2 New Locations to Skate UNDER the Stars

Winter in Manhattan is synonymous with two world famous ice skating rinks at Rockefeller Center and Central Park.  However, they can get a tad crowded, can't they?

Here are two new unusual ice rinks - downtown, no less! - that might leave a lasting impression on your next visit.  At the very least, a few spills on the ice can be soothed be a beverage that will surely warm the soul!

Ice Rink at the W Hotel

As first reported in the Observer, the W's ice rink on the fifth-floor terrace bar, open through Thursday, not only boasts an exclusive location but also boasts a most-unique view of the World Trade Center site.  As part of the rink, the terrace bar will be open with a special set of drinks - fortunately, no one can take them on the ice!  

Not Your "Standard" Rink

The Standard hotel is also getting in the ice skating business.  Those yellow summer Lounge chairs on the patio are gone and in its place is a sea of white.  And instead of long lines of tourists around 52nd and 5th, your group can step right into the Standard's Biergarten, which is also one of New York's best winter heated outdoor bars.

  

6 Unique Location Ideas for "The Meeting" During NYC Meetings

With all the natural excitement people feel when coming to Manhattan for a corporate meeting, the last thing attendees want to do is sit in bland, windowless conference room for a work session.  Here are six ideas to spice of the business side of the agenda for your corporate group:

1. View of Liberty While Immersed in History - we have coordinated numerous events and meetings at Ellis Island, and for a small to mid-sized groups, the historic park offers conference room facilities and a short "break-time" walk to a view of the Statue of Liberty and downtown Manhattan.

2. An Atmosphere for "Higher Learning" - if your meetings contains an educational component, New York's colleges and universities offer both modern and architecturally stunning facilities to corporate group in the heart of a beautiful urban campus setting.  St. John's is the leader in this regard and one campus in Manhattan Financial District contains the largest and most comprehensive insurance resource center in the world.

3. The Mecca of "Winners" - while the Knicks and Rangers haven't hoisted a trophy there in a long time, a Madison Square Garden meeting helps project a winning culture for your attendees.  We have close relationships with the venue and with eight smaller rooms and a 5,000 person theatre, MSG can accommodate a corporate group of any size!  Shackman Associates can also piggyback a meeting with a live sporting or concert event afterward.

4. Big Decisions on a Big Boat - perfect for smaller meeting groups or splinter sessions for Association Boards of Directors, we suggest floating a few proposals while floating on a super-yacht on the Hudson or East Rivers.  Yacht-owners have been eager to offset costs in the down economy by renting our their vessels and options include both day trips and overnight accommodations.  

5. Seclusion Amongst 8 Million People - Once reserved for private dinner parties and rehearsal dinners, Manhattan's most creative dining venues are renting out "special", secluded rooms to small corporate groups.  Walking through a restaurant's downstairs kitchen to a private room with VIP service and delicious meeting menu option might make you feel like you're in a Francis Ford Coppola movie, but being uninterrupted in an intimate setting could be priceless for your business.

6. Where the Glass is More Than Half Full - Unique meeting venues are opening throughout the Chelsea and Meatpacking District sections of Manhattan, and as is the case with the newer boutique hotels, several stand-alone meeting spaces in renovated loft-style buildings feature ceiling-to-floor glass that offers attendees spectacular views of the city.

         

4 Ways to Enjoy a Slice of Summer at a Winter NYC Meeting

New York City is filled with exciting outdoor venues where the upwardly mobile congregate after work and corporations throw wow-factor cocktail and dinner parties. Maybe it’s the wrong time of the year to be talking about this?

Not anymore.

Manhattan’s outdoor bars and restaurants are using creative ideas and smart engineering to keep the crowds and meeting groups coming. Here are 4 great techniques that venues are using to create the endless summer:

Winter Glass – Sounds somewhat pedestrian but many hotel bars, especially those in the Meatpacking District have been designed to easily transition from summer to winter without sacrificing one degree to warmth or the spectacular views their establishments offer.

Red Robes – One Flatiron District rooftop venue provides meeting attendees with red robes - no, not a Snuggie -to keep patrons warm. If that doesn’t sound fashionable, the city’s best view of the Empire State Building will quickly change your mind.

Retractable Roofs – NFL Stadiums have them and so do some of New York’s best new outdoor venues. This also comes in handy in the summer when the mercury tops 100 (as it did in 2010) or a thunderstorm dampens your incentive trip’s top evening event.

Warm Drinks – When the leaves change, so do the cocktail menus at outdoor venues. Frozen drinks give way to Hot Toddies and other very creative warm beverages that are favorites of Manhattan’s growing army of mixologists.

Shackman Associates has close relationships with many year-round outdoor venues and many, based on the calendar, will go the extra mile to make your group comfortable and “spirited”!

Graffiti in the Ballroom

When Chanel recently reopened its Manhattan store, they encouraged guests to paint some graffiti on their wall.  No, the store isn't below a railroad track somewhere.  It's in SoHo and the wall is doing just fine, thank you!

Chanel used a projection screen and a modified spray paint can with infared technology that inspired an array of very creative designs that would make even the most experienced concrete grafiti artists a tad jealous.  Shackman Associates New York has access to this unique technology and it might be the perfect team-building idea for your next meeting!

Not only the best place to live...NYC The Best to Meet!

The Harris Poll has once again found that New York City is the top preferred destination for living in the US.  Here are 10 reasons why New York is the best place to meet as well!

1. Booking New York City guarantees record-breaking attendance because we’re a popular destination with energy, diversity and things to do all year. Attendees come early, stay late, bring spouses and enjoy doing business here.
2. As a global transportation hub, we’re easily accessible from around the world, so airfare is competitively priced getting here. And, once here, there are many reliable, inexpensive options available 24/7 to get around the City.
3. From Radio City Music Hall to Ellis Island, the City’s event venues are plentiful, flexible, beautiful and special.
4. New York City is the professional capital of the world in finance, media, retail, services, fashion, publishing, entertainment and other significant sectors.
5. We have more than 75,000 hotel rooms and 18,000 restaurants to choose from and offer one of the most progressive arts and cultural scenes in the world.
6. We’re the greenest large city in the US (Public Lands Trust).
7. We’re the safest large city in America (FBI statistics).
8. We’re the world’s hottest city (Condé Nast Traveler).
9. . We’re truly a city that never sleeps: find anything anytime, 24/7.

10.  Shackman Associates New York provides planners with plenty of creative options, as well as direct assistance with meeting logistics and events.

Rock it Out on Broadway (and everywhere) in NYC

If you never saw the Beatles live, Rain - opening October 26 at the Neil Sikmon Theatre - comes very close to the real thing.  Rain offers the full range of The Beatles' discography live onstage, including the most complex and challenging songs that The Beatles themselves recorded in the studio but never performed for an audience.  The multi-media concert recaptures the era through all phases of The Beatles astounding musical career including Shea Stadium, the psychedelic late 60s and The Beatles long-haired hippie, hard-rocking rooftop days.

And Rain isn't the only way to connect with the Beatles while in New York.  Rock tours provide groups unique access to the cultrual history of music, art, fashion and different neighborhoods that helped New York City form a rock n' roll culture, including where the beatles first lived when they arrived in New York.  Tours also feature East Village landmarks that were shaped and influenced by Rock, Punk and Glam during the 1960’s and 70’s. Your group can see the places that made dThe Ramones, New York Dolls, Andy Warhol, The Fillmore East, Velvet Underground, CBGB’s institutions locally and around world.

Tapping into Tapas on Columbus Day

To celebrate Columbus Day we're injecting a little touch of Espana into Manhattan.  There's no way to better get in touch with your explorer self than venturing into one of New York City's many great Tapas bars. 

Here are two that could also be a perfect fit for a corporate meeting:

Sala One Nine
Located in the heart of the Flatiron District, Sala is sure to quench anyone's obsession with olives.  Sala offers numerous choices for on-site meeting catering including after-hours cocktail parties.  We like the Traditional Tray that offers six varieties of Tapas and caters up to 18 people.

Solera
Located in a midtown brownstone, Solera has a private event room available for groups and is the perfect venue for an intimate casual dinner for small incentive groups.  Solera boasts a top collection of authentic Spanish wines in New York.



  

Reeling Them In - 3 Ways to Boost Meeting Attendance

The signs of recovery are definitely there in the meetings industry, but some prospective attendees remain a little gun-shy about actually booking the flights, reserving hotel rooms and allocating a budget for those after-hours events. Here are 3 ways to lure them into action:

1. Piggyback an incentive - we recently managed a group client trip to attend a Vision Expo. Our client decided to follow-up the trade show with an incentive trip for top performers. This obviously helped increase attendance and enthusiasm for the expo itself!

2. Technology sponsors - corporate meetings have been utilizing sponsors to help pay for breakfasts or after-hours cocktail parties. The side benefit is that exciting sponsors draw more attendees. Because many of the newest gadgets entering the consumer market are released in New York City, meeting attendees here are getting first looks and tries at the coolest mobile products and apps.

3. Book a hot hotel - New York City's hotel industry is booming. Behind all this activity are exciting new hotels with whom Shackman Associates already has great relationships - the W Downtown, Eventi in Chelsea, and the Intercontinental Times Square. These properties offer spectacular amenities, plenty of meeting space and quick access to the city's most desired dining and entertainment venues.

New York "Raises Its Game" for UN Week

As President Obama prepares his speech to the international community, we can look at our office window today on 56th Street and watch delegates, related diplomats and their security details all here for the United Nations General Assembly and making their way down Second Avenue en route to the UN. While International visitors here for meetings love the variety of culturally diverse dining venues, stores and bars, during UN week these establishments are delightfully alive with a unique cosmopolitan vibe.

It’s also that time of year when Manhattan’s East Side becomes a quasi-military zone.

In 2010, this is enhanced by two factors – first, delegates will stay an additional three days to discuss the Millennium Development Goal project; and secondly, President Obama plans of spending multiple days in the city.

Despite the inconveniences and random motorcades, New York City will hardly miss a beat. Unlike a smaller city that would essentially shut down for an event the size of the UN General Assembly, New York simply offers many alternative neighborhoods, hotels, transportation options and coveted meeting venues.

Right on the heels of the much celebrated Fashion Week, UN Week is not only a reminder why New York is a fantastic draw for international business travel, it proves that even at the height of disruption, Manhattan is THE destination for any meeting that is focused on getting business done.

Fashion Week in Review - Success from Evolving!

Conventions and trade shows sometimes have a nostalgic feel when they are held at the same time and place every year. Before 2010, New York’s Fashion Week was synonymous with the “tents”.

Getting access to those coveted tent shows - all outdoor - in Bryant Park was the name of the game, and when the show moved to Lincoln Center this fall, there were some who probably missed that.

But New York is always evolving, and nowhere can that been seen more than at Lincoln Center. It’s not just a place for concerts anymore. Fashion buyers and media were treated to a 100,000-square-foot site and the revisions made to its look, layout, and technology.

The renovated Lincoln Center is a fantastic venue for shows. While the “tents” remained, constructing the floor (approximately 448 feet by 272 feet) for a massive show like Fashion Week went far more efficiently because the structure frame, despite having to be built over existing planters, did not have to take into account the lawn and the “sinking into grass” effect experienced at Bryant Park.

And then there was Fashion GPS, a Web-based program that electronically tracks and manages designers' guest lists and invitations in real time. Bryant Park was an Internet nightmare with shaky connections that were sometimes worsened right off-site with weather-driven challenges. Lincoln Center, on the other hand, was fully equipped with every modern technology amenity, making paper invites to shows a thing of the past.

And in a world where news travels instantly, the ability of influential bloggers to post new entries, Flickr photos and TwitPics with mobile technology took this year’s Fashion Week to eye-popping levels.

Fashion Week’s success in 2010 is an example of a bigger evolutionary trend that positions New York as a worldwide meeting and EXPO information capital.

Sounds of Middle Earth in Midtown

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, will be presented live to film at Radio City Music Hall for two performances only, on Friday, October 8th and Saturday, October 9th, 2010 at 7:30PM.


Following the success of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring concert last October, the Academy Award®-nominated film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers gets the same treatment at the world-famous Radio City Music Hall. Beneath an immense 60-foot screen, Howard Shore’s Grammy®-winning complete original score will be performed live to Peter Jackson’s award-winning epic. www.TheRadioCityLOTRconcert.com

The music of Middle-earth will be brought to life by more than 300 musicians Switzerland’s 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, The Grammy Award ® - winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, The award-winning Dessoff Symphonic Choir and renowned soprano Kaitlyn Lusk, all under the direction of celebrated Maestro Ludwig Wicki.

Last fall, over 10,000 people filled Radio City for The Fellowship of the Ring shows. The New York Times said “the music of Middle-earth soared at Radio City Music Hall,” while Entertainment Weekly said “it was a terrific night at the theater…Too bad we’ve got to wait until Oct. 9, 2010 to see The Two Towers in the same fashion.”

From Pigskin to Parties

Autumn and American Football go-hand-in-hand and The New Meadowlands - just a ten-minute drive from Manhattan - is the latest NFL football to open and is an ideal location for a corporate meeting and incentive group. The New Meadowlands can host events whether or not it’s GameDay and Shackman Associates has long-standing relationships with Sports and Exposition Authority personnel who manage luxury corporate boxes and restaurants in the stadium.


Despite past controversy over Public Seat Licenses, the New York Giants just announced that blocks of single-game tickets will now be sold directly. Besides NFL games, special sporting events such as FIFA soccer matches and some of 2011’s hottest concerts, including U2’s rescheduled world tour will be held at The New Meadowlands.

Add Yankee Stadium and CitiField to the mix and New York now boasts America's three premier sporting venues

Swan Lake Back on Broadway!

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, the modern re-interpretation of the legendary ballet that won three 1999 Tony Awards, will return to New York this fall at the New York City Center Oct. 13-Nov. 7.
We enjoy a close working relationship with the show’s organizers and can help acquire fabulous seats for meeting and incentive groups. Call us today for more information!

Viva Italia!

New York has always had a love affair with Italian food. It’s about to become BIG love. Thanks to Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich, a new 37,000 square-foot Flatiron District mecca of Italian delicacies – Eataly – opens on August 30.


With Eataly, Mario and Joe have created 20 food departments, restaurants, bars, gourmet grocers and butchers. Not just a dinner venue, Eataly will offer numerous options for breakfast and lunch – not to mention enough Olive oil sampling to make even Vito Corleone jealous!

Sugar Sushi Invades Manhattan!

The world-class chefs at Nobu have an unlikely new rival for our sushi affection - Pop Tarts!  With hoards of sweet delights (including sugary sushi), Pop Tarts has just opened its new flagship store in the center of Times Square. The menu also includes the Fluffer Butter, marshmallow spread sandwiched between two Pop-Tarts frosted fudge pastries; the Sticky Cinna Munchies,cinnamon rolls topped with cream-cheese icing and chunks of Pop-Tarts cinnamon-roll variety.  Don't forget the "popping" light show every hour!      

New York’s Newest Hotels Fit Every Type of Meeting

New hotels are booming in New York City and no one will ever confuse them with the term “old school.”

Shackman Associates New York has developed close relationships with five exciting properties that among them, can meet any need your meeting or incentive group may have:

Going “Big” Apple

With the expansion and renovation of the Javits Center, The Intercontinental Times Square offers 607 guestrooms that feature 42" flat-screen TVs and floor-to-ceiling windows. It is right around the corner from the Javits and represents the largest new hotel since 2002. It will also be the largest hotel in New York to achieve green certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a distinction that corporate and government groups increasingly demand when booking meeting space. Because of the pricey single room rates, Shackman Associates’ relationships with group booking personnel are essential to keep your group on-budget.

Downtown Moving Upward with Finance and Tech

The newest W Hotel in Downtown Manhattan provides meetings close proximity to the power of Wall Street with access to unprecedented business technology – both in the guest room and throughout the 1,933 square feet of meeting space. Next to the new World Trade Center site, the W is perfect for a new breed of financial meetings that need data and an ability to connect with participants from around the world.

New Breed of Boutique

How many boutique hotels do you know have 20,000 square feet of meeting space? Here’s one - The Eventi hotel, which recently opened in the trendy Chelsea section of Manhattan. With a capability to accommodate over 300 guests at a sit-down event, The Eventi also is a competitor in the outdoor high-rise bar scene. Shackman Associates has also coordinated numerous after-hours events in the adjacent Meatpacking District.

Style on a Budget

Swanky without being snobby, Fashion26 is located just steps from the Fashion District and is an ideal hospitality choice for a small meeting on a budget. With very low room rates by New York standards, the hotel accommodates meetings up to 80 people and offers quick access to exciting dining and entertainment venues with whom we have built close relationships. If you don’t like crawling on the floor to plug in your laptop, Fashion26 has you covered with outlets above the desk. And did we mention those tasty cupcakes from “Crumbs?”

Hot Hotel in a Hot Neighborhood

You’re not going to find a more authentically New York neighborhood than Nolita and The Nolitan is the first luxury boutique hotel to open there. With 55 rooms, the Nolitan is the perfect venue for a select corporate incentive group looking for a sanctuary in the big city. While this venue offers a taste of luxury “living” in Manhattan, Shackman Associates can help you maximize your ventures outside to Little Italy just blocks away, exclusive shopping in SOHO and NOHO reachable within minutes, and exciting after-hours venues throughout Lower Manhattan.

With even more hotels opening this Fall, we will keep you updated on their progress and exciting new amenities.

In NYC for an Expo? Add a meeting or incentive to save time and money

Meeting planners looking to stretch every dollar possible can save both money and time by co-locating a face-to-face meeting or incentive program with a previously scheduled event.


For example, we recently developed an incentive program for an eye-glass company who was in town at the same time for the Vision Expo. While the incentive program itself did not cut corners, co-locating it with a major trade show afforded our client two advantages - both in money and perception. First, the company's top performers were able to consolidate time and save airfare by traveling only once. Secondly, with incentive programs coming under so much scrutiny from politicians in Washington, DC, the meeting planners we worked with loved keeping the incentive event very low-profile by having a business-only event to boast at the same time.

Co-locating can also take place within the same company. For example, we have also just scheduled a business conference for a Pharmaceutical client in 2011...who is holding an incentive program for part of the group immediately afterward. The same advantages I mentioned above apply here - one airfare and hotel reservation per person, low-profile, and huge time savings.

Technology Better for Face-to-Face over Virtual Meetings? It is now.

Forget the idea that technology is steering meetings into virtual events. The newest gadgets and hi-tech tools are making face-to-face meetings more efficient and worthwhile than ever.

From state-of-the-art conference centers to new ways for finding dining venues and attractions in destinations like Manhattan, face-to-face meeting technology creates two benefits not found in virtual meetings: first, it improves and incentivizes the overall business travel experience; and secondly, it alleviates a problem reported in Forbes that half of virtual meeting attendees multi-task during presentations.

New York is fast becoming a world leader in face-to-face meeting technology, and is one of only 5 cities where the Starwood Hotel Group offers Tele-Presence. The advent of this technology is allowing companies on very tight budgets to send some attendees for face-to-face interaction while enabling virtual attendees to participate in a way that makes them feel like they are there too.

More importantly, Face-to-Face meetings and incentives by themselves are also becoming more high-tech than ever and here are a few ways New York expects to lead this new trend:

Electronic Check-in, Digital Take-Home packets: The same technology that helps travelers check-in at airports on mobile phones is coming to New York meetings. Business travelers can also say goodbye to those packets, big bags and sign-sheets as more companies move to an electronic check-in format that gets the meeting started faster with less distractions. With automated, post-discussion packets that can be emailed within minutes of a meeting’s conclusion, business travelers don’t have to find more space in their travel bags for mountains of paper.

Collaboration Software: Relieving an age-old problem focus-group organizers cite as a reason for less than accurate results, New York is becoming a national leader in using collaboration software at brain-storming meetings. This allows participants to improve the discussion by entering opinions electronically and anonymously. Opinion entries are encouraged to be frank and then are followed by a lively, focused discussion on original ideas – not bandwagon agreement. It also speeds up the meeting itself, which in-turn enables attendees to experience more culture, entertainment and dining sooner.

Consumer-originating itinerary providers – with less formal itineraries and more down-time for large meeting groups, companies likeDopplr, TripIt and WorldMate have developed real-time business travel applications for iPhones and Droids. At Shackman Associates, group meeting attendees often have time before and after a special event or themed dinner we organize and these new applications create personalized routes for experiencing New York. New mobile tech companies are also targeting face-to-face group meetings for sponsorship opportunities. Helping with costs for breakfasts, cocktail-receptions and even providing attendees free trials of mobile apps is great news for meeting planners forced to schedule at the last-minute. Now they can provide attendees value and a little “wow” on a budget.

The Future of Backdrops is Now

We recently ran a special event for a large corporate incentive meeting where attendees got a glimpse at a new era of backdrops. Entertaining 250 people, we built a custom stage in Hangar 3 on the deck of the USS Intrepid anchored in midtown Manhattan on the Hudson River and erected a special video screen as a back wall to the stage. As part of the backdrop, we employed an ongoing video presentation that featured the following elements - waving American flags; a video-narrated "story of the Intrepid" while it was in open-water combat; and slide-show images of legendary performers while “cover” talent was entertaining live on stage.

Overall, the use of backdrops at events is undergoing yet another huge change. In just the past two years, backdrops featuring digital prints, custom images on special materials or over-the-top themes that in some cases featured water walls have gradually been replaced with less expensive video and picture imagery that add more wow factor for attendees.

In the current economy, the key for incorporating backdrops is versatility - and that demand is opening the door to exciting new technology that can be used over and over again.

Hurry Up and Wait

Two of NYC’s most crucial transportation hubs – JFK Airport and the Roosevelt Tram, will be undergoing some hefty renovations beginning this month.

At 14,572 feet, JFK’s runway is the second longest commercial landing strip in the country and handles a third of the airport’s traffic, including more than half of its departures. The renovation aims to widen the runway from 150 to 200 feet and will include a new drainage system, new electrical infrastructure, and the addition of delay reduction taxiways.

Another renovation has already begun on the Roosevelt Island’s Tramway. In operation since 1976, the Tram carries residents of Roosevelt Island 250 feet above the Hudson River to Manhattan. The complete overhaul will increase efficiency as well as allowing each train to operate independently of each other.

Let’s hope that they finish construction faster than the long anticipated 2nd Avenue subway line (new completion date – 2017).

Waves of Warmth hit NYC

Now through January 15th, stop by the Angel Orensanz Foundation to view the surprising new installation by artist Angel Orensanz himself. ‘Waves of Warmth’ is his latest installation created to represent joy and happiness through color and light, something everyone could use a bit more of during these times of economic crisis. The sea of fabrics portrayed to confront great fearless courage hangs proud at this legendary landmark on the Lower East Side.

NYC ranks as No. 1

The Big Apple has claimed the title as the top American tourist destination for int’l travellers in 2009, luring about 8.6m visitors. Overall arrivals to New York City surpassed 45m last year, and its expected that figure will reach the 50 million mark by 2012.