R.I.P Frank Dileo

This is far from the norm that I normally post on my blog, but I wanted to take a step back and recognize a man who once managed my Favorite artist of all time, Michael Jackson. Frank Dileo managed Jackson from his "Thriller" album and his "Bad" album. Michael and Frank were great friends and always considered to be an odd pairing. in 1986, Frank who helped negotiate the 10 million dollar Pepsi deal with Michael However, Jackson fired Frank as his manager in early 1989 after bad was released. Michael stated he wanted to sell 100 million copies, but only sold 20 million copies of the album. Frank had always remained a good friend of Michael. During his reign as an artist manager he managed Taylor Dayne, Jodeci, and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi. In 2007 he was named CEO of Valcom a film, television and theatrical production company. Delio was reunited with Jackson in May 2009 when Michael was ready to make a come back in London with his This is It tour. A month later Michael Died from heart attack on June 25th 2009. It was Dileo who informed Michael's kids that their father had died. He was there when Jackson was rushed to the hospital. Frank kissed Michael on his head and closed his eyes.

On the cover of Michael's Bad cd their was a silhouette of Michael and Frank. The caption on the cd stated: "Another great team!" Some may say that the friendship with Michael and Dileo wasn't there over the years as Michael encountered controversy over child molestation lawsuits and battles with Sony. However, it was said that when Michael called him again to be his manager, Frank was there for him in a heartbeat.

From 1979-1984 Franks was the VP of Epic records before becoming Michael's personal manager. Frank died at the age of 63 from heart surgery complications he had back in March.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/arts/music/frank-dileo-michael-jacksons-manager-dies-at-63.html

Apple Reports Q3 Results

On July 19, 2011, Apple Inc. announced their financial results for quarter 3 for the fiscal of 2011. The quarter ended on June 25, 2011, and the company posted a record of $28.57 billion in revenue and a record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billon.

Apple reported that the company sold 20.34 Million iPhones in the quarter which is 142 percent growth from the year ago quarter. Apple also sold 9.25 million iPads during the Q3 which was 183 percent more from last year. The company sold $3.95 million in Macs which was a 14 percent unit jump from last year, and they reported selling 7.54 million in iPods. The iPods were a 20 percent decline from last year.

On June 6th, 2011 Apple announced the release of iOS 5 and the Cloud for the fall. Many speculate that they will release a fifth edition of it's iPhone in the fall as well. Also, September has been the upgraded release of their iPod family as well. If Apple stays on schedule and the rumors and speculations are true, Apple will definitely make what they are expecting. Time will tell if the iPhone has much to offer 2011 will be a very good year for Apple. The success of the iPad and the iPhone keeps Apple on top in the technological industry. It will be interesting to see what Apple has in store for us for the rest of the year.

Apple's CEO Steve Jobs stated that the company was thrilled to deliver the best quarter so far and that they are now focused to bring IOS 5 and the Cloud to their users in the fall. Apple's CFO Peter Oppenheimer, Stated "We are extremely pleased with our performance which drove quarterly cash flow from operations $11.1 billion, an increase of 131 percent year-over-year."(Apple.com 7/21/11) Apple is expecting to break $25 billion in the 4th fiscal quarter.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/07/19Apple-Reports-Third-Quarter-Results.html?sr=hotnews.rss

Apples WWDC Annoucements

On June 6th, 2011 Apple Inc. announced some new software updates for summer and fallout the WWDC in San Francisco. The announcement was received positive and negatively. Apple, is getting ready to release it's new Operating System Lion in July. With 250 new features the apple team demonstrated ten of the new features. Lion is going to run and look like Apples IOS, which made a lot of people happy. Features including Full-screen apps, Multitouch gestures, Mission Control, Launchpad and Airdrop to name a few (apple.com, 2011). The ones I am most excited about is the muti-touch gestures and launchpad. With these features it will make my experience with my mac so much better. Beginning able to access my files and move through my mac so much ease brings tears to my eyes. I love my ipad and Iphone a lot and being able to see all my apps better in the launchpad app is going to help me access those applications much, much better.

The next announcement Apple talked about that almost made jump for joy is the all new IOS 5. This new operating system will make my Ipad 2 and my Iphone operate so much better and amazing! With this new update coming in Fall as well we IOS users will be getting the Imessage, newsstand, reminders Notification center, PC free and the new camera app(apple.com 2011).I am very excited to use Imessage. Like the blackberry messenger that is very popular, I will be able to text and chat with Ipad, Iphone and Ipod touch users just like Ichat. Being able to chat from my ipad to iphone and Ipod users is a wishlist come true. The new notification center is awesome. I am so excited to have the chance to get this new update. I had the chance to see in action today. It is very smooth running and it looks really nice on the phone. I am also excited about the new Iphone camera. Being able to edit my pictures on the phone is something I've been asking for since the IPhone 4 came out. Now I can have it on my IOS device without a third party app.

The last part of the keynote announcement was the introduction to the ICloud. I listened very closely to how the ICloud was going to work. I've been an avid user of Mobile Me and use it to the fullest. I am so glad it is going to be free to user but being able to keep all my device and my computer synced up all the time without a computer is amazing. This system has made it so you don't ever have to plug your device to a computer much at all. Streaming photos, syncing all devices through the cloud and pictures backed up for 30 days is going to be awesome.

With all the new software and updates coming soon, Apple has made themselves the talk of the town again. Although Consumers are a little disturbed they have to wait until fall for the Full force ICloud and IOS this will be a summer I want to get through quickly. The Tech world did have some positive things to say but weighed in on the negatives just as much. They are not happy as ouch with ICloud. They want it to do a lot more. They want it to stream music from the cloud, and back up photos longer than 30 days. All in all the consumers seem to be happy with IOS 5 and can't wait for it to be available  for download. This will be a big new stop for apple for their Macs and IOS Devices. This is setting the bar for their Ipad users and those who have been looking for the computers to get better and their advices to do more so that they can be like having their computer. Apple has listened to their customers. This will raise the bar for the company and could also raise their stocks more too as well. Please check out the keynote podcast URL posted below.

http://www.apple.com/podcasts/apple_keynotes/apple_keynotes.xml

The Planning of the Grand Opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I recently had dinner with some friends and we begin to discuss what an amazing year we've had with the Opening of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort. In talks with them I found that a few of my friends played a huge part in the grand opening as well part of the opening team. When I asked how the project worked, it was clear that this info would work great with understanding how they planned and executed the project. So I begin to ask a few questions regarding the project team. As I move forward into my project management team class actually hearing what they did and how they planned it and how long it took. So a close friend of mine sat down with me and explained how it worked for her in the event aspect of it.

Due to the number of entertainment and opening of this huge anticipated add on to Islands of Adventure they created a Harry Potter event team. They were involved with working with marketing and sales to promote the attraction all the way to booking talent, planning of the VIP grand opening. This 180 day Project began in January. This included traveling to expos to advertise what to expect in the Wizarding world of Harry Potter. The team consisted of 6 people: 2 managers, 1 supervisor, and 3 coordinators. This team dealt with getting talent to expos, setting up private events for the grand opening, getting everyone on the team on board with the product and brand.

The first thing they did was familiarize themselves with the product and the language of the brand. They then worked with the show directors on talent that would be  needed for traveling. If they needed Beaubaxtons and Durmstrings for marketing of the HP world, they worked with the show directors to identify top talent for expos and showcases for the company, and the new island. The break down of the management team is what I found to be very interesting: One manager and two coordinators dealt with talent and booking. The other manager, the supervisor and one coordinator dealt with grand opening and its execution. Those dealing with the grand opening dealt with media, celebrity VIP, for the grand opening. With the teams being split up, they came together every two weeks to do a touch base of where they were and if they were behind and required additional help. They also wanted to make sure they were kept within their budgets and talent budget. Closer to the opening of the island, the project teams met each week to make sure they were on schedule. With the wizarding world making an official grand opening on June18, the team found that they made their deadline on booking all talent for opening and rehearsed how the grand opening will work.  They also had to keep in account the media and VIP party. This took both teams to come together to work on making this successful. The planning for this party started 2 months in advance and with both teams working together  they were able to complete on time and pull off the celebration and VIP party with a major success.

 HP stars at theVIP/Celebrity Opening

http://wdwdailynews.com/universal-studios/wizarding-world-of-harry-potter-grand-opening-kickoff-celebration-photos/

          

 

VIP Celebration

                               http://www.kidsmomo.com/2010/harry-potter-theme-park-now-open/

Blackstone Group Looks to Sell Shares in Universal Orlando

On Wednesday March 16th, the co-owner of Universal Orlando, The Blackstone Group, Looks to share its 50% share to NBCUniversal. Blackstone has owned shares with Universal since 2000. It is unclear why Blackstone is interested in selling it shares when Universal Revenue in 2010 jumped up 41% to $1.13 billion and attendance has increased 20% to 11.2 million. Thanks to the new addition The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal is doing extremely well.  NBCUniversal has until June 12th to accept or reject the offer. A spokeswoman for NBCUniversal said, "We are studying the proposal and considering our options."          

Last Year Blackstone Purchased Busch Entertainment Corp for $2.7 Billion! Busch operates 10   entertainment parks in the US with one being in Orlando. 

Source for Post: http://westorlandonews.com/?p=47848

Fresh Start

As I am beginning to look deeper into my career, I am taking a short break from fulltime management to look at where I want to go with my career. I love the entertainment industry and want to develop myself a little further. So, I decided to go back and get a Second Masters degree in Entertainment Business management. I am very excited about it, but this blog will only be 25% of the experience. I am going to focus more on my Entertainment world....at Universal. Universal is growing as the years go and I am very excited at how it is turning out. I will post some true facts and some that is no confidential. Hey I have to pay my light bill! So I hope you enjoy the new articles and the pictures of what Universal has to offer, as we grow into the Best vacation destination in the world!