Hollywood Command Center Announcement
Tue, August 5, 2008 | The Catalyst Center
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As we announced at our event last week, we have been approached by the landlord of our interim event facility building at 763 Seward about staying at that location and taking over the entire building (6,000 sq. ft.). Many of you will recall that our plans were to move to a permanent, larger space in Culver City at the end of this year. Our current event facility was meant to be a temporary "bridge" location.
However, this opportunity brings with it some very exciting advantages, so we are moving forward to close on it. The landlord will be fully gutting the entire building and rebuilding its entire infrastructure (ie electrical, plumbing, walls, roof, flooring, parking lot). This gives us the opportunity to start with a blank slate - designing a very high-tech, fully wired and green building from the ground up. As you might imagine, Wired Magazine is extremely excited and already working with us on packaging the corporate sponsors for the facility, turning it into a year-round Wired "showcase" for hi-tech offices, event presentations, communications networks, and green technology. The landlord is a huge fan of green tech and is a screenwriter as well as HHill member, so that seems to be a good fit.
We will attempt to renovate it in sections so our event calendar can continue without disruption. The fact that we're already operating in the building will make the transition quite smooth and easy. The building is centrally located in the prestigious "Media District" of Hollywood and is on a well-known street (Seward) with lots of history (HBO used to be on the same block).
Based on our discussions to date, all parties are anticipating this deal will go through. Thus, we are moving forward rather quickly in our search for the appropriate (green/hi-tech) architect and interior designers. And as mentioned above, we are already working with Wired Magazine on corporate sponsors - both in-kind/product and cash - for the laundry list (below) of rooms/items.
If you have any ideas on architects, interior designers, product designers (ie custom chairs), or the products below, please shoot us your ideas / contacts...
It's time to design and build out our command center! :)
Rooms
Multimedia Presentation/Screening Room
Bar / Lounge
Kitchen
Intelligence Gathering & Project Tracking Lab
Filming Studio / Edit Bay
Restrooms
Offices
Multimedia Presentation/Screening Room
Custom Chairs w/tables, preferably stackable, green materials (ie wood or recycled plastic/metal)
Flat Panel TVs
Digital Projection System
Film Projection System
Sound System
Projection Screens
Video-Conferencing System
Podium
Wall & Ceiling mounted Sound Foam/Buffer
Cameras for Filming (speakers, audience)
Stage Lighting
General Lighting
Flooring
Bar
Counter tops
Cupboards
Sinks
Refrigerators
Freezers
Dishwashers
Wine Racks
Shelving
Cappuccino/Espresso Machine
Fruit Juicer
Blenders
Icemaker
Water Purifier
Glassware
Flatware
Coffee Cups w/Saucers
Utencils
General Lighting
Flooring
Bar Lounge
Couches
Chairs (regular, bar stools)
Tables (coffee, bar)
General Lighting
Flooring
Kitchen
Refrigerators
Freezers
Dishwashers
Stoves
Ovens
Microwaves
Countertops
Cupboards
Sinks
Utencils
Pots + Pans
Intelligence Gathering/Project Tracking Lab
Computers
Flat Panel TVs
Video-conferencing System
Cameras for video-conferencing
Flooring
Surveillance / Security Tech
Hi-Tech Offices
Computers
Surveillance / Security Tech
Filming Studio
Green Screen
Cameras
Lighting
General Lighting
Flooring
Sound System
Restrooms
Sinks/Faucets
Toilets
Mirrors
Cupboards
Laundry Room
Washer
Dryer
Entire Building
Energy Technology
Waste Technology
Surveillance / Security Tech
Launch of Interim Event Facility
Mon, February 25, 2008 | The Catalyst Center
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We're flying along with renovations on our new interim event center located in Hollywood. All major renovations will be done by tomorrow. For the rest of the week, we'll be focusing on walls, lighting, furniture, and installing the A/V equipment. For those interested, the bar will be set-up by Monday!
We'd like to thank the following members for assisting with the lease deposit and funding the renovations:
Dan Abrams (producer), JC Spink (manager/producer), Betty Thomas (director), and Anonymous.
Our new neighbor Laser Pacific has been kind enough to donate the usage of their parking lots for our events.
We also want to thank technical advisor Steven Cohen (Warner Bros.) for assisting with the A/V design. And a special thanks to members Stephanie Austin & Scott Thaler (line producers), and Carol Wood (environmental designer) for creating blueprints and sharing innovative ideas.
We're needing the following donations, so if you're in the process of upgrading or finally cleaning out your garage...
1. Refrigerator / Freezer
2. Bar Stools (we can mix and match)
3. Bar Tables (we can mix and match)
4. Flat Panel TVs
5. Microwaves
Our first event in the new space will be next Tuesday, March 4th at 7:30pm with Benjamin Barber on The Future of Consumerism. Invite will be sent out tomorrow.
The Hollywood Hill Event Facility - Phase 1
Thu, February 7, 2008 | The Catalyst Center
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Special Announcement:
We are thrilled to announce that we have just signed a lease for a 3,000 sq. ft. event space in Hollywood that will serve as our interim event space while we transition into our larger permanent event facility - The Catalyst Center.
It's centrally located near the corner of Highland & Melrose. Over the next two weeks, we'll be renovating the space to get it ready for a ramped-up event calendar which will include over 5 events per month... continuing our exciting thought leader series, science and tech innovation series with frequent partner Wired Magazine, entertainment industry mentorship workshops, and new member orientation events.
I’ll See You At The Catalyst Center!
Tue, October 9, 2007 | The Catalyst Center
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I'm incredibly excited about our progress on the creation of The Catalyst Center. For those who don't know what it is, it's going to be our hi-tech permanent event facility and our global operations hub for the hundreds of projects we'll be taking on annually. One of the hardest things we grappled with as we've gotten through our first 24 months is the logistical headache of doing events. Because we constantly have to do them at different homes and offices around town, we're always having to spend a lot of time coordinating the set up, breakdown, food and beverage stocking, and transportation of all of our A/V equipment to new event locations that are never ideal for doing high-end multimedia presentations. They're also not cheap. Rentals cost a lot, as does valet. We've minimized these expenses by purchasing our own A/V equipment with member donations (Thank you Jonathan Segal & Betty Thomas!). Lawrence Bender further assisted by not only giving us use of his house once a month until we could get our own permanent event facility, but also picking up the valet costs (the approximately $20K to date) for every event we've done there (we're about to do event #10) - for this we owe him a HUGE gratitude.
Having our own permanent facility is going to completely reshape our capabilities. No longer will we have to spend time setting up or breaking down. 100% of our staff's time will be focused on crafting the content of the actual presentations. Every member will receive custom briefings before each event with videos filmed by the staff introducing them to the topic so that members come to events at an intermediate knowledge level (nothing is stupider than having experts fly in from half away around the world to do "Intro" presentations for Hollywood professionals). We'll have multimedia presentation systems, high-end projection and sound equipment, and seating for 300 vs the 90-person capacity of Lawrence Bender's living room. We'll have a web rsvp system similar to the Arclight Cinema where you'll select your seat location for the next event in advance along with a customized gourmet meal. You'll come through the front entrance, sign-in with either fingerprint or retinal scan and your name tag will automatically print out of a sticker machine. You'll have a drink with fellow industry members in the georgeous bar lounge, and then transition into the main event room. Every seat will be wired with keyboards to enable members to submit their speaker questions throughout the event into a consolidated que. And we'll be doing high-end filming of events for distribution to those who can't make it that night. It will be a seamless experience.
It will also house an Intelligence Gathering Lab where we'll be keeping tabs on the world's innovations, tracking the marketplace, and measuring the progress of our projects, as well as a small green screen room for film production. It will be a brick-and-mortar home for exciting conversations on world affairs, innovations, and social change... an intellectual hub for our community... a Centcom for our social projects... and undoubtedly a "cool" experience.
Here's a promo packet on The Catalyst Center
