For the thirteenth year in a row, agency Jack Morton Worldwide delivered London's iconic New Years' Eve fireworks display on the banks of the River Thames. Kicking off at midnight on 1 January, the event was watched live by 110,000 people situated in the viewing areas, as well as millions of people on BBC One. For the first time, the display could be streamed live via a 360-degree video, giving international viewers the chance to witness the action. The show lasted 12 minutes, and was set to a soundtrack of music and soundbites that reflected the city of London. The display featured 12,000 fireworks producing 50,000 projectiles.
Event spoke to influential figures in the world of experiential to discuss the top experiential trends for the new year. People such as Helena Bloomer, managing director for Europe at Devries Global, Madison Byrne, marketing manager at iD, Damian Clarke, founder and CEO of Undercurrent and Glen Wilson, managing director of Posterscope gave their thoughts on the experiential activity and innovations we can expect to see throughout 2017. Forecasted trends include the embrace of artificial intelligence, an increased social media focus on live video, experiential marketing becoming an individual experience and the merge of real and virtual experiences.
The Blood and Wine bar opened on 4 January, and offers drinks inspired by the popular HBO series. These include the Arbor Gold, The Imp’s Delight, the Old Bears Hot Spiced Wine and Black Tar Rum. The bar will host a wine tasting flight featuring the wines of Westeros. The concept has been devised by events agency Geek Social together with Royal Mile Whiskies. The pop-up is located at Daylight Robbery bar on Dublin Street, Edinburgh and will be hosted every Wednesday and Thursday throughout January.
Event listed six new London venues that have just opened or which are set to launch this year, including a former printing press building turned events space, the Design Museum and Time Out's East End Market. The Printworks, a former newspaper printing building launched in November, complete with a 5,000 capacity and six spaces for events across multiple levels. In October, Time Out announced plans to open a market-style venue in the latter half of 2017, which will take the form of a Victorian stable building, located opposite Old Spitalfields Market. The Design Museum opened at the end of November and features more than 1,000 square metres of event space available for hire, suited to awards ceremonies, dinners and drinks receptions. Other featured venues include ice rink and bowling alley Queens Ice and Bowl, 'gin hotel' The Distillery on Portobello Road and live music venue Borderline, which is set to relaunch this March.
Fitness brand Virgin Active staged a musically motivational 'Sweat Band' experience on 4 January, in a bid to encourage people to stick to their new year's fitness resolutions. The 'Sweat Band' took to London's Leicester Square tube station and performed the UK's top ten motivational tracks, as decided by Virgin Active members. Tracks included 80s anthem Eye of a Tiger by Survivor, Shake it Off by songstress Taylor Swift and Heroes by late pop icon David Bowie. The activation was inspired by research conducted by Virgin Active which showed that half of Britons feel physically stronger when exercising to their favourite tracks. The brand is also offering personalised playlists throughout January to people who tweet Virgin Active UK with the hashtag #feelit.
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