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A Five Star Celebration at the SLS

Mona Day Awards, celebration, Conference, Entertainment, Fashion, News, Participate, PRODUCTS, See

The SLS Beverly Hills hotel hosted its Third Annual International Women’s Day Celebration on Tuesday March 5 with a full day’s programming event billed as A Five Star Celebration, and what a celebration it was! 

The day began with a Sweat & Workout with celebrity trainer Latreal Mitchell featured on Khloe Kardashian’s Revenge Body.  It was followed by a Pilates workout with  Nicole Stuart, celebrity trainer and co-author of Total Body Beautiful.  The hotel’s Ciel Spa provided shower and changing facilities. 

A pop-up working lounge was set up  in the speakeasy Wasp in a Wig to recharge and refresh. Hutchins Portraits provided professional headshots with a red carpet photographer, and Glamsquad Touchups provided complimentary hair and make-up. An all day Shopping Bazaar offered a range of beauty, fashion & wellness items from female business owners.

Then it was time to move on to panel discussions with industry leaders across entertainment, media, law, technology.  

Presented by the African American Film Critics Association, The Lady Directors Panel was moderated by Carla Renata.  Featured panelists included Kelly Park of The Neighborhood, Jess Wu Calder of Blindspotting, and Nailah Jefferson of Donyale Luna and Nicki Micheaux of Summer of Violence.

The Women in Law Panel focused on the importance of community engagement. Moderated by Vinca Jarrett, featured panelists included Laura Farber from Hahn & Hahn, Chiquita Banks from BESLA, Adrienne Alexander from Every Contract You Need, Nyanza Shaw from Fremantle and Heidy Vaquerano from Fox Rothschild. 

Lunch in the rooftop pool area with panoramic city views highlighted clean cuisine. 

Then, a panel discussion titled  Kicking Open the Door Creating and Maintaining the Pipeline was moderated by Tamara Houston. Featured panelists include Vinca Jarrett, Entertainment Attorney, Michelle Sneed, A Few Good Women, Angela Lee, Rupa Dash, World Woman Foundation and Melissa Cardenas, Wealth Management. 

The day’s final panel discussion titled  AI and the Metaverse explored our role in shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Moderated by Deanna Barnert, featured panelists included Sneha Deo, Microsoft, Jenni Ogden, EyeQ Ventures, Shira Lazar, What’s Trending and Joanna Popper, CAA. 

The evening festivities moved to the hotel’s Garden Room for a red carpet entrance and networking over cocktails, passed appetizers and a dessert station along with live entertainment and fun photography.

The evening program hosted by Producer-Director Aida Rodriguez and SiriusXM Julia Cunningham included a fireside chat and a discussion led by Lorenza Munoz titled DEI and Affirmative Action are Gone, What’s Next? 

The day closed  with an award ceremony honoring director Dyan Cannon.  Past honorees have included Maggie Gyllenhaal and Mary Lou Belli. 

Nadine Vondermann Director of Sales & Marketing at the SLS who launched the annual event said it has become her passion project, attributing that to her years of living in the Middle East.

LA Art Show Opening Night Party

Mona Day Awards, celebration, See

The LA Art Show  kicked off the 2024 Los Angeles art season with its Opening Night party February 14th. Guests got a special VIP preview of the LA Art Show’s 2024 expansive cultural programming featuring over 100 galleries, museums and nonprofits exhibiting that included an  international lineup of galleries and museums from countries from the Philippines, Italy, Israel, Peru and South Korea. 

The gala was hosted by celebrated actress Lucy Hale. Reality TV star Francesca Farago (Too Hot To Handle, Perfect Match) and fiancé Jesse Sulli of Tik Tok fame also took to the carpet.

The evening’s charity partner was the  American Heart Association, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.  As the evening’s host and friend of AHA, Lucy took to the stage and spoke about the important work the American Heart Association’s work with its Life is Why campaign which is inspiring people to honor their reasons for living longer healthier lives. LA Art Show producer and director Kassandra Voyagis, American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown and AHA survivor family Danielle and Chandler Armstead also spoke during the presentation. NFL player Damar Hamlin (Buffalo Bills Defensive Back), who suffered cardiac arrest on the field last year joined Lucy on stage during the American Heart Association presentation. 

LA Art Show will donate 15% of all ticket proceeds to the American Heart Association’s Life Is Why™ Campaign. 

Other LA Art Show 2024 highlights included:

·      A musical performance by Korean artist Choi Sori who through drumming and manipulation of metal surfaces, Choi creates an abstract interplay of light, color, and sound.

·      Iconic LA artist Robert Vargas was onsite live painting his powerful mural – inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s “The World House” – which honored Black History Month and conveyed a message of peace and unity.

·      The Tanya Weddemire Gallery exhibited “Give Us Our Flowers” by acclaimed Haitian American artist, Guy Stanley Philoche, who found art as his refuge at an early age.

·      Fremin Gallery from New York showcased inspiring works including female Turkish artist Ardan Özmenoğlu’s “Blue” a stunning sculpture of a tree on a wooden stump, created from layers of glass panels and nail polish.

·      LP Gallery from South Korea featured renowned artist Dain Yoon known for painting on her skin to create surreal self-portraits.

·      Licht Feld Gallery presented photography from award-winning celebrity photographer, Markus Klinko, including his iconic image of Mariah Carey, recently projected on stage at the 2024 Grammy Awards.

·      Fabrik Projects Gallery showcased ‘The Soul of Your City” exhibition, the culmination of a global photography competition capturing the hidden spirit and true identity of cities through the lenses of local photographers.

·      DIVERSEartLA presented the second Museum Acquisition Award for Emerging Artists participating at the fair. The award-winning artist was Barcelona-based Juan Escudero on behalf of Pigment Gallery selected by Ana Maria Matthei, AAL museum director & AAL Magazine founder, along with DIVERSEartLA curator, Marisa Caichiolo.

For more information, please visit https://www.laartshow.com

RECURRING REVENUE CONFERENCE

Mona Day Conferences, Technology

The Recurring Revenue Conference will be held on November 9, 2023 at the Hilton Los Angeles Culver City.    Subscription ecommerce or SaaS business thinkers, entrepreneurs, executives and investors will discuss the subscription economy and its latest innovations and customer engagement strategies  to attract and retain customer loyalty. Over 700+ attendees, exhibitors and speakers are expected to attend.

The cloud services industry has become increasingly important, grown exponentially with SaaS revenue touching $143.7 billion;  cloud security is growing by 30% annually; low-code SaaS platforms have come of age, with  75% of development shops adopting low-code platforms by this year; 75% of all cloud workloads and computing instances come from SaaS applications, and new software entrants and 80% of prior vendors offering subscription-based business models, with almost half of all software revenue generated from subscription. 

Topics will cover how leaders of successful SaaS businesses are managing explosive growth; why investors are bullish and paying record-breaking multiples for recurring revenue businesses; why building and optimizing ongoing customer relationships is the lifeblood of subscription companies; the latest strategies on reducing Customer Acquisition Cost while still growing;  creating additional revenue channels to augment SaaS revenue; key insights to reduce churn, increase adoption and upsell new solutions; and achieving data-driven marketing success.

Panel discussions include: Generative AI: Separating Hype from Reality, a deep dive into the growth and impact of Generative AI in the SaaS and subscription ecosystem. The Changing Role of the CFO will provide insights into the future of financial leaders from just number-crunchers to strategic partners shaping corporate strategies for long-term success. State of SaaS: Valuations and Key Metrics.    Making a Key Pivot: Opportunities and Challenges will provide firsthand accounts from seasoned CEOs who have successfully executed major pivots in their businesses sharing strategies and lessons they have learned.  Who is Writing Checks?  Meet the Money  will show what investors are currently looking for in potential ventures, how to get their attention and secure funding in the SaaS space.

Roundtable discussions will cover a host of topics: Unlocking Product Value to Drive Growth through pricing; Extending Your Runway in an Challenging Environment; 5 Strategies for Monetizing SaaS Integrated Payments; Scale to Sale: Building Your Business to be Exit Ready;  Get to Know Your Customer Agreement: Tips, Tricks & Mistakes to Avoid; Legal Challenges of Auto-Renew Subscriptions;  Every Company is a Fintech Company: How to Win your Corner of the Internet; Selling with Design & UX; and Nailing your Go-to-Market.

Breakout Sessions include:  The Future of Work: Harnessing AI’s Potential While Navigating Emerging Risks;  Managing Cash & Extending Runway in a Capital Constrained World;  5 Checkpoints for Mastering your Recurring Revenue;  Metrics that Matter: KPIs to Attract Capital & Accelerate Growth; and Term Sheets 101.

Keynote speaker CEO Chris Webb will share his journey in building and scaling ChowNow! In an industry dominated by well-funded competitors charging hefty delivery app fees to both restaurants and consumers, ChowNow saw the challenges local restaurants faced with high commission rates and disrupted the game by offering restaurants an affordable solution of  a fixed monthly subscription without  order percentage fees, empowering them to thrive in the digital age.

 For more information and registration, please visit https://www.recurringrevenueconference.com