BIZBASH CALL SHEET — #77 — Thursday, 08.11.11
Compiled today by Chad Kaydo and Jana Schiowitz in New York
Feed the Sheet: [email protected]
Subscribe: http://info.bizbash.com/callsheet.html
* INCOMING *
1. MTV RETOOLING ONLINE AWARDS: Yesterday the MTV Music Group announced plans for the second installment of its O Music Awards honoring digital innovation later this year. MTV VP Shannon Connolly tells Mashable "one of the goals…was to give the MTV Music Group (which consists of MTV, VH1 and CMT) an opportunity to reinvent the award show for a digital audience." This time around, online audiences will help choose categories, nominees, and winners. Voting will take place via social media, online, and on mobile devices.
http://on.mash.to/n22FEJ
2. "SUBWAY PARTY" DRAWS HATERS: Let's call this a nail in the coffin of the flash-mob trend: an "NYC Subway Party" video on YouTube with what appear to be drunk, white (and not particularly cool or creative) college kids with beach balls, streamers, and face paint. The headlines on these two blog posts say it all:
Village Voice: 'Subway Parties' Are a Horrible Thing That's Happening
http://bit.ly/oauw7V
New York magazine: Can the Subway Party People Be Charged With a Crime, Please?
http://bit.ly/qE6Fee
3. NEW SOURCE FOR MEETING VENUES: Orbitz for Business and StarCite Inc. have launched Orbitz for Business Meetings. Frank Petito, president of Orbitz for Business: "Orbitz for Business Meetings gives corporate meeting planners an automated way to plan, source and manage meeting venues through the same familiar interface they use to book flights, hotels and car services." PR Newswire:
http://prn.to/qRRTlR
4. JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION'S NEW AWARDS: Yesterday, the culinary foundation announced its inaugural Leadership Awards. The 10 recipients, which include Michelle Obama for launching the "Let's Move" initiative, Jan Kees Vis of Unilever, and Debra Eschmeyer of FoodCorps, are being recognized for their educating others about healthier, safer, and more sustainable food. Winners will be honored at a dinner during the foundation's food conference October 12 in New York.
http://bit.ly/mRDZH5
5. M.O.C.A.'S RECORD-BREAKING EXHIBIT: From Los Angeles bureau chief Alice Dubin: The Museum of Contemporary Art announced Wednesday that the controversial graffiti and street art exhibition "Art in the Streets," presented in the first year of MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch’s tenure at the museum, attracted 201,352 visitors from April 17-August 8, marking the highest exhibition attendance in the museum’s history. (Previous records were set with the museum’s presentations of exhibits focusing on Andy Warhol in 2002 and Murakami in 2007.)
* READ THIS *
Mike Albo, the writer who got fired from a regular freelance gig for The New York Times after attending a promotional trip put on by Thrillist for JetBlue in 2009, published his take on the incident this week.
From the more-funny-than-bitter, barely fictionalized short memoir/novella: "I was punished because I was caught. The news monolith needed to cut its losses with me because if it didn't, more would have come out. I was perilously close to exposing a secret underground economy of promotion—favors and junkets and banquets and gifts that keeps the city in motion, and keeps underpaid writers at work. Basically, I became the Silkwood of Swag."
What Albo makes clear is that for a certain set of style-focused journalists (you could put air quotes around "journalists")—and a growing pool of bloggers—working the swag-and-party circuit isn't so much a perk, but the whole point of the position.
"The Junket" on Amazon (for $1.99):
http://amzn.to/q5tbzV
* LOCAL NEWS *
BOSTON: HostingCon, a conference and trade show for the hosted services industry, is July 16-18 at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center.
http://bit.ly/mPKgOH
CHICAGO: AgencyEA got a shout-out (under its old name, Event Architects) from producers of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on the behind-the-scenes reality show "Season 25" for its help with ticketing and V.I.P. relations for the big farewell show taping at the United Center. (This was actually a couple weeks ago—we're still catching up on the DVR.)
Barn & Company opens in Lincoln Park today. The American smokehouse and barbecue shack will host semi-private events for 10 to 100; the venue is also available for buyout.
http://bit.ly/oHoyh4
The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Chicago and the Chicago Prostate Cancer Center will host the first Run and Walk for Prostate Cancer Awareness September 18. The event will consist of a 5K run and 3K walk.
http://bit.ly/qyqED2
LAS VEGAS: Vegas Inc: "The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's board of directors unanimously approved a deal Tuesday that makes former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman the official ambassador of Las Vegas."
http://bit.ly/qjaOmz
The Wall Street Journal: "The Las Vegas Strip's dominant casinos and resorts this week are signaling that after years in the dumps, the heart of Las Vegas tourism is showing a slow recovery, even as executives cautiously watch whether uncertainty over the U.S. economy could undermine the positive pattern."
http://on.wsj.com/pct5zd
LOS ANGELES: Tech Data Corporation announced that it will hold its semi-annual Channel Link event September 14-16 at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live.
http://bit.ly/oblg3y
Today, South African Tourism and NorthStar Media are presenting the Ubuntu Expo, a South African travel trade show at the Montage Beverly Hills.
MIAMI: Tonight and tomorrow night, Tastemakers of Delray Beach is taking place on Atlantic Avenue and in Pineapple Grove. The event will feature 24 restaurants, all taking on the cuisine of a different country. Tickets cost $25.
http://bit.ly/qnMmw2
The Bon Festival will be held this weekend at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. Activities include taiko drumming, dancing, and lantern floating.
http://bit.ly/8OLME
NEW ORLEANS: Hotel Le Cirque will undergo an almost $7 million renovation this fall led by hotelier Klaus Ortlieb, who was involved with Cooper Square Hotel Gotham Hotels in New York. The 135-room hotel will relaunch as Hotel Modern New Orleans with a modern eclectic design. The Times-Picayune:
http://bit.ly/qEk6ke
NEW YORK: Bowlmor Lanes plans to reopen the space above its Union Square bowling alley as a preppy, retro-themed spot known as the Greenwich Village Country Club. After the recent winter's storms damaged the 16,000-square-foot site known as Carnival, Bowlmor Lanes C.E.O. Tom Shannon opted to rebuild the venue, which will offer a nine-hole mini golf course, a boccie ball court, shuffleboard, and multiple lounges. Greenwich Village Country Club is slated to open in November with a design by artist Lee T. Wheeler and a menu from Bowlmor's culinary director, chef David Burke.
Maneesh Goyal, founder of event agency MKG, is a finalist in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards. (Last year he won BizBash's first New York Readers' Choice award for Event Producer of the Year, and he was one of our 68 Most Innovative People in Events earlier this year.) Voting is open now:
http://bit.ly/qQNVch
Power 105.1 has moved its hip-hop and R&B concert from the beach area to the larger South Island Field on Governors Island. The event will be held August 21.
The Music to Know Festival on Long Island, co-founded by Montauk hotelier Chris Jones and screenwriter Bill Collage, was cancelled because of disappointing ticket sales. The two-day festival and its founders had pledged to give $100,000 to East Hampton-based charities. Saturday was to be the start of the event. The New York Times:
http://nyti.ms/njBuWV
Valerie Couture has joined Shiraz as event production manager. She started her career as an intern there, before stints at PR Consulting and Harrison & Shriftman.
ORLANDO: Visit Orlando has launched its "2nd Summer" campaign, offering discounted hotel rates and special offers at area attractions from August 15 through September 30. Participating properties include the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, starting at $141 per night, and the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress starting at $118 per night.
TORONTO: TIFF announced its Canadian lineup Tuesday, which includes films from directors Jean-Marc Vallée, Guy Maddin, and Mike Clattenburg.
http://bit.ly/omhoJj
YOUR NEWS: What are you doing? Tell us: [email protected].
With contributions from Jenny Berg in Chicago, Alesandra Dubin in Los Angeles, Mitra Sorrells in Orlando, Carla Warrilow in Toronto, and Jana Schiowitz, Anna Sekula, and Courtney Thompson in New York.
BizBash Call Sheet is the must-read daily digest of event industry news from BizBash.com.
Feed the Sheet: [email protected]
Subscribe: http://info.bizbash.com/callsheet.html
