June 6, 2018: Miss America Gets Rid of Swimsuit Competition, Trump Holds "Celebration of America" Event After Disinviting Eagles to White House, Ticketfly Data Breach Exposes 26 Million Email and Home Addresses

1. MISS AMERICA GETS RID OF SWIMSUIT COMPETITION: Miss America will no longer hold its swimsuit competition and will be more inclusive to women of all sizes. CNN: “Gretchen Carlson, the chairwoman of the Miss America board of directors, announced on ‘Good Morning America’ that the event will no longer feature a swimsuit portion. Miss America will be a competition, not a pageant, Carlson said on the show Tuesday. ‘We will no longer judge our candidates on their outward physical appearance. That's huge,’ she said. Carlson also said the new Miss America competition will be more inclusive to women of ‘all shapes and sizes.’ The official Miss America Twitter account tweeted a short video of a white bikini going up in a puff of smoke with the hashtag #byebyebikini. n place of the swimsuit contest, the contestants will take part in a live interactive session with the judges, according to a statement from the Miss America Organization, ‘where she will highlight her achievements and goals in life and how she will use her talents, passion, and ambition to perform the job of Miss America.’ But the elimination of swimsuits isn't the only change coming to the 97-year-old event. The evening gown competition is being revamped as well. Carlson said contestants will now be able to wear ‘whatever they choose.’ Contestants will also discuss how they would advance their social-impact initiatives during this part of the contest. The talent portion of the competition will remain.” https://cnn.it/2JwBwx7

2. TRUMP HOLDS "CELEBRATION OF AMERICA" EVENT AFTER DISINVITING EAGLES TO WHITE HOUSE: After President Trump disinvited the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles to the White Hous, he held a last-minute “Celebration of America” event on the White House South Lawn on Tuesday. ABC News: “The White House earlier Tuesday accused the Philadelphia Eagles of abandoning their fans after President Trump disinvited the team from the White House for the victory celebration over a growing number of players who had committed to boycott the event. President Trump didn’t directly reference the Eagles in his remarks at the celebration, but used the ceremony to tout recent economic successes and said that the celebration was ‘bigger than we had anticipated.’ As the U.S. Marine Band and Army Chorus played the National Anthem and 'God Bless America,' President Trump was seen heartily singing along with the rest of the crowd and mouthing most of the lyrics. After the playing of the anthem, one unidentified attendee could be heard shouting, ‘stop hiding behind the armed services and the national anthem,’ but was quickly cut off by boos from the audience. … The NFL’s rule change last month allowing players to remain in the locker room during the anthem should they choose was widely viewed as a capitulation to the president, but he has said that the policy does not go far enough—even suggesting that perhaps players who do not want to stand for the anthem should not be in the country." https://abcn.ws/2LmPkaK

3. TICKETFLY DATA BREACH EXPOSES 26 MILLION EMAIL AND HOME ADDRESSES: Last week's cyber attack on event ticketing company Ticketfly exposed the personal data of more than 26 million users. The service has been offline for seven days. Motherboard: "Ticketfly’s parent company Eventbrite said it's still investigating the incident, and hasn’t revealed the extent of the data breach, nor how much or what kind of data was stolen. Motherboard downloaded a series of CSV database files posted on a public server by the hacker last week and shared it with Troy Hunt, the founder of the 'Have I Been Pwned,' a website dedicated of informing users of data breaches. Hunt analyzed the databases and found 26,151,608 unique email addresses. The databases did not include passwords nor credit card details. But for most users, they did include their home and billing address and phone numbers. The hacker told Motherboard that they reached out to Ticketfly before the breach, alerting the company of a vulnerability, and demanding a ransom of 1 bitcoin to help them fix the flaw. After the company did not respond to their emails, the hacker defaced the site. Ticketfly has published an FAQ on the data breach. A company spokesperson sent the following statement. 'Last week we learned that Ticketfly.com was the target of a cyber incident. In consultation with leading third-party forensic and cybersecurity experts, we confirmed that some customer information has been compromised as part of the incident, including names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers of Ticketfly fans,' the statement read. 'We understand the importance our customers place on the privacy and security of their data and we deeply regret any unauthorized access to it. This is an ongoing investigation and we will continue to provide updates as appropriate.'" https://bit.ly/2HisUVN


* INDUSTRY NEWS *

Throwable microphone company Catchbox has debuted its newest product, Catchbox Plus. The plush cube offers wireless charging, motion detection, and customization options.

* LOCAL NEWS *

ATLANTA:  The ninth edition of One Musicfest will take place September 8-9 at Central Park. Cardi B, Miguel, and Nas are slated to headline. 

ATLANTIC CITY:  HQ2 Nightclub at Ocean Resort Casino will reopen after four years on June 29. The grand opening will feature performances by Diplo, Kaskade, and Jermaine Dupri.

CHICAGO:  Cvent has acquired Chicago-based event organizing and booking start-up Kapow. Chicago Tribune: https://trib.in/2LnrICU

LAS VEGAS:  The Event & Arena Marketing Conference, held June 13-16 at the Hard Rock Hotel, will honor the marketing, publicity, and other campaigns of North American venues. Billboard previews the finalists: https://bit.ly/2Jz7DfS

The 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival will take place September 21- 22 at the T-Mobile Arena. Justin Timberlake, Jack White, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey, Imagine Dragons, Jason Aldean, Sam Smith, Luke Bryan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more will perform.

LONDON:  The Creative Engagement Group, a group of communications companies that specialize in live experiences, has appointed Rose Pimpinella head of U.S. operations. 

Sports, marketing, and entertainment agency Wasserman has acquired Boris Agency, a Belgian experiential marketing agency. 

LOS ANGELES:  Discover Los Angeles’s Summer DineL.A. will take place July 13-27. Nearly 400 restaurants will participate in the seasonal culinary event, which offers specially priced lunch and dinner menus. Participating restaurants include 189 by Dominique Ansel, Bone Kettle, Gesso, Jaffa, and Umeda. 

Hall of Famer Jim Kelly will receive the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the 2018 ESPYS on July 18.

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

MIAMI/SOUTH FLORIDA:  Hotel operator MCR is now managing the Miami International Airport Hotel. 

MINNEAPOLIS:  The W.N.B.A. has announced a new format for the Verizon W.N.B.A. All-Star game, which will take place July 28. Under the new format, two captains will draft the teams fro a pool of players voted as All-Stars. The captains will be the two All-Stars who receive the highest number of votes, regardless of their conference. 

NEW YORK:  Rita Ora and the cast of Viceland’s queer ballroom community docuseries My House will perform at the Trevor Project’s TrevorLive gala, taking place June 11 at Cipriani Wall Street. 

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

OKLAHOMA CITY:  The City of Oklahoma City has planned a groundbreaking ceremony for a new downtown convention center on June 15. The building will include a 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a 45,000-square-foot meeting space, and a 30,000-square-foot ballroom.

TORONTO:  This year’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair will take place November 2-11 at the Enercare Centre. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.:  America Eats Tavern, an American restaurant from José Andrés’s ThinkFoodGroup, has opened in Georgetown. The two-floor, 193-seat restaurant was designed by Studio for Architecture and Interiors and features an outdoor patio bar. 

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

BizBash Daily is the must-read digest of event industry news from BizBash.com.

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