| EVENT REPORT 06.23.09 4:44 PM |
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With Fewer Guests, Food-Filled L.A. Zoo Fund-Raiser Beats Last Year's Take
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 | A bald eagle at the Beastly Ball
Photo: Maxine Picard |
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The L.A. Zoo’s Beastly Ball is a high point on the social calendar for a certain species of Angeleno—the kind who literally wear their loyalties on their sleeves, sporting animal-print garb and accessories (the unwritten dress code) to the annual event. Animal lovers drop $1,000 each to spend an evening at the zoo, where they can talk to the animals, both in enclosures and in their keeper’s arms. And everyone—four-legged, no-legged, and otherwise—enjoys his or her scheduled feeding. Homo sapiens get to sample the offerings of 13 area restaurants at food stations on the party parade route alongside world music bands, as well as at Renaissance Fine Catering’s buffet of mashed potatoes, quesadillas, and desserts at the zoo’s entry plaza, where the trek ends and the award ceremony begins.
The honoree for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association’s 39th annual benefit was Laura Z. Wasserman, whose popularity helped ensure that the event raised $1.226 million—slightly more than last year even though attendance was slightly less than 2008’s tally of more than 900, according to Patti Glover, director of special events and travel. Glover tailored this year’s ball route to the guest of honor, who with her husband, Casey, donated $1 million to the $42 million elephant exhibit under construction. Revelers were routed by one of the six-acre elephant habitat viewing spots, from which fencing had been removed for the evening.
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RELATED TOPICS
Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association |
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| WHO'S DOING WHAT 09.10.08 2:02 PM |
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Ringel to Introduce New Events at L.A. Zoo
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 | | Steve Ringel |
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Last Thursday, Steven Ringel joined the Los Angeles Zoo as its associate director of corporations and sponsorships. Ringel, who was the founder and C.E.O. of Parallax Marketing in San Francico, where his clients included Victoria's Secret and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, will coordinate major sponsorship opportunities for the zoo’s events, such as entertainment partners for its annual Beastly Ball, as well as develop new events in the hopes of attracting a more diverse crowd.
“I’m currently working on the new Blues and Brews at the Zoo event, which is a celebration of microbrew beer from Southern California and [will feature] live home-grown blues music,” Ringel said. “There is a need to make the zoo hip again, and to attract the 29- to 39-year-old demographic. It’s time for the zoo to be a date destination, not just one for families. I’d also like to attract the film industry. After all, it is the L.A. Zoo—it should reflect Hollywood more. I want to attract more wrap parties and industry events to one of the most unusual and beautiful sites in L.A.” —Rosalba Curiel
RELATED TOPICS
Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, Victoria's Secret, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival |
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| EVENT REPORT 06.16.08 4:39 PM |
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L.A. Zoo Packs in 900 for Meandering Beastly Ball
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 | The zoo's strolling guests
Photo: Alen Lin for BizBash |
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Saturday was the day of the California condor at the L.A. Zoo—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was the great bird's evening. At the 38th annual Beastly Ball, the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association's annual fund-raiser, officials honored two leaders of the California Condor Recovery Program: team leader Mike Wallace of the Zoological Society of San Diego and Jesse Grantham, coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The team—which includes the L.A. Zoo's condor staff—are saving the bird from extinction, having increased the once critically endangered population from 22 in 1982 to 332 at last count.
News like that is always welcome to the hordes of animal lovers who make this one of Los Angeles's most enduring fund-raising traditions. Since 1990, when Patti Glover, the zoo's director of special events and travel, ditched the conventional seated-dinner format, she has kept the crowds coming back for more with variations on a theme—a casual evening for supporters to stroll through the zoo with stops at bars and restaurant stations along the paths, culminating in an award ceremony and dancing. The seated dinners the zoo association used to host were in “an area in the zoo out of view of the animals,” says Glover, who organized her 23rd Beastly Ball this year. “There was no animal connection, and it was becoming boring. You have to shake it up, because repeat guests are coming and you have to make it fun for them.”
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Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association |
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| EVENT INTELLIGENCE 02.19.08 11:30 AM |
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How to Choose an Auctioneer
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 | Sharon Stone served as auctioneer for Amfar's Cinema Against AIDS fund-raiser in Rome.
Photo: Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images |
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As event professionals well know, one of the key aspects of producing a successful live auction occurs months out, as staffers, board members, and friends of the organization secure (read: often beg for) items so unique, so desirable, that attendees (with the added bonus of helping a good cause) will open up their wallets to get them. Let’s say you’ve scored walk-on roles on Grey’s Anatomy and The Office, a private performance by Hannah Montana, and the guitar on which Bruce Springsteen wrote “Born to Run.” Your work is done: This stuff sells itself, right?
Unfortunately, no. On the night of an event, the duty of moving live auction items, ideally for impressive sums, falls to the person taking—and, hopefully, nudging up—the bids. So what makes an effective auctioneer, and how much can your choice affect the success of an auction—and ultimately, the bottom line?
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RELATED TOPICS
Auctions, Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, Robin Hood Foundation, Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation, N.F.L. Players, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Catalina Island Conservancy |
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| EVENT REPORT 06.21.07 12:38 PM |
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Zoo Ball Feeds the Human Animals
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 | The Beastly Ball drew a crowd of 1,100 and raised $1.2 million.
Photo: Tad Motoyama |
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The signs said not to feed the animals, but
feeding the humans was more than O.K. at the Greater Los Angeles Zoo
Association’s 37th annual Beastly Ball on Sunday. Twenty Los Angeles restaurants and caterers, including Campanile,
Parkway Grill, and Yamashiro, set up snack stations among the giraffes,
chimpanzees, and golden-cheeked gibbons to create a moveable feast for the
zoo’s 1,100 casually dressed supporters. The event raised a record-breaking
$1.2 million.
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RELATED TOPICS
Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association |
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