1. FYRE FESTIVAL ATTENDEES WORRY ABOUT REPEAT SCAMS FROM NEW YORK-BASED COMPANY: Those who experienced the event disaster that was last year’s Fyre Festival are expressing concerns about getting scammed again. Since December, attendees have received extravagant event invites via email from Frank Tribble at NYC VIP Access. The event offers have included a private dinner with the Cleveland Cavaliers and tickets to the Met Gala and Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Vice: “For those who attended the Fyre Festival, the latest offers have a familiar ring. One recipient, who asked not to be named, said he communicated with Tribble about obtaining 2018 Met Ball tickets but stopped short of paying because of a gut feeling. ‘The 2018 Met Gala is on Monday, April 30, at The Met in NYC. We partnered with the sponsoring brands to get you a chance to buy tickets. Tickets include red carpet, seats for the event/dinner, and an invitation to the after-party,’ read the email from Tribble, sent December 17. ‘Tickets are extremely limited. Please respond with your brief bio and number of guests you'd like to have attend, and we'll follow up with a call.’ Tickets to the gala are typically $30,000 each, and according to the New York Times, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour has ‘final say over every invitation and attendee, which means that even if a company buys a table, it cannot choose everyone who sits at its table: It must clear the guest with her and Vogue.’ But Tribble said the offers are real, and that he didn’t know why the emails appeared to be targeting Fyre Festival attendees.‘I’m just an agent for the company, but I do know that we’re partnered up with ticket organizations for higher-end clients, VIP access. So whoever I reached out to, whoever referred you, they were on a list of people that I was reaching out to, on a list that I received from the company,’ he said. Tribble said NYC VIP Access was founded by ‘a couple hip-hop managers and their artists, top artists that have all combined and taken their connections and kind of all came together to see what they could do.’ The company doesn’t have much of a digital record, and its website was only created in November, according to Whois records. Tribble wouldn’t give names, but he said ‘none of the people were involved in the Fyre Festival.’” http://bit.ly/2BnwZVH
2. INCLUSIVITY HIGHLIGHTS OSCAR NOMINATIONS: Oscar voters avoided a repeat of #OscarsSoWhite, and recognized Netflix and a female cinematographer for the first time when nominations for the 90th Academy Awards were announced Tuesday. The New York Times: “’The Shape of Water,’ a modestly budgeted fantasy about a mute janitor who falls in love with an imprisoned sea creature, became the year’s most decorated movie, receiving 13 nominations, including for best picture and Guillermo del Toro’s directing. But the contentious revenge drama ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ also emerged as a very strong contender, receiving seven Oscar nominations in a broad array of categories, including best picture. The war epic 'Dunkirk' received eight nominations, many of them in technical categories, although it also will compete in the best picture race. … In the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite backlash in 2015 and 2016, the academy mounted an effort to double female and minority membership. But even after two years of the initiative, the academy remains 72 percent male and 87 percent white. Actors of color who received nominations on Tuesday included Mr. Kaluuya, Mr. Washington, Mary J. Blige ('Mudbound') and Octavia Spencer ('The Shape of Water'). Both Ms. Blige and Ms. Spencer were nominated as best supporting actress, joined by the first-time honorees Allison Janney (“I, Tonya”), Lesley Manville (“Phantom Thread”) and Ms. Metcalf. For the first time in its 90-year history, a woman was nominated for best cinematographer: Rachel Morrison, who was honored for her work on 'Mudbound,' Dee Rees’s film about black and white farmers in rural Mississippi in the 1940s. No black woman has ever won a writing award at the Oscars, but Ms. Rees, nominated with Virgil Williams for their adapted screenplay, could change that.” http://nyti.ms/2DFDvMO
3. LONDON CHARITY DINNER UNDER FIRE FOR SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: The President Club Charity Dinner in London, a secretive black tie fund-raiser for men only that raises funds for the Great Ormond Street Hospital, has been exposed for its misogynistic environment. Many of the hostesses working the event were sexually harassed and groped by attendees. Financial Times: "It is for men only. A black tie evening, Thursday’s event was attended by 360 figures from British business, politics and finance and the entertainment included 130 specially hired hostesses. All of the women were told to wear skimpy black outfits with matching underwear and high heels. At an after-party many hostesses—some of them students earning extra cash — were groped, sexually harassed and propositioned. The event has been a mainstay of London’s social calendar for 33 years, yet the activities have remained largely unreported—unusual, perhaps, for a fundraiser of its scale. The questions raised about the event have been thrown into sharp relief by the current business climate, when bastions of sexual harassment and the institutionalised objectification of women are being torn down. ... The event has a laudable fundraising aim with prestigious prizes offered for auction. During the three decades The Presidents Club has been running, it has raised more than £20m for charity. Thursday’s event alone raised more than £2m. The organisation’s charitable trust has two joint chairmen: Bruce Ritchie, a Mayfair property developer who founded Residential Land, and David Meller, from the luxury good specialist Meller Group, who also sits on the board of the Department for Education and the Mayor’s Fund for London. But the auction offers a hint of the evening’s seedier side. Lots included a night at Soho’s Windmill strip club and a course of plastic surgery with the invitation to: 'Add spice to your wife.' The accompanying brochure included a full-page warning that no attendees or staff should be sexually harassed. The glossy auction catalogue distributed to attendees during the evening included multiple images of Marilyn Monroe dressed in revealing, tight dresses." http://on.ft.com/2E1oIcQ
* LOCAL NEWS *
ATLANTA: Design firm WM Events has appointed Sarah Meltzer creative synergist.
CHICAGO: The fourth annual Uppers and Downers coffee and beer festival will take place February 24 at Thalia Hall.
Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago has named Gabriel Constantin general manager.
LOS ANGELES: Tickets are now on sale for the Museum of Selfies, which will open on April 1 in Glendale.
For information on upcoming events in Los Angeles, visit Masterplanner: http://www.masterplanneronline.com/losangeles
NEW YORK: Pod Times Square has opened at 42nd Street and 9th Avenue. The 28-floor flagship Pod Hotels property has 665 rooms that each span 115 square feet, as well as 45 Pod Pads, which are living suites that range from 600-800 square feet. The hotel also has two Major Food Group restaurants: the Tiki Bar in the third-floor lobby and the sixth location of Italian-American restaurant Parm on the ground floor.
For information on upcoming events in New York, visit Masterplanner: http://www.masterplanneronline.com/newyork
PHILADELPHIA: Lititz-based live events company Atomic has announced that Chloe Rich will join the company as its third partner and owner. Rich joins her father, Tom McPhillips, and her brother, Daniel McPhillips.
ST. LOUIS: Maritz Global Events has announced a new partnership with corporate engagement agency CPG Agency as part of the company’s new Design Studio. The partnership will initially provide design services for events for Maritz Travel clients.
YOUR NEWS: What are you doing? Tell us: [email protected].
JOB BOARD: Post a job or find a job: http://jobs.bizbash.com
With contributions from Claire Hoffman in Los Angeles and Beth Kormanik, Michele Laufik, and Ian Zelaya in New York.
BizBash Daily is the must-read digest of event industry news from BizBash.com.
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