His Holiness XIV Dalai Lama at Beacon Theatre
When The Gere Foundation and the Tibet Center invited His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama to present his teachings in New York City, they engaged Empire to serve as both producer and production company for the project. 2013 marked the third time that Empire has had the honor to produce these teachings following successful appearances in 2007 and 2010 at Radio City Music Hall.
Working in partnership with The Tibet Center, The Gere Foundation's Executive Director Mollie Rodriguez and the Beacon Theatre, Empire worked on every aspect of the program including stage design, logistics and technical production. As in past years, where footage of the teachings and public talk were packaged into television projects for National Geographic Television and Adam Yauch's Oscilloscope Productions, each session was recorded via a multi-camera HD set-up. This year however, Empire helped expand the reach by live-streaming all of the sessions, as well as simultaneously translating them into English, Mandarin Chinese and Russian.
Over the course of three days, His Holiness’ delivered five two-hour teaching sessions on the topics of the Heart Sutra, The Sutra of Truly Remembering the Sublime Three Jewels, and The Wisdom Chapter from A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. To finish the weekend, His Holiness held a public talk on “The Virtues of Non Violence”, which included a question & answer session and introductory remarks by Richard Gere.
In addition to its role as producer, Empire was able to secure sponsors to donate services in order to keep event costs to a minimum. ABC Home & Carpet generously donated carpeting and furniture. Empire is honored to have had another opportunity to present His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. Empire is a leading producer of major public and civic event and programs.
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
