What Were Producing

Empire Delivers the World-Renowed, Operatic Pop Group Il Divo for the Miss Vietnam World Pageant in Vietnam

Empire Delivers the World-Renowed, Operatic Pop Group Il Divo for the Miss Vietnam World Pageant in Vietnam

Nha Trang, Vietnam

August 2010

When the Organizing Committee of the 2nd Miss Vietnam World Pageant wanted the world-renown musical group Il Divo to perform at the final night of the 2010 coronation, they turned to Empire Entertainment to secure the group for their first ever visit to Vietnam. The Miss World Vietnam Pageant took place at Vinpearl Land in Nha Trang, Vietnam and was broadcast live throughout Southeast Asia and the world on VTV3 & VTV4. Il Divo kicked off the live program with a dramatic performance of "Amazing Grace", joined onstage by all 40 pageant contestants. Il Divo returned to the stage to perform two final songs - "Regresa A Mi" & "The Winner Takes It All" - thrilling the sold-out audience of 5,000 fans.Upon their arrival in Ho Chi Minh City a press conference was held to introduce Il Divo to Vietnam. They took questions from the local media, posed for photos with Vietnam's top actresses and singers, and sat down with Vietnam's two largest newspapers for one-on-one interviews.

In addition to contract negotiation and delivering the group, Empire managed each aspect of Il Divo's participation for the press conference, performance, and all other logistics throughout their visit in Vietnam. Empire coordinated with the local audio vendors, television and stage directors, lighting, and graphics using Vietnamese translators when needed to ensure that all production aspects were in order. Empire also arranged for the rights clearance of t he songs for live broadcast, assisted with press inquiries and press releases, as well as the booking of Il Divo's air transportation, hotel accommodations, and visa / work permit acquisition.

Empire Entertainment is a leading producer of international talent and events throughout Asia and the world.

Empire Teams with Radical Media to Create a Commercial Shoot for EA Sports / Madden 11 in Times Square

Empire Teams with Radical Media to Create a Commercial Shoot for EA Sports / Madden 11 in Times Square

New York City, NY

July 2010

When Radical Media developed their plans for an ambitious television commercial for client EA Sports, their creative called for a shoot in several locations depicting football's biggest names playing Madden 11 alongside people throughout the country in spontaneous situations.The locations ranged from high school football fields to fire stations and college dorms but the high impact shot required a location that was familiar to all and one that would convey the magnitude of the Games popularity. The natural choice: New York's Times Square.

Radical Media turned to Empire Entertainment to navigate the site selection and permitting of a portion of Broadway and Duffy Square in Times Square and, working with a variety of New York City agencies, Empire was able to deliver this unique location.The shoot featured Quarterback Drew Brees arriving in Times Square via tour bus with cheerleaders in tow and then challenging pedestrians and tourists to play Madden 11. The spontaneous game play was projected onto one of Times Square's massive video billboards. Thousands of bystanders and tourists gathered to fill in the frame for the exciting, spontaneous commercial shoot.For this project Empire supported Radical Media with site selection, permitting and acuisition, site management, tenting, logistics coordination, tchnical management of the connectivity between the center of Times Square and the video billboard and other support services.To view the final commercial: Click Here

Empire is a producing partner in a variety of broadcast and commercial productions.

Empire Delivers Two Comedy Legends for NBC Sports

Empire Delivers Two Comedy Legends for NBC Sports

Lake Tahoe, NV

July 2010

How do you entertain an audience with invitees such as Michael Jordan, Tony Romo, Dan Quayle, Stone Phillips, Jerry Rice, Don Cheadle, and other luminaries? When NBC Sports was faced with that challenge, they turned to Adam Kahan, Senior Vice President of Empire Entertainment. For more than 20 years, NBC has broadcast the Annual American Century Championship, a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe with a field comprised of major celebrities from the world of sports, film, and television. While the participants play their 18 holes during each day of the tournament, it is up to NBC to also produce evening events to entertain the players. And NBC has been partnering with Empire since 2006 for headline entertainers who will fit both the audience and the event budget.

In 2010, NBC needed two nights of headline comedy, and Adam recommended two of his favorite performers: legendary funnyman Brian Regan, and Seth Meyers, head writer of SNL as well as host of “Weekend Update”. Regan has been an Empire favorite for years, consistently proving he provides the biggest belly-laughs in the business by any performer whose material is always 100% clean. And he proved it again for NBC Sports and American Century, with the client calling his performance a “homerun”.Seth Meyers has more recently become one of Empire’s go-to performers, both for straight standup comedy, as well as for hosting engagements. His standup is sophisticated and hilarious, and his incredibly quick wit and ability to ad lib on the fly make him an ideal host for awards ceremonies and other long-running programs. Empire has secured Seth for projects ranging from hosting The Webby Awards in 2008 & 2009, to hosting & industrial video projects for one of the world's largest technology companies. Adam recommended Seth Meyers for the American Century Championship primarily due to his penchant for doing customized material at the start of his shows. Seth’s comedy about golf generally as well as his jokes about specific personalities in the room brought the house down and set the tone for a second fantastic night of comedy.

Empire Entertainment has been recommending and securing comedians and other headline performers since its inception in 1993. Having presented performers including Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Ray Romano, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, and dozens more for our clients, we take pride in matching the best possible performer to each event, according to the audience demographic, budget, client goals, and other specific factors.

Empire Delivers President William Jefferson Clinton to Deliver the Keynote Address at Global Corporation's Worldwide Partner Conference

Empire Delivers President William Jefferson Clinton to Deliver the Keynote Address at Global Corporation's Worldwide Partner Conference

Washington, DC

July 2010

When one of the world's most sophisticated corporations sought a globally-recognized keynote speaker to personify the message of partnership at their annual client conference, they once again turned to Empire Entertainment to recommend appropriate candidates. The chosen keynote speaker would need to be globally-known, possess the oratory mastery to hold the attention of an audience of almost 10,000 people, be able to both entertain and inspire, and also deliver important messages that would reinforce and underscore the content delivered by business speakers earlier in the program. Empire recommended and ultimately delivered the President William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, the first Democrat to be awarded two terms in six decades, and a leader whose administration created more than 22 million jobs and presided over the longest period of economic expansion and prosperity in U.S. history.

President Clinton’s inspiring & entertaining keynote remarks, and moderated question & answer session met the client's objectives perfectly. The President’s anecdotal and often humorous remarks about his work with the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation kept the huge audience deeply engaged and the substance of his remarks complemented the overall meeting content perfectly. Prior to his presentation, President Clinton participated in a meet & greet session with client’s VIPs from around the world. Whether you require a motivator, an inspirational speaker, an expert speaker or just someone to engage the audience, Empire is the ideal one-stop-shop for every type of keynote speaker.

The 14th Annual Webby Awards

The 14th Annual Webby Awards

New York City, NY

June 2010

In June 2010 Empire Entertainment produced the 14th Annual Webby Awards, . This marked the 6th consecutive year Recognition Media LLC chose to partner with Empire on the project which has been referred to as "the Internet’s Highest Honor" by the New York Times. The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence in web design, creativity, usability and functionality. The event is perhaps best known for allowing winners just 5 words for their acceptance speeches, which has led to many touching, hilarious, and creative moments over the years. On the night of the event, more than 900 of the best and the brightest minds on the net came to Cipriani Wall Street to honor and be honored for their contributions to the World Wide Web.

The gala kicked off with a cocktail reception, during which over 100 Webby winners were invited to film their five-word speeches. These speeches (as well as many of the highlights from the event) were then uploaded to the Webby Awards YouTube channel later that same evening (you can see all of the speeches and highlights at www.youtube.com/webby Empire secured B.J. Novak from “The Office” to host the event. In his opening remarks, Novak proved why he is one of the NBC hit show’s head-writers, remarking on the irony of the New York Times receiving an award from the internet “the very thing that threatened to destroy it”, and adding “who knows, maybe next year we’ll see the environment accepting an award from BP.”Novak's energy and humor throughout the night kept the ceremony light and entertaining, as did some hilarious videos created especially for the event by The Onion and some of the cast from the VH1 hit show, "Best Week Ever".

Novak introduced many winners to deliver their brief speeches from the stage, including Buzz Aldrin, Lisa Kudrow, Arianna Huffington, Animal from the famed "Muppet Show" (who proceeded to attenpt to eat the trophy), Isabella Rossellini, and more.The biggest winners of the evening included the band OK Go! Who were honoured as the Film & Video Artist of the Year, Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler (who was presented with the Best Actress Award by husband Will Arnett and friend Jason Bateman), and Zach Galifinakis as Best Actor. In one of the evening’s great moments, PS22, a children’s chorus that had achieved millions of YouTube hits for their renditions of current pop and R&B hits was introduced as Artist of the Year by one of their heroes, Ne-Yo. They then proceeded to bring the house down by performing their take on one of Ne-Yo’s biggest hits “Closer”.

And in one of the most poignant moments at the event in recent years, Jimmy Fallon (who had been honoured as the Webby 2009 Person of Year) presented the 2010 Person of the Year Award to renowned film critic Roger Ebert. Ebert had recently survived a well-chronicled and very difficult battle with cancer, a battle that left him without vocal chords and able to talk only through a computer which now provides his voice. Ebert received a standing ovation from the audience who were not disappointed when Ebert delivered only a three-word acceptance speech: “Veni, Vidi, Vici” (which translates from Latin to “I came, I saw, I conquered”.But perhaps the most exciting and inspiring acceptance speech of the evening was delivered by the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Vinton Cerf. Cerf, now Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, Cerf is widely considered "Father of the Internet”,and got a roar fro the crowd when he took the podium and announced “You ain’t seen nothing yet”. Empire Entertainment again provided oversight of nearly every element of this complex event, including signage, catering, décor, registration, staffing, audio, video, stage set & lighting designs, stage management, and more.

Empire is a leading producer and/or partner on many Awards events each year, including the The Gotham Awards, The PR Week Awards, and The Executive Council Ten Awards. We take pride in clients such as Recognition Media who choose to work with us annually on their most important projects.

Internet Week 2010's New York Headquarters Installation

Internet Week 2010's New York Headquarters Installation

New York City, NY

June 2010

The third annual Internet Week New York festival featured over 200 events around New York City between June 7-14, 2010. The founders of the event entrusted Empire Entertainment to produce the many events that took place at the festival headquarters at the Metropolitan Pavilion.The ground floor of the Pavilion was divided into two sides, one of which was set up as a full theater for conferences and presentations, and the other as a digital playground where sponsors including Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Pepsico, IAB, Southwest Airlines, Aquent, AOL, and many others showed off new technologies, and set up incredible installations that drew the attention of thousands of attendees over the course of the week.

The HQ kicked off on Monday, June 7th with a private preview for dozens of members of the press who turned up and wrote glowing reviews in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many more national outlets. The preview was immediately followed by an HP press conference where Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, the head of Hewlett-Packard’s $24 billion printing empire, showed off the company’s brand new ePrint technology that allows users to email documents from smartphones directly to printers that immediately print the attachments.The HQ was then opened to the public who were able to enjoy the HP sponsored Media Center, images on a 17’ x 12’ media wall provided by Yahoo, demonstrations of Microsoft Expression design technology, and many stimulating keynote speakers and panels taking place on the Broadcast Stage while they relaxed with a snack and a beverage in the Pepsico lounge.

Meanwhile, in the theater side of the Pavilion, Microsoft held a two-hour conference highlighting the new features of Microsoft Expression, the company’s design software. After a very quick turnaround in the roon, the Yahoo! “Provoke Summit” featured a keynote presentation by viral marketing guru Ze Frank and stimulating panel discussions on the future of social media. Pepsico also utilized the theater portion of the Pavilion later in the week for the launch of “The #Promise” - an initiative to advance the best ideas for how companies and consumers can work together to address pressing global challenge.

The conference was a full-day live-streamed affair, featuring presentations by GE, MTV, and Nokia, as well as a keynote presentation by Hollywood star Ed Norton in which he announced new online charitable initiative “Crowdrise” which he called “pretty much the most fun you can have making a difference without taking any illegal substances.” “The #Promise” conference also featured live Twitter feeds to the video screens which flanked the stage allowing observers in the audience at the HQ as well as those watching via live stream to comment on what the presenters were addressing, and allowing the speakers to respond. Each day at the HQ culminated with cocktail parties sponsored by IAB, Yahoo!, Blip.com, Ignite, and Internet Week New York itself.Empire oversaw the 3rd Annual Internet Week New York festival headquarters from conception to completion, coordinating registration for the thousands of guests, stage managing and producing all of the presentations in the theater and on the Broadcast Stage, and managing the event sponsors from the design process for their footprints in the space and all of their needs from load-in to load-out.

Empire is proud to produce Internet Week New York, and to provide production support to other festivals including The New York Film Festival, The World Science Festival, The Tribeca Family Festival, and more.

Third Annual World Science Festival

Third Annual World Science Festival

New York City, NY

June 2010

The World Science Festival, co-founded by Brian Greene and Tracy Day has a mission "to cultivate and sustain a general public informed by the content of science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future."Following a successful inaugural Festival in 2008 and follow up in 2009, Empire was thrilled to once again be chosen to produce and manage production of over thirty major programs throughout seven New York City & Brooklyn venues in a span of just four days. The 2010 World Science festival culminated with an all-day outdoor Street Festival in and around Washington Square Park.

This years diverse programming appealed to all demographics and included moderated panel discussions with some of the most brilliant scientific minds today. Some of the many participants and moderators in this years' World Science festival programs included John Hockenbery, Sylvia Earle, Marc Hauser, Michio Kaku, Charlie Kaufman, Lawrence Krauss, Robert Krulwich, Oliver Sacks, Richard Besser, Alan Alda, Elizabeth Vargas, Brian Greene, and many others. This year's festival also included an original production of Icarus at the Edge of Time, written by Brian Greene, composed by Philip Glass, and moderated by Liev Schreiber and the popular World Science Festival Street Fair in Washington Square Park.

The response to this year's World Science Festival was phenomenal. Thousands ofpeople participated in the Festival's events and programs, with lines again wrapping around city blocks for possible stand-by tickets to the many sold-out programs.As in previous years, Empire's support on the project included technical and stage management of seven venues including oversight of set design & construction, sound, lighting, video playback and technical direction for programs that were often technically challenging due to the nature of the content and technology.The World Science Festival project is an ideal example of Empire's capability to act as a behind the scenes partner on all types and sizes of programs, including multiple-day festivals.Empire Entertainment was once again proud to serve as the production partner for the World Science Festival.

O Magazine's 10th Anniversary and The Oprah Winfrey Show Live from Radio City Music Hall

O Magazine's 10th Anniversary and The Oprah Winfrey Show Live from Radio City Music Hall

New York City, NY

May 2010

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.

Doodle 4 Google Events in NYC

Doodle 4 Google Events in NYC

New York City, NY

May 2010

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.

The 2010 TIME 100 Gala

The 2010 TIME 100 Gala

New York City, NY

May 2010

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.

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