​Every year, the Turkish government assembles prominent technology leaders who have made significant contributions in the form of innovation to Turkey and the world during the Turkey Innovation Week convention.

On Saturday, December 6, 2014, Empire partnered with ID Creative to deliver scientist and robotics engineer Dr. David Hanson to deliver a keynote presentation for the 2014 Turkey Innovation Week.

Dr. Hanson is the founder of Hanson Robotics, a Hong Kong-based organization that develops and manufactures human-like robots and smart software that brings robotic technology to life. Dr. Hanson creates robots through integrated research into cognitive artificial intelligence, bio-inspired mechanics, materials sciences, sculpture and animation. The results are next generation, walking and talking humanoids with intelligence and faces that effectively simulate human emotional expression.

Before an audience of over 3,000, Dr. Hanson delivered remarks on nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and robots in future life, alongside ARTHUR, his newest humanoid robot, who assisted him in his presentation.

Empire is a leading provider of innovation speakers, futurists, technologists and scientists from every field for thought leadership conferences that help to define the future of our civilization.

One of the largest and most influential tech gatherings in the world, salesforce.com brings together businesses and technology leaders who are focused on opportunities in cloud-based and mobile computing. Empire's Asia team and its partners recently produced the Japan stop of the Salesforce.com world tour.

The event hosted over 6,000 attendees at the Prince Park Tower and Toranomon Hills Forum in Tokyo and was watched by over 300,000 viewers online.

Keynote speakers included Marc Benioff (CEO Salesforce), Akio Toyoda (CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation), Yoshiki (a celebrated Japanese musician) and Koji Uehara (Red Sox pitcher). A branded exhibition hall also featured displays by approximately 60 partner companies.

Empire’s Tokyo-based Asia division was responsible for all event production and management, technical production and coordination.

Empire is a leading producer of global conferences and events and our Asia division is the partner of choice for some of the world’s premier and most technically demanding events.

Every year, the Gotham Independent Film Awards bring together the best and brightest in the independent filmmaking world for a gala dinner and awards program.

Taking place each December, the Gotham Awards are a bellwether for how the best independent films will fare at the Academy Awards and the evening is often referred to as the kickoff to the awards season.

Empire was once again proud to help produce the 24^th Annual Awards event at Cipriani Wall Street with a jam-packed room of Hollywood A-listers.

Uma Thurman hosted the program, which featured participants including Meryl Streep, Michael Keaton, Julianne Moore, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Carell, Amy Schumer, Will Arnett, Ethan Hawke, Jon Hamm, Catherine Keener, Marisa Tomei and many others.

Birdman won as best feature, with Michael Keaton winning best actor for the film. Julianne Moore won best actress for Still Alice, and CITIZENFOUR, the Edward Snowden story, took home best documentary.

Tributes went to Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller for his work on The Cruise, Foxcatcher, Capote and Moneyball, Netflix Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos, and Academy Award Winner Tilda Swinton.

This year’s Gotham Awards were livestreamed on variety.com and hollywoodreporter.com.

Empire is a leading producer of high-profile awards programs in film, fashion, technology, the arts and various other industry sectors.

Since its founding, charity: water has been re-inventing philanthropy while working to bring clean and safe drinking water to every person on the planet. The organization enlists private donors to fund the operational costs, allowing 100% of public donations to go directly to the field, local partners to implement the work on the ground, and volunteers who donate everything from time to money, campaigning to raise the funds for clean water. This year, charity: water wanted to celebrate and honor these individuals directly, so they created "Tribute".

The invite-only Tribute brought together over 800 people who have helped make their work possible. The raw, construction-like aesthetic of 23 Wall Street provided the perfect backdrop to highlight the inner workings of the organization’s success. Displayed throughout the space were installations celebrating the various constituents: Well Members, Pipeline Members and Campaigners. Juxtaposed over awe-inspiring images captured in the field, lenticular-like installations celebrated the benefits that clean water has on health, safety, time and energy.

The program began as Scott Harrison, charity: water’s Founder/CEO, took the stage to give an in-depth look at some of the great contributions made by the guests. He told moving tales of the trials faced in the field, coupled with the inspiring stories of the changes effected. Finishing the program, guests were invited to help amplify their impact through a custom donation site ran on Valet.io’s online fundraising platform. In just over 5 minutes, over $1.5 million dollars was raised from more than 500 donors, which will give charity: water the ability to serve over 52,000 people clean water.

A big shout out to Pinch Food Design who creatively catered the occasion once again, along with Anthem, Hurst Communications, EventFarm, MB Productions, AVS, 4Wall, Rainbow, The Factory, Taylor Creative, and AFR for their continued production support.

To learn more about their work or to get involved, please visit http://www.charitywater.org/

Established by Blackstone Group’s chairman and CEO, Stephen Schwarzman, and designed to prepare the next generation of global leaders, Schwarzman Scholars is the first scholarship created to respond to the geopolitical landscape of the 21st Century.

Whether in politics, business, civil society, or science, the success of future leaders around the world will depend upon an understanding of China’s role in global trends. To facilitate this understanding, Schwarzman Scholars created not only the scholarship but has also invested in a state of the art educational facility at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing.

In order to announce the program and facility worldwide, Empire was engaged to help Schwarzman Scholars produce a series of events in a whirlwind tour of the world, including New York City (The Morgan Library), Singapore (the Fullerton Bay Hotel), London (Tower Bridge), and Palo Alto (Stanford University). Each of the four intimate events consisted of a cocktail reception, screening of an overview video, remarks by Schwarzman, and remarks by VIP speakers local to each region.

Tasked with sourcing and managing local vendors for all events and on-site management, Empire designed a streamlined system to produce this series of events, all taking place within six weeks.

Working through time zone differences, language and cultural barriers, we swiftly sourced venues, technical production, video crews, photographers, catering, and local staff to execute these events.

Each venue was unique to its location yet was appropriate for the VIP audience and consistent with the messaging relating to familiarity with China and higher education.

In New York, the Morgan Library was the perfect backdrop to such a scholarly event. The Singapore event enjoyed sweeping views of Singapore’s harbor, one of the great connecting points of global commerce. London guests were treated to an event in a historical landmark— the Tower Bridge —where speakers drew metaphors relating to bridges between China and the world.

Empire is honored to have played an integral role in what will be one of the most progressive and important educational initiatives shaping the future.

For more information about the Schwarzman Scholars program and its Beijing campus, please visit www.schwarzmanscholars.org.

​Microsoft's developer product division, Visual Studio, brought their “cloud-first, mobile-first” story to life with a bold two-day conference event at Spring Studios in New York City. Drawing 270 attendees to the high-touch, in-person experience and over 340,000 online, the event generated unprecedented engagement from the developer and IT communities.

Led by Executive Vice President of the Cloud and Enterprise Group, Scott Guthrie, and Corporate Vice President Developer Division, S. Somasegar, the Keynote event focused on .NET and Visual Studio product announcements and was heralded as a “milestone moment for Microsoft".

Spring Studios, a recently opened, raw space in NYC’s trendy TriBeCa neighborhood, provided a clean, contemporary environment featuring 22’ floor-to-ceiling windows. It was the perfect setting for an event dedicated to vision, collaboration and the boundless possibilities of cloud computing.

To balance the sun-filled window backdrop with the need to beautifully illustrate the data-driven content, three large-scale LED screens were custom-built to fit within the existing window frames, and the “view” was extended along the sides of the room with backlit scenic skylines. The audience was seated on custom white lounge furniture that delivered both comfort and contemporary design. The space’s design delivered the visually stimulating wow! factor that the client sought as well as uncompromised clarity of the presented content.

The visual aesthetic and brand messaging were integrated into every aspect of the event. Large-scale, interactive screens “codified” passers-by as they moved through registration. The lunch space incorporated campaign artwork into the decor in the form of menu boards and a large-scale light installation on the ceiling to subtly echo the cloud. Afternoon breakout sessions offered custom content tracked to attendees’ varied interests and needs.

Channel 9, Microsoft’s own online video community, broadcast the Keynote and live post-event interviews to tens of thousands of real-time viewers.

From registration, breakfast and keynote to lunch and evening cocktails, every element of this program was custom-designed to communicate brand values and foster a high-touch guest experience. We were proud to once again serve and collaborate with Microsoft to create and execute this top-tier business communication event.

Empire is a leading producer of conferences and business meetings worldwide.

Reel Works is one of the leading digital media educators in the United States. They are the only filmmaking program that matches teens 1:1 with professional filmmaker-mentors to tell their stories and have their voices heard. It’s a powerful combination that changes young lives while creating startling and original films that have been seen by over nine million viewers since their founding in 2001.

This year's Reel Works Gala began in the mezzanine level of the Edison Ballroom, where guests were invited to mingle and enjoy cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres. Custom posters featuring the movies of the seven teens that were nominated for the evening's award decorated the cocktail area. Guests were encouraged to participate in the silent auction prior to making their way into the ballroom for the program and dinner.

Sade Baderinwa, Emmy Award-winning journalist for WABC-TV’s Eyewitness News, kicked of the program by welcoming students on stage and highlighting their accomplishments and history with the organization. The program featured honorees, chair members, and students, with a special surprise from Vice President of Talent Integration and Pipeline Programs at NBC Universal, Michelle Hord-White, who presented Dexter Dugar Jr. the the F. John Outcalt Award for Outstanding Filmmaking and a $5,000 scholarship.

Later in the night, energetic James Donahower took the stage as the live auctioneer, helping to raise a record $380,000. The evening wrapped with a special musical performance by Angela Johnson. Event sponsors included Empire Entertainment, Comcast NBC Universal, A&E Networks, Viacom, Comedy Central, Raine, CNN and HBO.

Empire was proud to work on this year's Gala, Reel Works’ most successful benefit dinner to date.

On November 19, 2014, EBONY Magazine presented the 3rd annual EBONY Power 100 Gala, honoring the nation’s 100 most influential African Americans and guest of honor, legendary producer Quincy Jones.

This year’s Ebony Power 100 took place at the historic Avalon Hollywood and Bardot Lounge, and was hosted by the magazine’s Chairman, Linda Johnson Rice, and CEO, Desirée Rogers, of the Johnson Publishing Company. The red carpet saw the likes of A-listers Melody Hobson & George Lucas, Anthony Anderson, Beverly Johnson, Teyonah Parris, Verdine White of Earth Wind & Fire, David Oyelowo, Jesse Williams, Niecy Nash, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

After an elegant cocktail reception, guests were seated for a dinner program emceed by television star Wayne Brady and musically directed by Rickey Minor. Throughout the night, attendees were entertained by a wide array of musical performances, each one representing Jones’ career and influence in the music industry over the past 70 years. Performers included Terrence Blanchard, Savion Glover, Kem, James Ingram, Patti Austin, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick and Chaka Khan.

At the end of the dinner program, LL Cool J presented the Ebony Lifetime Achievement Award to Quincy Jones. Jones addressed the crowd, stating, "It's amazing to be around and have a career last almost seven decades and watch everything that's happening. Everything's going to be all right." This year's gala focused on issues of race in particular, and Jones said that he was especially humbled to receive the Award because he considered the founder of Ebony magazine, John H. Johnson, to be a mentor.

DJ Kiss spun at the Bardot Lounge afterparty and performed throughout the event.

The Ebony Power 100 was presented by Nationwide Insurance and other sponsors and partners included Ariel Investments, United Airlines, Ciroc Vodka, Starz, McDonald’s, Vosges Chocolates, Georgia Pacific, Toyota, Fashion Fair, Twitter and Comcast.

Empire was honored to once again serve as event producer for the Ebony Power 100, responsible for venue selection, catering, production, talent booking & coordination, music, registration, videography & media distribution and event logistics and onsite management.

Empire is a leading producer of broadcast and non-broadcast, celebrity-driven media events.

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After their highly successful inaugural gala fundraiser in 2013, the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund chose to honor cultural icon and internationally recognized fashion designer, Stella McCartney, with their Women’s Leadership Award.

Lincoln Center Corporate Fund once again turned to us to design and produce all aspects of the evening.

Held at the prestigious Alice Tully Hall, the evening began with two VIP cocktail receptions with hedge walls lining the entrance pathway. The hedges served both fashion and function, accentuating the “English Garden” design theme, while concealing the 40-table dinner reception that was to follow the stage program.

Stella’s friends who could not be in attendance including Bono, Chrissie Hynde, Kate Winslet, Gwen Stefani, Quincy Jones, Amy Poehler, Reese Witherspoon and Doris Day, gave heartfelt video tributes.

Chelsea Handler surprised everyone by submitting her video in which she claimed to be too cheap to purchase the plane ticket to New York and then appeared onstage as the evening’s host.

The program’s second act featured a sit-down with Stella and Jerry Seinfeld in which the comedian interviewed her as only he could, touching on the important industry issues such as the “shorts epidemic for men” and “angry-faced models”.

Seinfeld then introduced the presenter of the Women’s Leadership Award following their conversation—Sir Paul McCartney. Sir Paul flew all the way from Brazil that morning to surprise his daughter on stage.

The program concluded with a musical performance by Dhani Harrison, son of George Harrison, whose acoustic rendition of Love of My Life, a favorite of his “Big Sister”, Stella, set up the finale, which summed up the tone for the entire night. The walls which previous to that had been the backdrop to the “English Parlor” design treatment were quickly rolled away to reveal a full band and 21-piece orchestra who backed Dhani as they performed Live and Let Die to the delight of guests and Sir Paul himself.

The event raised $1.6 million for the Fund, which provides unrestricted support to ten performing arts organizations at Lincoln Center: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The School of American Ballet, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and The Juilliard School.

Sponsors for the evening were American Express, Hearst Corporation and Harper’s Bazaar.

To learn more about the Corporate Fund and to donate please visit http://www.lccorporatefund.org

We were honored to be involved in another program at Lincoln Center in support of the arts and in strengthening our expertise in the area of high-end fashion events.

On September 30, 2014, Empire presented two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey to deliver the closing keynote at the IAB MIXX Conference in NYC. The MIXX conference is the centerpiece of Advertising Week, and this year the theme was “Digital’s Renaissance Moment”. And who better to speak to that topic than the star of “House of Cards”, the smash Netflix series which may well be the show that finally makes the internet a true competitor to television networks.

Spacey was clearly passionate about the subject, attributing the success of the series to the “creative courage” of the actors, writers, and the executives at Netflix who green-lighted the show without seeing a pilot. And he compared that courage to the integrity of Sam Mendes, director of American Beauty. And he closed with an inspirational note, stating that “if there's one thing that overlaps between business and art, it's that the risk-takers are rewarded.”

Empire’s strong Hollywood relationships have allowed us to deliver incredible talent for our clients over the years, including Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Greg Kinnear, Charlton Heston, Alec Baldwin, Jessica Biel, and dozens more.