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USE THIS METHOD TO WOW YOUR FUTURE GUESTS 4 Steps to Choosing the Perfect Event Venue
Fun fact: As far as I know, I was the first Jewish kid to have a bar mitzvah in Madison Square Garden. I was obsessed with The Garden when I was younger — and let’s be honest, I still am today — because of my passion for the New York Knicks. Knowing that my favorite players had graced those floors made the place iconic, and its sheer size and long history made it magical. Still, it wasn’t my idea to host my bar mitzvah in the space. I wouldn’t have dared to dream so big! For that one, I have to give credit to my parents, and more particularly, my mother. My mother has always been into parties. When one of her kids’ birthdays rolled around, she turned our family’s little Upper West Side apartment into a festival. She brought in popcorn machines and wowed my friends with animal showcases. We packed 50 or 60 kids into a few small rooms and played carnival games in the hallway! So, when it was time for my bar mitzvah, she aimed for a miracle. “If you follow these steps, you’ll land on an event space that will wow your audience and help you communicate your message.”
She pulled every string she had and somehow booked the Knicks’ home court for four hours. My friends and I played basketball until we were exhausted, then dug into enormous platters of barbecue from The Garden’s Play by Play restaurant. It was incredible. My mother may not have realized it, but she chose the perfect spot for my bar mitzvah just like my team collaborates to pick ideal venues for our clients’ galas, awards ceremonies, kickoffs, and conferences. She thought about her budget, asked herself, “What would Liron love?” and then factored in my basic needs (basketball and good food), and leveled them up with an amazing space. Next time you need to find the perfect event venue, use our four- step method to wow your guests just like she did. Step 1: Consider your goals and budget. What message are you trying to portray to your guests? Do you want to inspire them? Educate them? Spark their curiosity? What is your venue budget? What do you absolutely need in the space to meet your goals? Maybe you need a wall of LED screens for a presentation or a stage for a performance. Think about these things first because you want to book a space that needs accessories, not a transformation. Step 2: Put yourself in your attendees’ shoes. Who is attending your event, and what are their expectations? Will your guests be able to easily find and access the event? If your
CHATTER the
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A Quick Word From Our Clients
It was Eventique’s pleasure to produce a Summer Soiree for the British asset management company Schroders at its American branch! Here are a few of the notes we received from the Schroders team after executing their 1920s-themed bash. “[I] just wanted to send you a proper note to thank you and the team for helping us create a memorable event. You and the team brought our vision of the Roaring ’20s to life! [We] loved, loved, loved the surprise lighting! The feedback internally has been nothing short of positive. Thank you again! I look forward to working with you on next year’s Summer Soiree.” –Tiffany S. “Eventique has been a great partner to us on several projects, and we value the expertise and partnership that you bring to each project. Thank you very much.” –Scott M.
event is part of a larger production, will they have time to get there? Is there great parking? Is there an elevator? Will they have to wait in line? You should consider these specifics so you don’t ask too much of your guests. They might love to come to a cool fashion show in the heart of Brooklyn, but if they’re watching four other shows in Manhattan that day during Fashion Week, the trip might not be feasible. Step 3: Plan for your basic needs — then get bolder. Eventique has held cocktail parties in the hidden rooms of London subway stations and reimagined concert halls as digital galleries — and you can be just as creative. Maybe you pictured your event in a hotel ballroom in steps one and two, but what about the Brooklyn Museum? It offers all of the capabilities of a ballroom, but it’s completely unexpected. If you step outside of your comfort zone in a calculated, thoughtful way, you may be surprised how quickly you buy in. Step 4: Let the event unfold in your head. Walk through the event from start to finish, and think about the logistics. How will you move people from one place to another? What does the transition look like, feel like, and smell like? How long will guests be sitting vs. standing? Visualize the process to ensure your plan is realistic. If it isn’t, rewind and adjust. If you follow these steps, you’ll land on an event space that will wow your audience and help you communicate your message. Your space will work for you, not against you, and your guests will leave feeling as ecstatic as I did walking out of Madison Square Garden at age 13. P.S . – To help you find the perfect venue, I’ve designed two of my own event spaces on 25th Street and 42nd Street in New York. They’re walk-in-ready digital playgrounds; you can learn all about them by turning the page. - Liron David Founder and Executive Producer
7 OF EVENTIQUE’S FAVORITE JAW-DROPPING VENUES
Which Is Your Top Pick?
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The Village Underground (London) — Even empty, this decommissioned train station in the heart of London is majestic enough to drop jaws. The renovated warehouse’s vintage red brick walls, arched windows, and warren of
This is the moment every host dreams of: Your guests arrive at your event, walk inside, and freeze. Their jaws drop. “Wow,” they whisper softly, looking around wide-eyed. “This is incredible!” They’ve just made an extremely sharable memory — and your brand or nonprofit is at the center of it. An excellent event planner can manufacture that moment almost anywhere, but it helps to have a fantastic venue. Here are a few of Eventique’s favorite jaw-dropping places to host team-building events, holiday parties, charity galas, art fairs, and concerts.
rooms invite guests to explore. The venue can accommodate 720 people for an exclusive concert, launch party, or cocktail hour. Eventique first used the space years ago to produce Midnight Hour, a magical closing party for a global executive conference that featured more than 100 actors and performers selected and scripted by Eventique.
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The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (New York City) — This isn’t your typical brick-and- mortar museum — it’s a floating collection of artifacts onboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid. The ship is almost as long as the Chrysler
The Brooklyn Mirage (New York City) — Located inside the massive Avant Gardner Complex, this hidden
“The Eventique team loves to tap museums for their unrealized venue potential — but other iconic buildings, like the New York Public Library (a backdrop for “Ghostbusters,” “Spider-Man,” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”), can offer just as much history and wow factor.” Building is tall. It served in World War II, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War and was even a recovery ship for NASA during the decade of the moon landing! The Intrepid’s rich history and uniquely structured exhibits make it a little-known but iconic place for an event like GENYOUTH’s annual fundraising gala, which Eventique produces. Former president Bill Clinton delivered the keynote speech in front of a seamless 120-foot projection wall, the largest ever constructed, in the battleship.
“open-air sanctuary” wows guests with a combination of high-tech and natural elements. Inside, live greenery surrounds a 200-foot LED wall, and guests can meander a system of balconies and catwalks to enjoy views of the city lights and the stage below. Avant Gardner is the second-largest event venue in Brooklyn at 80,000 square feet, and it covers an entire city block in Industrial East Williamsburg.
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Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara) — This iconic stadium is home to the San Francisco 49ers and bills itself as “the premier
sports and entertainment venue in the world.” It’s absolutely massive, spanning 1.85 million square feet! For a recent event,
Eventique skipped the usual back rooms and booked the field itself for a client’s intimate concert series. Afterward, guests streamed onto the turf for an after-party.
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The Museum of Natural History NYC (New York City) — There are more than 33 million artifacts in this museum’s collection, including a giant squid beak, a 20-million-year-old butterfly, and an elephant shot by President Theodore
Roosevelt. Simply walking in is inspiring! With the right event planner, corporate gatherings can integrate seamlessly with the exhibits to create unforgettable experiences. Eventique once used the venue to transport IPsoft’s team to Iceland for a holiday party in the museum’s lobby and Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. A 94-foot blue whale replica (which takes museum staff three full days to clean) hovered majestically over the dance floor, completing the immersion.
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(located in the historic Max Factor building) as a launch point for a two-day Max Factor beauty brand event. The multi-venue experience took a group of international influencers through the museum, along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and out to a gorgeous house in the Hollywood hills in preparation for an oceanside masterclass. As you can see, the Eventique team loves to tap museums for their unrealized venue potential — but other iconic buildings, like the New York Public Library (a backdrop for “Ghostbusters,” “Spider-Man,” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”), can offer just as much history and wow factor. In the past, Eventique has even created venues out of thin air, crafting digital houses and landscapes for virtual events and masterminding unique IRL spaces. “For many years I imagined a type of venue I felt would inspire me and a lot of our clients — and because I couldn’t find it, I built it!” says Eventique Founder and Executive Producer Liron David. “In 2019, I launched Lavan New York.”
Terminal 5 (New York City) — This three- level venue in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen used to be a nightclub, but today it hosts concerts, cocktail parties, product launches, fashion shows, and more. The space features dramatic
40-foot ceilings, exposed brick walls, two full-fledged balconies, and a party-ready roof deck. Eventique recently reimagined the location for Dreamverse, turning the typical concert stage into an art, music, and technology experience showcasing more than 100 NFT artists. The Hollywood Museum (Hollywood) — This museum houses the world’s biggest collection of Hollywood memorabilia, including everything from Elvis’ bathrobe to the stage set of Hannibal Lecter’s jail cell from “Silence of the Lambs.” During a 2019 trip to California, Eventique used the museum
Lavan’s venues in Chelsea and Midtown are unlike any other locations in the city.
“I designed digital playgrounds with enough flexibility and production capability included that they’re walk-in ready,” Liron explains. “We’ve added 270-degree projection mapping on all of the 21-foot-high walls so that you can transform the entire environment around you! If your event has a resort theme, those walls can put you on a beach. If your event is related to the Middle East, we can make your guests feel like they’re in a marketplace in Saudi Arabia. Do you want to be in a rainforest or in a chapel? You can create any environment you want with the click of a button.”
With so many great options available, choosing a venue can be challenging — so let the professionals do it for you. Scan this QR code or email info@ eventique.com to work with one of Eventique’s venue matchmakers.
A LinkedIn Message Changed Her Life! Isabelle’s Jaw-Dropping Evolution From Internet Sleuth to Venue Manager but I said, ‘Absolutely, sign me up!’ He asked me to meet him the next morning at the Chelsea space. We met, and I never left!” Isabelle has been the director of sales and events at Lavan New York ever since. During the pandemic, she also helped produce virtual events for Eventique. She and Liron still joke about the “LinkedIn stalking situation” that brought them together — but the drive and ambition that pushed her to send that message also make her an excellent venue manager. “I’m constantly looking at the large companies and offices in our area and thinking creatively about who would be hosting an event and who could utilize a space like us,” she says. “I also look at which events are happening in New York City, who is behind them, and how I can get a conversation going with that team and those key decision makers.” On Isabelle’s watch, the two Lavan spaces Liron co-founded in Chelsea and Midtown have adapted to accommodate brand activations, fashion shows, corporate meetings, experiential events, private parties, high- end dinners, and more. Lavan Chelsea’s 270-degree projection allows full customization and branding: It became a bamboo forest for a Hennessy Lunar New Year party and a garden for Marc Jacobs. For the latter, producers completed the immersion by trucking in live plants and pouring mulch across the floor. At the 10,000-square-foot Midtown space, one client crafted their own club complete with a sunken dance floor. “People ask me, ‘Do you get bored working in the same spaces every day?’ And I tell them it’s the exact opposite because each day I get to
Ask Isabelle Sassano about her life, and you might start to wonder whether she’s secretly an early 2000s movie heroine. Why? Well, like an ambitious but down-on- her-luck Sarah Jessica Parker or Anne Hathaway, she landed her current job at Eventique’s associated event venue company, Lavan New York, thanks to the power of persistence — and a well-timed LinkedIn message. While earning her undergraduate degree in public relations in Virginia, Isabelle daydreamed about working in event production in New York City. She spent hours scrolling online, picking out her dream companies and reading up on their CEOs. Then, in her junior year, she finally worked up the confidence to message one: Eventique Founder and Executive Producer Liron David. “Years later, he still has the messages!” Isabelle says, chuckling. “I told him, ‘I will fetch coffee for eight hours a day, unpaid. I just want to learn from you.’” Eventique didn’t have any internships available at the time, but Liron told Isabelle to check back with him after the New Year — and she did, sending her next message promptly on Jan. 1! A position never panned out, but they stayed in touch, and eventually Isabelle leveraged her experience planning weddings and private events to move to New York City. “I reached out on LinkedIn [again] and asked Liron to get coffee,” she recalls. “I didn’t know many people in the city, but I wanted to make an industry connection! One thing led to another, and he asked me if I was open to managing an event space. It was like nothing I had ever done before,
watch the same spaces be completely transformed into something unrecognizable,” Isabelle says. Isabelle lives and breathes event production. Even when she isn’t working, she’s event-hopping across the city with her roommate and boyfriend, who both work in the industry. According to family lore, the business is in her blood: Her grandfather was the director of events at the University of Notre Dame for 30 years and may have passed on the passion. “I’m constantly trying to work hard, play hard, and have as much fun as I can,” she says. To learn more about the Lavan New York spaces Isabelle manages, visit LavanNewYork.com.
JUST WRAPPED Welcome to “Just Wrapped,” a monthly summary of what Eventique’s team has been up to. Every year, Eventique plans corporate parties, virtual experiences, concerts, charity galas, and more. This is just a small peek behind the curtain. Luna Park’s 120th Anniversary Celebration — The Luna Park theme park at Coney Island is one of New York City’s most iconic locations for family fun, and this June, Eventique produced its 120th anniversary celebration! More than 1,000 locals and tourists joined Luna Park’s board of directors and staff at the park’s main entrance to enjoy a carnival-like atmosphere, including eye-catching acts, musical performances, snacks, and more on a new pedestrian plaza. Eventique provided the night’s entertainment and decorated the thoroughfare in the style of a vintage circus, creating festive lounge spaces and a photo booth for guests to enjoy. It was the perfect place for the community to celebrate between forays into Luna Park’s expansion, which includes game- changing attractions like New York City’s first 50- foot oceanside ropes course. Think Summit NYC 2023 — In June, Eventique’s team swarmed The Glasshouse in New York City to produce Moveable Ink’s Think Summit — a self- styled “premier digital marketing conference for emerging technology and AI.” Business owners and marketing executives enjoyed two days of strategy sessions, networking events, speeches, and presentations, followed by an event reception. The summit featured a keynote speech by boxer and business owner Laila Ali (Muhammad Ali’s daughter) and was livestreamed nationwide. Want your upcoming event to be next on Eventique’s list? Request a proposal from the all-star team at Eventique.com. 2 Landmark Events in New York City
Isabelle at a Glance Currently Watching: “Vanderpump Rules” on Bravo Favorite TV Show: “Gossip Girl” Most Recent Concert Attended: John Summit in Atlantic City Favorite NYC Restaurant: Thai Villa on East 19th Street Top Spot for a Late-Night Bite: Orion Diner & Grill on 2nd Avenue Currently Listening To: Olivia Rodrigo Recent Travel Destination: Sicily All-Time Favorite Thing: Rain
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Pro Tips: How to Choose the Right Venue
7 of Eventique’s Favorite Jaw-Dropping Venues
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Meet Liron’s ‘LinkedIn Stalker’
Your Monthly Event Rundown
How to Maximize Your First Venue Walk-Through
Get Maximum Value From Your Next Venue Visit Ask These Questions to Avoid Wasting Time and Money! “When touring any venue, it is crucial to figure out which elements are included and which ones need to be outsourced,” she says. “This list can include items like food and beverage, audio-visual equipment, Wi-Fi, furniture, etc. These elements are important when creating the all-in budget for your event, so never assume, and always double-check!” Here are a few other questions Isabelle recommends asking to avoid unwelcome surprises: • Is there a noise ordinance on the building? • If people need to queue on the sidewalk, is that okay? • What happens if our event goes over the allotted time. Are there fees involved? • Can we serve alcohol at the location? • What is the maximum capacity of the space? If our guest count increases beyond that maximum, are there fees involved? • How much staff support is included? Does the venue provide bartenders, waitstaff, technicians, etc.? • Does the venue provide a coat check?
To choose the right venue for your next event, think of every walk-through as a first date. It’s the get-to-know-you period — and the questions you ask can make or break the success of your relationship! To ensure you get the information you need and don’t waste your money on a bad fit, we brought in Isabelle Sassano, the director of sales and events at Lavan New York, to give you her professional advice. Isabelle walks business owners and marketing managers through the Lavan New York spaces every day. She has answered hundreds of their questions over the years — and this is her No. 1 tip.
• Does the venue have exclusive vendors, or are you free to contract with your own? • Is there a catering kitchen onsite? Is it a prep kitchen or a fully working kitchen? You can customize this list to your needs, but if you plan to serve cocktails or keep the music cranked up past midnight, don’t forget to ask those key questions. We recommend writing down your list of questions before your venue tour. Unlike a first date, the venue staff won’t judge you for it!
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