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☆ Book Tok drives demand for immersive fantasy events among younger users
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Eva Rothenberg | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Sometimes events are simply fantasy themed, without reference to specific books or fantasy worlds. Dreams shattered.”She attributes the growing demand for fantasy events to the commercial success of fantasy romance books, especially among Millennial women. The past year has also seen a spike in the popularity of “romantasy,” or romance fantasy books. “You know, work dredges on for a lot of people,” said Brittany Proctor, a Michigan-based entrepreneur who’s been hosting fantasy balls in the Midwest since 2022. In fact, Proctor is considering scaling back some of her events due to the sheer number of these fantasy balls that have been cropping up in recent years.

Persons: San Diego Comic Con, Con, Harry Potter, ”, Katherine Stinson, Eric Atticus, Stinson, Dana John, “, she’s, Alexander Chernev, Matt Harris, Sarah J, Maas, Patti McConville, Juliette Sureau, Sureau, Sophie Valfroy, “ romantasy ”, “ They’re, ” Juliette Sureau, Shaun Wada, Ariana Smoak Holly Simone, Tok, Simone, Shawn Strider, ” Stinson, Brittany Proctor, who’s, ” Maja Djikic, you’re, ” Djikic, Proctor, “ I’ve, I’m Organizations: New, New York CNN, Social, Allied, Research, Disney, Universal, San Diego Comic, TikTok, CNN, Stinson, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Barnes, Noble Booksellers, Times, Google, “, University of Toronto Locations: New York, Canada, Houston, Houston , Texas, Texas, New York City, USA, TikTok, Columbia , South Carolina, London, Los Angeles, Michigan, ”, Bahamas

☆ A bizarre Willy Wonka-themed children's event became a viral disaster. Here's everything that went wrong.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A disastrous Willy Wonka-themed children's event went viral for all the wrong reasons. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Instead, the bizarre Willy Wonka-themed event in Glasgow, Scotland, featured a sparse warehouse filled with low-budget props and drew comparisons with the similarly ill-fated Fyre Festival. Videos of customers confronting event organizers have since been shared on social media. "I ended up playing Willy Wonka for three and a half hours straight," Paul Connell told The Independent.

Persons: Willy Wonka, Here's, —, Stuart Sinclair, Sinclair, Paul Connell, Wonka, Connell, BI's Katie Notopoulos Organizations: Service, Illuminati, The Daily Mail Locations: Glasgow, Scotland

☆ Memes about a disastrous Willy Wonka-themed event are taking over the internet
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Olivia Singh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

AdvertisementUnsuspecting children attended a Willy Wonka-inspired event in Glasglow, Scotland with high hopes, but found themselves in a world of pure horror. Paul Connell, an actor hired to play Willy Wonka at the event, told The Independent that the script supplied was "15 pages of AI-generated gibberish." Since photos and videos surfaced online, X (formerly known as Twitter) has become inundated with memes about the catastrophic event. AdvertisementThe interactive lab area drew comparisons to a meth lab“Is that the-”“The meth lab from the Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience? This photo from the Willy wonka experience is single handedly the photo of the year.

Persons: Willy Wonka, —, it's, Roald Dahl, Paul Connell, Kirsty Paterson, Glasgow Willy Wonka, k9jdz3CWH0 — Adam, @adamgreattweet, Loompa, Hugh Grant, Willy wonka, twitter.com/tmc, kes, Kate Middl, aga, witt, r.com, ady, lanning their H, dre, anne Organizations: Service, Warner Bros, Independent, Glasgow, nk Locations: Glasgow, Glasglow, Scotland, erie, ves

☆ A TikToker got hired to go on part of a 9-month-long cruise after he promised to find out all the 'hot goss' on board
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-08 | by ( Lindsay Dodgson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AdvertisementTikTok is completely obsessed with the 9-month-long Royal Caribbean Ultimate World Cruise that set sail in December, and now they have an insider on board. TikToker Marc Sebastian posted a video on December 12, 2023 begging reality show producers to put a crew on the cruise. He promised to update his followers with the "tea" she had revealed to him in the next video, including details about how much the most expensive suite costs. Prices for the full cruise started at $59,999 per person, with a junior suite setting passengers back $117,599, according to The Cut. AdvertisementAt the end of the video, Sebastian said he had gotten into a small disagreement with a "Pinnacle Club" member — guests who paid more for certain benefits.

Persons: Marc Sebastian, —, TikToker Marc Sebastian, Sebastian, Simon & Schuster, Marc, he'd, Adita Larson Organizations: Service, Bravo, Simon &, Books Locations: Antarctica

☆ Billie Jean King: Players ‘are exhausted,’ says tennis great as she urges the sport’s authorities to work together
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

It meant many of the sport’s top players opted not to play the latter – an end-of-year tournament dubbed the World Cup of tennis. Aryna Sabalenka waits during a rain delay at this year's WTA Finals. Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesSimon responded with a letter of his own during the WTA Finals, outlining to players how the organisation was handling the issues raised. But there looks to be no magic solution to the array of problems facing women’s tennis at the moment. “But I think about men’s and women’s tennis, I don’t just think about women’s tennis.

Persons: Issues, Sabalenka, Storm Hunter, Jessica Pegula, Billie Jean King, –, Poland’s Iga, “, ” Sabalenka, Clive Brunskill, Marketa Vondrousova, ” Vondrousova, we’ve, Steve Simon, Martina Navratilova, ”, ” Navratilova, Simon Organizations: CNN, Tennis Association, WTA, International Tennis Federation, Tennis, BJK, Amazon Prime Locations: Cancún, Mexico, Seville, Spain

☆ Is another Fyre Festival really in the works?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Lilian Manansala | Tamara Lindstrom | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

After four years in prison, Billy McFarland announced that Fyre Fest II sold out its first run of $500 tickets, but no dates, location, or performers have been confirmed.

Persons: Billy McFarland

☆ Fyre Festival 2 tickets are now on sale – and selling out – according to embattled founder Billy McFarland
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Alli Rosenbloom | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Founder of the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival Billy McFarland appears ready for round two. “Since 2016 FYRE has been the most talked about festival in the world. Many of the musicians who were expected to perform ended up backing out of the festival because of the chaotic planning. Prosecutors said in a statement at the time that McFarland defrauded Fyre Festival investors and ticket vendors of about $26 million, and that he’d participated in a separate “sham ticket scheme” in which he sold bogus tickets to fashion, music and sporting events while out on bail. McFarland was released from prison in 2022 after serving nearly four years of his six-year sentence.

Persons: Billy McFarland, McFarland, ”, FYRE, Major Lazer, – who’d, –, he’d Organizations: CNN, Southern, of New, Prosecutors, Fyre Locations: McFarland, Caribbean, Exumas, of New York

☆ Billy McFarland, a year out of prison, says the first tickets for Fyre Festival II have sold out — but there is no date or lineup
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The first tickets for Fyre Festival II have sold out, founder Billy McFarland tweeted on Tuesday. We now saw this convert to one of the highest priced GA pre-sales in the industry," McFarland tweeted, without providing evidence. In a video announcing the resurgence of the festival, McFarland said he came up with the idea "during the seven-month stint in solitary confinement." AdvertisementAdvertisement"We spoke to people as far away as the Middle East and South America and ultimately, we decided that Fyre Festival II is coming back to the Caribbean," he added. This time around, Fyre Festival's original co-founder, Ja Rule, told People Magazine that he knows "nothing" about a second Fyre Festival and doesn't plan on being involved.

Persons: Billy McFarland, McFarland, FYRE, Ja Organizations: Fyre, Service, Netflix, People Magazine Locations: Wall, Silicon, Caribbean, Bahamas, East, South America

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's total pay plummeted in 2022 — but there's more to it than meets the eye
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Hallam Bullock | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AWS CEO Andy Jassy, who is set to become Amazon CEO, helped oversee the cloud unit's rise. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's total compensation plunged last year to $1.3 million. It may still seem like a lot of money, but in 2021, Jassy's total pay was over $200 million. Also, keep in mind that Jassy's base salary in 2022 was $317,500, an 80% leap from $175,000 in 2021. Musk's reign of chaos at Twitter may have saved it from collapse, but there's a long way to go.

☆ This leaked Fyre Festival pitch deck shows how Billy McFarland was able to secure millions for the most overhyped festival in history
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Mark Abadi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A leaked sales deck for 2017's Fyre Festival contains the pitch CEO Billy McFarland gave investors ahead of the failed event. The sales deck contains misleading information about Fyre Festival and has been described as "beyond parody." Fyre Festival was advertised an upscale music festival in the Bahamas, complete with luxury beach villas, gourmet food, private jets, and supermodels and influencers galore. The pitch deck was first reported on in 2017 by Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton — who uploaded the full deck online — and recirculated on LinkedIn. Read on to see some of the most shocking, outlandish, and surreal slides from the Fyre Festival pitch deck.

☆ Why cutting middle management is a bad idea
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The push to cut middle managers will backfire on tech. Companies like Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce embarked on cost-cutting efforts that "flattened" org charts by removing middle managers, starting a trend across Silicon Valley. Middle managers, or what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls "managers managing managers," saw their roles shrink in the past year as tech companies focus on "individual contributors," increasingly requiring managers to do coding work themselves. But losing middle managers could also impact team morale and how employees look at their futures in the company. It comes despite Musk recently signing an open letter calling for an industry-wide halt to any AI training for several months.

☆ Billy McFarland, a year out of prison, says Fyre Festival II is 'finally happening'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Billy McFarland, creator of the failed Fyre Festival, teased a possible resurgence of the event. In a tweet Sunday, McFarland asked Twitter users why they should be invited to "Fyre Festival II." "Fyre Festival II is finally happening," McFarland said in a tweet on Sunday. McFarland hasn't revealed any further details about a potential follow-up to Fyre Festival, and didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for additional comment ahead of publication. It can't be tomorrow, it can't be in four months, but there's going to be PYRT fest," McFarland told the "Full Send" podcast hosts.

☆ Google search is bad and getting worse. Here's how search is evolving in the era of AI.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Mason Pelt | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

He says Google search is worse than ever, and the company isn't financially incentivized to fix it. Google search is worse than it was three years ago. People use Google search in two waysPeople use Google to either find general information where any credible source is acceptable. Searching, "who is Neil Gaiman," or "list of the endless in the Neil Gaiman series" will likely give searchers the answers they seek. That sentence's chaotic grammatical mess is a window into the Google search results pages.

☆ The Fyre Festival fraudster is launching his latest thing, and it looks like a party on an island
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Jake Traylor | Jake Traylor Is An Associate Producer For Msnbc. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

He’s using different words, but he’s selling the same thing,” said Shiyuan Deng, a former product designer at Fyre Media, the company behind Fyre Festival. Deng resigned from Fyre Media shortly before it collapsed. Another former Fyre Media employee who asked to withhold their name out of concerns of retaliation also said PYRT reminded them of Fyre Festival. “The similarities are there around the vague mysterious promotion,’’ said the former employee of Fyre Media. McFarland said he believes PYRT will look considerably different from Fyre Festival.

☆ Convicted Fyre Festival cofounder Billy McFarland says the Netflix and Hulu shows about his disastrous party were screened in his prison — but he was 'too scared' to watch
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Convicted Fyre Festival cofounder Billy McFarland was interviewed by British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett. McFarland said he still hadn't seen the Netflix and Hulu shows about his disastrous party. He told Bartlett he was still not ready to watch the documentaries. Fyre Festival was touted as a luxurious music fiesta in the Bahamas and was promoted by influencers and models such as Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid. He told Bartlett he'd chosen the latter.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried took plenty of blame for FTX's downfall, but denied fraudulent behavior
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

And while I've got you here, it's time to start thinking about gifts with the holidays season in full swing. Do you know what's an informative, funny gift that has a long shelf life and, most important of all, is free? FTX Cryptocurrency exchange CEO Sam Bankman-Fried at a hearing on Capitol Hill on May 12, 2022. But the main attraction at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday was Sam Bankman-Fried. And frankly conflict of interest risk," SBF said.

☆ 'I should've listened. There's no excuse': Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland apologizes in first TV interview since prison release
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland sat down with GMA on Friday in his first TV interview since leaving prison. In the interview, McFarland expressed remorse and admitted to lying to investors to save his company. McFarland was released from prison in March and says he plans to venture into the tech industry next. In his appearance on GMA, McFarland expressed remorse for his infamous Fyre Festival scheme. When asked by GMA's Michael Strahan why he didn't pull the plug on the festival before, McFarland said there was "no excuse."

☆ Fyre Festival's Billy McFarland is out of jail early and wants to go into tech — but he'll have his earnings withheld until he pays back $26 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-12 | by ( Mary Hanbury | Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Billy McFarland is best known for organizing Fyre Festival, the VIP party that became infamous when hundreds of attendees were left stranded in the Bahamas. McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for wire-fraud charges in relation to Fyre Festival. Now, McFarland is out of prison after almost four years and said he wants to work in tech. Now, he told The New York Times he wants his next venture to be "tech-based." Any of his earnings will go towards paying back over $25 million to fraud victims.

☆ The definitive story of how a controversial Florida businessman blew up MoviePass and burned hundreds of millions
▼ + stars: | 2019-09-13 | by ( Jason Guerrasio | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +28 min

In 2017, he became the CEO of data company Helios & Matheson Analytics. At that price MoviePass would start losing money when a subscriber used the service more than once a month. MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe and Helios & Matheson CEO Ted Farnsworth after the company hit 1 million subscribers. The same day MoviePass reached 1 million subscribers, a milestone it hit faster than Netflix and Hulu. Related storiesTo draw a crowd, MoviePass blasted out an invitation to the Big Boi show to its then 2 million subscribers.

Persons: John Travolta, He'd, " Gotti, John Gotti, Travolta, Ted Farnsworth, Mitch Lowe, who'd, he'd, Farnsworth, Lowe, Gotti, Dave Kotinsky, Samantha Lee, Stacy Spikes, Spikes, Spikes wasn't, MoviePass, —, Ava DuVernay, Malcolm D, Lee, Hulu, Hamet Watt, Chance Yeh, He's balding, He's, Ted I, La Toya Jackson, couldn't, Matheson, Watt, Helios, Mitch, Ted, MoviePass swag, Dennis Rodman, Jerry Media, hite, Boi, ann u, abi l, tim e, red tha, ord, ul, hal, ove, flo, ann o, bec, lon, Jen, liv, dre Organizations: HBO, Manhattan's SVA, Helios, Matheson Analytics, Netflix, Matheson, MoviePass, SEC, Sony, Miramax, Loews Cineplex, Spotify, Pandora, AOL, True Ventures, Business, Ventures, AMC, Federal Communications Commission, Matheson's, Reuters, Hulu, Coachella Valley Music, Arts Festival, Jerry, acc, pla Locations: Manhattan's, MoviePass, Houston , Texas, San Francisco, America, New York, Florida, India, New, Palm Springs , California, Coachella, fes, ord, pla, Mo

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