A moneyed mob of 140 manly men took over Morton’s LoDo on Monday night during the 36th annual Men’s Event, presented by AMC Cancer Research Center to benefit the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
The event, which carries a $750 per-ticket price, included an open bar, steak-and-lobster dinner, door prizes and a live auction.
The challenge every year is getting the chatty chums into their seats.
“If we can get everyone to take their seat, Steve Farber said he’d throw in $100,000,” emcee, TV personality and motivational speaker Mark McIntosh joked and pleaded in vain.
“You guys wouldn’t let your employees act like this,” he said when Denver’s business bigwigs reluctantly settled down. After all, this is the annual guy gathering where deals are discussed and relationships solidified.
Attorney and Democratic insider Norm Brownstein and his law partner, Farber, ducked out of the event for a quick visit to former Vice President Al Gore, who was holding a book-signing at the Tattered Cover LoDo.
What will you say to your longtime pal? I asked Brownstein.
“I’m going to ask Gore if he can do anything for business in general,” Brownstein said.
Business in general was up this year at the event, which, between ticket sales and the live auction, raised $10,000 more than last year.
The only hiccup was the “wow” auction item — tickets for four to the Masters Tournament, the daddy-of-’em-all golf event — plus three nights’ accommodations and a round of golf at a nearby course — which carried a minimum $20,000 bid with no bidders.
Million-dollar Mile High.
How much are city boosters willing to pay to attract nearby folks to downtown this holiday season? How does a million smackers sound?
Mayor John Hickenlooper, Visit Denver honcho Richard Scharf and other business leaders held a news conference Wednesday in the newly refurbished Denver Pavilions shopping center to announce the $1 million marketing campaign to promote Denver as a vacation — or “staycation” — holiday destination during November through January, traditionally a slow period.
The campaign — targeted at prospective visitors throughout the state and the Rocky Mountain region — includes a website (), Internet promotions, radio and TV commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, billboards, RTD ads, and newspaper inserts.
The cost is covered by media and business partnerships and in-kind services.
Serious shopping.
Steve Weil, owner of Western clothing manufacturer Rockmount Ranch Wear in LoDo, is used to celebrity shopping in his store.
But this year’s Starz Denver Film Festival yielded a bonus number of snap- shirt sales. Actor-director Robert Knott, a festival regular who interviewed actor Ed Harris during the fest, snapped up several shirts, and Tom Bower, a Denver native and veteran actor bought a pile of shirts Sunday.
Eavesdropping.
A man talking about the price of Barolo Grill’s truffle dinners (through Saturday):
“That’s a mortgage payment on my trailer.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-630 AM. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
