Successful Meetings - January 2008 - (Page 22)

Planner Spotlight > Chaim Lazaros Superheroes Anonymous Capes of Good Hope Red Justice. Direction Man. Street Hero. Their true identities disguised behind aliases and masks, these and other caped crusaders for safety and social justice gathered in Times Square in late October. But it wasn't Halloween—it was the first meeting of Superheroes Anonymous, an organization co-founded by Chaim Lazaros and Ben Goldman. Superheroes Anonymous are volunteer Good meeting. He pulled one, often two all-nighters per week; lost 15 pounds; maxed out his credit cards; used up his student loans; and almost got kicked out of school. Why did he get so involved? “There's so much negativity nowadays—people feel helpless,” Lazaros says. “This is about people saying, 'I'm going to do something, and do it in a really cool, colorful way.' I knew this was a great story the world FIRST SUPERHEROES ANONYMOUS MEETING Attendees: 13 Real-life superhero community: 200 Time spent planning: 9 months Cost: $6,000 (not including deferred payments) Samaritans who dress in uniform—not costume!— to draw attention to their efforts to better their communities. (Red Justice, in red boxers over jeans, encourages young people on New York's subways to give up their seats for the elderly and disabled. Direction Man, in an orange vest, guides lost tourists. Street Hero, in a black bustier, protects ladies of the evening using martial arts.) These “real-life superheroes,” as they're known, used to meet only online. But when Lazaros, a Columbia University film student, discovered them on MySpace, he devised the idea of organizing an in-person meeting so he could make a documentary about this worldwide phenomenon. “I didn't have the money to travel to Florida or California or Italy to interview these people,” Lazaros says. “So I thought I'd create an event where I could do my interviews and film them on their patrols.” WONDER TWINS With help from a professional event needed to hear.” JUSTICE LEAGUE He was right. Despite attracting only a few real-life superheroes, the meeting got worldwide coverage, by The New York Times, the BBC, TV stations in Japan, Brazil, Australia, and more. Thanks to the Times article, Lazaros, Goldman, and another friend, Phil Perkins, are now making a short film for Current TV, a cable station for young people launched by Al Gore. They plan to launch the full-length version in a year. Lazaros wants to hold another Superheroes Anonymous meeting in the summer if he can get funding. “One of my biggest challenges was getting real-life superheroes to attend,” he says. “In the past, the press treated them as a joke, and it was hard to convince them I wasn't going to laugh at them. But so many have contacted us since the meeting saying that if we do it again, they'll definitely come.” —Sara J. Welch Does your meeting deserve to be in the Spotlight? Write us at vince.alonzo@nielsen.com, and you could be profiled in SM. JANUARY 2008 SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS PHOTOS: STEVE GANOE planner, Lauren Fritz-Gibbs of Celebrate Flowers (who bartered her services for a promotional video worth $17,000 that Lazaros and Goldman made), Lazaros spent most of the year organizing the 22 mimegasite.com http://mimegasite.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - January 2008

Successful Meetings - January 2008 Contents Editor's Note Associations Research Events Suppliers Associations On the Record Associations Suppliers Planner Spotlight Websites of the Month Management Matters Meeting the Law Personal Success Mouth for Sale Food & Beverage Professional Development On Site Pre-Event Tools of the Trade Veggie Power Tennis, Anyone? Seeing is Believing The Wild Green Yonder Game On Places & Spaces Galveston & Texas Beaches Greater Seattle Singapore Gurus

Successful Meetings - January 2008

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