The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) recently held its 99th Annual Conference and Exhibition at Chicago's McCormick Place. To take advantage of this timing and to promote Korean medical imaging technology to this influential audience, The Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI USA) again engaged Empire to produce their Medical Forum at the RSNA conference.

Empire selected the Chicago History Museum to serve as the perfect venue for both the conference sessions as well as an elegant place for an evening reception. On the day of the event, over 250 professionals from the field of radiology and medical devices, including a wide range of doctors, government officials and executives, flocked to attend the cocktails and seminars on the future of Korean medical imaging technology. After an opening networking cocktail reception featuring guided tours of the Museum’s collection, guests moved to the Chicago Room for an enlightening forum.

At the conclusion of the Forum, guests were seated for a dinner featuring a mix of Korean traditional dishes such as pajun, chop chae, and daeji galbi, and also a taste of Chicago with mini deep dish pizzas and Italian beef.

Empire is a leading producer of events and forums to promote trade and exports for a variety of national governments and government agencies.

Jared Leto arrived at the Gotham Awards podium and held his cell phone up to the microphone. Matthew McConaughey wanted to say a few words of thanks for the 2013 Best Actor Award but could not be there in person…so he spoke through Leto's cell phone. It was weird and cool like the Gotham Awards themselves.

Weird and cool and stocked with screen stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, John Goodman, Isaiah Washington, Amy Poehler, Chiwetel Eijiofor, Forest Whitaker, Richard Linklater, Steve Buscemi, Shailene Woodley, Rashida Jones were among the famous faces milling around Cipriani Wall Street, with New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg rounding out the bill.

This was Empire Entertainment's sixth year producing the Gotham Awards, the first show of the film awards "season", and therefore hotly anticipated. "There's a lot of pressure," says executive producer James Donahower, "because you've got 900 people jam-packed into the room, and 100 of them are A-list celebrities. And it's live. So when you say 'start the show', you'd better be ready." Empire was.

When a corporate client sought a world-class headline musical artist to entertain an intimate group of their top clients and management on the final night of their summit, they turned to Empire to secure talent for a night that they’d never forget. After a length process of evaluating many options, the client chose and Empire delivered an extremely special, private concert with one of the best-selling rock bands in music history - Journey.

With their broad range of well-known hits, polished high-energy stage show, and powerful lineup (including lead vocalist Arnel Pineda, who has been with the band since 2007) Journey would deliver everything the client wanted for a successful evening.Prior to the performance, Journey participated in an intimate meet & greet with the guests, getting them excited for the performance to follow. The concert was full of non-stop hits including “Separate Ways,” “Anyway You Want it,” “Open Arms,” “Only the Young,” and “Faithfully.” The finale song, “Don’t Stop Believin’", brought the entire audience to the front of the stage, and left them clapping and cheering for an encore. When the band returned to the stage, they concluded the amazing night with an electrifying performance of “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’.”

Following the concert, DJ Mick Boogie kept the party alive, spinning greatest hits of yesterday and today, as guests danced the night away on a custom built black and gold dance floor. For this amazing night, Empire was proud to serve as overall entertainment producer, which included securing and contracting all performing talent and entertainment, providing all technical production, and managing all talent logistics, stage management, and onsite production management. Empire Entertainment is a leader in delivering the biggest names in entertainment for private performances.

Microsoft unveiled Visual Studio 2013, its ground-breaking and now cloud-based software development tool with an innovative, technological showcase that embodied the Visual Studio mantra: Connect, Create, Transform.

Serving as a platform for all Visual Studio 2013 news and announcements, the Keynote event hosted 250 in-person attendees at Highline Stages and 60,000 online viewers from around the world. Led by Microsoft Corporate Vice Presidents S. Somasegar and Scott Guthrie, this event was the worldwide corporate unveiling of Visual Studio and kicked off hundreds of launch events around the world. New York City's Meatpacking District, the epicenter of collaborative and creative design, was the perfect locale for Microsoft to launch the tools that developers use for just that purpose.

From registration to keynote to cocktails, every element was custom designed to enhance individual guest experience through digital optimization. LED walls illuminated in a digital heat map depicting the size and location of the online audience and pre-programmed event apps on individual tablets served as guests' personal concierges throughout the day, providing event attendees with the most connected, creative and transformative experience of the year.

After months of designing and planning every detail in collaboration with the Microsoft team, we were thrilled to see all of the components come together—in their words—“flawlessly.”

Since 2004, Empire Entertainment has been proud to serve as producer to Keep a Child Alive for the annual Black Ball Gala that has grown to become one of New York’s largest, most noteworthy and coolest fundraising events.On November 7, 2013, Empire Entertainment served as producer for the tenth anniversary Black Ball Gala at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Generously sponsored by Givenchy and Jynwel Foundation, the Ball featured extraordinary performances by Alicia Keys, Pharrell Williams, Carole King, Kathleen Battle, British soul singer Laura Mvula, and R&B jazz fusion master Roy Ayers.

Hosted by KCA co-founder, global ambassador and Grammy Award-winning artist, Alicia Keys, the Black Ball has raised over $22.5 million since it’s humble beginnings in 2004. A decade later, a proud Keys spoke of the 300,000 children and family members that have benefitted from Keep a Child Alive’s care in Africa and India. A star-studded guest list of over 600 came to support Keys’ charity, including Clive Davis, Diane Von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger, Swizz Beatz, Steve Van Zandt, Padma Lakshmi, and baseball stars Robinson Cano and CC Sabathia.

The Black Ball raised $4 million dollars through table/ticket sales, sponsorships, donations and a live auction that featured a rare Givenchy purse, a Parisian vacation to see the Givenchy show, a trip to Jamaica, a Belstaff fashion experience and a private serenade by Alicia Keys accompanied with a special dinner with wines by Sherry-Lehmann Wine & Spirits.

Alicia Keys and her band put on an exceptional performance that, true to Black Ball tradition, featured several musical guests. The first of the evening was a beautiful collaboration with soul singer Laura Mvula, singing She. Followed by her breathtaking duet with Kathleen Battle singing Not Even The King and the classic, Ave Maria. Her next duet with R&B artist Claude Kelly, was an awe-inspiring song he wrote exclusively for Keep a Child Alive’s upcoming campaign. Carole King took the stage, Keys and King put on a phenomenal show when they sang a blended version of Superwoman vs. Natural Woman, creating an intense performance with their dueling pianos. Roy Ayers also performed alongside Alicia Keys, bringing his special brand of jazz and funk to the stage. Her last duet of the evening was with Pharrell Williams, as they sang Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. The concert concluded with a stunning confetti blast that filled the cavernous interior of the century-old Hammerstein Ballroom with a glittering cascade of gold. Moments later, Swizz Beatz appeared on stage to DJ the after party, having all guests dance into the early hours of the morning.

Empire has been proud to partner with and serve Keep a Child Alive for the past decade, creating the Black Ball together and growing it into one of New York’s most anticipated annual fundraising events. To learn more about Keep a Child Alive, please go to www.keepachildalive.org

Lincoln Center, a beacon of New York City’s musical and performing arts culture, has recently added fashion to its famed programming repertoire with Fashion Week, industry events, and an annual conversation series honoring the industry’s biggest icons. Kicking off the inaugural conversation, The Lincoln Center Corporate Fund presented legendary Chanel and Fendi Creative Director, Karl Lagerfeld, on the Adrienne Arsht Stage of Alice Tully Hall.

The format for the presentation was an interview of Lagerfeld led by Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain. Chastain led the audience through a revealing, deeply personal conversation about the life, career, and philosophy of this most enigmatic artist in the field of Fashion. The glamorous evening began with a "white-on-white" champagne reception in the Morgan Stanley lobby of Alice Tully Hall, just feet away from the red carpet glittering with nonstop flashes of photographers’ cameras. Once guests moved into the theater for the program, the same space was transformed into a "black-on-black" dining room for a black tie dinner. This stark, minimalist approach to the decor, punctuated by the contrast, created a high-impact and truly "Karl” experience, while minimizing costs and maximizing net funds raised.

In addition to continuing fashion programming in the Lincoln Center slate of events, this evening also marked the Lincoln Center Corporate Fund’s first gala fundraiser. All proceeds from the evening will benefit the Fund, which provides unrestricted support to 10 performing arts organizations at Lincoln Center including 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, Jessica Chastain’s alma mater. 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.

Founded 25 years ago, New York's Robin Hood is one of the most ambitious, progressive, and effective not-for-profit organizations working to eradicate poverty in New York City. When Robin Hood and key members of its board decided to create a new event to expand its already impressive reach within the investor and financial community, they engaged Empire to serve as producer for the project: the inaugural Robin Hood Investors Conference.

As with everything Robin Hood does, the Investors Conference would be innovative, bold and utterly unique. The two-day event took place at the Sheraton New York, home to the Clinton Global Initiative. The conference played host to over 750 influential investors representing virtually every major firm on Wall Street, as well as key hedge fund and private equity firms. The Conference featured an unprecedented lineup of financial leaders, presented in a series of carefully crafted keynotes, fireside chats and panel discussions. Among the many noteworthy speakers and participants were U. S. Secretaries of the Treasury; Tim Geithner, Henry Paulson, and Larry Summers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Ray Dalio, Howard Marks, David Einhorn, Daniel Loeb, Richard Chilton, Alan Schwartz, Mary Callahan Erdoes, Juan Enriquez, Lee Ainslee, David Tepper, Rob Citrone, John Griffin, Philippe Laffont, Laurence Fink, Barry Sternlicht, Bill Ackman, Julian Robertson, Mary Meeker, Jamie Dimon, and Jeff Bewkes. The final panel of the conference featured a conversation among two legendary investors, Stanley Druckenmiller and Robin Hood founder, Paul Tudor Jones.The conference sessions were emceed by Robin Hood's David Saltzman and Deborah Winshel.

To create a distinctive visual look unlike any other investor conference, a 100’ wide projection mapping installation that combined high resolution LED screen elements with HD front screen projection was installed in the ballroom and animated with images throughout the conference. At the end of each day, live data visualizations furnished by media partner, Bloomberg, were projected to the screens as wrap-up segments. The Investor Conference was underwritten by JPMorgan Chase so that every dollar of the tickets sold went to fund Robin Hood poverty programs. Other supporting sponsors included PepsiCo, and media partners Bloomberg and CNBC, both of whom broadcast live from the conference in temporary studios set up onsite.

This inaugural Robin Hood Investors Conference vastly exceeded its goal, raising over $5.5 million to fight poverty in New York City. Empire Entertainment was extremely proud to be chosen to serve as producer for this project, working hand-in-hand with Robin Hood's executive, creative and event teams, along with event partners First Protocol, Diversified Production Services, Performance Environment Design, Brian Oakes, Sheraton New York, and Elite Investigations. As producer, Empire was responsible for overseeing design and execution of the overall conference creative, including agenda and program content, visual design, scenic design, screen content, scripting, music, staging, branding, partners and event logistics. Additionally, Empire was responsible for all speaker coordination, communications and logistics for 50 program participants. Empire is a leading producer of innovative not-for-profit events, summits, and unique thought-leadership programs. To learn more about Robin Hood please visit www.RobinHood.org.

When the niece of one of Empire’s clients wanted to celebrate her Sweet 16 Birthday in New York City during Halloween weekend, Empire was asked to create an extraordinary costume party unlike any other Sweet 16.

To achieve the client’s vision of a Halloween Sweet 16, Empire quickly secured the Plaza Hotel’s spectacular Grand Ballroom and began working to transform the ornate space into a spooky, yet elegant lounge for 150 teenage guests.

The richly decorated ballroom was filled with large dripping candelabras of varying sizes that stood amidst groupings of tufted Victorian lounge furniture, all surrounding a giant central bar, complete with a Mocktail station with non-alcoholic juice concoctions.

Throughout the night, DJ Soul and a group of dancers in ever-changing Halloween costumes kept the crowd dancing. At one point, Thrill the World, a flash-mob zombie dance group, appeared and performed Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with uncanny precision. To add to the magic of the night, illusionist Elliot Zimet engaged guests in unforgettable sleight-of-hand experiences. Additional activities included a make-up booth where artists were available to gross-ify, gore-ify and amplify guests' costumes, and a social media photo booth where they could instantaneously post party photos or leave with a hard copy.

The evening’s high point came when Pharrell Williams made a special birthday appearance. The famous singer-songwriter and producer serenaded the dancing crowd with his hits including “Beautiful” and “Get Lucky". His smooth voice and undeniable charisma had guests flooding the stage and dancing alongside him. He then led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” followed by an intimate meet and greet with the birthday girl and her closest friends and family.

Empire was proud to be a part of the evening and to help make the birthday girl’s Sweet 16 the most memorable night of her life.

On November 4, 2013, EBONY Magazine presented the 2nd annual EBONY Power 100 Gala, honoring the nation’s 100 most influential African-Americans. The invitation-only affair took place in New York City and Empire was honored to serve as event producer.

The gala took place at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall and was hosted by the magazine’s Chairman, Linda Johnson Rice, and CEO Desirée Rogers of Johnson Publishing Company. The red carpet saw the likes of A-listers Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Harry Belafonte, La La Anthony, Reverend Al Sharpton Jr., Victor Cruz, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, Cynthia Rowley, Lee Daniels, and Tyson Chandler.

The dinner program was emceed by Power 100 Honoree, Nick Cannon, who introduced a wide range of Motown-themed performances from talent including: jazz pianist ELEW, DJ Kiss, 10-year old piano virtuoso Joshua Mhoon, and 12-year old vocal prodigy MaeYa Carter Ryan. The evening also featured a lively number from the cast of the Broadway’s “Motown: The Musical.” To finish off the evening, the legendary Jacksons, featuring Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Tito, performed their greatest hits including a medley of Jackson 5 songs.

This year’s gala honored the legendary founder of Motown Records, Berry Gordy Jr., with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The 2013 Power 100 list also honored President Obama, actress Kerry Washington, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, actor Michael B. Jordan, film director Lee Daniels, chefs Marcus Samuelsson and Roblé Ali and activists Harry Belafonte and Marian Wright Edelman.

After the dinner program, guests filed into the Atrium where they were treated to an after party with a sponsored lounge by Nationwide Insurance, and music by DJ Nick Cannon. Empire responsibilities ranged from securing performing talent, overall design & décor, coordinating with the venue and catering (provided by Great Performances), branding and sponsor fulfillment, staging, sound, lighting, video projection, video documentation, talent and presenter coordination, stage management, staffing, and security.

Empire Entertainment is a leading producer of high-profile events and is proud to have been chosen to support this remarkable program for EBONY Magazine and The Johnson Publishing Company.

To celebrate Halloween, AMC once again called upon Empire to produce their first ever Ad Sales event at the eerily lit Gotham Hall in Manhattan on October 30, 2013. As the most popular cable network, AMC always delivers on their motto “Something More.”

Donning their best Halloween costumes, guests first walked through a glowing blood red room and were then directed into the grand ballroom that was full of fog, large golden candelabras, and hand carved AMC branded pumpkins. Several Walter Whites, surrounded, of course, by his meth-making minions, sipped on hot apple cider as a clique of AMC cheerleaders and Three Little Pigs wandered by. Guests indulged in hot and cold apple cider, steak frites, tuna tartare, baby back ribs, white chocolate dipped ghost strawberries and more.

Throughout the evening, living statues painted in shades of teal, blue and silver danced the night away while guests had their fortunes told and minds blown by a slick slight-of-hand magician. Guests quickly took to the dance floor to enjoy spooky music curated by Donna D’Cruz. by Prior to announcing the best costume winners, guests were treated to a surprise flash mob performance of Michael Jackson’s Halloween classic “Thriller” by a slew of zombies. After all of the ghoulish fun and dancing came to an end, guests did some trick-or-treating at AMC’s candy bar full of lots of sweets and treats.