More than 150 industry professionals made the list for this year's Event 100 Club. You can now cast your vote and decide who will rank in Event's annual Experiential It List of the 100 most influential people in the industry, including the top 30 professionals under the age of 30. Voters are able to select their first and second preference from the list of agency, brand, venue and supplier representatives, or choose to nominate someone who does not appear in the list. Over the coming days, Event is publishing a short biography on each nominee to help you cast your vote,
Click to read the first list of nominees from A-D. Click to cast your vote now.
Kia Hanly, the former senior manager of international events for AOL, has joined Quintessentially & Co as corporate events director. Hanly has spent seven years client side, and now joins the brand event agency. Hanly said that her remit at AOL, and previous roles as events and client engagement lead at Microsoft and head of events at ITV has given her "a deep understanding of what brands are looking for from their event agency".
It was announced this week that brand experience agency Curb Media has been acquired by CSM's brand and live experience business, Icon. The acquisition reflects CSM's desire to increase its technological expertise and focus on the role technology plays in sport and entertainment. Curb's products include Meshh hyperlocal media and Rewind, a mobile on demand instant replay system for fans that doesn't require data or the internet. CSM is part of Chime, now owned by Providence Equity Partners.
Car brand Jaguar has revealed its latest design, the I-PACE. The car is an electric five-seat sports car and was unveiled using a virtual reality (VR) experience. Jaguar joined forces with VR provider HTC, computer experts Dell and creative agencies ReWind and Imagination to create the world’s largest, global, connected VR experience. The event took place on 14 December, and used two VR hubs - one in London and one in Los Angeles, with guests donning HTC Vive business edition headsets, powered by Dell Precision workstations, to get a first hand experience of the concept car. The guests could interact live with other participants while sitting on the virtual seats with a 360-degree view of Venice Beach.
Chivas Brothers brand Beefeater London Dry is transforming its distillery visitor centre in Kennington, London into a poetry-themed speakeasy on 19 November. Guests can try their hand at creating 'literary' cocktails while witnessing a performance from poet Joshua Idehen. There will also be a masterclass on how to professionally read poetry aloud, as well as a tour of the distillery. The event forms part of the brand's London Tonic series, which consists of one event per month from November 2016 to June 2017.
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