1. MGM RESORTS SUES VICTIMS OF LAS VEGAS MUSIC FESTIVAL SHOOTING TO AVOID LIABILITY: MGM Resorts International is suing more than 1,000 victims of the Route 91 Harvest music festival shooting to avoid liability. The hospitality and entertainment company doesn't want monetary damages, but wants the courts to protect it from legal actions that were filed by victims. CNN: "In a statement to CNN, MGM Resorts called the shooting 'the despicable act of one evil individual' and said its lawsuits, filed Friday in US District Courts for Nevada and Central California, are intended to benefit the victims and help them heal. The lawsuit is 'utterly reprehensible,' Robert Eglet, a Las Vegas attorney representing about 1,000 victims, told CNN Tuesday. The October 1 shooting, which left 58 dead, hundreds injured, and many more traumatized, began when a heavily armed gunman smashed windows in his Mandalay Bay suite on the 32nd floor and rained bullets down on thousands of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival across the street. Police said the gunman, Stephen Paddock, then fatally shot himself. MGM Resorts International is the parent company of the corporation that owns the Mandalay Bay and the Las Vegas Village, site of the festival. MGM hired a vendor, Contemporary Services Corp., to provide security for the event. By hiring CSC, whose services the Department of Homeland Security has approved 'for protecting against and responding to acts of mass injury and destruction,' MGM is claiming it is absolved from responsibility in the shooting. Since the attack, more than 2,500 people have brought lawsuits or threatened to file lawsuits against MGM Resorts International and its subsidiaries, according to MGM. The resort company's lawsuits in Nevada and California name more than 1,000 such victims, many of whose lawsuits were voluntarily dismissed, apparently with the intent of refiling them later." https://cnn.it/2zNizTh
2. HOW APEROL SPRITZ BECAME THE DRINK OF THE SUMMER: Thanks to a dynamic experiential marketing campaign from Campari, the Aperol spritz—a red-orange cocktail served in a stemmed glass—has become the drink of the summer. The New York Times: “’We saw there was a growing interest in Aperol in the U.S., especially at summer events and destinations,’ said Melanie Batchelor, the vice president of marketing at Campari America. ‘We invested behind that.’ The citrusy bitter liqueur has been popular in Italy since the 1950s, but it took a coordinated push to bring ‘sunshine in a glass,’ as Ms. Batchelor described it, to the United States. The marketing plan was a savvy one: It started in New York with a flurry of Aperol spritz booths that were installed at popular summertime events, including the Jazz Age Lawn Party and Governors Ball. In the Hamptons last summer, Campari turned a little scooter car into a bar and drove it around offering free spritzes. The company also wrapped a Hampton Jitney—a bus that transports weekenders from Manhattan to the Hamptons—in full Aperol orange, with a spritz recipe and the message, ‘So it’s orange-y and bubbly at the same time. Plus it’s super popular in Italy, so you know it’s good.’ On the other side of the country, the company served them from the windows of Instagram-ready booths at hip destinations, like Splash House in Palm Springs, KAABOO festival in Del Mar, California, and the outdoor event series Eat See Hear in Los Angeles. That the drink is an attention-grabbing orange certainly helps. At Aperol-adjacent events, it’s not unusual to see friends posing for photos, clinking their spritzes in the sun. And they might even be wearing Aperol accessories. Campari merch—Aperol spritz-themed wine glasses, straws, umbrellas, sunglasses, and orange fans—has infiltrated social feeds. The strategy seems to be working. According to Nielsen, Aperol sales rose 48 percent since last summer. … Over the last five years, Aperol has become a staple liqueur for many bartenders and can be found on menus all over the city, several New York restaurateurs said. But it wasn’t until this year, they all agreed, that we could declare it the drink of the summer. (Some maintain the Campari spritz is next.)” https://nyti.ms/2usE8Du
3. DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT THREATENS TORONTO CONVENTION BUSINESS: Toronto’s steady downtown development is putting a damper on the city’s prosperous convention business, as mid-priced hotels continue to be converted to condos and with other hotels being rebranded, leading to higher rates. According to a report by a union representing 1,000 hotel workers, the city could lose 4,000 rooms and 2,500 unionized jobs. Toronto Star: “The union is recommending the city pursue a proposal raised at City Hall to establish a downtown convention district that would protect the number of hotel rooms from other types of development. San Francisco put a moratorium on condo conversions in its convention district and implemented a charge on the sale of hotel rooms that helped fund a new convention center, said Anderson. The Marriott and Chelsea wouldn’t be the go-to spots for visitors attending events at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, but the loss would contribute to the overall lack of downtown supply that is pushing up room rates, said David Chisholm, the centre’s vice-president of sales. … New mid- and lower-priced hotels are being built, but they’re going up in the suburbs. Airbnb and online accommodation platforms are filling the gaps downtown, said Tufts. Toronto hosted 18 conventions last year that used 618,111 hotel room nights and generated $634 million, according to the Unifor report. Among the big events were the Invictus Games and the Microsoft Tech Summit. A CBRE Hotels report presented to the city in 2016 by the Greater Toronto Hotel Association said there have been 13,100 rooms built in the Toronto area since 2000. It put Toronto’s 44,000 hotel rooms against 167,000 in Las Vegas, 117,000 in New York, and just over 50,000 each in Boston and Miami. But Tufts says Toronto is losing market share to other cities. Despite the large number of conventions the city has attracted, Toronto is losing market share to other centres, said Tufts.” https://bit.ly/2uuutMA
* LOCAL NEWS *
COAST TO COAST: Miracle, a holiday-theme pop-up bar concept that originally launched in 2014 in New York, will launch in more than 80 bars in cities around the world starting November 23. Cities will include New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, and Washington. Certain pop-ups will also include Sippin’ Santa, Miracle’s tiki-theme Christmas bar with drinks created by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry.
CHICAGO: The inaugural “Fun-Raiser” for Little Heroes League will take place September 13 at Soldier Field’s Midway Club.
LAS VEGAS: New York-based restaurant group Blue Ribbon Restaurants will open Ribbon Sushi Izakaya at Red Rock Resort in late 2018.
LOS ANGELES: The 61st annual Grammy Awards will take place February 10, 2019, at the Staples Center.
The eighth annual Echo Park Rising, a free, family-friendly neighborhood music festival, will take place August 16-19.
Venice-based marketing agency WePlay will launch WePlay Live, a video game theater and event space, next year in the downtown Arts District. Los Angeles Times: https://lat.ms/2uPmLwf
For information on upcoming events in Los Angeles, visit Masterplanner: http://www.masterplanneronline.com/losangeles
MIAMI/SOUTH FLORIDA: Creative Time, a New York-based nonprofit arts organization, will hold its 11th Creative Time Summit November 1-3. This year’s summit is titled “On Archipelagos and Other Imaginaries—Collective Strategies to Inhabit the World.” The opening party will take place at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and main stage presentations will occur at Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center. For the first time, the summit will host a film series in Miami Beach, showcasing work from local filmmakers and those from Latin America and the Caribbean.
NEW ORLEANS: New Orleans & Company’s 14th annual Coolinary New Orleans Restaurant Month will take place August 1-31. More than 100 restaurants will offer two- and three-course lunch menus for $20 or less, three-course dinner menus for $39 or less, and three-course brunch menus for $39 or less.
NEW YORK: Dylan’s Candy Bar has launched its fourth New York location at Madame Tussauds Times Square. The new location includes an ice cream shop on the first floor and a candy shop and café on the seventh floor. The ice cream shop is accessible to museum guests and the public, while the seventh floor is available for guests who buy a ticket to the museum. Combined, the two spaces amount to 1,000 square feet.
The Algonquin Hotel will host its annual Cat Fashion Show, a fund-raiser for the Mayor’s Alliance for N.Y.C.’s Animals, on August 2. Cats, which will be carried by their owners down a runway, will wear outfits designed by animal fashion designer Ada Nieves. The theme of this year’s event is “The Purring ‘20s.”
Nonprofit organization Dancers For Good will have its third annual benefit on Friday at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The event will honor Chita Rivera and Bebe Neuwirth, and include performances by companies, including Amy Marshall Dance Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, and Paul Taylor Dance Company.
The Rubin Museum of Art will hold Dream-Over, its annual pajama party and sleep-over event for adults, September 29. The event will feature a conversation between Khenpo Lama Pema Wangdak and psychologist and dream facilitator Dr. William Braun, of the New York Psychoanalytic Society.
For information on upcoming events in New York, visit Masterplanner: http://www.masterplanneronline.com/newyork
TORONTO: Cyclist Holly Clark and Michelle Calvert from Lucid Communications will host their Bluegrass BBQ fund-raiser for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation on Saturday at the Upper Deck, Toronto Island Marina. Bluegrass band the Slocan Ramblers will perform at the “pay-what-you-can” event, which will also have barbecue food, cocktails, a silent and live auction, and family-friendly games.
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With contributions from Claire Hoffman in Los Angeles and Beth Kormanik, Michele Laufik, Ian Zelaya, and Kristine Liao in New York.
BizBash Daily is the must-read digest of event industry news from BizBash.com.
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