To paraphrase Ferris Bueller: Life moves pretty fast—if you don’t keep up, you could miss out. The venue management industry isn’t immune to the fast-pace of the world around it, which makes a new textbook that much more important.
Public Assembly Venue Management: Sports, Entertainment, Meeting, and Convention Venues is the latest publication from IAVM.
Built upon the legacy of IAVM’s previous publications (2004, 2009), the new textbook was written for undergraduate and graduate students within sport management, event management, hospitality management, and other related disciplines. It was written to assist faculty in teaching the important theoretical and conceptual issues within the context of public assembly venue management. And it was written as a resource for entry-level venue management professionals and to support IAVM and its professional development programs
“The objective of this book is to introduce the reader to the business of public assembly venue management,” the authors wrote in the book’s Preface. “Such venues are found throughout the world, and, while their purposes and goals may be different, the management, principles, and practices are fundamentally alike. The reader should be able to glean relevant information that applies to venues of all types, large and small, local and international.”
We asked the authors some questions to learn more about the book.
This is not a third edition of IAVM’s previous textbook, but rather an entirely new book. What factors contributed to the scope of the new content?
While we set out to simply update the second edition, our passion for the industry and our desire to support faculty in the education of students with an easy-to-use textbook and companion materials drove us to go deeper. In addition, the speed in which the industry is evolving, especially in the area of technology, required more extensive review and update of the content.
Are there any topics covered in the textbook that reinforce the pace of change happening in venue management?
The industry is constantly changing and advancing. As a result, we have updated existing content, and added content regarding social media, analytics, and ticketing advancements. We have also added a dedicated chapter for safety and security.
What are you most proud of regarding this new project?
We are very proud of the time and dedication invested to produce a textbook that accomplished the goals we set. We are especially appreciative of the many industry colleagues that assisted us in a variety of capacities. This textbook provides a comprehensive look at public assembly venue management and covers topics noticeably absent in other facility management texts. In addition, the textbook and companion materials can be used by faculty for undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as used by practitioners.
This textbook is part of a new collection of education tools being produced for venue managers and students. What else is available, and what is in development?
The textbook is just one element of the collection of educational tools available for faculty. We have also compiled extensive companion materials for faculty including a sample syllabus, PowerPoint presentations, test banks, case studies, class discussion topics/class activities, and four sample class projects.
Simultaneously, the IAVM eBooks Task Force has been working on their first eBook, which will also be released this year. While the textbook provides a comprehensive look at public assembly venue management, the intent of the eBook is to take one topic/chapter from the textbook and expand it with significantly greater detail and an enhanced focus on the practitioner. Event management within a public assembly venue is the first topic to be addressed in an eBook, and to help ensure consistency, Dr. Kimberly Mahoney is working on both projects.
Public Assembly Venue Management: Sports, Entertainment, Meeting, and Convention Venues is now available for faculty to preview. It will be released to the public in July 2015.
