Tricks and Treats: 28 Spooky Ideas to Inspire Your Next Halloween Event, Plus Why Delta and BuzzFeed Hosted a Public Pop-Up Workspace

1. ADVERTISING WEEK’S PITBULL PERFORMANCE DRAWS CRITICISM: Advertising Week in New York’s closing night event featured a performance by Pitbull, which drew criticism from industry execs who said the concert—which featured the rapper surrounded by dancers wearing thongs—contradicted many of the event’s programs that addressed gender equality and sexism. Advertising Age: “The conference, in its 16th year, is meant to be a celebration of the industry and its successes. One panel was called ‘Corporations & Compassion: A Discussion on Masculinity.’ The ‘Gender Parity–It’s Complicated’ panel which revealed new research from She Runs It that shows a decline in women leaders. After all that, Pitbull’s performance seemed to undermine the entire week.”

2. RENT THE RUNWAY HALTS NEW CUSTOMERS AMID INVENTORY ISSUES: Rent the Runway, a popular startup that lets people rent outfits for events, has stopped accepting new customers, after inventory and supply chain issues led to numerous delayed and canceled orders. In an email to subscribers, C.E.O. Jennifer Hyman said the company has temporarily stopped accepting new customers and that it won’t take new orders that need to be delivered before October 15. The email also said that current subscribers will see short delays on deliveries through mid-October. Vox: “The decision to pause new orders and subscriptions comes days after Recode reported that Rent the Runway’s Twitter and Facebook pages were overrun with hundreds of complaints of delayed and canceled orders in addition to customer service wait times that topped three hours. In many cases, the mishaps resulted in customers of Rent the Runway’s Reserve service—which is for one-off event rentals—finding out only a day or two before a special event that their dress wasn’t going to arrive on time.”

3. OCTOBER DEMOCRATIC DEBATE WILL HAVE 12 CANDIDATES ON ONE STAGE: CNN and The New York Times’ Democratic presidential debate in October will take place on one night with all 12 candidates on stage. The fourth primary debate will air live from Otterbein University on October 15; CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett, and Times editor Marc Lacey will moderate the debate. CNN: “For the first two Democratic debates, 20 qualifying candidates were randomly divided into two groups of 10, with each group debating on separate nights. The party's most recent debate in September featured 10 candidates debating on a single night. A DNC official said several factors were taken into account in deciding to focus on one night. ‘Our goal has always been to expand viewership, and we also believe that one night worked well for this last debate,’ said the official, speaking on background.”

INDUSTRY NEWS: Ecpat-U.S.A., an anti-child trafficking organization, has released “Stamping Out Exploitation in Travel,” a report that presents key findings from a study of 70 companies in the travel industry on their initiatives to fight human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Read the report here.

ATLANTA: Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau has named Charlene Lopez director of citywide sales.

LOS ANGELES: Freeform’s Halloween House will run October 2-7 at Hollywood Athletic Club. The pop-up will have interactive experiences inspired by Hocus Pocus and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.

NEW YORK: 8Sia, an Asian street food market from the team behind Yaso restaurant group, has opened in Midtown. Vendors include Yaso Noodle Bar, Rice-On, and Curry42. The two-story, 2,400-square-foot space has a 35-seat dining area.

PHILADELPHIA: Esports infrastructure company Nerd Street Gamers has partnered with Comcast Spectator to debut Localhost, a dedicated public esports space, at Wells Fargo Center. The space will be open before, during, and after Wells Fargo Center events and will have a separate entrance. The space also will host competitive gaming events in conjunction with event theme nights and offer ticket packages for groups.