Liquor as a Rite of Passage

by Gamal Hennessy

Nightlife is defined as adult activities outside the home that revolve around social connection. By definition, children are not meant to play a significant role in the discussion of nightlife benefits or problems. However, we all know that minors are drawn to liquor, because it has happened to many of us. So any discussion about reducing underage drinking in nightlife has to include the motivations of the minors if we want to create positive change.

In the United States, consumers must reach the age of 21 before they are legally permitted to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages. This legal barrier creates one of the most powerful social effects of liquor in nightlife. Nightlife is an adult environment primarily because alcohol is served there. The collective message we send is, “If you can drink, you must be an adult.”

The fact we label people who can drink “adults” and people who can’t drink “minors” creates a need to drink that has nothing to do with the liquor itself. In our system, the permission to drink is a symbol of adulthood and independence. This is one of the main reasons that teenagers struggle to obtain fake IDs and then sneak into clubs even though they may not like the environment. Ironically, many of them don’t really want the liquor because they dislike the taste of alcohol. But they do want to grow up faster than our society will allow. They want to be adults faster than their physical, mental or emotional capabilities can manage. Consuming liquor is a short cut to that status.

This is not the same in other countries. According to the International Center for Alcohol Policy, many countries have a legal drinking age of 18 or even 16. In influential states like China, France, Israel, Italy and Russia, there is no drinking age at all. There is a direct relationship between the rules for drinking and people’s relationship to alcohol.

We have created a powerful social motivation for minors to drink. But it is interesting to note that while the sale of alcohol to minors is seen as a major problem in nightlife, most minors get their drinks without ever stepping into a club. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 10.1 million people aged 12 to 20 nationwide reported being current drinkers of alcohol. While these numbers might be shocking, it is enlightening to take into account another study conducted by the Department of Health in 2006. In a work entitled. “Where Do Minors Get Alcohol From?” the government found that, depending on the age of the minors, anywhere from 85-97 percent of the alcohol they have access to is from outside the nightlife setting. While underage drinking is a problem across America, nightlife is not a primary location for that kind of abuse.

Unfortunately, nightlife is often singled out as the villain in the story of underage drinking. The social motivation of the minors themselves is often discounted or ignored. But placing the blame solely on the doorstep of the operator will not solve anything. Change can only occur if society changes its perception of and relationship to liquor as a whole. When our indulgence is more responsible, our relationship with liquor is more relaxed. When that happens minors, won’t feel the need to drink illegally because the social benefit will be gone.

Have fun.
G

Is Venugo Just Right or Just Too Much?

By Gamal Hennessy

There are a lot of web sites out there to help the nightlife patron navigate their way through New York’s 1,200 venues. Some, like Urban Daddy, highlight the new spots. Others like Yelp and the directories on Black Book and New York Magazines provide a catalog of venues searchable by keyword. Still more sites are available to sell you tickets to parties, get you discounts on drinks, connect you to promoters and flood your inbox with invitations to parties you don’t want to attend.

Every site has their niche, but Venugo plans to be the one place that everyone goes before they go out. At first glance, Venugo looks like other nightlife sites, but dig deeper and you will find a more involved process.

That deeper level of involvement is both the good news and the bad news about the site.

Venugo has similarities to several different sites. It is similar to Lending Tree.com because once you submit your party preferences, participating venues compete to give you the best deal in order to get your business. You then negotiate back and forth with each venue (up to 5 at a time) until you get the deal and the party that you want. It is similar to Yelp because it offers official and user reviews, organizes venues together by type, location and other elements so you have the information that you need to decide what venues to work with. It is also like Facebook, because it offers (or plans to offer) social media elements such as groups, chats, file sharing and other things that nightlife patrons use.

When you combine all these elements, the founders of Venugo believe that anyone who uses the site can easily organize a party for groups from 2 to 200. It even gives people who use the site the potential to become a promoter. For example, let’s say you start a group for Knicks fans on their social site. Your friends and other random hoop fans join your group. When the Knicks win the championship (I know it probably won’t happen, but this is my example so just let me dream, ok?), it will be time for a party. At that point, you can use Venugo to find venues big enough for your group, negotiate a deal to get the best offer, invite your whole group and just like that, you are a promoter. And since you can make a group about anything, you don’t have to wait for Amare to get a ring to make it work.

All of these things in one site sounds like a good idea, but there are a few hurdles that the developers will have to overcome before Venugo becomes the be all and end all of nightlife planning.

First, this process requires both the owners and patrons to do work that they might not want to do. It’s one thing to ask two groups to negotiate a deal for something major like a mortgage, but if a few guys want to drink on their birthday, they might not be willing to put in the effort Venugo requires.

At the same time, operators often have their hands full keeping the doors open. They might not have the time, interest or staff to negotiate back and forth with multiple parties. They would rather just let the promoters deal with it. And the venues that consider themselves A-list won’t even get involved in the discussion in the first place.

That’s just one hurdle. At this point, Venugo doesn’t incorporate a venue’s music format into the selection process. The number of venues currently working with Venugo is limited. There hasn’t been much public push back from the established promoter community at this point, but it isn’t hard to imagine a scenario where they see this as a threat to their business and use their financial leverage to keep venues off the site. Finally, while patrons can review venues and share their experiences the way they do with Yelp, Venugo allows club owners to do the same thing. That means patrons who consistently book parties and don’t show up, trash the bar or engage in other fanatic behavior might not find many venues willing to host their next party.

Can all these obstacles be overcome? Absolutely. All it takes is creativity and work by people smarter than me and there are a lot of those people around. Venugo has investors, experienced network architects and advertising professionals behind them as well as prominent operators. Until the hurdles are dealt with, Venugo is still a good idea for professional corporate and charity party planners who organize events for a living. It could streamline their job and give the company the traction it needs to reach a wider market. If you want to get involved with Venugo before they blow up, visit them at www.venugo.com

Have fun.
G

Work with the Bar Crawl, Not Against It

By Gamal Hennessy


The New York Post recently printed an attack bar on concentration in the East Village, attempting to draw a connection between the number of bars in a given area and the number of AA groups in the same neighborhood. This story came on the heels of an attempt by the Murray Hill community board to limit or control bar crawls. (New York Magazine, Gothamist, DNA Info) and rumblings that Groupon and other related discount services might face legal hurdles when it comes to discounts associated with liquor sales. All these stories are separate, and none of them can shut down venues on their own, but for NIMBY’s they each provide ammunition to reduce nightlife in New York City.


They also provide ammunition for advocates of nightlife who want to push for more support from city agencies. Real estate costs in Downtown Manhattan are among the highest in the country. The only businesses that can afford to operate there (besides Chase, Duane Reade and Starbucks) are ones that cater to people from outside the city.


That is where nightlife comes in. Nightlife is an industry that caters to people from the neighborhood, around the city, around the country and in some cases, around the world. If nightlife is a source of jobs, tourism and tax revenue in good economies and bad ones, which it is (Nightlife Economic Impact Study), then it is something that the city needs to support. If there is a number of venues in a certain area that facilitate bar crawls and happy hours but causes distress and concern with local residents, then the city needs ways help nightlife work with rather than against the local residents.


There are several ways the city can help. Increasing police presence during times of peak activity (Where are the Cops?) can limit the noise and fanatic behavior (The Four Residents of Nightlife) that causes complaints. Increasing sanitation services can limit the waste left behind by a spike in patrons. The solutions are there, but it is unlikely that City Hall will spend more money to support nightlife during a time of continued financial crisis. There seems to be money to create bike lanes and enforce a nanny state but none to create an environment where nightlife works better with the residents (Bloomberg's Nightlife Record). Perhaps it is easier to paint nightlife as a villain than to take on the challenge of creating a solution for both the industry and residents. But since that hasn't worked so far, it might be time to try and find ways to work with the nightlife and the bar crawls, instead of against them.


Have fun.
Gamal