Vibe Media has been the go-to source reporting on urban contemporary culture since 1993. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Vibe launched the Vibe Impact Awards, setting out to honor artists who have played a significant role developing and shaping hip-hop’s culture. In order to produce this celebrity-driven special event, Vibe turned to Empire Entertainment.The first ever Impact Award was bestowed on one of the most influential women in hip-hop, 9-time Grammy Award Winner, Mary J. Blige. The event was hosted at the infamous Sunset Tower Hotel on Los Angeles during Grammy week, drawing numerous industry moguls, celebs and high profile guests. Empire worked with the venue and vendors to design an elegant dinner setting infused with sponsor Malibu Red’s signature colors throughout the dinner and cocktail space.Following red carpet arrivals and cocktails, dinner kicked off with the CEO of Vibe, Ari Horowitz, welcoming guests and introducing the host of the evening- Andre Harrell, long-time friend and the first person to sign Mary J. to Uptown Records. Jermaine Hall, Editor in Chief at Vibe, then took the stage to share Mary’s history with the brand and even got the crowd to sing in her honor. Once dinner was served, Harrell continued the program inviting Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and Sean “Diddy” Combs to recount some of their personal experiences with Mary. Queen Latifah introduced Anita Baker for a few short words, and afterwards presented the actual award to Mary J.As soon as the program ended, Empire quickly flipped the room to accommodate the additional 300 guests arriving for the after party, which had been stored inside due to weather constraints earlier in the day. The guests piled in to the sounds of DJ Homicide and a special celebrity-DJ set from Nick Cannon. Malibu Red’s specialty cocktails were flowing throughout the room as guests mingled and danced the night away.Empire congratulates Mary J. Blige on her inaugural Vibe Impact Award and becoming the most covered artist in Vibe’s history by gracing her 10th Vibe cover this month.

In January 2013 Empire Entertainment’s Tokyo-based Asia Division was honored to serve as a producer of a series of keynote speaker sessions hosted by the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office (Kantei) for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2013, otherwise known as the DAVOS meeting.The sessions, entitled “SpeakerBox” were the Japanese Prime Minister’s office’s answer to programming a “Japan Night” event, an evening organized to accommodate the forum attendees. For this amazing event, Empire was responsible for the core elements such as content producing and stage directions. Everything from titles, themes, copywriting, speaker liaison, stage settings and production were managed by the Empire team. We also had the honor of working directly with the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Shinzo Abe, to help produce his video speech on the subject of Japan’s future and its Vision in English, which appealed to the DAVOS audience. In addition to fulfilling the audiences’ appetites with wonderful Japanese delicacies such as freshly prepared Sushi and Bento, the attendee’s minds were also stimulated by the innovative and thought-provoking ideas shared by some of the world’s greatest thinkers including the following:Mr. Yasuchika Hasegawa (President and Chief Executive Officer, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited)Prof. Muhammad Yunus (Chairman, Yunus Centre Nobel Peace Prize recipient)Ms. Sadako Ogata (Former President, Japan International Cooperation Agency)MISIA (Japanese Singer / Official Supporter of JICA-TICAD V)Mr. Akira Oshima (Honorary Executive Chef, Japanese Restaurants, Hotel Okura Amsterdam)Ms. Yoshiko Ueno-Mueller, Author and “Sake Samurai”Mr. Atsutoshi Nishida (Chairman of the Board, Toshiba Corporation)Mr. Ian Bremmer (President and founder of Eurasia Group)Mr. Yorihiko Kojima (Chairman of the Board, Mitsubishi Corporation)Mr. Klaus Schwab (Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum)Empire is proud to serve governments throughout the world with creative and production services for high level thought leadership forums and conferences and is a leading producer of Head of State level events.

On Saturday, January 26, 2013, Innovation: Africa hosted their 5th annual fundraising gala at Skylight West in NYC. After five years of bringing Israeli innovation to African villages, Innovation: Africa hired Empire Entertainment to redesign and produce their 500-person cocktail party into the organization’s first-ever seated dinner and stage program.

Nearly 300 guests joined Innovation: Africa for an evening of special guests featuring a keynote address from the Tanzanian Minister of Education, Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa. Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ron Prosor was honored as well. To help break up the speaking program, Innovation: Africa engaged a costume designer to specially design pieces creatively depicting their work through an entertaining fashion show. Not all was new though when one staple of past years’ events returned, African dance troupe Batoto Yetu performed again accompanied by live drummers, bringing the guests to their feet. Even the I:A volunteers took the stage for one dance.

Following the dinner, the guests were invited to join an ever-growing crowd back downstairs at the after party. Up and coming DJ JPatt of The Knocks kept the crowd dancing late into the night, as guests were welcome to wander and experience interactive installations exhibiting the organization’s work- including an energy generating arm bike, a larger than life slide puzzle, and art installations of solar panels.

Empire is proud to partner with Innovation: Africa to celebrate their 5th anniversary, and congratulates them in their continued success bringing light and energy to rural African villages. To learn more about their work and get involved please visit http://www.innoafrica.org/

On Monday, December 10th, 2012, charity: water hosted their 7th annual charity: ball gala at the 69th Regiment Armory in NYC. Nearly 2,000 guests joined charity: water Founder Scott Harrison and host Seth Meyers, of Saturday Night Live, to help raise over $3 million in a single night. To produce this fast-growing, star-studded event, charity: water brought Empire Entertainment onboard. charity: water has made a name for themselves by always doing things differently and, from the beginning of the planning process, charity: water and Empire set out to innovate the event in order to bring it to the next level. Through months of creative discussions and design meetings, this objective was achieved by utilizing an in-the-round stage, a circular Waterwalk, an innovative live pledge auction experience, dimensionalized water project installations, and RFID wristbands for guests to streamline check-in and pledges. The Waterwalk, a constant at every charity: ball, was redesigned this year to frame the circular stage in the middle of the room. Here guests have the chance to experience first hand a mere fraction of the daily walk that people in developing countries journey to bring water home to their families. Thanks to the generous support of W Hotels and TOMs, every person who walked raised an additional $500. 100% of the money raised from the Waterwalk will fund water projects in India. When complete, these projects will give 19,400 people clean water.The live auction has also been an annual feature of the event, but this year it was re-imagined to be more inclusive, enabling more guests to donate starting at lower, more affordable levels. charity: water asked guests to pledge by moving through a series of bid zones surrounding the stage where their RFID bracelets registered successively higher bids. The auction began with guests bidding at just $200 with opportunities to move up to levels of up to $100,000. It worked, and in a short 25 minutes, charity: water had raised more than $800,000 in pledges from more than 300 people while each bidder’s name appeared on monumental projection screens along with the rising total.Throughout the evening, guests were free to explore a series of innovative installations celebrating charity: water’s work. Guests were invited to pump water at a working well that displayed live data on the water pressure; interact with a fundraiser canopy that was built to showcase hundreds of people from around the globe who have campaigned for charity: water; purchase yellow helium balloons to help fill a giant, inverted Jerry Can (charity; water’s logo); wander an explorable maze of blue pipes highlighting charity: water's recent focus on gravity-fed well systems in Rwanda; and examine charity: water's drilling rig- Yellow Thunder, which was reconstructed inside the venue with large prints and a live twitter feed sharing the rig’s history.With over $3 million raised at the event, charity: ball's goal of taking the annual gala to the next level was reached both in terms of money raised and also by re-imagining the guest experience of this talk-of-the-season event. Empire is proud to partner with charity: water to deliver this one-of-a-kind event, and congratulates them in their success both as an action-oriented charity and an innovative leader in fundraising.To learn more about their work and get involved please visit: www.charitywater.org

Happy Hearts Fund is an organization dedicated to rebuilding children’s lives after natural disasters. The organization was founded by supermodel Petra Nemcova after she survived the South-East Asia earthquake and tsunami of 2004. Every year, Happy Hearts Fund holds its Land of Dreams Gala in New York City and focuses on a different country where they conduct their programs. This year’s gala spotlighted the foundation’s efforts in Mexico and once again, Empire served as the gala producer.

This year’s event, which took place at the Metropolitan Pavilion on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 welcomed special guest Carlos Slim, among others, and featured a performance by Marc Anthony. The evening raised over $3 million dollars for the foundation to rebuild more than 30 schools and to restore hope and opportunity in the lives of children around the world.

The evening’s journey began with a trip down the Happy Hearts Fund orange carpet past the airport arrivals board where flight attendants and airplane pilots welcomed guests into the Land of Dreams: Mexico. Once inside, guests were greeted by the image of a towering Chichen Itza pyramid decorated with flickering candlelight on each of its steps. A beautiful canopy of string lights radiated from the highest point of the pyramid casting a festive glow onto the entire party.

During cocktails, guests enjoyed live music by Mariachi Real de Mexico, while visiting a series of experience stations inspired by treasures from Mexico’s diverse states. These experience stations included Mexico City’s Museo Soumaya, the underwater museum, a craft and food market vignette, and the Happy Hearts school vignette. The Museo Soumaya vignette was inspired by the museum’s extensive collection of Rodin sculptures and its starkly modern architecture. The vignette spotlighted three Rodin replicas with dramatic lighting set against a sleek architectural backdrop. The underwater museum vignette was modeled after the Museo Subacuatico de Arte in Cancun and featured an underwater sculpture installation viewed through an aquarium window. The craft and food market vignette included beautiful displays of pottery, ceramics, baskets, and textiles from various regions in Mexico. In the food market portion, guests were offered a variety of tasting opportunities including mole negro, coffee from Véracruz, Ibarra chocolate from Jalisco, and three kinds of chili peppers from Oaxaca. The jungle vignette was dressed in lush jungle foliage, complete with an adorable live baby cougar named Zeus. The Happy Hearts school vignette was modeled after a Happy Hearts Fund primary school and dressed with traditional Mexican decor while featuring a live Spanish lesson activity.

After the cocktail reception, guests moved into the North Pavilion for the seated dinner and program. Bloomberg Television’s Nicole Lapin, the emcee of the evening, introduced the founder of Happy Hearts Fund, the stunning Petra Nemcova, and Executive Director Phil Caputo to welcome guests and set the tone for the evening.

The dinner program featured remarks by honorees Howard G. Buffett, president of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and Don Juan Beckmann Vidal, chairman of José Cuervo. Also featured was Lynne Greene, Group President of The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc and Global President for Clinique. The evening included performances by a student from the Happy Hearts Fund Arcadio Zentella School in Tabasco, Mexico and opera singers from Sociedad Internacional de Valores de Arte. After dinner, auctioneer Simon De Pury, of Phillips de Pury & Company, raised over $2 million dollars in an action packed live auction. For the grand finalé of the evening, five time Grammy winner Marc Anthony delivered a high-energy performance that brought guests to their feet and had them dancing until the night’s end.

Working closely with Happy Hearts Fund, Empire served as Producer of Land of Dreams, managing elements including décor, technical production, performing talent and stage management.

To learn more about the efforts of Happy Hearts Fund or to donate, please visit happyheartsfund.org.

Empire is proud to serve charitable organizations like Happy Hearts Fund and to help support their important work across the globe.

Following the cancellation of Keep a Child Alive’s Black Ball due to Hurricane Sandy, the Keep a Child Alive and Empire teams were faced with the challenge of planning an alternate event before yearend. Though the format and venue for the rescheduled event would change slightly, the rescheduled event would need to capture the same essence, vitality and spirit of the legendary benefit event - uniting celebrity with philanthropy to raise awareness and urgently needed funds for children and families affected by HIV in Africa and India.

In the words of Keep a Child Alive co-founder, Alicia Keys: “Hurricane Sandy taught us all that, when disaster strikes, people don’t turn away, they turn it up.” In that spirit, Empire Entertainment, the producer of the Black Ball since 2004, and the Keep a Child Alive team worked quickly to create the “Black Ball Redux”, a once-in-a-lifetime fundraising event that would take place just one month later at Harlem’s world famous Apollo Theater. The Black Ball Redux, emceed by Whoopi Goldberg, honored the incomparable Oprah Winfrey and Grammy Award-winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo for their philanthropic contributions in Africa and worldwide.With performances by Alicia Keys, Angélique Kidjo, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Hudson and Brittany Howard of the band Alabama Shakes, the Black Ball Redux evoked the dynamism of Modern Africa, paying tribute to the empowerment of women – the heartbeat, soul and backbone of the AIDS movement - and the promise of an AIDS-free Africa.Prior to the commencement of the program, more than 650 guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvre’s designed by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, served by Creative Edge Parties with wine and spirits generously donated by Sherry-Lehmann Wine & Spirits.

Next was an inspirational program honoring Angélique Kidjo for her relentless work for social change, and Oprah Winfrey, for her lifelong dedication to humanity. Andrea Fiuczynski, President of Christie’s Los Angeles, and emcee, Whoopi Goldberg, worked together onstage for a live auction of incredible once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Among the evening’s generous donations was that of Stewart Rahr who contributed $1 million to Keep a Child Alive. Mr. Rahr, listed as #298 on the Forbes 400, donated through The Stewart J. Rahr Foundation, who gives generously to support medical issues, education and healthcare.Then the amazing concert program began on the legendary Apollo stage with Angélique Kidjo who opened with her high-energy song “Afrika” and a duet with Keys on “Djin Djin,” rousing all guests to their feet. Jennifer Hudson, with her powerhouse voice, tore the house down with “Save Me” and “Angel.” Alicia Keys then joined the legendary Bonnie Raitt for a beautiful duet of “I Can’t Make you Love Me,” which prompted a standing ovation. Alabama Shakes lead singer, Brittany Howard then joined Raitt for a soulful bluesy rendition of “Wrap it Up.”Keys then took the stage and performed several songs from her newly released album, “New Day,” including “Girl on Fire,” “Not Even the King,” and “Brand New Me.”

Keep a Child Alive’s Black Ball Redux raised over $2.1 million to provide lifesaving HIV treatment, care and support to children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. Since 2004, the Black Ball has generated over $18 million for Keep a Child Alive.

Empire Entertainment once again served as overall event producer for the Black Ball Redux and managed aspects of the event including site selection, logistics, catering, décor, talent coordination, technical production, security and onsite management.

To get involved as a sponsor, donor, partner or supporter, please contact Empire Entertainment or visit www.keepachildalive.org

Recently Empire Entertainment had the opportunity to deliver three musical headline artists on three successive weeks in different locations for three different happy clients. The artists included Usher, Train and Wyclef Jean. November 28, 2012 – Dallas, TXWhen a private client wanted to treat their 800 meeting attendees to a special night out, the turned to Empire to provide the perfect headline entertainer. To announce the surprise performer, Empire worked with the band to create a special video message that was shown during that day’s general session. That message came from Pat Monahan, the lead singer of the award-winning band, Train. Pre-show, band members Pat, Scott Underwood and Jimmy Stafford participated in a meet & greet with 100 guests. When it was time for the rocking concert to begin, a client executive took to the stage to introduce the band, as the curtain opened behind her, kicking off Train’s 80-minute set. In between performing their greatest hits: “Meet Virginia,” “Drops of Jupiter,” and “Hey, Soul Sister,” they also performed client requested covers: Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On,” Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” during which two attendees were called up on stage for a sing off and a signed guitar was given out to the winner. Empire was responsible for contracting Train as well as providing all technical and logistical support for this perfect headliner.When a private client sought a world class headliner for an intimate group for the final night of a celebratory week, they turned to Empire to secure talent for a night that they’d never forget, Empire delivered an extremely special, private concert with one of the best-selling artists in American music history, Usher. Prior to dinner, Usher participated in an intimate meet & greet with the guests, getting them excited for the performance of a lifetime to follow. As the concert began, guests flocked in front of the stage, where Usher, his full band and dancers performed a 90-minute greatest hits set including “OMG,” “Yeah,” “Caught Up,” “Without You,” “DJ Got Us Falling In Love,” and his most recent hits “Scream” and “Climax.” This incredible show took place in front of an intricate backdrop of huge LED panels with full, major arena show lighting. This headliner, in this spectacular venue was a hit with the high level attendees. December 15, 2012 – Miami, FLWhat can make your wedding day even better and more special? Sometimes it is the addition of world class entertainment to the celebration. This was the case when a client from Miami wanted the Grammy winning, multi platinum recording artist Wyclef Jean to perform at their wedding at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental. Based on our many prior experiences with this artist, Empire booked Wyclef Jean with his full band and worked closely with their road and production management to create a production scenario that could be achieved in the intimate reception space. Wyclef performed a 60 minute set of his hits with some Fugee classics. The guests stood and danced throughout the performance. The clients and their guests were ecstatic. Empire handled all booking and logistics working closely with wedding planners at David Tutera Events to ensure a smooth experience from load-in to load-out. Whether it’s securing headline musical, comedy or variety talent, contracting or handling production or logistical needs, Empire Entertainment is leader in delivering the biggest names in the world for private performances.

Spotify is a fast-growing Internet music service with over 20 million active users and 5 million paid subscribers in 17 countries. For a recent series of business-to-business and press events in New York City, Spotify once again tapped Empire Entertainment to serve as its production company partner. The single-day project was composed of two separate events: a mid-day press event that would be webcast live to locations around the world and an evening party that would feature a lineup of some of biggest names in music performing in an intimate setting.

Held at Chelsea’s Cedar Lake Dance Center in New York City, the venue’s raw space was completely designed to facilitate a sleek white main stage for the webcast presentation, demo and panel discussion and additional, smaller stages that would support the live band performances.

The press program was hosted by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, who spoke to the music & technology media audience about the future of the company. In addition to news about the evolving Spotify platform, Ek announced that Metallica's 30-year catalog would now be available on Spotify. Present at the announcement was Metallica drummer, Lars Ulrich, who surprised the audience by appearing onstage alongside Napster’s Sean Parker for an engaging discussion about their history together, and specifically, the issues of musician royalties. The discussion was moderated by Executive Arts and Entertainment Editor of The Huffington Post Media Group, Michael Hogan.

Following the press event, Empire quickly reset the space to prepare for the evening party. Just a few short hours later NYC indie rock band Vampire Weekend kicked off the night’s musical performances with renditions of “Holiday” and a special guitar version of “I Stand Corrected” performed in-the-round.

Next up, R&B / soul artist Janelle Monáe took the stage with her full band. Her rhythm section and horns performed on one stage while she and her guitarist Kellindo delivered a blistering performance from the center stage ringed with fans. The closing performance of the party was delivered by breakout artist Frank Ocean who had just been nominated for an incredible six Grammy awards the previous night. Ocean mesmerized the intimate audience with his renditions of “Pyramids” and a cover of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees".

Empire was responsible for working with the Spotify team to develop a creative vision from renderings to reality, and managed all aspects of scenic, décor, audio, video, lighting, webcast and event management. The main stage featured a giant, curved LED wall and a series of ten LED columns set along flanking runway stages. All the screen content for both events was created custom for this event and was mapped to run on all of the LED surfaces simultaneously. In order to accommodate the musical performances of all the acts in the evening, Empire designed a unique audio system that featured four separate audio systems to support four different staging positions in the room.

Empire is the leading producer of innovative product launches and webcast press events and is a top event marketing agency to some of today’s fastest-growing Internet and media brands.

Non-profit organization, Change the Equation, launched their new online game iON FUTURE live from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The event, which was hosted by Keke Palmer, and featured NASA’s ‘Mohawk Guy’ Bobak Ferdowsi, was streamed live into classrooms all across the country.Change the Equation is a not for profit coalition of business leaders aligned to improve learning in the U.S. and to promote careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).As part of their program to achieve this goal, Change the Equation developed iON Future, an interactive, online game to allow middle school and early-high school youth to explore STEM-based professions and to match their interests with different career pathways in STEM. To launch this game and drive initial awareness and trial of iON Future, Change the Equation turned to Empire Entertainment which conceived of an entertaining STEM-related live webcast.Working closely with Change the Equation, Empire created an original 40 minute webcast that originated from the acclaimed NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. This facility has served as “Mission Control” for generations of unmanned space exploration including the recent Mars Curiosity mission. Hosted by Keke Palmer, star of Nickelodeon’s “True Jackson, VP,” the show took place before a live audience of students from the Los Angeles area and included participation by Mars Curiosity Flight Director Bobak Ferdowski, popularly known as ‘Mohawk Guy’ for his unique haircut. The program also took viewers and students to remote locations where STEM knowledge is needed for success, including:- GlaxoSmithKline in Collegeville, Penn., where they are doing important molecular research on pharmaceutical products; - Rolls Royce in Indianapolis, where students got an inside look at how jet engines are manufactured; and - Viacom’s Network Operations Center in Happauge, N.Y. where networks like MTV, VH-1, Nickelodeon, and others beam their programming via satellite dishes around the world. In addition, each remote segment and the end of the program was accompanied by a challenge that the students at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and viewers could work to solve, giving students an opportunity to see what it is like to be a STEM professional. The iON Future launch webcast was viewed by a significant number of the target audience and drove substantial trial of the iON Future game. Watch the Ion Future Launch Webcast on demand at https://vimeo.com/165209860?utm_source=email&utm_medium=vimeo-cliptranscode-201504&utm_campaign=29220 and play iON Future here: http://ionfuture.org/. Empire is a leading producer of innovative broadcast and webcast projects.

According to the Huffington Post, when the Gotham Independent Film Awards announces its winners, "Awards season is officially officially underway." Every year in late November, the Gotham Awards brings together the best and brightest in the filmmaking world for a gala dinner in New York that is, in addition to an elegant live program, an intimate gathering of famous friends. For the past five years, the Independent Filmmaker Project's flagship event has been held at Cipriani Wall Street and produced by Empire Entertainment. The 2012 Gotham award for Best Feature went to "Moonrise Kingdom," which bested "The Master," "Bernie," "Middle of Nowhere" and "The Loneliest Planet" to achieve the honor. Gotham "Tributes" went to Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard and director David O.Russell. The big show's many attendees and presenters included Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, Willem Dafoe, Billy Crudup and John Krasinski. The Gotham Awards show has become as famous for running flawlessly as it has for being jam-packed with Hollywood A-listers. The Gotham's after party found IFP executive director Joana Vicente effusive: "Everybody is saying it was the best Gothams ever."