Latest news with #DanBerger
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
They're young, pretty and never need to pick up the check - the latest must-have only for the beautiful people
An app offering an amazing array of free perks has been launched but there's a catch - you need to be pretty to cash in. Larissa Drekonja, a former model and actress, co-founded the app Neon Coat, with Dan Berger. The app offers a selection of experiences, services, or comped food and drink, in exchange for the model or influencer receiving the freebie to post online about it. The exclusive app is a saddening reminder that being pretty can pay as criteria to join the app requires models to have at least 1,000 followers on Instagram and a substantial portfolio of work, and, for influencers, they must have at least 5,000 followers on Instagram or TikTok. There are currently more than 12,500 models and influencers who have used the app as well as over 1,500 businesses and brands across New York, Los Angeles, Miami and London. Lauren Karowski, a travel content creator, finds herself opening the app every day when she's in a city Neon Coat runs in. 'I try to use it to either find things that I was going to do anyways. So again, like getting my eyebrows laminated, getting my nails done, going to a workout class, or it's a really good way to find new like restaurants,' she told the Daily Mail. 'There'll be offers for, you know, comp dinner for two people and drinks. And it's a restaurant I've never heard of. So I'd say I use it like a mix of trying new places, and also just like doing things in my day-to-day life that I would normally do.' The founders said the app 'fundamentally' works as a marketing service that allows models and creators to work with brands they love and take more control of their finances and career. Drekonja founded it after her experience as fresh talent landing in New York City from Slovenia as a teenager. She found the 'exclusive' nature of the industry held herself and other models back from being able to thrive in their career and lifestyle, including just affording the basics. As a young model, Drekonja experienced late payments, cramped apartments, unsafe working conditions, bouts of loneliness and 'unsavory' promoters. She created Neon Coat with a vision of helping young women have a very different experience than she did. In her early days in the industry, Drekonja found that booking anything from routine appointments, dinners, or free haircuts, had to be done through her agents or promoters - and one wrong move or the wrong reputation could bar you from the scene. 'A lot of times, as a model, if you embarrass them, or talk to other people when you were out, or - depending on the promoter - if you said something wrong, if you weren't a party girl, you're just not invited anymore,' Drekonja told the Daily Mail. 'Part of what this was is not like financially empowering, but just empowering talent to be able to pay for daily life in an expensive city,' she added. Even though the models or creators may be making a lot of money, through agencies or promoters 'you might be on that stipend and then most of your expenses are being deducted from the agency' 'Just for the basics, food, workouts, beauty treatments, the basic things they might need as a model or lifestyle creator in a big city.' Even though the models or creators may be making a lot of money, through agencies or promoters 'you might be on that stipend and then most of your expenses are being deducted from the agency,' Drekonja said. 'So, it's very limiting what a model can do in an expensive city like New York or London, Paris,' she continued. 'So having Neon Coat definitely kind of puts the control into a model's hand.' Now, the app has blown up among young influencers and models who can get their hands on free drinks, dinners, or workouts - and all they have to do is post about it. Karowski found the app was a great way to save money through the collaborations. Since joining the app last fall, she has found it worked much better for her than experiences with promoters or agencies. 'I used to be signed to like an influencer management agency like two years ago, where I feel like I would be like begging for any opportunity, like a comped meal,' she said. 'I think, in my personal experience, in their minds, it's like, "why would I even bother to, you know, set up this nail appointment or why would I bother to set up this dinner?" Because they're genuinely getting no financial like gain from that,' she said. A major advantage of Neon Coat for Karowski is that it gives creators and models the freedom to 'do as much or as little as you want'. Now, the app has blown up among young influencers and models who can get their hands on free drinks, dinners, or workouts - and all they have to do is post about it For lifestyle content creator, Jaynie Miller, the app has allowed her to get to know New York City and build up her portfolio. 'I've been using it for about a month now and I feel like it's a really cool way to explore different restaurants and things around the city,' Miller told the Daily Mail. 'A lot of my content right now has been restaurant reviews or day in my life videos and I'll just hop around,' she said. 'Like maybe one day I'll start with a coffee shop on Neon Coat, and then I'll show like a dinner place that I like going to. 'And in between that, I'll go to a nail salon or a hair appointment and just show how I can like spend my day creating content and trying out new places in the city.' Like many in the industry, Miller found that finding a way to work with and collaborate with businesses was tough. 'It's a little trickier having to reach out, usually through [Direct Messages] and sometimes you don't hear a response or if you have the wrong email, or they're just not open to collaboration at this time,' she said. 'So with Neon Coat, it's great to know that this restaurant, let's say, for sure want[s] to collaborate.' Even models signed to agencies have been encouraged to bolster their social media presence with the rise of Instagram models and influencers. For Valeria Nanclares, she has seen the industry change over the course of her 14 years in modeling. 'I always was like, "Oh, I don't have to post that much on social media, because I'm a model. I don't need those other followers,"' she told the Daily Mail. 'But that perspective definitely has changed over the last five years for me, because like, now it has become a thing. You really have to have a good social media and good followers, because some brands, not all of them, but they would prefer someone with more followers than someone who doesn't have [them].' Berger and Drekonja told the Daily Mail that, not only does Neon Coat help the talent, but it also offers businesses an opportunity to promote their brand with creators and models who are already interested in their service or product. Drekonja said that Neon Coat allows businesses to increase 'the likelihood of matching somebody that the brand actually can identify with, rather than just getting a[any] model and having a shoot.' Craig Houston, managing partner of Jack & Charlie's No. 118, found that filling the restaurant with attractive influential people who post about their experiences there worked incredibly well for the business. 'The West Village is an extraordinarily competitive market,' Houston, who offers around 30 to 40 comped meals on the app per month, told the Wall Street Journal. 'The energy in the room is really what the business is about.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Inside the brand new Northern Quarter pub from one of the city's best bartenders
If there's one thing that Manchester city centre has plenty of its pubs and bars. A pub that also doubles as a bar might be a slightly rarer breed though. Enter The Morris, a new venue from the team behind one of Manchester's best watering holes. Headed up by ex-Gordon Ramsay bars boss Dan Berger, the new spot has taken over the unit previously occupied by Fierce Bar, which sadly closed in December last year. READ MORE: 'I went for lunch at the special street food spot in Manchester that we are about to lose for good' READ MORE: 'I went for a cheap €1 beer at a Benidorm bar - despite being warned against it' Dan opened Blinker in May 2022 to critical acclaim, earning multiple award nominations and landing at number six in the UK's Top 50 Cocktail Bars list in 2024. The bartender, who grew up in Heaton Mersey, has spent the bulk of his career working in some of the best cocktail bars in Melbourne and London, and now is turning his attention to his second Manchester venue - and he's confident it will offer something very different to Blinker. Walk into the space and it very much feels like a proper boozer - think timber-clad walls, leather booths and Guinness wall signs. Take a second look though, and at the back of the room you'll find a bold pink wall hinting that something else lies within. While it's ground floor is billed as a classic pub, take the stairs and you'll find yourself immersed in a retro-style cocktail bar nodding to the 80s - a complete shift in vibe from downstairs. "The Morris was always designed to be quirky. I wanted it to be fun, exciting and a little bit different," says Dan ahead of the venue's launch this week. "Down here was very much traditional pub in terms of look and feel, but with a modern day offering. We're championing local breweries and we want to be a Manchester institution for good wine and beer down here. "We want to help promote other Manchester independent businesses and lift those up by working together." Announced in January, it's been a busy six months to get the hybrid pub-meets bar concept ready, with a few snags along the way, but as they prepare to open the doors, Dan says he's confident in what they're offering. "I feel very positive going into it, the build was a totally different animal to my first bar though. At Blinker it was just a white box whereas here there's multiple levels, lots of fire exits and fire zones to be aware of, so a lot more to consider in terms of the design run and flow. "I wouldn't have been able to bring it to life without Patrick and the team at Up North Architects though, they've supported me through the whole project. They took my weird and whacky idea and managed to get it down onto paper. "With the back of the pub we wanted this pink wall so that's where the intrigue starts and then you follow the neon up the stairs and then suddenly it's like bang, you're in another room, in a cocktail bar. "The whole point of upstairs was to be fun and quirky, we just want people to enjoy themselves and the drinks. We want people to enjoy the bar without it being too rigid." The team's laidback approach extends to their cocktails and drink list upstairs too, where the're offering playful twists like the 'Cheeky Vimto', 'Cream Soda', and 'Drumstick' - and some are using a method that's new for the city. "Carbonated drinks are starting to become a big trend and someone had to do it first in Manchester," adds Dan. "It's been big in London, big in New York, and globally it's really taken off. "It's just fun to be able to pre-batch drinks, force carbonate it ourselves and then pull it through the draft system. The speed in service is beneficial but that wasn't the main reason, it was to link up the tap wall in the pub to the cocktail bar upstairs. "We've got the pink tap in the pub in a nod to upstairs too with the elderflower and grape spritz on. It's more about bringing a different style of drink to Manchester too. "It gives people down here a taste of what's upstairs and when the sun's out they can enjoy it outside on Thomas Street." "The fizzy drinks are the ones, we've also re-distil spirts on site too so we've got a cocktail with a drumstick lolly distillate in too, and then in the shaken section we have the Fruit Salad and we've distilled those sweets with gin and made a fruity banger." Split into 'Fizzy', 'Shaken', 'Stirred', 'Sub Zero', and 'Sensible' - the latter a selection of non-alcohol pours and mixes - the upstairs cocktail bar is meant to feel nostalgic and totally different to the team's first bar Blinker, which is all about seasonality. Downstairs, there's a selection of beers including Manchester Union lager (£6), Wrexham lager (£6) and Guinness (£6.50), alongside a range of other breweries including Tiny Rebel, Cloudwater, Track, Weekend Project and Polly's. "It's nice to champion British beers more than anything else really and have a point of difference," says Dan. There's a strong lineup of other beers and cans too, as well as highball and spritz cocktails and wines too. Feeling peckish? Well there's bacon and scampi fries, crisps, nuts, Pepperami, sweet chilli rice crackers and pork scratchings to fill that void too. "I like drinking in pubs, cocktails are my thing professionally but I like going to the pub, and I suppose it was always a passion I wanted to pursue in owning a pub one day. "Having the space down here to here to do a proper pub is great, but when I saw the space upstairs I thought this just screams cocktail bar. "It will be completely different. I didn't want people to walk in and think it was just like Blinker. "This venue has nostalgia running through it so all the flavours of the cocktails upstairs have an element of that, so people will recognise flavours from back in the day. "Blinker will stay the seasonal-focused bar, while The Morris will be our nostalgia cave." The Morris opens on Wednesday, May 28. 57 Thomas St, Manchester M4 1NA.
Boston Globe
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Why are so many students in Mass. losing their visas? The answer lies in a little-known database.
Many of the students have no idea why they've been targeted for 'termination' — the official Immigration and Customs Enforcement designation. Was it a protest or political op-ed that sent up a red flag? An old speeding ticket, or social media post picked up by a bot? Higher education institutions, lawyers, and student advocacy groups are also in the dark, scrambling to figure out how to safeguard students' due-process rights. 'Nothing about this is normal,' immigration attorney Dan Berger told the Globe in his Northampton office. In the past, changes to a student's status were generally made by the colleges themselves, in a little-known database called the Advertisement The database is run by ICE under the US Department of Homeland Security but is largely maintained by international student advisers or other designated school officials, who are responsible for reporting any changes to a student's good standing such as an arrest that might affect their status, in accordance with But in recent weeks, ICE has gone into its own database to terminate student statuses without consulting or alerting the institutions, the colleges say. The only way schools have found out about these terminations is by actively monitoring the database for status changes. 'A revocation is like having the key to your apartment taken away. A termination is an eviction,' explained one SEVIS user, a higher education manager, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation by the federal government. 'The first means you can't enter. The second means you can't stay.' The State Department is in charge of the actual visa travel document, typically stamped into a passport, that allows entry into the country. But that pre-existing visa stamp can't help a student whose status is terminated in the SEVIS database. Historically, students dealing with a potential status issue, like inadvertently enrolling below the required full course load, could consult with school officials to address it. 'Visa revocations were relatively rare,' said Berger, with most related to a criminal conviction. FILE - Immigration attorney Dan Berger photographed in his Northampton office. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff The Trump administration's arbitrary termination of a student's status gives schools no chance to help fix the problem. It is, said Heather Yountz, a senior immigration attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, 'a clear violation' of the student's due-process rights under the Fifth Amendment. Advertisement Miriam Feldblum, chief executive of the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, said her nonprofit has heard from hundreds of presidents, chancellors, and university administrators who say that while they typically work with the government to help students request corrections or explanations, they are now effectively shut out of the process. Neither a spokesperson for Trump nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment. In an email, the State Department said it 'looks at information that arises after the visa was issued that may indicate a potential visa ineligibility . . . pose a threat to public safety, or other situations where revocation is warranted,' such as 'arrests, criminal convictions, and engaging in conduct that is inconsistent with the visa classification.' Because the process is ongoing, and the department 'revokes visas every day,'the number is 'dynamic.' The University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. To date, 13 students have had their status terminated. Lane Turner/Globe Staff 'This is a trap for students and for schools. If students don't leave the country and forgo their due-process rights, they could be arrested by ICE and sent to 'feels scary and difficult for students.' But individual students and coalitions of schools are beginning to fight back. SEVIS is at the heart of a Advertisement Also last week, the Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell on Friday co-led a group of 19 attorneys general in filing another Berger and his firm, Green and Spiegel, have advised over 100 affected international students. He describes his role as 'triage' — quickly connecting them to other lawyers. Yountz hears from students nearly every day who are leaving the country voluntarily, leaving behind research and unfinished degrees. She noted the Trump administration has created a chilling effect on students who 'are turning around and looking behind them and wondering if they're next.' Advertisement Because the fear is that it could be anyone — for any reason. In the past, 'What does 'Other' mean?' asked the higher education manager. 'It feels brand new to us.' To many, it also feels punitive and menacing in the current climate, which reminds some advocates of SEVIS's origins. In this atmosphere, students are weighing whether it's even worth trying to stay. Many leave voluntarily in hopes of re-applying for a visa in the future, said Chris Richardson, an immigration attorney, former visa officer, and diplomat who founded Argo Visa, a visa consulting firm. He's spoken to students with minor infractions who are already traveling back to their native countries in hopes of protecting their record and preserving their ability to return to the US. Those staying are living in a state of profound uncertainty. '[The practice] will no doubt decrease international enrollment in the US,' said Feldblum. 'What is being done is deterring, turning away, to say clearly 'you are not welcome here.'' Advertisement Brooke Hauser can be reached at
