November 21, 2018: Women's March Founder Wants Current Leaders to Step Away, Sundance Film Festival Reveals Inclusion Initiatives, Trump Hints He Might Attend White House Correspondents Dinner Next Year

1. WOMEN'S MARCH FOUNDER WANTS CURRENT LEADERS TO STEP AWAY: The founder of the Women’s March, which first took place in January 2017 after the election of Donald Trump, is calling on the event’s current leadership to step down, accusing them of anti-Semitism and homophobia. New York Post: “Teresa Shook, a retired lawyer based in Hawaii, called out Women’s March Inc. board members Mari Lynn ‘Bob’ Bland, Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, and Carmen Perez in a Facebook post Monday morning. ‘In opposition to our Unity Principles, they have allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment, and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs,’ Shook wrote of the co-chairs of the Women’s March. Shook is credited with being the first woman to call for a women’s march after Trump was elected in November 2016. The marches drew hundreds of thousands in cities across the U.S. on the day after Trump was inaugurated. But accusations of anti-Semitism were lodged against Shook’s co-organizers when Mallory was captured on video attending a Nation of Islam event in which Louis Farrakhan said ‘the powerful Jew is my enemy.’ … 'We are imperfect. We don’t know everything and we have caused harm,' the four women wrote on the Women’s March Facebook page. ‘At times we have responded with hurt. But we are committed to learning. We will continue to work through the good and the bad, the impact and the harm—of building an intersectional movement that our daughters, and our daughters’ daughters can be proud of.’ Actress Alyssa Milano, who is credited with helping the #MeToo movement go viral, has also criticized the Women’s March leadership for not strongly disavowing Mallory’s association with Farrakhan.” https://nyp.st/2A8AfFR

2. SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL REVEALS INCLUSION INITIATIVES: In an effort to make its programming more inclusive, the 2019 Sundance Film Festival has announced changes to programming staff, panels, and media coverage. The Utah festival, which takes place in Park City and Salt Lake City in January, announced it will add people to its programming team to achieve a 50/50 gender balance. The Salt Lake Tribune: “Three women have been added to the programming staff: Dilcia Barrera as a programmer, Stephanie Owens as an associate programmer, and Sudeep Sharma as a shorts programmer. In addition, programming coordinator Ana Souza has been promoted to manager of programming and will be an associate programmer. The team has been busy, plowing through a record 14,200 submissions. The festival is expected to follow tradition and announce its slate—usually around 120 feature films and between 60 and 80 shorts, plus episodic programming and special events—sometime after Thanksgiving weekend. That process promises to be more transparent than ever. Sundance Institute also announced Monday that it is teaming with Stacy L. Smith, the founder and director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, on a research project that will analyze the demographics of submissions to the festival. The study will look at gender, race and ethnicity, and include both the festival films and Sundance’s labs and artist-support programs. Results of Smith’s research will be presented during the festival.” https://bit.ly/2BmbRT6

3. TRUMP HINTS HE MIGHT ATTEND WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER NEXT YEAR: President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that he might attend next year's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, now that Ron Chernow is headlining. Trump hasn't attended the past two dinners since he's been in office, when comedians, including last year's performer Michelle Wolf, served as the entertainment. Washington Post: "'So-called comedian Michelle Wolf bombed so badly last year at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that this year, for the first time in decades, they will have an author instead of a comedian,' Trump tweeted Tuesday night. 'Good first step in comeback of a dying evening and tradition! Maybe I will go?' The event has typically featured a routine by a stand-up comedian who roasts the White House and the press, with the president delivering a few punchlines of his own. But Trump has boycotted the dinner for the past two years, and the event has drawn scrutiny from some critics who say it gives the appearance of a too-cozy relationship between journalists and the politicians they cover. At last year’s dinner, Wolf lampooned White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who attended the dinner and sat at the head table in her boss’s stead. ... Wolf also responded to Trump in a tweet Tuesday night. 'I bet you’d be on my side if I had killed a journalist,' Wolf said, in an apparent reference to the president’s defense of Saudi Arabia following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month. She ended the tweet with the hashtag #BeBest, the name of first lady Melania Trump’s anti-bullying campaign." https://wapo.st/2S2zh5e


*INDUSTRY NEWS*

Carol McGury, executive vice president of event and education services at SmithBucklin, has been elected chair of the Professional Convention Management Association’s Education Foundation board of trustees. 

* LOCAL NEWS *

LOS ANGELES:  Reed Exhibitions has postponed its Agenda Winter Long Beach trade event, originally scheduled for January. Instead, organizers will focus their efforts more on the consumer festival in June, which merges streetwear, action sports, lifestyle, and fashion alongside music, art, food, education, and more. 

The Trevor Project will honor actress Amandla Stenberg with the Youth Innovator Award at the TrevorLive gala on December 2 at the Beverly Hilton. The event also will honor Ryan Murphy and the cast of Pose, as well as AT&T Mobility and Entertainment president David Christopher. 

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

MIAMI/SOUTH FLORIDA:  Hospitality company Centerplate and the Miami Beach Convention Center have extended their food and beverage contract. The extension comes after the convention center’s $620 million renovation. 

NEW YORK:  The Recording Academy will reveal the 61st Grammy Awards nominations on December 5. Select nominees will be revealed on CBS This Morning, while the complete nominations list will be posted on Grammy.com. 

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

SAN DIEGO:  The 2019 N.G.A. Show, a trade show for independent grocers, will take place February 24-27 at the San Diego Convention Center. 

SAN FRANCISCO:  Nonprofit organization Charity: Water will have its gala on December 1 at the San Francisco Armory. Trademark Events will produce the event. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.:  DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Washington D.C.—Crystal City has appointed Joseph Cardone as general manager. Cardone was previously hotel manager of Hilton Orlando.

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

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