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1. Astronauts Greet, Galileo Tends Bar at Adler Planetarium's Celestial Ball

2. Chicago Chefs Prepare Apple-Cider Bubbles, Whipped Salt Cod for Food & Wine Entertaining Showcase

3. Fur Ball Offers Separate Amenities and Ticket Prices for Human and Canine Guests

4. 8 New Venues for Chicago Holiday Parties

5. New Moon Premiere Beckons 10,000 People and 2 Live Wolves

6. Poll Results: Informal Nights Out Make Most Appropriate 2009 Holiday Parties

7. How Do You Make Staffers Feel Appreciated—at Little or No Cost?

8. MoMA Gets Suitably Whimsical and Macabre for Tim Burton Tribute

9. Masked Raconteurs Tell Tales at Moth Ball, and I Have a Blast

FROM NEW YORK

Masked Raconteurs Tell Tales at Moth Ball, and I Have a Blast

Gap, Banana Republic, American Eagle Open Stores With Musical Performances

MoMA Gets Suitably Whimsical and Macabre for Tim Burton Tribute

3 New Hotel Restaurants for Business Entertaining, Private Groups

Nintendo Launches New Mario Game With Look Back at Franchise History

Scripted Models Play Up Key Notes at Victoria's Secret Fragrance Preview

Ad Age Looks to Boost Conference Interaction With Beer Tasting, Lounge Seating

More Photos From Louis Vuitton's Garden-Style Launch: Life-Sized Trees, Mounds of Mums

A Forest of Flora Marks Launch of Louis Vuitton's Saks Boutique

4 Made-in-New York Sweets for Gift Bags

FROM LOS ANGELES

Us Weekly Takes to Voyeur With Scantily Clad Models, Burlesque Feel

6 New Venues for Los Angeles Holiday Parties

New Moon Premiere Beckons 10,000 People and 2 Live Wolves

$4 Million MOCA Gala Breaks Fund-Raising Records

Chrysalis Benefit Cuts Ticket Prices in Half, Draws Same Crowd

MOCA Gala Spawning Arty Online Auction—Including Gehry's Hat for Gaga—Through November 30

Wende Museum Closes Wilshire for Cold War Anniversary Celebration

3 Ideas for Stylish, Eco-Friendly Events

3 New Restaurants for Autumn Alfresco Dining

With Help From Lexus, Cedars-Sinai Gala Breaks Fund-Raising Record

News Archive for Election '08

NEWS 01.05.09 4:02 PM

Bon Jovi Performs to Relieve Hilary Clinton's Campaign Debt

FROM NEW YORK Few would dare question the influence of Jon Bon Jovi. The New Jersey born singer has a history of drawing a crowd. Now he's using that clout to help relieve what's left of Hillary Rodham Clinton's $13.1 million presidential campaign debt.

The Associated Press reported that Bon Jovi plans to take the stage at New York's Town Hall January 15 for "a final evening in support of Hillary Clinton for President Debt Relief." The tickets, priced between $75 and $1,000, will go toward Clinton's remaining $6.3 million in personal loans. Time, after all, is running out for the New York senator to solicit contributions. Once she is confirmed as secretary of state in President-elect Barack Obama's administration, ethics rules prohibit her from this sort of fund-raising. —Michael O'Connell

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jon Bon Jovi, Election '08

NEWS 12.09.08 3:13 PM

Obama's Grant Park Rally Cost $1.74 Million

In the weeks leading up to Obama's election night celebration in Grant Park, Mayor Richard Daley estimated that the event would draw one million spectators and cost the city $2 million. Ultimately, the rally saw a crowd of only 240,000, but its $1.74 million cost came close to the mayor's prediction, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Though Daley's assessment of the event—he described it to The Sun-Times as "a homecoming...a baptism...a bar mitzhah...everything all put together"—suggests that he found the celebration worth its cost, he assured taxpayers in October that Obama's campaign would reimburse the city. "They raised quite a bit of money," he reasoned then. "There's no [shortage] of money in that campaign." MORE >>

Barack Obama, Election '08, Mayor Richard Daley

NEWS 11.25.08 2:33 PM

More Inauguration Plans Fall Into Place, Alma Powell Declares "Times Too Serious" for Parties

Washington socialites Buffy Cafritz and Ann Jordan will once again be co-hosting an inaugural party at the recently renamed Fairfax at Embassy Row (formerly the Westin Embassy Row), WWD.com reported yesterday. The Cafritz-Jordan fete is expected to reel in some 250 guests and will be produced by Carolyn Peachey of Campell Peachey and Associates. The duo announced their plans at a reopening reception for the hotel's Jockey Club restaurant last week, where guests like Colin Powell's wife, Alma, and former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein speculated on how the inaugural festivities would unfold.

"You’ll see a renaissance of people coming back to the White House, even with a difficult economy, because people want our president to shine,” said Duberstein. But Powell countered, saying, “I don’t expect there to be more parties. The times are too serious to have parties. That would be frivolous.” MORE >>

Inauguration 2009, Election '08, Buffy Cafritz, Ann Jordan, Huffington Post, Oprah, Google, Embassy of Kuwait

BEST OF 2008 11.24.08 8:00 AM

Campaign Crusader

Yosi Sergant
Photo: Darius Twin

In February, publicist Yosi Sergant helped launch a campaign movement for Barack Obama that was so successful the promotional material inspired knockoffs, spread virally on social networking sites, and traveled to Europe. Sergant, a publicist with Evolutionary Media Group who had also worked as California media adviser to the Obama team, decided to leave his ofﬁcial campaign post to volunteer his PR services. “I wanted the freedom of developing strategies without submitting them up the ladder,” he says. As a volunteer, Sergant helped promote the candidate through what has become one of the most iconic images associated with the campaign—the Andy Warhol-like Obama graphic by street artist Shepard Fairey.

Art History: Sergant ﬁrst talked to Fairey about contributing to the Democratic candidate’s efforts at an Adidas party. The next day Fairey emailed his design, and Sergant went on to deliver the image to his network of media contacts and coordinate the strategic placement of the posters in front of cameras at Obama rallies, as well as in multiple cities to coincide with local primaries. Sergant has tracked several thousand domestic and international media impressions featuring the image, including an appearance on the front page of The New York Times, more than 10 inclusions in The Los Angeles Times, and coverage in magazines that typically refrain from running political news, like Juxtapoz and Urb. MORE >>

Barack Obama, Election '08

NEWS 11.17.08 11:50 AM

D.C. Officials Predicting 1.5 Million Inauguration Attendees

The expected crowd for the January 20 public inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama is already at 1.5 million, and Washington tourism officials are doing what they can to encourage that number, despite the scant availability of tickets to the ceremony. The potential for a four-day weekend (given that Inauguration Day falls immediately after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday) and the town’s relatively mild winters mean the inauguration and related events will likely bring an economic boom to the city.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, capitol tourism agency Destination D.C. advises inauguration-goers that hotel rooms are still available but booking may require a bit of savvy. Many D.C. hotels require a three- to four-night minimum stay, so room searches for anything less might appear as fully booked. MORE >>

Election '08, Barack Obama, Presidential Inauguration

NEWS 11.10.08 11:02 AM

Starbucks Steals Some Election Day Coverage With Last-Minute Promotion

FROM NEW YORK Starbucks was able to leverage serious traction from its latest guerrilla-marketing stunt. Advertising Age reports today that the coffee chain’s last-minute Election Day promotion, offering free coffee to customers who voted or just asked for it, brought the brand some of its best publicity in quite a while.

The company declined to comment on how many cups were given away or how much was spent, but industry experts and former Starbucks insiders place the cost of the minimal ad campaign and the product giveaway at under $1 million—a small price to pay for a chunk of coverage on a day when at least 71 million Americans tune into the news. The initiative prompted the chain's positive buzz rating to more than double from 25 percent to 51 percent, according to Brand Index. MORE >>

Starbucks, Election '08

NEWS 11.07.08 11:32 AM

30 Trolleys and 1,400 American Flags: More Details From Obama's Rally

Before Tuesday's election night rally, the Obama campaign asked associated vendors not to speak to the press about the evening's logistics. "But now that it's over, we can talk all day," said John Curran, vice president of charter sales and marketing for Chicago Trolley and Double Decker Company. And while the Obama camp prepares for its transition to the White House, rally vendors have been sharing more details.

Curran said that Chicago Trolley's task on Tuesday night was to work in conjunction with the Secret Service to safely transport V.I.P. guests—Brad Pitt, Spike Lee, and Rahm Emanuel (now set to be the president-elect's chief of staff) among them—to Grant Park from the nearby Fairmont Chicago and Hyatt Regency hotels. MORE >>

Barack Obama, Election '08, Brad Pitt, Spike Lee, Rahm Emanuel

NEWS 11.05.08 5:55 PM

How Will the Passage of California's Proposition 8 Impact the Event Industry?

FROM LOS ANGELES On Tuesday, the majority of California voters punched their ballots in favor of Proposition 8, a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Earlier in the year, the Williams Institute at UCLA conducted a study suggesting legal gay marriages could result in millions of revenue dollars over the next three years throughout the financially bereft state. So what now for Los Angeles County, where voting was split right down the middle, leaning only by a fraction of a percent in favor of the measure?

"I don't think it will have that much of an impact. The special event industry has more to worry about with the economic slowdown than with the passage of Prop 8," Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation senior vice president and chief economist Jack Kyser said today. "It's interesting because there were a lot of people expecting great big elaborate wedding ceremonies [when same-sex unions were legalized], but the ones I heard about were relatively low-key." MORE >>

Gay Marriage Laws, Proposition 8, Election '08, Budgets

NEWS 11.05.08 1:22 PM

Crowds Celebrate Election Night Across U.S. With Sing-Alongs, Cupcake Fights, and Surprisingly Orderly Conduct

Rockefeller Plaza on election night
Photo: Alison Whittington for BizBash

The morning after the election, media outlets across the country (including our own domestic bureaus) took a census of the countless political celebrations from last night. Here's a look:

As thousands lined up for Obama's rally in Grant Park—where most watched his speech on a JumboTron—local caterer Limelight served mini BLTs to 3,000 guests in the tents for media, campaign officials, and donors. [BizBashChicago]
While NBC and Fox News wooed New Yorkers to festivities outside their headquarters, Slate and washingtonpost.com served advertisers food from Obama- and McCain-inspired food stations at opposite sides of their party. [BizBashNY]
The California Democratic Party's bash filled every available space at the Century City Hyatt. More than 17,000 people RSVPed online; 7,000 is the capacity for the hotel's public spaces. [BizBashLA]
In Washington the Hyatt served—surprise!—an all-American menu for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Qorvis Communications set up photo ops with wax figures of Obama and George W. Bush in its offices. [BizBashDC]
The Chicago Tribune reported that Obama's Grant Park crowds dissipated quickly with "no reported problems." [ChicagoTrib]
CNN brought back its convention season “CNN Grill” to New York’s Time Warner Center for a celebrity-filled party and venue for political bloggers. [Variety]

MORE >>

Election '08

NEWS 11.05.08 12:06 PM

Grant Park Rally Sees Lines, a JumboTron, and Camaraderie Among Vendors

Obama's Grant Park rally
Photo: Anthony Jacobs/Getty Images

Lines stretched for seemingly endless blocks outside Grant Park last night as rally attendees waited to hear Barack Obama speak. "Well, I'll see a speck and call it a president," said one woman, taking her crowded surroundings into account.

Though some guests found standing room close to the stage where Obama spoke—television coverage showed Oprah Winfrey and Reverend Jesse Jackson there—catching a glimpse of the next president proved difficult in much of the tightly packed park. Instead, most attendees trained their eyes on a giant JumboTron stationed at the southern end of Hutchinson Field, which C3 Presents erected to broadcast news from CNN throughout the evening and showcase Obama's speech. MORE >>

Barack Obama, Election '08, Oprah Winfrey

MORE NEWS

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