings webcast.

To learn more about the Hult Prize, please visithttp://www.hultprize.org​