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How Summer Lets Us Recapture Our Youth NOBODY WANTS TO GROW UP!
W hen I was a kid, I spent almost every Friday of the summer at the Doral Arrowwood hotel in Rye Brook, New York. The rooms were so familiar that they felt like a second home. When dinnertime came, my dad pulled the hotel desk between our two queen beds to make a dining room table, and my brother, sister, and I sat around it with our legs dangling over the bed skirts. Mom fished the food she’d prepared at home out of our cooler and warmed it up on a hot plate balanced over the room’s kitchen sink. Then, she ladled out portions for the five of us. We joked, laughed, and told stories as we dug in. That’s how the David family ate our fabulous Shabbat Friday night dinners all summer — sitting on comforters around a hotel desk!
It all seemed normal to me then, but looking back, the Doral was a funny spot for a family to stay. During the week, its massive conference center bustled with pharmaceutical executives and real estate developers. But on weekend nights, the businessmen sped home, and the hotel sat nearly empty, with just 150 people wandering its 114 acres. No wonder they used a $99-per-night rate to lure families like ours from New York City! The Doral was our little escape from the sweltering heat of the city streets, where there wasn’t much to do other than untwist the neighborhood fire hydrant and let water sprinkle out down the block. At the Doral, we could explore the massive hotel property and feel the breeze in our hair. It was
my favorite place on earth apart from day camp — an oasis a bus ride away where I spent years as a camper and then a lifeguard. The camp sat at the edge of the Long Island Sound, so I spent endless summer days on the beach. The other campers and I raced in speed boats and banana boats, played tennis and basketball, and experimented with archery until we were exhausted. But the best thing about camp was the one day each summer when a baseball player from the Mets or Yankees would show up to shake hands, take photos, and sign autographs. Rumors flew every summer
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A Quick Word From Our Clients
“Thank you for all your support. Our event went very smoothly and was really well received by our clients. You and your team were wonderful partners in ensuring we were set up for success, which was very much appreciated.” –Diane Miller, Legalhouse Global “I just wanted to reach out and say thank you so much for all of the time and effort you put into making my internship an excellent experience. I felt so welcomed and supported during my 10 weeks here and really just wanted to express my gratitude to each and every one of you. In our little meetings and interactions in the office, I learned so much about professional passion, collaboration, and doing personally meaningful pursuits. I will definitely take it with me in my future professional endeavors.” –Cameron Adams
about which player our guest would be, and I was thrilled every time one of my favorites showed up. Looking back, the thread that unites my best summer memories is time spent with friends and family. I’ll never forget sitting at that hotel “dining room table” eating dinner with my parents or chasing my siblings through the fields of the Doral. This summer, I plan to re-create those memories! I’ll spend as much time as possible with my kids, and I’ll also work alongside my team to bring the magic of my childhood to our summer productions. Everyone has fond memories of summer. For me, it’s the Doral, but maybe you’re nostalgic about running through the sprinklers or watching Dad fire up the barbecue. Ultimately, none of us want to grow up. That’s why we love when company events tap into that sense of joy, happiness, and peace. My team has helped dozens of businesses do this successfully. They rent sleepaway camps and host weekend retreats where their teams sleep in bunk beds that bring them straight back to childhood. They ask keynote speakers to share their messages over s’mores around a firepit or turn their executive meetings into outdoor barbecues scented with fireworks and grill smoke. These nostalgic strategies break down the barriers of 9-to-5 team-building outings. They give teams a chance to open up, socialize, and reminisce. They make magic and build memories — and they’re some of my favorite events to create. Turn the page to read about a few of Eventique’s best summer productions. - Liron David Founder and Executive Producer
TEAM-BUILDING FUN IN THE SUN These Summer Events Brought Coworkers Together
B alloon-popping carnival booths. Human bowling on a rolling green lawn. Life-size games of Jenga, checkers, and Operation spread out next to face painting stations and cotton candy stands. These are just a few of the ways that Eventique’s team has entertained its clients’ guests during the blue- skyed, beating heart of summer. This is a season like no other, and Eventique regularly masterminds conferences, ribbon-cuttings, and brand activations that leverage its benefits — like long days and beautiful weather. Still, summer is particularly well-suited for another type of gathering: corporate team-building events that tap into childhood nostalgia.
If you’re a business owner, you can likely imagine why. During the summer, business in many industries slows to a molasses- like crawl. Employees get restless, take off for long family vacations, spend more and more time in the corporate kitchens, or tap their feet under their desks. Left unchecked, malaise and torpor will take hold of the office, and your ambitious Q3 goals will fall by the wayside — which is where team-building events come in. They’re the perfect way to energize a flagging workforce, remind them of your collective goals, and encourage a push to the finish line. event,” says Eventique Production Coordinator Angela Dipasquale. “These events are valuable because they help businesses grow and educate their employees outside of the office, which leads to higher productivity and better work when they return to their desks.” Angela and her team kicked off summer 2023 early with a team-building dinner for the consumer goods giant Reckitt in Parsippany, New Jersey. The event was perhaps the most creative part of Reckitt’s annual conference. “Our clients came to us looking to create a fun evening event that would help get their employees excited to break down the barriers they are facing in the workplace and ‘wreck’ their goals for this year,” Angela explains. “We took a twist on the name ‘Reckitt’ and ‘Wreck it, Ralph,’ to come up with the event’s name, which was ‘Reckitt Set Go!’” “At a great team-building event, the guests are able to have fun while being challenged and educated on the overall goal of the
At Reckitt Set Go!, Reckitt’s employees let their destructive inner child loose. They popped paint-filled balloons and smashed plates inscribed with the company’s goals for 2023. Then, an emcee hosted minute- to-win-it games that forced paint-flecked coworkers to team up, building bonds that strengthened back at the office. Reckitt had a specific goal in mind for its event — gear up its team to smash 2023 — but more general team-building events can be equally valuable. For example, employees of the software company Squarespace will never forget the Squarespace Family Fun Day that Eventique produced for them at the Knockdown Center in Queens.
The party was a nostalgic oasis carved from the sweaty bustle of New York City. Eventique transformed a century-old former factory into a 50,000-square-foot picnic for Squarespace’s employees, their families, and their friends. Guests wandering through the bright, brick-filled industrial space could explore large-scale Jenga, checkers, and Operation games. Those beckoned tweens and grown-ups while the little ones immersed themselves in a Toddler Zone of bouncy castles and airbrush tattoos. Between games, attendees could explore elevated food offerings integrating Squarespace clients, which varied from simple and savory to Instagrammably sweet. Many teammates ended the night outdoors, laughing shoulder-to- shoulder at picnic tables and sipping spiked lemonade. Eventique captured a similar feeling of easy camaraderie at WeWork Summer Camp four years running. One summer, the coworking company whisked 3,500 attendees off to a remote island in New York’s Adirondack State Park for two days of keynotes, workshops, team-building activities, and networking events. Guests spent the night at a classic sleepaway camp and enjoyed wine tastings, film screenings, and performances by The Chainsmokers and The Weeknd as the sun went down. Of course, in Eventique’s effort to evoke a good ole “Meatballs”- style camp experience, there was spiked bug juice galore.
WeWork Summer Camp spanned multiple days, but Eventique has also masterminded summer events stretching across multiple cities. In 2022, for example, the team produced a summer kickoff party for the wealth management platform Addepar both virtually and at three of its major corporate offices in California, New York, and Utah. Eventique’s team tapped into a creative “Havana Nights” theme to create the multi-site bash and kept guests entertained with a cigar rolling demonstration, custom mixology classes, and cooking classes taught virtually from Spain by a renowned chef. When creating Addepar’s virtual event, Eventique’s team drew on their previous experience planning award-winning team- building events online — like the 2021 TikTok Summer Wrap Party, which brought together 3,000 TikTok/ByteDance employees and won a BizBash Experience Award for “Best Virtual Team Building Activity.” Highlights of the event included a live trivia show featuring clues by “America’s Got Talent” host Terry Crews and a DJ set from Jash Jay. Of course, team-building events aren’t the only way to leverage the daylight, energy, and freedom summer brings. Eventique has also made the most of the season while producing conferences, ribbon-cuttings, and brand activations like Youth to the People’s Future World Tour. “During the summer months, people are constantly out shopping and enjoying the outdoors, so we created this traveling activation in an Airstream that would live outside of a variety of different Sephora stores across the country to take advantage of that,” says Eventique Vice President of Creative and Strategy Eric Weilander. Shoppers could step inside the 31-foot vintage Airstream to immerse themselves in Youth to the People’s vision for the future, inspired by its Polypeptide-121 Future Cream. If you’d like Eventique to bring this same strategic magic to your 2023 summer event, use the insert inside this newsletter to score 15% off a production package.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! Meet Luis, Eventique’s Traveling Photographer
Luis Ruiz started photographing events for Eventique way back in 2015. For his first gig, he shot the Humane Society of the United States gala in New York City, not far from where he grew up in the Bronx. But for his second job, Eventique sent him halfway around the world. “Liron brought me to London!” Luis remembers. “It was my first time traveling alone, my first time going away [to shoot], and my first time getting a passport.” Luis rushed his passport paperwork through the system in just three weeks. Within a month of learning about the Midnight Hour event, he was on-site in a cavernous, decommissioned London Underground station shooting the Eventique team’s load-in process. From there, he captured the entire magical night — snapping photos of guests in Victorian-steampunk costumes, acrobats spiraling through blue and pink spotlights, and cocktails trailing smoke. “It was a really cool event to shoot, and the pictures speak for themselves,” Luis says. “I brought all of the music photography experience I had into that world.” Before connecting with Eventique, Luis graduated from Parsons School of Design. He finished school in the middle of the Great Recession when jobs were scarce, so he picked up a photography gig at
for my career. Shooting live musicians and seeing an artist do what they love onstage just does something for my style of work.” Luis beautifully captures the talent on stage at Eventique events. He’s also a master of branding photography — you may have seen his photo in ads for Spotify, Levi’s, and Peloton, or on billboards promoting the Caesars Sportsbook app — and he excels at catching unplanned, behind-the-scenes moments on camera. Eight years on from his first Eventique job, Luis has traveled from coast to coast to shoot productions. He captured a Moby performance at the Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles and took event snapshots at Universal Studios in Orlando. Here in New York, he has immortalized United Nations events, stayed up until 2 a.m. shooting an installation in Times Square, and photographed celebrity talent like actress Sydney Sweeney.
Yankee Stadium only tangentially related to his graphic design degree. “I use some lessons from my degree for my photography, like composition, symmetry, and negative space,” he explains. From there, Luis went all-in on his new profession. He briefly joined the paparazzi, then shot more than 100 weddings — but his favorite gigs were concerts and music festivals. He has worked with both mainstream and indie publications, capturing artists ranging from Bad Bunny to The Rolling Stones.
“I’m very grateful that I found Eventique!” Luis says, adding, “It has been an amazing process watching the company grow.” Luis and his wife, Jessica, live in Valhalla, New York, about an hour from Eventique headquarters. To see more of his photos and shots from Eventique’s other talented photographers, follow Eventique on Facebook at Facebook.com/ eventiqueaffair or Instagram @eventiqueaffair.
“My grandfather was a trumpet player, arranger, and composer, so music is in our blood,” Luis says of his Puerto Rican and Latino family. “For me, shooting music is very important. It keeps me going, and it’s a big inspiration
JUST WRAPPED
Welcome to “Just Wrapped,” a monthly summary of what Eventique’s team has been up to. Every year, Eventique plans events like corporate parties, virtual experiences, concerts, and charity galas. This is just a small peek behind the curtain. Kraft Heinz Ace Awards 2023 Eventique recently produced a global hybrid event for the convenience food giant Kraft Heinz. The Ace Awards recognized outstanding creative team members and agencies, celebrating their best campaigns for the Kraft Heinz brand in categories like “Brand Experience & Activation,” “Creative Commerce,” and “Creative Strategy.” Thanks to a hybrid approach, agencies tuned in to the livestreamed Chicago awards ceremony from offices worldwide! Variety’s 2023 Power of Women What do superstar women Judy Blume, Natasha Lyonne, Rosie Perez, Kelly Ripa, and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez have in common? Variety honored all five of them in its 2023 Power of Women issue, which went hand-in-hand with an invitation-only New York lunch event produced by Eventique. “Saturday Night Live” actress and comedian Ego Nwodim hosted the lunch, cracking up A-listers and executives alike, and each guest left with an exclusive gift bag in hand. Want your upcoming event to be next on our list? Request a proposal from our all-star team at Eventique.com. Team-Ups With Kraft Heinz and Variety
Luis at a Glance Source of Inspiration: Music, travel,
shooting in new venues Favorite Food: Ice cream
Most Recent Travel Destination: Mexico Bucket List Destinations: Costa Rica and Japan Favorite Cocktail: Moscow Mule No. 1 Summer Activity: Traveling with his wife, Jessica
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The Secret Behind Successful Summer Events
Tour Eventique’s Best Summer Team- Building Events
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Meet Eventique’s Traveling Photographer
Your Monthly Event Rundown
How to Create the Perfect Summer Cocktail
Sure, beer pairs beautifully with pulled pork — but no beverage levels up a backyard barbecue, wedding, or graduation ceremony quite like a cocktail or mocktail. WHY CHOOSE COCKTAILS? “Fresh and unique signature cocktails and mocktails are a key part to summer socializing because they encourage guests to try a different beverage other than their ‘go to’ drink,” explains Ashley Allegretta, the Director of Special Events and Hospitality at Personal Touch Catering Experience. “When a cocktail or mocktail is really great and delicious, everyone at the celebration talks about the unique treat, and it creates a positive ‘buzz’ [of] conversation!” To help you inject a splash of summer fun into your next event at home, Eventique turned to Ashley and another drinkmaster: The Cup Bearer CEO and founder Justin Pasha. STEP 1: PICK THE RIGHT FLAVOR. You can’t go wrong with the classic tastes of summer. Justin says, “We recommend fruit-forward cocktails and mocktails for summer; we’re especially fond of beverages with fresh cucumber, mint, and different types of melon.” For more creative cocktail-makers, Ashley advises exploring unexpected combinations of familiar tastes. “My favorites off of our summer cocktail menu are a coconut-rum lemonade and beet-tequila cocktail, as they are fresh and flavorful. Our ginger-carrot cocktail is our most unique summer cocktail and most popular with all who get to try it!” she says. RAISE A GLASS TO SUMMER! Expert Tips for Crafting Warm-Weather Cocktails
STEP 2: KEEP IT SIMPLE. You don’t need to empty your entire fridge and bar into your guests’ cocktail glasses. “We always suggest keeping recipes simple — no more than four ingredients — and using freshly squeezed juices,” Justin says. “Simple recipes are ideal for batching and make hosting a breeze.” And Ashley agrees: If you’re not willing to play bartender, batch cocktails can be lifesaving. “Batch the juices and have alcohol on the side with a menu key of how many ounces are recommended for [guests to] add,” she advises. If you take these tips to heart, drinks for your next get-together will be both easy and delicious.
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