Interactive terminals at the United Way gala Photo: David Cyr
A crowd of 700—ranging in age from 25 to 35—sipped cocktails, listened to live music, and learned about the United Way's work in the community at the organization's fifth annual "Rouge" fund-raiser, held Saturday at the Suites at 1 King West. The benefit, presented by the organization's GenNext Cabinet, featured a performance by the indie band These Electric Lives and music by the DJs Famou$ Players.
"It's meant to be an event to connect the next generation of philanthropists to the United Way," said Jodi Spivak of Roni Feldman & Associates, who chaired the event for the second consecutive year. "We had a really low ticket price, $35," said Spivak, who reported that the 2007 event raised $30,000 to support the organization's Community Fund. (This year's fund-raising total is still being tallied.) "We'll probably never be in the triple digits...it's really just meant to engage people."
Joanne Thompson and Sylvain Landry, owners of the Thompson Landry Gallery, are set to open a gourmet boutique and event space called A Taste of Quebec in the old Oasis Spa location just inside the front gates of the Distillery District. The shop, which offers a selection of terroir products from the province of Quebec, including artisan cheeses, terrines, patés, and gourmet oils, opens to the public Saturday.
Chef Jean-Pierre Chalet (formerly of the Fifth and Bouchon) will offer tasting events on site. His catering company, Jean-Pierre & Co., is also developing a new line of products that will be available for sale in the boutique, which can hold as many as 70 for receptions. A chef's table in the open-concept kitchen seats eight. Thompson said she envisions holding cooking lessons (for corporate teambuilding sessions) and small meetings in the space.
Attendees at the 19th annual Prime Time in Ottawa conference, being hosted by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association at the Westin Ottawa in February 2009, won't be receiving the typical delegate bag filled with promotional materials. Rather, delegates will be given an Apple iPod touch featuring custom software designed to provide registrants with electronic access to the conference program, digital video content, and several other publications. Organizers claim the conference—a national networking event for the television and film industry—will be the first paperless event of its kind.
"Besides eliminating the need to print the more than 100,000 pages our conference typically generates and showcasing the excellent content developed by our members and partners, we believe this exciting initiative clearly shows that Canadian independent content producers are not only adapting to technological change but embracing it in innovative ways," Guy Mason, the association's president and C.E.O., said in a statement. "I also like to think that we set a new green standard for conferences and trade shows around the world for others to emulate."
FROM CHICAGO Lloyd Yanis became the director of the FamilyFarmed Expo in 2005, and has spent the past three years building it up from a small, local trade show in a college cafeteria. Billed as a "celebration of local food and goods," the expo aims to forge a connection between farmers, food artisans, and consumers with cooking demos, business-to-business workshops, and an indoor farmers market.
This year's event takes over Chicago's downtown Cultural Center this Friday through Sunday, and Yanis expects some 5,000 attendees. On the eve of his biggest outing yet, we spoke to him about the recent upsurge of interest in local foods, how the expo has changed to accommodate more guests, and the process of finding like-minded sponsors.
How have the challenges of planning the expo changed?
When the expo first started, we certainly had—as we do now—an educational component and an exhibit component. But we have a completely different, much broader audience now. We have 5,000 people attending the expo this year. In the beginning, we weren't dealing with thousands of people and the logistics of ticketing or parking. So really, it's the same thing on on a bigger scale.
FROM NEW YORK According to multiple news outlets (including Crain’s and The Wall Street Journal), Marc Jacobs International paid $1 million to settle allegations that it used bribery to snag preferential booking during New York Fashion Week from the former superintendent of the 69th Regiment Armory, James Jackson.
Almost 10 months after the story broke, the New York Attorney General’s office announced yesterday that Jackson pled guilty to larceny and bribery for demanding payments from Jacobs for more than eight years. Jacobs has not commented on the announcement, but his firm issued a statement today acknowledging that it paid $1 million in a civil settlement back in February: “We have already taken and will continue to take steps to avoid incidents of this nature in the future."
READ MORE RELATED TOPICSMarc Jacobs,
Fashion Week
FROM WASHINGTON How many people can the National Mall accommodate? That's the question District and federal officials are asking themselves as they gear up for what is expected to be the largest inaugural crowd in history. The Washington Postreported today that officials are now preparing for as many as 4 million people, a crowd three to four times larger than previous big events on the Mall.
The best viewing area for the swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Barack Obama will be the ticketed space, closest to the U.S. Capitol, for 240,000 people. For the masses, officials are planning extra JumboTrons on the 300-acre, two-mile-long Mall and Pennsylvania Avenue parade route. "The Mall actually may be the best seat in the house. ... It'll kind of be like the world's biggest stage and auditorium on January 20th," Mayor Adrian Fenty told The Post. In addition, they are considering opening a three-block area east of the Washington Monument to the public that in the past has been used to stage the parade.
Dancers at the Bollywood-themed gala Photo: Greig Reekie Photography
In its 22 years, the Teddy Bear Affair has raised more than $18 million for the Children’s Aid Foundation. Although it isn’t a challenge to attract guests—since there is often a waiting list of people who want to attend—the challenge is to maintain and exceed the level of creativity that the loyal supporters have come to expect, said event committee chair Frances McCart.
“It’s a class-A event and every year is different from the year before,” McCart said. When the committee decided on the "Beyond Bollywood" theme for the 2008 event, they focused on Indian details that would help transform the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for their 1,000 guests. “Any organization needs to be at the top of its game when planning a fund-raiser these days,” said the foundation's executive director, Ann Barnard Ball. “It’s the eye to detail that sets you apart from everyone else."
READ MORE RELATED TOPICSThe Children's Aid Foundation
The emergency preparedness event at Paramount Photo: Pedja Radenkovi/Brightroom Event Photography
FROM LOS ANGELES Last week—just ahead of the destructive fires that burned a swath through the region—BizBash gathered Los Angeles planners for a panel on emergency preparedness at events. Pivotal Events produced and sponsored the program, and BostonCoach and Cvent sponsored along with the event's host, Paramount. Among the panelists were Boston Coach senior vice president of events Catherine Chaulet; Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center chief of emergency medicine Marshall T. Morgan; Paramount fire chief and executive director of fire and emergency services Robert Lucchesi; and the Orange County Sheriff assistant commanding officer of field operations Michael Hillmann. Here are some of their top tips for being ready for anything.
1. Know the risks you own.
If an anonymous caller makes a bomb threat concerning the auditorium where your event is about to start, it's on the planner—not the police—to decide whether to proceed. "It's your risk," said Hillmann. "You—the planner—decide whether to evacuate." If you've invested in enough security ahead of time to scan for things like unattended packages, you'll be more prepared to make the choice.
Blankets and socks aren't traditionally used to dress an award ceremony, but that's how Alvaro Castellanos of My Corporate Fiesta chose to decorate the Sheraton Centre Toronto Sunday for Ve'ahavta's 2008 Starry Nights Tikun Olam award gala—hosted by sportscaster Ron McLean and featuring Mariane Pearl as the keynote speaker. "Ve'ahavta donates to the homeless, so everything we've done for the decor is in that theme," said Castellanos, who worked with an organizing committee to plan the event for the Jewish humanitarian organization.
Tall glass vases filled with navy and white socks donated by McGregor Socks topped tables for the 600-person dinner. The socks and navy blankets, which were rolled to create visual displays throughout the venue, will be distributed through an outreach program called the Mobile Jewish Response to the Homeless. "One of the most serious issues facing men and women who live on the streets at this time of year is the risk of developing frostbite ... that is why socks are one of the most important items that the MJRH program distributes to people on the streets," stated a summary included in the event program.
Models dressed as flight attendants Photo: BizBash
Although ticket sales for this year’s All That Glitters Gala—held Thursday at the Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex—slowed when the stock market hit a low in October, Marc Ralsky, director of volunteer and regional affairs for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada, expected the organization to reach its $500,000 fund-raising goal. More than 900 guests attended the benefit, which adopted a “Jet Set” theme and offered attendees the choice of dining in Los Angeles, London, or Paris. “It was first come, first serve,” Ralsky said of the ticketing for the themed rooms, noting that organizers sold different levels of sponsorship as royal-, first-, and executive-class tickets.
“Tickets were selling really, really fast, and then once the stock market crashed, we had no more sales. It just stopped,” Ralsky said. “Corporate tickets we had no problem with. We were on target with our corporate numbers. It was the individual tickets we had problems with.” The fact that the benefit fell on the same night as events being held at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum may also have impacted individual decisions, he said, noting that ticket sales picked up again just prior to the event. Ralsky reported that people who attend the foundation’s benefit typically have some connection with Crohn's and colitis. “We don’t attract the general public to events just because it’s the place to be," he said. "We’re trying to change that, so we upped the ante this year by bringing Solutions With Impact on.”
