Columnist Ted Kruckel filed this from a train to Washington on Friday afternoon:
I’m off to see Obama, the wonderful wizard of change.
There’s a lot riding on our new guy, but I’ll spare you the summary. You know the stakes. Selfishly, I’m headed to our nation’s capital today with a singular hope: that in just a few days the power and importance of special events will come blazing into focus. And our industry, conventionally the first to be cut—how was your company’s holiday party?—and the last to recover, will instead come roaring back to life after this five-day fest.
There’s reason to be hopeful. Despite frowned-upon frivolity and a forecast of bitter cold, the swearing-in ceremony and its attendant activities may be the largest ever from a total Washington visitor standpoint, eclipsing the 1.2 million who turned out to see Lyndon B. Johnson announce his Great Society and pick up Kennedy’s mantle of civil rights reform.
Estimates of attendees are notoriously inept—remember the Million Man March, which barely yielded a couple hundred thousand? So don’t believe the hypesters who talk about two million supporters.
More important to People Like Us (apologies, Dominick Dunne)—event planners, caterers, publicists, lighting and sound people, entertainment bookers, security staff, party decorators, tent folk, greeters, car service dispatchers, venue managers, invitation printers, JumboTron renters, and all the people who clean up—the nation’s best and brightest are throwing parties, events, concerts, exhibits, fashion shows, and more, to be part of the country’s desperately needed turnaround.
It reminds me of how the Oscars scene was 15 or so years ago, when Vanity Fair and Elton John decided to go big for Hollywood’s self-anointing.
Fancies Neiman Marcus and Ralph Lauren are doing pop-up shops to hustle black-tie garb at the Hay Adams and Mandarin Oriental hotels, respectively, while Guess is hustling in a permanent 5,000-square-foot shop in defiance of the current retail slump.
Tina Brown is making a stab at regaining her throne of party empress with a Daily Beast shindig. (She kind of invented the party as publicity workhorse model, dontcha think?) Al Gore’s Green Ball promises recyclable décor on a grand scale, perhaps to make the host feel better about his own carbon footprint.
There’s something called the Enchantment Ball, hosted by New Mexico with an American Native Indian theme. The Purple Ball celebrates people of color with beautiful Angela Bassett greeting Il Divo, which has only one American member, but they want in on the action.
There’s not one but two fashion shows, one for D.C. fashion week promising presidential looks and another put on by California State Society, whatever that is. I wanted to go on something called the Dandy Inaugural Cruise, but Lauren Matison, who does the booking and editing for this column, put her foot down.
And I’m kickin’ it in Fryes for the Texans, down but not out, throwing out hoe-down style with a mini-mall of Texas merch at their Black-Tie and Boots five-hour marathon.
Oh yeah, gonna hit the mall on Tuesday morning, too.
BizBash is sending half a dozen reporters, so you won’t be stuck with just my limited musings, so please check in here over the next several days.
