Event Professionals Plan Rally: Event advocacy group Keep America Meeting will participate in demonstrations in support of travel, meetings, and events during the upcoming National Tourism Week. The U.S. Travel Association is staging a U.S. Travel Rally Day on May 12 in cities throughout the United States. Organizers at both U.S.T.A. and Keep America Meeting hope the first in-person showing of the grassroots initiative will raise awareness about the local economic value of meeting and event travel. [TIA.org]
Coachella Attendance Up: Due in part to a new layaway plan for ticket purchases, this weekend's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, saw its second highest attendance since starting a decade ago. According to promoter Goldenvoice, 160,000 showed up over the course of three days, pulling in 25,000 fewer than 2007 but more than in 2008. The numbers are good news for weary sponsors and promoters of big summer festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo. [NYT]
TARP Recipients Still Attending Parties: They may not be gracing the red carpet, but bailed-out C.E.O.s—and their spouses—are still heading to events in the post-TARP climate. An anonymous writer, identified only as a TARP wife, relayed her social woes in a recent piece in Portfolio. In it she revealed habits like sneaking into black-tie galas to avoid photographers and entertaining at more low-profile restaurants, even if they're more expensive. Several blogs speculate the woman in question is Liz Peek, a former New York Sun business writer and current wife of CIT Group's Jeffrey Peek. [Portfolio]
Fund-Raising Gone Awry: Nonprofit monitor Charity Navigator just released a rundown of 10 of America's least efficient charities. The culprits, including the Disabled Veterans Associations and the Children's Charitable Foundation, all devote more than 40 percent of their budgets to fund-raising initiatives and events, and more than half of every dollar they receive is automatically spent in earning it. [Charity Navigator]
