A big Pow Wow is coming to Los Angeles in April, and it promises to bring in big money.
Mark Liberman, chief executive of LA Inc. the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, said International Pow Wow, an annual tourism marketplace for travel professionals, is expected to feed $9.7 million into the local economy immediately, and up to $350 million in the next two to four years from the increase of international travel business it’s expected to generate.
The money that will impact the city immediately will come from approximately 5,000 travel professionals expected to come to the Pow Wow and spend money on hotels, dining and shopping. The Pow Wow, put on by the U.S. Travel Association in Washington, D.C., was last hosted in Los Angeles in 2004. LA Inc. bid in 2009 for the event to return here and was successful.
“This is very important as we try to promote and market Los Angeles,” Liberman said. “There are so many things that have changed in all parts of our city since 2004. It gives us the opportunity for us to reacquaint these people with Los Angeles.”
Those changes, he said, include the completion of LA Live in 2009 as well as a number of museum upgrades and expansions, including those at the Griffith Observatory, the Getty Villa and the Huntington and Reagan libraries.
The Pow Wow comes to the Los Angeles Convention Center after a record year for Los Angeles as a tourist destination, with 27 million visitors to the region in 2011.
Psychedelic Fashion
Songwriter-turned-fashion designer Hanna Rochelle is doing business on the dark side of the moon. That is, her clothing and lifestyle brand Lyric Culture in West Hollywood was granted rights last year to use Pink Floyd graphics and lyrics on items for a men’s fashion collection that debuted mid-February in Bloomingdale’s. It’s the first time the band has sold rights for use of its lyrics along with the band’s iconic graphics.
Rochelle started Lyric Culture in 2005, and since has sold collections at Wal-Mart, Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom with designs that include lyrics from songs by Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Michael Jackson and more. But Rochelle said the Pink Floyd collection has been one of her best.
After only two weeks in stores, the Pink Floyd collection is doing well enough that Bloomingdale’s decided to double the number of stores that hold it from 10 to 20 stores.
“It’s really been a breakthrough collection for us,” Rochelle said.
The new collection includes T-shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, scarves and various accessories, including cufflinks with Pink Floyd prisms or pigs on them. The Pink Floyd-emblazoned wares range in price from $48 for a T-shirt to $165 for a military-styled jacket.
Lyric Culture will debut a women’s line of Pink Floyd fashion in Hard Rock Hotel shops beginning mid-March.
Revolving Doors
Stylist to the stars Kristoff Ball will open a beauty salon in Beverly Hills in March on Wilshire Boulevard. The new Kristoff Ball Salon is the second in Los Angeles – the original is in Malibu – and will offer haircuts, color (think Gwen Stefani platinum blond), styling and conditioning treatments. … Umami Restaurant Group’s Adam Fleischman said his latest concept, Umamicatessen – a mixed-use open-space home to multiple food concepts – began limited service March 3 on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. He plans a grand opening later this month. … Hardwood Bargains, a mostly web-based retailer of hardwood flooring, moved its headquarters to a showroom on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena on Feb. 24. … Photo Shoppe, an Eagle Rock store on Colorado Boulevard that had been in business for 24 years, closed Feb. 28. Owner Mari Mansourian said the photography industry’s ever-changing technology and her husband’s recent death were determining factors for shutting down. … Studio City restaurant Sushi Nozawa, whose chef was known as the “Sushi Nazi” for his authoritarian ways, closed Feb. 29 after 25 years in business. The restaurant served only traditional sushi – he famously threw out customers if they ordered California rolls – and had passionate followers. Chef Kazunori Nozawa will work instead as a fish buyer for sushi chain restaurant Sugarfish.
At Your Service
Kari Boiler, president of the North American division of baby stroller company Bugaboo in El Segundo, has stepped down to spend time with her family. She had worked at Bugaboo for 10 years, first as marketing director building the brand across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Boiler was instrumental in opening Bugaboo’s flagship store in Los Angeles and jump-starting the company’s first regional e-commerce website. … Safeway Inc. has named Lori Raya president of Vons grocery stores. Raya is the grocery store division’s first woman president in its 106-year history in business. She got her start at Vons working summers as a bagger and worked her way through the ranks to become a district manager 12 years ago. She worked in different offices of Safeway, Vons parent company, before taking her latest job.
Staff reporter Bethany Firnhaber can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.
