By NBA.com

The NBA Los Angeles Clippers and Intuit Inc., a global technology platform that makes TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma and Mint, announced that they have entered a 23-year strategic partnership. Intuit is the exclusive naming rights partner of the Intuit Dome, the future home of the Clippers, which is scheduled to open in Inglewood, California for the 2024-2025 NBA season. The Intuit Dome will deliver an innovative fan and consumer experience, and it will become a hub for programs that power economic prosperity and benefit the community.

“When we began the search for a partner for the LA Clippers and our new dome, we looked for one that shares our passion for technology, the pursuit of innovation and our commitment to customers, fans and community,” said Steve Ballmer, LA Clippers Chairman. “Intuit is a perfect fit and we’re excited to be calling our future home the Intuit Dome.”

“Intuit and the Clippers are mission-driven organizations that share the common goal of putting their customers and fans first. We both have a focus on creating extraordinary experiences enabled by innovative technology,” said Sasan Goodarzi, Intuit Chief Executive Officer. “The Intuit Dome will reflect Intuit’s focus on innovation to deliver best-in-class products and services including TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint and Credit Karma to help our customers achieve their financial goals. Intuit and the Clippers have a history of supporting local communities, and we look forward to investing in and contributing to the Inglewood community to help them prosper.”

Through this partnership, Intuit and the Clippers will create new programs to reinvigorate the local economy and local businesses that create jobs, enable job readiness, and educate entrepreneurs to help them better run their businesses and transform their financial lives.

As a function of the partnership, Intuit has committed to:

Expand Intuit’s Prosperity Hub School District program, which empowers the next generation of students to learn about finances and entrepreneurship, in the LA area. Intuit will commit an additional $1 million over the next three years to underserved school districts that are part of the program to make a long-term impact on the local economy. This follows Intuit’s recent donation to the Los Angeles Unified School District in July 2021.

Provide taxpayer assistance events to prepare and file taxes for low-income families in the area free of charge during tax season.

Host educational events where local entrepreneurs and small business owners including women or minority-owned businesses can leverage workshops, networking, tools, education, and tips on how to start, build, and grow a small business.

The Clippers have committed to the City of Inglewood the largest community benefits package ever associated with an arena, generating an estimated $260 million in annual economic activity.

Intuit Dome has been designed to create an intimate and intense fan experience through features such as “The Wall,” which is comprised of 51 uninterrupted rows of seats that include a dedicated supporters section; a two-sided halo scoreboard encircling the bowl with an acre of LED lighting; and an 80,000 square foot outdoor plaza, surrounding a full-size outdoor court. Technological advancements within Intuit Dome will allow for frictionless concession stands, enabling fans to spend more time in their seats.

By Sodexo Newsroom

The Sodexo Group reaffirmed its ambition in the world of sports, events and hospitality and created a unique global brand Sodexo Live! to unify and leverage all of the Group expertise across the world in this sector.

With this brand creation, Sodexo reaffirms its confidence in this market and its potential for rebound. There is an appetite in the market for people to foster in-person connections, as confirmed by the September 2021 study conducted by Harris Interactive for Sodexo Live! across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Spain.

80% of respondents feel comfortable attending sports, cultural or professional events again (increase of +20 points compared to September 2020)

Convinced of the strong rebound potential of the live sector, Nathalie Bellon-Szabo, CEO Worldwide of Sodexo Live!, explains the brand’s strategic choices in terms of international conquest, priority business segments and new services to offer clients.

“Today is a major milestone for us. Sodexo Live! is the affirmation of a new ambition, as we bring together our expertise related to sports, events and hospitality under a unified global brand. More than ever, I am convinced that fans and guests worldwide are looking to find common links and embrace the human bond that comes from being there live. With this launch, we reaffirm to our clients that we are the preferred partner to face the future with, and that we believe steadfastly in our 40,000 employees around the world to offer them world-class, creative, value-generating services.”

Sodexo Live! Creating irreplaceable emotional connections

The excitement of a game, the buzz of in-person networking at an industry conference, or a family outing in a museum are all opportunities to live extraordinary moments and create unforgettable memories. With a unique expertise acquired over 20 years around the world, Sodexo Live! offers clients its know-how in hospitality and culinary excellence to create tailor-made offers and transfix places and events.

Live! itself is a universal word full of positive energy. This word is the link between all the activities of the brand and a tribute to the dynamism and creativity of its teams. The new brand benefits from the strength of the Sodexo Group, its values and its commitments to all stakeholders: clients, consumers, partners and internal teams.

Sodexo Live! Accelerating in a high-potential market

Since the creation of a dedicated business for the sports and entertainment sector, Sodexo has garnered strong returns, reaching a revenue of €1.7B in FY2019, before the Covid crisis. The return of face-to-face, in-person events presents an exciting amount of demand in what is a structurally growing market. In order to fully accelerate in this active market, the Sodexo Live! brand will be based on these three foundational pillars:

A region-specific strategy to grow global presence

Sodexo Live! will consolidate its presence in its top three markets – North America, France and the UK – and accelerate its growth in Spain and APAC, two markets in high demand for these services.

Acute focus on priority business segments

Sodexo Live! will continue to deploy its expertise in major venues and events in order to reveal their full potential and enrich the live experience of their audiences.

Stadiums and Arenas: Sodexo Live! will continue to welcome fans to the largest, most recognizable stadiums around the world as in France’s Olympique de Marseille, Olympique Lyonnais and Stade de France, Everton FC in the United Kingdom, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, or T-Mobile Park in Seattle

Conference and Convention Centers: Sodexo Live! will offer services for professional and personal events, ranging from catering to the marketing and sales of the sites. The brand is present in more than 30 convention centers in North America, including the Las Vegas Convention Center, Orange County Convention Center and San Diego Convention Center

Global Events: Sodexo Live! designs and markets tailor-made hospitality packages and catering for major international events such as the Rugby World Cup (five editions), the Tour de France (for 30 years), the Super Bowl (15 times) and the French Open (for 20 years)

Cultural Destinations: From the Eiffel Tower to the Royal Academy of Arts in London, or the Museo del Prado in Spain and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, these destinations entrust Sodexo Live! to enrich the experience of their visitors by capitalizing on its culinary arts and its excellent service.

Airport Lounges: Sodexo Live! welcomes travelers to over 170 lounges around the world, including those of Delta Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Cathay Pacific and Airport Dimensions.

Sports and entertainment venue architect Bryan Trubey (pictured right) has been selected to lead Overland Partners’ new Dallas design practice.

Trubey left his role as executive vice-president at architecture firm HKS in June. He launched HKS’s sports practice in 1992 and helped expand the company’s international presence in recent years.

Trubey brings with him to Overland Partners a number of long-time colleagues, including John Hutchings, Austin Ash, Trip Boswell, Dan Trafford, Katie Miles and Cheryl Karalla. They are already at work in a temporary office space that overlooks Klyde Warren Park in Dallas.

Trubey said: “As you can imagine, I’ve had a lot of queries since the HKS departure. I am absolutely positive that my best work is in front of me. There was one over-riding goal. I want to work with an established and proven firm that had a team of professionals who are grounded in a set of core values. Those ideals include respect, trust and a commitment to generate ‘original thought’ in everything we create.”

Each month, the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance brings you a timely and relevant update on what is happening on the road to recovery for the business events industry. In September 2021, we interviewed Epistemix CEO John Cordier on his decision support tool and dashboard for event organizers to use when planning upcoming events. Watch the video below! 

By R.V. Baugus

Dr. Jerry Teplitz, JD, PhD, CSP, president/CEO of Jerry Teplitz Enterprises, Inc. in Virginia Beach, VA, and a familiar name to those who attended VenueConnect in Toronto in 2018, brings his dynamic “Managing the Stress of Change” session to ENCORE, IAVM’s new virtual conference and trade show, on Tuesday, October 5 from 44:50 (ET).

For someone who early in his career pushed back against practices designed to combat stress (and before stress was even widely known or considered with the implications it carries today), the light came on and the career change was set in motion from practicing law to the world of speaking (more than 1,800 presentations to more than 1 million people) and authoring books (nine) that have led to Dr. Teplitz earning a wealth of accolades.Those include the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association. The Canadian Society of Association Executives has designated him an Association Excellence Speaker, and the Professional Convention Management Association has designated him a “Best-in-Class” Speaker. He presents and consults on Management and Leadership Training, Sales Development, Brain Integration and Stress Management.

We wanted to find out more about his work and what attendees can expect to learn at the presentation that is guaranteed to change your life, or your money back (well, see how this actually once happened)!

BEFORE WE GET MORE INTO YOUR PRESENTATION, YOU HAVE TO SHARE SOME BACKGROUND HOW YOU CAME TO ENTER THE WORLD OF BRAIN PERFORMANCE, NEUROPLASTICITY, AND STRESS MANAGEMENT.

I was very active in student government and elected student body president my senior year at Hunter College. I went on to law school at Northwestern, decided to become a licensed attorney and passed the bar the first time. Our professors were actually upset because they don’t like it when you have like 100 percent passing the bar the first time because they’re not teaching! I became an attorney for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in the very early EPA days.

While all that was happening I started getting into what was considered weird stuff back then with friends getting into yoga, meditation, and nutrition, when it was totally off the wall. I was actually scared of it and not interested but I kept getting around my friends and had peer pressure. One of the first things I tried was yoga and with a negative attitude. I was going to prove to them it didn’t work so they would leave me alone.

The problem is it actually worked. The lower back pain problems I had for most of my life were gone. I got so excited I became a master teacher in yoga. This was in 1974 and I decided to study some other things including a Japanese pressure technique called Shiatsu that is like acupuncture except you use your fingers.

I in effect put together treatments for headaches and later discovered I could cure a hangover in ninety seconds and migraines in five minutes. I decided to start teaching and found out there was an organization called the National Association for Campus Activities with programming boards, activity boards, to see what was available in terms of entertainment like bands and comedians and a lecture board and so that’s where I fit in. I started speaking to colleges and created a program for passing your exams. I didn’t use the word stress because stress was not in the vernacular when I started speaking in 1974.

My first book came out in 1976 called How to Relax and Enjoy. I have spoken at over 400 colleges and universities around the country. In 1980 I decided to switch over to the business arena and the convention industry and associations. By the way, when I speak at colleges I actually created a relaxation guarantee because even though my program is free to the students my fee is paid for by the activities board. I made a guarantee that if you came to this program and were not more relaxed when you left I would pay you $4 for having come to this program. In total, I have spoken to 120,000 people only four have gotten money back.

A director of student activities once came up to me and said I have a problem. I asked what the problem was, and he said the whole left side of the audience is here for the money. What are we going to do? I said don’t worry about it. Nobody came up!

HOW DID THIS CAREER CHANGE GO OVER WITH YOUR FAMILY AT THE TIME?

My mother freaked out and thought I was going to die. It was more than not recognized. It was thought to be of the devil, actually.

HOW WILL YOUR PRESENTATION RESONANTE BEST WITH OUR AUDIENCE?

The title is Managing The Stress of Change. It doesn’t take long if you look at what has happened in the last year to know that change has literally been instantaneous coming at us. Tied in to that is stress. Regardless of whether it is running an event, running a vaccination clinic, having to lay staff off, or having to rebook dates, those things are all change. The problem is if you do not have something to get rid of your stress it can affect you long term. As a matter of fact, in 90% of all illnesses the bottom line is from stress. We’re talking about how it can impact long term. It is almost like when you have PTSD and so what I will be showing is how you can take a negative stressful situation that is in your mind and can’t get rid of to how you can be able to get rid of the charge attached to that thought.

I am actually going to give them an experience of that and not just me talking. I did this with ASAE in a virtual program with a slightly different title for the Kentucky society and they said 95% of the attendees rated it excellent.

You will see that it is easy to do to get rid of the negative attitudes. At the end of the program I ask people to pick another thing and do it by a day later and the next day on something else to prove to yourself that it wasn’t just on the virtual that it worked.

IT SOUNDS LIKE ANY MAIN TAKEAWAY YOU HAVE FOR THE AUDIENCE WILL BE SOMETHING THAT CAN BE USED OVER AND OVER.

The takeaway is if change happens and stress happens five times in a day in two minutes on each of those things I will show you how you can get rid of the charge, so a total of 10 minutes on five things. This way the stress doesn’t build and doesn’t affect you. That is critical because when you have stress coming at you from change is when we get overloaded and it becomes fight or flight or how some people freeze like the deer in the headlights. You stop thinking at that point because your signals don’t go to the part of the brain where you can have choices that help you decide what to do. It stops at the fight or flight mechanism and overrides everything that’s survival which is most important, and so in two minutes I will show other options that can pop in that you never thought of.

Not yet registered for ENCORE?  There’s still time!   Click HERE to register now!