Snapchat users in over 20 countries can now discover when their favorite acts are coming into town.

They can see if their friends are also going, make plans to meet up via Snapchat Camera and buy tickets after being directed to Ticketmaster.com.

A new partnership with Ticketmaster allows Snapchatters to use Ticketmatcher Mini to have shows recommended based on their music tastes and city. Snap Minis are third-party programs that live inside Snapchat’s Chat section.

Users access the Ticketmatcher Mini through the Rocket icon in the Chat section of the app and fill out a quick survey on music preferences. They browse events by swiping left or right, saving what they like.

If the user and friends don’t want to plan too far ahead in meeting up, they can open the Snap Map and find upcoming events nearby through Snapchat’s first-ever partnered Map Layer. This is the first time Snap has integrated a partner to Snap Map through its new Layers technology. Snap Map reaches 250 million users a month.

Ticketmaster’s EVP of distributed commerce, Dan Armstrong, said working with Snap enables the company to ‘deeply engage’ a new generation of event goers.

“As digital natives, Gen Z is highly influenced by what they discover and share online with their friends,” he said. “Discovering a cool show on your Snap Map and sharing it with your friends via the Tickematcher Mini, provides a whole new way for us to help artists, teams, and venues connect with this important demographic.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Snap on a groundbreaking new product, inspiring a new generation to fall in love with going to live events.”

By Jocelyn Postrado

The Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team has partnered with US-based software company Glowing to offer a modern way for fans to communicate with staff via text messaging before, during, and after games and events. Glowing’s messaging solution will be used to heighten the Kings’ fan experience on game days. The team began offering the messaging solution for premium suite holders and has now expanded it to road trips as well as groups in attendance.

It is hoped the partnership will offer messaging to every fan that enters the Kings’ Golden 1 Center arena for any game or event. “”As we continue to strive to provide the best fan experience, the Glowing platform allows us to take our premium service to the next level,” said John Rinehart, the Kings’ president of business operations. “Not only are we able to engage directly with our fans in real-time to share information and answer questions but we can provide ‘anticipatory service’ to ensure a positive and seamless experience.”

The Kings began offering the messaging solution to their premium account holders and have expanded to use it during road trips as well as to groups in attendance. The aspiration is to offer messaging to every fan that enters the arena for any game or event.

“We have always had a keen eye for the stadiums and arenas vertical because those venues do not have a sense as to who is actually in attendance nor the ability to message attendees directly,” said Glowing, Inc. CEO Jasen Lew. “As industry leaders in technology innovation, especially that revolves around the fan experience, the Sacramento Kings are a perfect partner to deliver our easy-to-onboard messaging solution. As we closely monitor and adjust to growing fan engagement, we look forward to our continued partnership with the Kings to develop a best-in-class, leading-edge solution for all of their fan needs in our ever-evolving world.”

Jocelyn Postrado is with Glowing, Inc.

By Diane Johnson

Leadership training and support has arrived for an industry that has been bereft of development opportunities for its future leaders. International consultancy TRG Arts announces the launch of Talent Lab, an incubator where emerging arts administrators can be heard, engage in daring dialogue, and grow professionally with a 21st century mindset. Talent Lab arrives at a pivotal time for the creative sector as it recovers from the pandemic. 2019 saw a thriving arts industry post record numbers in contributions to U.S. GDP, but shuttered venues and the expense of high turnover in the following two years wrecked the momentum of the field. Talent Lab offers arts organizations an affordable means of investing in young professionals at a time when developing and retaining high-quality employees is critical.

TRG Arts’ commitment to professional development, for client organizations as well as internally, is led by Keri Mesropov, TRG Arts’ Chief Talent Officer.

“I’m beyond thrilled to lead this talent initiative that ends the status quo for what used to pass for professional development of arts and culture employees,” Mesropov said. “If we together are to ensure the sustainability of this sector, we all must evolve as professionals and challenge the mindset of constant scarcity of both money and time. It is just as valuable to spend resources training arts administrators as it is to train dancers, musicians, or actors.”

Along with a passion for developing young talent, Mesropov has a sterling tenure with TRG Arts, extensive industry experience, and association as a Professional-in-Residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications.

In the initial rollout of services, Talent Lab is offering a series of workshops at $89 per attendee on personal development topics such as emotional intelligence, effective feedback, learning agility, and strengths-based leadership as well as technical frameworks like budgeting revenue targets with precision. The workshops are designed for mid-level managers and their teams to learn professional skills and industry best practices that they can take back to their organizations and put into action.

Talent Lab is hitting the market in an innovative way that matches the unique nature of the offering. Mesropov will be engaging young professionals on social media outlets like TikTok and Instagram to expand the reach and interest in the workshops and the value they present. In the coming months, the arts field will also be invited to participate in a series of “experiments” that Talent Lab will be conducting to test hypotheses and discover new workplace norms that create the most daring, accelerated, and inclusive cultures.

TRG Arts is uniquely qualified to bring this product to the arts and culture field. Throughout the company’s more than 25-year history, talent development has been core to the company’s consulting engagements.

“Talent lab will be a relational, empathetic, inclusive workshop that prioritizes attendees’ development and knowledge expansion,” Mesropov said. “We want to ignite people—the way our consulting always has—but in a potent, bite-sized workshop.”

To register for the first two Talent Lab workshops, or for more information, visit https://trgarts.com/talent-lab:
● Effective Feedback Workshop
March 8, 2022, 9 am MDT, and July 21, 2022, 9 am MDT
● Hit Your Revenue Goals Workshop
March 22, 2022, 9 am MDT, and April 11, 2022, 9 am MDT

Diane Johnson is with Keeton PR on behalf of TRG Arts.

Do you know a young professional that is a rising star in the venue industry? Nominate that individual to be a part of the 30 | UNDER | 30 Class of 2022!

30 | UNDER | 30 focuses on identifying and developing the talent of venue industry professionals, 30 years of age and under, through increased access and exposure to industry networking and thought leadership. The program provides year-round continued education for professional growth in the venue industry and helps program participants become better, more productive employees.

Selected applicants will receive a travel stipend of $600 and complimentary registration to attend VenueConnect, IAVM’s annual conference & trade show. Honorees will be notified in April and recognized formally at VenueConnect 2022 in Phoenix, AZ.

30 | UNDER | 30 is the Foundation’s way to honor and inspire the next generation of leaders in the public assembly industry, and the Class of 2022 will represent the best of the best who show passion and drive for our industry!

The deadline to receive nominations is March 4, 2022. Click here to nominate a young professional you know for the 30 | Under | 30 Class of 2022!

By R.V. Baugus

Tom Bedard, ABCP, Meteorologist and Business Continuity Specialist based in Wichita, Kansas, is not your typical “weather guy.” How can he be when he proposed to his wife at … wait, we’ll save this most interesting story at the end.

Bedard will also be familiar to the IAVM family when he presents a session entitled Venue Safety and Reducing the Impact of Weather on Events at the Severe Weather Preparedness program and the Academy for Venue Safety & Security (AVSS) in Las Vegas on March 4.

Bedard stays busy as a meteorologist, service implementation manager, and emergency management & business continuity professional for AccuWeather for Business in Wichita. His team manages client onboarding, customer service, technical implementation, and consulting projects. Outside of AccuWeather, he is an active volunteer firefighter/EMT for Colwich Fire Department and an active K9 Human Remains Detection Dog Handler for the Sedgwick County Volunteer K9 SAR team.

Thankfully, he was not too busy that he couldn’t spare a moment to visit with us regarding his session. Oh, and about that marriage proposal.

Speak some about your topic of Enhancing Venue Safety and Reducing the Impact of Weather on Events. It seems like not a year goes by that we do not have a major news story dealing with some event that has had a major weather event impact it and its guests.

Guests know that weather impacts their experience at an event, so how a venue responds to it is as much a matter of customer service as it is a matter of safety. They expect venue managers to know the forecast and have a tried and tested plan to respond to it. Their experience at an event becomes poor (or frightening) when they feel like they’re on their own to protect themselves. Those are the stories that capture media attention and end up in the news. My sessions at AVSS and the Severe Weather Preparedness Training are focused on guiding the emergency planning process so that venues anticipate the storm and stay out of the news.

What are the most common oversights that venues make when it comes to planning for severe weather?

Venue and event managers are masters at planning, logistics, and operations. They know the wind thresholds for every piece of equipment and they’re very well-practiced with crowd safety operations. The oversight we most often see them committing is not coordinating with a meteorologist to get expert opinion on their weather plan. It’s important to verify the warning criteria that they’re using as triggers and to confirm that they’re making the right assumptions. I’m still encountering safety plans that assume that every thunderstorm travels at 60 mph and that all tornadoes move from southwest to northeast. It’s not hard to get in contact with degreed meteorologists in the National Weather Service or the private sector and I’d be happy to make that connection for anyone while I’m out in Las Vegas!

-Let’s flip the script if you can share a quick story about how proper planning helped alleviate what could have been a possible disastrous situation.

The July 31st, 2021, Garth Brooks concert at Nissan Stadium in Nashville is a recent success story that was presented at the 2022 American Meteorological Society’s Annual Meeting. Although the sky was clear when gates opened at 5 pm, the concert’s 7 pm start was delayed due to concerns about a storm approaching from the northwest. As the storm approached, the stadium posted a “Lightning Advisory” shortly after 7:30, asking guests to proceed to the shelter area. The stadium’s twitter account shared the delay and more updates as the storm moved overhead. Although weather ultimately forced the event to be postponed, no lightning-related injuries occurred despite the intensity of the storm.

Any primary or main takeaway you would like your audience to leave with and take back to their venue?

Here are the three takeaways that I’m encouraging my AVSS session attendees to think about:
Risk assessments for weather hazards should be specific. “Severe thunderstorm” as a hazard is more helpful when it’s broken into individual 30 mph wind gusts, lightning within 8 miles, hail >1”, and flash flooding hazards.
Vulnerability assessments should be equally as specific. The planning process should uncover what windspeeds compromise equipment safety, what evacuation times are expected with guests, and if guests will be more susceptible to high heat.
Communicate early and often. Acknowledging the cliché, share public-friendly versions of your severe weather plan with your guests alongside the channels that they can use to find updates.

​OK, you can’t Google your name without hearing about your famous marriage proposal last year. For our members who do not know about it, would you please share just one more time? I doubt this one will ever be topped!

There’s no higher form of romance for severe weather-loving meteorologists than getting engaged in front of a tornado. My girlfriend of five years and my best friend are both exceptional operational meteorologists at our company and were working together on what would be the last good storm chase of the spring. The right ingredients came together for a slight severe weather risk in southeast Colorado, so we hopped in my best friend’s truck with his wife on a Saturday morning and headed west from Wichita. We found a storm that we wanted to follow for the day and stuck with it as it struggled through a less-than-favorable environment. After repositioning ourselves a few times and getting through the maze of storm chasers, we found a safe spot south of the circulation just in time for a large cone tornado to form. My fiancé had no idea of the intent of the chase and the entire day was an incredible success.