O Magazine's 10th Anniversary and The Oprah Winfrey Show Live from Radio City Music Hall
To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of O Magazine, The Hearst Corporation planned and presented the Live Your Best Life Weekend in New York City. The centerpiece of the weekend’s events was a one night only, one-woman original show featuring none other than Oprah Winfrey herself. For this major undertaking, Hearst Corporation and Executive Producer Scott Sanders Productions partnered with Empire Entertainment to serve as the production company. The original show traced the arc of Oprah’s life & career, was written by Oprah Winfrey and directed by renowned theatrical director George C. Wolfe. The show was be supported by a ‘living magazine’ backdrop of projected visual media created by Batwin + Robin.
The show, performed live before a full house, was also taped for use on oprah.com and potential future broadcast.On the evening of Saturday, May 8, the O Magazine 10th Anniversary show took place and Oprah Winfrey bought down the house with her powerful, moving show. The presentation featured Oprah talking about all aspects of her life and career, and featured much rare imagery on three large projection panels. At the end of the program the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes came onstage to perform a number and brought out a cake that revealed Hugh Jackman who led the entire house in singing “Happy Birthday.” In the midst of planning this already substantial production, Oprah's production company, Harpo, decided to take this opportunity to also bring The Oprah Winfrey Show to Radio City Music Hall. Responding quickly to this major shift in plans, Empire worked closely with the Oprah Winfrey Show to support the extensive needs of their production within a single, unified production design.
In addition to Oprah Winfrey, the show featured a live performance by Christina Aguilera and, for the first time, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Phil, Suze Orman, and Nate Berkus all shared the stage together on one live program. The show also featured actress Cybill Shepherd and her daughters, Ariel Oppenheim and Clementine Ford, who participated in a "Mother Daughter" fashion segment. For the O Magazine 10th Anniverary show, Empire managed a wide portfolio of responsibilities including production design, technical direction, venue coordination, set design & construction, lighting design, staging and set, audio, lighting, video projection, music supervision, camera and broadcast facilities, all labor coordination, contracting and payroll, performer releases and rights clearances, street permitting, front of house logistics, backstage arrangements and even facilitated a live radio broadcast by Gayle King and Oprah Radio.
Empire is a leading production company in the field of staging live, broadcast events.
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
