October 18, 2018: How Adobe Is Helping Artists and Designers Create Their Own A.R. Experiences, Richard Branson to Launch Music Festival in 2019, Cvent Acquires Social Tables

1. HOW ADOBE IS HELPING ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS CREATE THEIR OWN A.R. EXPERIENCES: In an effort to take augmented-reality experiences mainstream, Adobe previewed a new tool at its MAX event this week in Los Angeles, which it hopes will help make the creation of augmented reality accessible across devices, allowing designers and artists to create their own experiences. The tool, which is called Project Aero, was first unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Adweek: "While AR has been a place of experimentation for a while, the technology has largely been limited to tech companies, brands, and agencies creating experiences on smartphones, tablets, and even some headsets. However, with Project Aero, Adobe is trying to take its success with more familiar design tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator and use similar concepts to deliver AR at scale. Sensei, the company’s AI platform, is also integrated for identifying and creating lighting, emotion, and spatial awareness. According to Stefano Corazza, Adobe’s head of augmented reality, creating AR experiences is about more than creating a shoe or anything else in AR; it’s about 'reinventing the retail experience.' He said the company is starting by getting larger brands on board with hopes that adoption might trickle down to smaller businesses and individuals. ... For starters, Adobe is partnering with companies including Apple and Pixar, while also getting brands like Adidas on board to help create compelling examples of how AR might be used in real situations. Adobe also showed off how its platform can create AR experiences from two-dimensional art. For example, it took an illustration and broke its layers apart to create a sort of tunnel so that users can walk through the art by using their phones. There are also tools such as proximity triggers that let objects become animated when a user gets close enough. (Adidas is using it to let a shoe appear to spin in the air and break apart with labels for each material.)" https://bit.ly/2Oxjy0Y

2. RICHARD BRANSON TO LAUNCH MUSIC FESTIVAL IN 2019: Virgin Group founder Richard Branson has announced that he, Virgin Produced C.E.O. Jason Felts, and Kaaboo music festival founder Bryan Gordon will launch Virgin Fest, a new U.S. music festival in late 2019. Rolling Stone: “‘I love music. I love festivals,' Branson tells Rolling Stone. 'The era of one came to an end [with V Fest] and it was important that in very little time that a new Virgin festival was born. Obviously, music is Virgin’s background. As we move into space and cruise ships and hotels, it’s important that we keep our roots through things like festivals.’ Organizers won’t announce specifics of the new fest until early 2019, but the two-day event will hold up to 25,000 attendees per day—there will be no camping or 24-hour facilities—and take place somewhere on the East Coast. ‘It’s going to have a lot of sunshine and an outdoorsy feel to it,’ Felts says cryptically when asked about the location. Launching a giant music festival in 2019 is the idea of either a genius or a madman. While 32 million people go to music festivals every year, previous tentpoles such as Bonnaroo and Sasquatch! saw their attendances drop significantly in recent years. (Sasquatch! announced it will not return in 2019.) … Felts adds that he wants Virgin Fest to have a ‘level of cleanliness that you would only typically get at a high-end festival,’ including, as a press release notes, ‘eco-focused hydration stations and clean flushing toilets.’ Sanitary conditions, while admirable, are hardly the sexiest selling point for a new festival, but Branson and Felts are undeterred. ‘It starts with your venue. Having a festival out in the middle of a field with dust and mud is something we’re steering away from,’ Felts says in a possible reference to Coachella’s Empire Polo Grounds. ‘We’ll be announcing our first venue, which is world-class, with appropriate facilities versus just sort of putting up stages in the middle of a field.’” https://bit.ly/2PEVDZM

3. CVENT ACQUIRES SOCIAL TABLES: Event technology company Cvent has bought Washington-based technology platform Social Tables, highlighting the event technology sector’s rapid consolidation. The company was acquired for more than $100 million. Skift: “Social Tables has raised $22.5 million in funding since its inception, according to Crunchbase, most recently a $13 million Series B round led by QuestMark Partners in October 2016. The company offers a web-based platform for event planners that helps them easily deal with seating charts, registration, sourcing venues, and marketing. Cvent C.E.O. Reggie Aggarwal told Skift that he had long admired Social Tables, partnering with them at times and watching the company grow over the course of the decade. Social Tables’ core product, which allows event planners to determine and alter seating arrangements on a map of a meeting space’s actual dimensions, was an extremely attractive addition to the Cvent platform. He stressed that Social Tables’ 4.5 million events planned so far shows the power of its technology in an extremely crowded space. … ‘From an acquisition perspective, what we love is that the hotels love it and they’re having planners use it,’ said Aggarwal. ‘Our customers are going to be much happier than the ones who don’t have Social Tables. Now we can invest in it to grow it faster, and with more distribution have more research and development, which is what I think got [Berger] excited.’ The plan is for Social Tables to continue on as a business unit inside Cvent, with Berger becoming general manager of the unit and the company’s 110 employees joining Cvent from their current office. In addition to working with Cvent, Social Tables also powers Hyatt’s meetings booking engine and works with InterContinental Hotels Group among other hotel chains.” https://bit.ly/2ykViFe

* LOCAL NEWS *

COAST TO COAST:  Food services and facilities management company Sodexo has announced its North American Single Use Plastics Reduction Plan, which includes eliminating single-use plastic takeout bags and plastic stirrers by the end of 2019, reducing straw use by adopting a “by request” policy and shifting plastic straws to more sustainable materials by 2019, and eliminating polystyrene foam service ware by 2025. 

LONDON:  I.B.T.M. has appointed David Thompson exhibition director for I.B.T.M. World. The next I.B.T.M. World will take place November 27-29 at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. 

LOS ANGELES:  The second annual Vulture Festival Los Angeles, presented by AT&T, will take place November 17-18 at the Hollywood Roosevelt. Featured events will include a conversation with Constance Wu, a Big Mouth table read with Nick Kroll, and Roxane Gay and Amber Tamblyn’s Feminist AF reading event. 

Chaka Khan will be the grand marshal of the 2019 Rose Parade, which will have the theme, “The Melody of Life.”

For information on upcoming events in Los Angeles, visit Masterplanner: http://www.masterplanneronline.com/losangeles

MIAMI/SOUTH FLORIDA:  Discover The Palm Beaches has appointed Mike “MJ” Jackson senior director of group sales. 

NEW YORK:  The Evelyn hotel in NoMad will reopen November 14 following a multimillion-dollar renovation of its guest rooms and public spaces. The hotel will have three new restaurants from chef Jonathan Benno. 

Joie de Vivre Hotels has appointed Christopher Shiel director of sales and marketing of Hotel 50 Bowery. 

For information on upcoming events in New York, visit Masterplanner: http://www.masterplanneronline.com/newyork

SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA:  Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort has appointed Mossin Sugich executive chef. Sugich will oversee culinary operations at the property’s three full-service restaurants and catering and banquet kitchen. 

TORONTO:  Restaurants Canada’s 74th RC Show will take place February 24-26, 2019, at Exhibition Place. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.:  Catt Sadler and Lord & Taylor president Vanessa LeFebvre hosted a women’s empowerment conversation on Tuesday at Lord & Taylor in Chevy Chase. Fifty percent of event sales were donated to Girls Inc., a nonprofit that aims to help girls lead healthy and productive lives and become role models in their community. 

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With contributions from Claire Hoffman in Los Angeles and Beth Kormanik, Michele Laufik, and Ian Zelaya in New York.

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