An AgencyEA event for Hilton Worldwide. This year alone, the company partnered with the premier hotel brand on the Regional Owner Connections, America’s Full Service Summit, America’s Lodging Investment Summit, and Hilton @PLAY.

An AgencyEA event for Target.

From Allied Experiential, based in Houston, an event for Acura--the car-maker's sponsorship of a pop-up dinner in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Allied has ventured beyond U.S. borders to work with clients in Canada and to produce a global campaign with events in 17 different countries. The company is also increasing with work with special markets, including targeting Latino, African American and LGBT communities, management reports.

Here, Allied Experiential creates a pop-up pantry in New York for client Panera.

Awestruck--with offices in L.A. and New York--created a SXSW experience for client For National Geographic Channel TV show "Life Below Zero." Dubbed "Escape the Cold," the event immersed consumers in the harsh lifestyle of the show's stars. The footprint included three 22-by-12-foot Arctic tents that dropped temperatures inside by 20 to 30 degrees.

Attendees were placed in random teams of six and charged with working together to “escape” by finding clues and solving challenges within 20 minutes. The challenges incorporated series-inspired elements within the tents and required consumers to complete tasks such as tapping into wells, digging through snow, and tracking animals--all activities that people on the series endure. 

New York's BKA creates the "Art of the Pixel" gala for client LG, dressing the walls of Gotham Hall with 240 feet of art via projection mapping.

BKA's "Unleash" event. "Experiential marketing is now in a place where events are no longer on the fringes of the marketing mix; they are the center of it," management says.

Dallas-based Corporate Magic helped the Salvation Army celebrate its 150th anniversary with "Boundless," a stunning spectacle in London for nearly 16,000 attendees.

Millions streamed the proceedings online in 157 countries, and the social media reach was 16 million--once trending higher than the tennis championships at Wimbledon.

New York's Drury Design Dynamics created Interconnect for IBM, with more than 21,000 attendees joining remotely, a live broadcast with four reporters, multiple locations and venues--all part of the launch of IBM's biggest customer event ever.

Also from Drury, "New Worlds," which documents the work of taste-makers, entrepreneurs and artists who are shaping society today.

E=MC2 Events points with pride to its work with the Toronto International Film Festival.

Superstar Al Pacino (left) holds court at TIFF.

Moscow-based Eventum has been busy with events for Volvo, Kia and Oriflame. Trends this year: "A great trend in 2015 is looking for new innovative formats: the merge of business, entertainment, sport, charity, artistic and cultural events into new multi-format events," management says.

Another striking event from Eventum.

Baltimore-based Feats focuses on work for top universities and nonprofits. 
"We find ourselves seeking ways to personalize events, creating different paths for guests to experience something--typically specific messaging--in ways that they each (or groups) can relate to," management says. "In a sense, we’re helping them choose their own adventures."

Here, an event for Duke from Feats. 

There's a downside to social media: "One of the challenges we see is people who believe they can multi-task while they’re at an event, working to get that best shot or quote to tweet or text. As a result, guests can miss the power of the experience," management says. "The more we can co-create events with attendees, without losing what matters to our clients, the more likely we can overcome the increasing levels of distraction that often prohibit guests from really engaging at the event."

From GMR Marketing of New Berlin, Wis., an event for Esurance that took over Times Square with an actual tennis court to kick off the U.S. Open.

More from GMR, the Live Lounge house for HP at the Sundance Film Festival.

"While brands are devoting more money to sponsorship than ever before, in many cases the big bucks they’re spending primarily reach the relatively small amount of people who are actually on the ground at live events," management says. "Thanks to the convergence of real-time content production and social media, however, the gap between what's happening live versus what's happening online continues to lessen. We’ve seen our clients putting a huge emphasis on high-quality real-time content to capture and amplify the on-the-ground excitement."

From Hargrove of Lanham, Md., a photo of the 2015 Leukemia Ball. 

"Event guests want environments in which they are immersed in the organization and its brand," management says. "They want to be placed in an environment complete not only with social media integrations, but also with face-to-face interactions."

Also from Hargrove, the AIPAC Policy Conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

From San Francisco-based InVision, EMC World. 

The "Internet of things"--where everyday objects have Internet connectivity--is becoming more prevalent at events, management says: "There’s a movement towards connecting everything and everyone, from presentations to displays and to environments."

Also from InVision, Shaklee Global Live. 

"We have a newer generation of people--millennials and Gen Y--that expect everything to 'do something,' so as the world and devices become connected, we are able to deliver unparalleled levels of interactivity at events," management says. The result: "You’ll see more interactive displays, virtual reality, attendee-tracking/wearable technology, data visualization, gamification, etc., at events."

Watch for Part II coming soon.