Marilyn Monroe … still a legend and still a Hollywood star nobody forgets. From December 22^th, 2011 to February 26^th, 2012 an exhibition called ‘Marilyn: Intimacy’ at the ‘Novomatic Forum’ in Vienna shows devotional objects of Marilyn Monroe for the first time in Austria. Until today the memories of Marilyn Monroe are kept alive by her fans, one of them is the German collector Ted Stampfer. He has been a fan of Marilyn since he is ten years old.

He was able to gather nameable pieces of the inheritance of Marilyn Monroe on several nameable auctions and this definitely allows a unique access to Marilyn Monroe. The ‘Novomatic Forum’ will be transformed into a ‘memorial place’, a great memory to a real Hollywood star, a sensational trip in history, where one can see what has been left over and what is memorized: personal objects of the tenure of a world star …

The Novomatic Forum is close to The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel … and no, we did not transform the hotel into a memorial place but we simply liked to 2 pictures of Marilyn Monroe done by the famous artist Steve Kaufman, that is why they are placed at the restaurant at eight …

The official ball season in Vienna starts beginning of November and the last ball we discovered takes place beginning of July. In general one can say that the majority of balls take place from January-April … we counted over 40 balls which take place in 2012.

Next to the classical and famous balls like the ‘Opernball’, the ‘Ball der Wiener Philharmoniker’ or the ‘Zuckerbäckerball’ and the ‘Ball der Wiener Kaffeesieder’, Vienna also offers some very ‘extra-ordinary’ ‘Bälle’ … for the creative among us who would like to visit an extra-ordinary ball we thought it would be nice to show a few of them …

Famous in the meantime is the ‘Lifeball’, an Aids Charity Event that takes place in Vienna every year since 1993, every year with a different main theme. In 2012 the ‘Lifeball’ will take place on May 19^th, the theme is ‘Fight the Flames of Ignorance’, the last theme within a 4 year cycle : 2009 ‘Let Love Flow’, 2010 ‘Sow the Seeds of Solidarity’, 2011 ‘Spread the Wings of Tolerance’. This is a great ball with magnificent people, fancy dresses, fashion shows and a lot of VIP’s …

Another fancy ball is the ‘Rosenball’, the only classical aspect of this ball is the opening ceremony … the rest of the evening gives you more the feeling of ‘party & disco’ … this ball took place as ‘underground ball’ at the legendary disco U4 in Vienna.

A great ball is the ball which is initiated by the brand ‘Almdudler’, the ‘Almdudler Trachtenpärchenball’, a ball which focuses solely on the regional traditional dressings in Austria called ‘Tracht’. Next to a splendid program one can see and enjoy great creations of ‘Tracht’ …

In 2011 the first ‘Cabaret Rouge Burlesque Ball’ took place in Vienna, where the pin-up and glamour of 1930-1950 was celebrated as ‘the crazy night of carnival’ … we searched a bit through Google but we could not find what is planned in 2012 … surprise, surprise …

Pick your favorite ball, either a classical one or an ‘extra-ordinary’ one and celebrate!

The city center of Vienna is transformed into a partly ‘oversized’ open air party platform with a varicolored music- and show program from traditional music, pop, rock, blues, funk & soul and electronic beats.
The program already starts in the late afternoon on December 31^st and ends between 02.00 and 04.00 hours on January 01^st. It is supported by the most well known radio stations in Austria like Radio Wien, Ö3, Superfly, Radio Arabella and their individual acts.

In 2011 the program shows acts like ‘Saturday D.I.S.C.O. Fever Live’, a Madonna Cover Show called ‘Like a Virgin’, ‘DIVAS of POP’ and several DJ collective acts.

The ‘Silvesterpfad’ is complemented by more than 80 gastronomical spots and stands and is definitely a highlights for the party-people from Vienna and those who stay in Vienna but still are unsure how & where to party during NYE …

We recommend … do not miss this one!

A trendy bar with trendy people, trendy music and great deco, before entering your favorite club later in the night this is a great ‘NYE starter’ …

We would be delighted to welcome you, please register yourself by simply writing a mail to drings@jjwhotels.com!
Vienna´s NYE Vodka Night @ Drings Flyer (PDF, 1.2MB)

Every year the different shopping areas of the city try to exceed themselves when it comes to the Christmas lighting and decoration. Festive and modern breathtaking lighting concepts are seen throughout the city …

But not only shopping streets and malls try to ‘show-off’ with their lighting, also hotels do … like The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel with its beautiful ‘Christmas curtain’.

There is definitely too much lighting to be viewed, we would like to share the most spectacular and special lightings we found & saw with you …

Enjoy and feel the spirit of Christmas!

Under the focus “Pioneering for Results” the Global Social Business Summit 2011, which will take in Vienna for the 1^st time from November 10^th – 12^th, 2011, pioneers of the worldwide social business movement come together to connect and exchange experiences about social business.

More than 400 individuals coming from the corporate, political, civil, societal and academic world will join to network and to gain an in-depth understanding of social business. High-level representatives from international companies such as Danone, Sandoz, Siemens, BASF or Intel as well as high-ranking government representatives from all over the world will gather to exchange experiences, initiate future projects and develop concrete goals. The discussions that will take place during the Summit will focus on how to tackle new challenges through the globalization and the creation of political frameworks for social business worldwide.

One of the highlights of the summit in 2011 in Vienna is the public speech of Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Novel Peace Prize laureate, founder of the Grameen Bank and initiator of Social Business and NASA astronaut Ron Garan on November 10^th. On November 12^th, Prof. Yunus will meet artists at the Museumsquartier to discuss what art can do for social business.

We met Hans Reitz, creative advisor to the Yunus Centre in Dhaka and Managing Director of the Grameen Creative Lab in Wiesbaden, Germany by coincidence a few months ago, talked to him about not only social business in general but also about this summit and decided to become a partner of this unique initiative.

More information on the Global Social Business Summit 2011 in Vienna can be found via www.gsbs2011.com

The Grand Hotel Wien and The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel will be the leading VIP Hotels for the GSBS 2011 in Vienna and together with the organizers we will not only host all possible VIP’s in both hotels but also enjoy a great summit, hopefully gathering numerous social ideas for the future!

It is also one of the oldest and well-known festivals in Germany/Austria/Switzerland and has an international orientation combined with a distinctive urban flair. Approximately close to 100.000 people do visit this festival every year.

In its main program, the “Viennale” shows a carefully picked selection of new films from all over the globe as well as new films from Austria. Aside from its focus on the newest feature films of every genre and structural form imaginable, the festival gives particular attention to documentary films, international short films, as well as experimental works and crossover films.

Gala screenings, special events and parties are as much a part of the festival as interviews, animated audience discussions and encounters between international guests of the festival and local visitors.

In 2011 the program, which you can see on www.viennale.at shows some great films, absolute highlights are “Le Havre” by Ari Kaurismäki, the presentation of the film “Habemus Papam” by Nanni Moretti (Italy) and “The Ides of March” from George Clooney. The famous film producer David Cronenberg will be part of a gala evening on October 29^th, 2011 which is dedicated to his film “A Dangerous Method” which was partly produced in Vienna.
On October 30^th his masterpiece “Naked Lunch” is shown.

Also a highlight is the documentation “Sing your Song” by Susanne Rostock which shows the career of Harry Belafonte in 100 minutes.

130 films listed in the program 2011 – Film freaks cannot miss “Viennale 2011″!

“The first edition of WAVES VIENNA was a pertinent reminder that there is a music industry in central and eastern Europe which rarely gets talked about. The entire region needs a professionally organized music conference and festival, and a platform where local musicians can showcase their talent. WAVES VIENNA clearly fulfills this mandate, and I very much look forward to returning to next year´s event.” Mirko Whitfield (SXSW, Austin, Texas, US)

Waves Vienna 2011 was definitely a great success, over 8000 people did visit the different festival acts. It has shown that Vienna has all what is needed for such a festival: a strong geographic position, x-ordinary venues, a ‘music freak’ audience and last but not least a strong national music scenery.

“Anyone who thinks that Austria´s capital isn´t a rock and roll town should visit Waves next year. Venues on boats with a great view of the cutting-edge new Vienna skyline, impressive local talent that none of us foreigners previously knew anything about, plus a well-crafted bill of big names and newcomers from as far afield as Montreal, Bratislava and Brighton. Great city. Great festival.” Si Hawkins (Clash Magazine, London GB)

The Ring, Vienna´s Casual Luxury Hotel is looking forward to be official VIP hotel again at Waves Vienna 2012. We welcome such a festival and are already curious.

This new initiative has been brought to life by the editorial department of www.wien.at, this also counts for the image community. On this new platform “WienerInnen” and “Wiener” do show how they see, explore and experience e.g. observe their city. Their images should show the quality of life in Vienna, the different highlights, special moments and so on. The image community of the city of Vienna gives all users the possibility to show their best images and also review and valuate the images of other users. Once per month 1 image is rewarded by a separate jury.

We definitely like this idea, one does see Vienna from totally different perspectives and also does see completely new places.

This year the MQ Vienna Fashion Week takes place from September 14^th-18^th for the third time and shows a large variety of designers from Austria and countries in Eastern Europe. On September 17^th one can enjoy shows from designers which are based in Thailand, during the other days also some designers from Brasil and Spain do show their collections. In total 3 shops are present, run by www.nelou.com , www.couture-society.com and www.merchzilla.com.

Several after show parties do complete the program. In total 60 designers will be present and do their ‘runway shows’, the complete program can be visited at www.mqviennafashionweek.com Don’t miss this one!