Check out our September newsletter!
www.eventique.com
HINT: I START BY WATCHING THE EMMYS! My Secret to Producing Emmys-Level Award Shows T hese days, it feels like every hour of my week is packed with brainstorming, planning, and executing events. I’m constantly running from one project to another (which I love!), but every year, I make time to do one thing just for me: I tune in to the Emmys. events like The Humane Society of the United States’ annual To the Rescue! gala, which has used the same venue for more than a decade. How the team uses music to change the mood of the audience.
It sounds backward, but for me, the choice of music can actually help drive the design of an awards ceremony stage. With that in mind, I’m always curious about the music choices that awards show producers
I’d like to say that I carve out a few hours to sit on the couch and really soak in the awards show magic. But realistically, you’re more likely to find the show playing in the background on my laptop while I work at the office, on my phone during my cab ride or subway ride home, or on my living room TV while I grab a bite of dinner. This year, the Emmys were originally scheduled for Sept. 18. Unfortunately, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strikes have postponed them indefinitely — but I still have the tradition on my mind. Why do the Emmys take up so much of my headspace? Well, as an event producer, show crawler, and show director, I’m constantly taking inspiration from televised award shows. Eventique has produced dozens of awards ceremonies for corporations and nonprofits targeted at both live and virtual audiences, so I’m always combing the productions of the Emmys, Oscars, and Grammys for unique ideas we can leverage.
make. I pay close attention to how the music makes me feel as a viewer, where it hits the right emotional notes and where it falls flat.
The balance of entertainment and ‘talking heads.’ It’s easy to run a very “podium-heavy” ceremony full of back-to-back awards presentations and thank-you speeches. But successful award shows avoid repetitive talking heads. I like to analyze how productions like the
Emmys do this with tricks like introducing performers on multiple stages, moving presenters around the venue, and interacting creatively with the audience. Over the years, I’ve used dozens of strategies from the Emmys and other awards shows to level up my clients’ awards ceremonies. Of
Here are three things I’ll look for when this year’s Emmys finally happen: The transformation of a multi-year
course, the fact that the Emmys broadcast is on live TV adds a new layer of complexity to the production! The showrunners need to factor in commercial breaks, keep the show’s momentum going, and stay flexible when the audience engages in unexpected ways. (I like to imagine how I’d react if I were running the 2022 Oscars and saw Will Smith leap out of the audience and smack Chris Rock across the face.) Someday, I’d love to listen in on the communication headsets the Emmys’ directors use to speak to each other, their camera operators, and the rest of the crew. It’s been a dream of mine for years, and I know I’ll eventually make it happen! I’ve already done the
venue. Re-creating an event in the same space
year after year isn’t easy. Your creative and technical teams
have to push themselves to their limits to reinvent the space or come up with a theme that will transform how it looks
and feels to the audience. Watching how the Emmys and other award shows approach this challenge fascinates me and inspires me to try new things when producing
1. Six Emmys for one role?! In 2017, Julia Louis-Dreyfus won her sixth award in a row for her portrayal of President Selina Meyer in “Veep,” setting a new Emmy record. In total, Louis-Dreyfus has 11 Emmys and 26 nominations under her belt, placing her among the most prolific Emmy winners of all time. 2. A nomination risk pays off. In 2019, Gwendoline Christie nominated herself for Outstanding Supporting Actress — and the academy said, “Okay, sure!” Christie didn’t win for her role as Brienne of Tarth in “Game of Thrones,” but she did secure the nomination. Submitting herself was her way of “saying goodbye” to her character. streaming service honored with an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series wasn’t Netflix — it was Hulu! In 2017, the platform’s original series “The Handmaid’s Tale” won top honors. 4. The most heartwarming speech to date. 3. Hulu beats out Netflix. The first When Fred Rogers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” took home the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997, he brought his signature warmth and heart to the stage. He asked everyone in the audience to think of those who loved and shaped them. Then, after 10 seconds of silence, he said, “Whomever you’ve been thinking about — how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they’ve made.” 5. Is this the Emmys or the Grammys? In 2022, “Abbott Elementary’’ actress Sheryl Lee Ralph won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard — and she celebrated in song! We can’t forget her rendition of Dianne Reeves’ lyrics: “I am a woman, I am an artist / and I know where my voice belongs.” 5 EMMY MOMENTS? DO YOU REMEMBER THESE
next best thing: I’ve produced an event in the very same room that once hosted the Emmys. It was inspiring and humbling to walk into The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, and execute a charity gala in the footsteps of the industry’s best award show producers. As I planned our event, I couldn’t resist imagining the other performances that had graced the same stage. Next time you’re tasked with producing an awards ceremony for your company or nonprofit, here’s my best advice: Take inspiration wherever you can find it, and remember Bruce Lee’s famous quote. “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.” —Bruce Lee I’m sure the 2022 Oscar producers had that in mind while navigating the slap! P.S. If channeling Bruce Lee is a little intimidating, you can hire our team of experts to execute your next awards ceremony flawlessly. Turn the page to read about our most recent award show successes. - Liron David Founder and Executive Producer
SCAN ME NOW!
Must-Have Ingredients for a Successful Awards Show That Benefits Your Company AND Engages Your Audience
Did you know that companies with employee recognition programs tend to have better employee
The WorkWave Beyond Service User Conference, for example, ended with an Eventique-produced awards night highlighting some of WorkWave’s most innovative clients. By rewarding businesses using software under the WorkWave umbrella in unique and efficient ways, the company inspired the rest of the conference’s attendees to push their WorkWave software to its full potential. If you plan to host your own awards ceremony in the near future, Eventique’s team of event experts recommends these three “secret ingredients” to ensure its success. Show-Stopping Performances — As Eventique Founder and Executive Producer Liron David mentioned on Page 2, if your awards show is filled with nothing but “talking heads,” your audience will quickly become restless, As you plan your awards show, make sure you integrate entertainment to pep up the back-to-back speeches. Ideally, you should include multiple performance types on several 1. bored, and disconnected. Imagine how dull the Emmys would be without comedy breaks and random dance moments, or how yawn-inducing some might have found the 2023 Oscars if not for appearances from Lady Gaga and Rhianna.
retention and lower turnover than businesses that let
their hardest workers go unrecognized? By doing something as simple as hosting an internal awards ceremony, you may be able to hold on to as much as 55% of the talent you’d otherwise lose! With that in mind, it’s no wonder so many successful Fortune 500 companies choose to end their big, multi-day conferences with awards shows. Eventique has produced dozens of these over the years recognizing employees, clients, community members, and other stakeholders in creative ways. “At a successful awards show, everything from the positioning of the stage to the decor in the room should be designed to keep the audience curious and invested.”
stages. Eventique also loves to level up its ceremonies with multiple hosts, custom-designed motion graphics, and on-stage DJs. The team leveraged all of these elements and more to produce Seramount’s 100 Best Gala, which highlighted companies with excellent leave policies, workforce representation, benefits, childcare, and more. The complex production ran for two hours and featured more than 70 stage cues to keep the crowd engaged.
2.
Surprising Categories — Keep your audience on its toes with unique and exciting categories they may not expect. This
is particularly important if you host an annual awards show, like the Kraft Heinz Ace Awards, which Eventique recently produced for Kraft Heinz in Chicago to highlight the company’s most successful ad campaigns.
3.
Superior Audience Engagement — At a successful awards show, everything from the positioning of the stage to the decor in the room should be designed to keep the audience curious and invested. There are dozens of ways
“Repeat attendees always appreciate when new categories are introduced to an awards ceremony,” says Eventique Vice President of Strategy and Creative Eric Weilander. “Adding new awards showcases how your company continues to innovate and think of opportunities to be as inclusive as possible. While many people will always look forward to hearing about the ‘Agency of the Year’ and other usual suspects, it’s nice when new categories surface from time to time.” The 2023 Ace Awards included fun categories like “Delicious Craft” and “Low Budget, Big Impact,” as well as more expected ones like “Brand Experience & Activation.”
to do this well. You can design breakout moments that require audience participation — like asking them to vote live via text for a last-minute category — or create interactive decorations for attendees to explore. For the 50th anniversary of The One Show, billed as “the world’s most prestigious awards show in advertising, design, and digital marketing,” Eventique created an
installation highlighting five decades of advertising history. The design was visually intriguing and helped immerse the audience in the show’s one-of-a- kind experience. To produce a successful awards show, you have to juggle hundreds of decisions both before and during the event. This becomes even more complex if you incorporate features like virtual engagement and livestreaming, as Kraft Heinz did to engage its global team in the Ace Awards. The three secret ingredients listed here should point you in the right direction. However, you’ll save time and effort by turning your next production over to the experts! To connect with Eventique’s seasoned awards show production team, scan the QR code on Page 4.
The Man Behind the Beats Gabriel Furman’s Journey From MTV Break Dancing Coach to Eventique DJ
If you remember the iconic dance battles from the 2006 movie “Step Up” with Channing Tatum, then you have an idea of what Eventique DJ and Event Manager Gabriel Furman’s life was like 15 years ago. “I used to be a professional break dancer, so I traveled the world doing choreography and dancing for musical artists. I was in the underground hip-hop world, and that’s where I started DJing old-school hip-hop and house for New York City dance competitions,” he says. Unlike “Step Up,” the underground clubs Gabriel DJed and battled in were the real thing. Eventually, he landed a spot as a break dancing coach on “MTV MADE,” where he taught a shy bookworm named Sam to let go of her fears and learn to break dance. Gabriel never expected to get the part; he actually went to the audition to support a friend. But that one-episode role changed the course of his life. “I got an email from a fan, a 12-year-old girl, who said she was going to commit suicide until she saw my episode and got
really inspired by how much I loved dancing. That email gave me the courage to become an actor and really pursue that dream,” he says. Today, Gabriel balances his DJ and event management work for Eventique with acting and scriptwriting side hustles. One of the short films he made through his production company, Former Children Productions, was recently licensed by HBO and will soon become a TV series. This isn’t the path Gabriel thought his life would take — after graduating from the School of Visual Arts, he planned to make a living creating special effects for blockbuster movies — but he loves exercising his creativity for Eventique’s clients. While Gabriel is an excellent event manager, he says DJing is his “happy place,” especially when he can create soundscapes for corporate events with crowds of over 100 people. “Most concert DJs have everything pre-planned, but when you DJ an event, you really want to have people experience the moment. You need to be able to read the crowd, have an almost symbiotic flow between you, and be open to how their mood influences the song
you should be playing. When that happens, and the music hits them, it’s an amazing feeling, and you want to maintain that throughout the event,” he says. Gabriel’s extensive expertise in stage performance and passion for corporate events makes him the perfect DJ for high-profile awards ceremonies. This year, he DJed for Eventique’s 50th anniversary production of “The One Show,” one of the world’s premier award shows for the digital marketing, advertising, and design industries.
“The most memorable moment for me happened after the show. We had a red carpet up the aisle, and that carpet pretty much turned into a rave. It was really cool, fun, and unexpected,” he says. Gabriel quickly adapted his soundtrack to fit the moment, keeping the crowd dancing! It was just one of many unforgettable event moments he’s had in his 12 years working with Eventique. To learn one of Gabriel’s trade secrets for amping up the energy at an awards event like “The One Show,” turn to Page 8.
JUST WRAPPED Events for Attorneys, Influencers, and Toy Lovers! 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.. Lighthouse Illuminations Summit — Eventique’s team flew to Palm Beach, Florida, to transform the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach into a corporate getaway. More than 150 attorneys and other professionals in the eDiscovery, compliance, and information governance industries attended the Lighthouse Illuminations Summit, enjoying three days of networking opportunities, continuing education, breakout sessions, and speeches from industry experts. Highlights of the summit included a beachfront pool party and golf tournament, a cocktail reception and sit-down dinner on day one, a powerful keynote from Morgan Stanley’s Carla Harris on day two, and an exclusive Illuminations Celebration at the National Croquet Center. Sweet Suite 2023 — Eventique returned to The Toy Insider’s Sweet Suite this year, helping more than 65 of the nation’s top toy companies expertly navigate the complex load-in, setup, and load-out process at Pier Sixty in New York City. The Eventique team managed Sweet Suite’s sponsor storage area and directed the flow of items from the loading dock to creatively designed booths, ensuring the “legendary toy party” ran smoothly. Hundreds of YouTubers, Instagram stars, TikTokers, and reporters flooded the summer event to snap selfies, scope out the latest collectibles, and let their inner children run wild. Want your upcoming event to be next on Eventique’s list? Request a proposal from the all-star team by scanning the QR code on Page 4.
Gabriel at a Glance Current Favorite Musician: Burna Boy Best Friend: Penny, a 3-year-old Morkie (Maltese/Yorkshire terrier) Listening To: Latin house, reggaeton, and Afrobeat Favorite NYC Restaurant Dish: Pizza from L&B Spumoni Gardens Bucket List Travel Destination: Anywhere he can see the Northern Lights Recently Watched: “Black Mirror” Season 6 and “The Bear” Just Acted In: “Re-Entry: Actors Playing Jazz,” directed by Academy Award-winner Estelle Parson Looking Forward To: Seeing the Wu-Tang Clan and Nas in concert
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
333 W. 52nd St, Suite 1008 New York, NY 10019 info@eventique.com
4 2 Inside
Advice From Bruce Lee for Running a Successful Awards Show
3 Keys to a Successful Corporate Awards Show
6 7 8
How One Fan Email Changed DJ Gabriel Furman’s Career
Your Monthly Event Rundown
Level Up Your Awards Show With Personalized Walkup Music
Pump Up the Excitement at Your Next Awards Ceremony Use This Pro Tip From Eventique’s Awards DJ!
If you’re running an awards ceremony for your company, the last thing you want is to see the winners shuffling lethargically onstage while attendees yawn in the audience. A great awards show is an exciting, high-energy event — but how can you inject that energy in a corporate setting? One way to do it is by choosing the perfect soundtrack. Specifically, you should pay close attention to critical moments when a winner stands up to walk onstage or a host makes their first appearance. According to Eventique DJ and event manager Gabriel Furman, those seconds are critical for setting the tone. “Before the event, I like to find the showcrawler or stage manager, go through the run of show, and find the specific names of the presenters and winners. Then I do a little research on each person and choose their walkup music depending on the theme of the awards show and who those people are,” Gabriel says. Gabriel considers factors like the winner’s background, their age, their gender, the award category, the company they represent, and the demographics of the audience. For a Gen-X winner and crowd, he might blast an obscure but beloved song from the ‘80s, and “Who Let the Dogs Out” could be the perfect choice for a winner from an animal welfare charity. “Regular walkup music is okay — it fills the air. But something happens when it’s specific that raises the energy within the entire crowd. People say, ‘Oh my gosh!’ They start moving and ask, ‘What’s this?’” Gabriel says. “... I once
did an awards show where one winner was an old Hall of Fame football player, so I played the NFL theme song. He looked at me and started smiling!” The right music can turn a winner’s shuffle into a strut and amp up the delivery of their acceptance speech. Next time you plan an awards show, hire a DJ who brings the same dedication and expertise to your soundscape that Gabriel would.
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator