Kenneth Briodagh

Kawasaki is going all ninja in Times Square on Thursday, Sept. 13, for the launch of its two newest Ninja motorcycles at the Ninja Times Square Takeover. The Japanese performance motorcycle brand will introduce New Yorkers to the latest Ninjas from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. inside the two-block long celebration.

Internet access is the gigantic black elephant in the room at every trade show, conference, shindig, hootenanny and pop-up in the world. Consumers and attendees expect it. And they don’t want to plug in at a station. They want wifi. They feel entitled to it, and God help you if they don’t have wifi or cell service at your venue. But any event planner or brand marketer will tell you, it’s not as easy as all that. First, no matter how you slice it, providing even a little bandwidth is bloody expensive.

Yes, we were there. No, you were not. Yes, we ate fish and chips—and yes, we returned from London with a full field report of the brand activations you wish you saw at the 2012 Summer Olympics. From the Coke Beatbox that blew minds to the Cisco House perched above Olympic Park, our editors give you access to the pavilions, the hospitality, the activations and more.

Click here to download the whole package.

VH1, the music video channel, re-launched its hit series “Pop Up Video” on August 6, and to promote the rebirth of such an iconic bit of programming and build some buzz, the network deployed an augmented reality experience at Lollapalooza in Chicago Aug. 3 to 5 and at the Summer MixTape Fest in Hershey, PA on Aug. 17 and 18. The idea was to make the attendees and music fans the stars of their own Pop Up Videos.

For this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Geico, a lead sponsor for the eighth year, moved into high gear to draw new customers and get the Lizard (or Gecko) out all over its competition. Sturgis is the biggest bike rally in the U.S., with more than half a million riders on the streets of Sturgis, S.D., from August 6 to 12.