By TicketingBusinessNews

Testing requirements could lead to a dramatic drop in ticketing sales conversion according to data released from the Events Research Programme (ERP).

Information garnered from test events held in the UK from April showed a 90% drop in conversion rate among those visiting ticketing websites, with researchers suggesting this was a result of increased sales friction.

In the ‘Operational Learnings’ section of the ERP study, released last week following a legal challenge, researchers found that only 1.7% of site visitors bought a ticket, when previously, without testing requirements, their conversion rate was 18%. It added that users were spending an average of three minutes and 15 seconds reading the terms of entry specifying supervised testing requirements.

Researchers also found higher-than-usual ‘no-shows’ for games held at Wembley Stadium. They added: “This may indicate that people received their tickets and then didn’t want to follow through with the home or supervised testing requirements. Tests for pilot events were free; if consumers had to pay for tests, it would be likely to have a knock-on impact on demand and participation, and could exclude or disproportionately impact some demographic groups.”

As widely reported, the data showed just 28 cases of COVID-19 recorded out of the 58,000 people who attended during the first nine events.

However, while some saw the low number of cases as proof that events could be staged safely, the data also highlighted low levels of compliance with rules of attendance. The proportion of participants returning PCR tests varied between 8% and 74% for the ‘pre-event’ (days -1 to 3) test and between 13% and 66% for the ‘post-event’ (days 4-7) test. This “significantly limited the ability to estimate rates of infection after attending events”.

Researchers found that test return rates were higher for the events where tests were posted to attendees and when an incentive, such as the chance to win free tickets, was offered. “The music festival offered an incentive of the chance to win future festival tickets and saw a three-fold higher return rate of both PCR tests when compared with the Circus Presents ‘The First Dance’ (nightclub) event held on the same weekend with an approximately comparable audience in Liverpool,” researchers found.

“Across all events, of the 15% who returned both PCR tests, there were 28 PCR-positive cases recorded, with 11 considered potentially infected before an event and 17 at or after an event. It should be noted that some individuals were potentially infected before an event despite admittance being conditional on a negative LFT result before the event.”

Pilots highlighted “significant issues” in matching event bookings with test results and wider public health data, except in Liverpool, where an enhanced combined intelligence system is already in place.

“This test to ticket matching requirement underpins the testing and tracing infrastructure,” the report said. “Without it, it is impossible to reliably associate attendees’ test results to events and therefore to reliably operate outbreak prevention and control for events. Given some individuals infected before the event were admitted despite admittance being conditional on a negative LFT result, robust contact tracing capacity is necessary.

“Higher levels of audience participation in testing and thorough data linkage with public health surveillance systems are needed to better understand the transmission risks around events.”

The ERP began with a series of indoor and outdoor events allowing limited capacities in April, including the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield and concerts and club nights in Liverpool.

A second phase of pilot events has completed, with group stage UEFA Euro 2020 matches hosted at Wembley, the Download Pilot music festival, the England v New Zealand test match at Edgbaston and Royal Ascot having taken place this month. Research into the events is still being gathered and analyzed by the ERP science team.

The third phase of the ERP will include Wimbledon Championships, The Open Championship, and Latitude festival.

Gina Brydson, Director of Membership shares that “IAVM’s members are the absolute best at spreading the word about the value of membership. We are grateful for their continued support. Let’s give our network a boost and kick our recovery efforts into overdrive!”

iCommit is a member referral campaign. The challenge is to increase membership by 10%. The official launch is today, July 1^st. Start now by reaching out to your employees, colleagues, suppliers, interns and more and encourage them to become an IAVM member!

The campaign runs from July 1 – October 31, 2021. For each new member you refer by the deadline, your name will be entered into a raffle to win one of five, $500 Apple Gift Cards. The more members you refer, the more chances you have to win!

Prizes

• The grand prize will be a complimentary registration to VenueConnect 2022 (value up to $1,000).
• Win one of five, $500 Apple Gift cards – receive one raffle entry for each new member you refer.
• The IAVM Region that adds the most new members will choose one recipient to apply for the CVP designation; we will waive the $125 application fee (the Region Director will choose the recipient within the winning region).

 
To ensure you are eligible to win one of the prizes, ask your applicant to do the following:

• List your name in the Application Section titled, “Who Recommended IAVM To You/How Did You Hear About IAVM?”
• Enter “iCommit” in the Promotional Code field in the online membership application.
• For new Professional or Allied members only, the $150 one-time initiation fee will be waived*

 
*Some membership types do not have an initiation fee; the dues will not be discounted.

All winners will be notified in January 2022. Contact membership@iavm.org if you have any questions.

By R.V. Baugus

In performing arts call it an encore. In sports call it overtime or extra innings. In meetings call it extending the hours. Whatever you choose to call it, we call it a return welcome to Dr. Justin Anderson, Founder and CEO of Premier Sports Psychology, as following his outstanding session earlier this year at GuestX he is again on the docket to present at VenueConnect on the topic of Prime the Mind: Top Mindset Approaches to Weather the Pressure of Today’s World. Ask anyone who attended Dr. Anderson’s GuestX session and you will discover why this is a must-attend session coming up in Atlanta.

This will be a highly engaging mindset training session. Participants will hear stories and learn applicable psychological tools and strategies that the world’s best athletes, coaches, and front office leadership employ to navigate the stressful and chaotic landscape of professional and elite sports. You will learn how to train your mind to think, feel and behave more optimally while under pressure, on-demand, or when fatigued.

Obviously a speaker in demand, we were fortunate to catch up with Dr. Anderson to ask a few questions in advance of VenueConnect.

We have had you present at GuestX, where your session drew rave reviews. Can you give us a glimpse of what you will be sharing in Atlanta at VenueConnect?

Stories and models aside, I’ll be sharing innovative and impactful tools that all attendees can learn and apply – both in their professional and personal lives. Everything – whether in business or sport – all comes down to how we function, or rather, perform – and it begins with our mindset. Whether it’s the end zone or the bottom line, performance is performance. We can clearly see and measure it. What isn’t always as distinct is what’s occurring internally and how our minds can shape our perceptions and interactions in our day-to-day experiences. We’ll talk about what it means to understand mental health and cognitive functioning in real-world ways so that attendees can optimize not only their own well-being and performance, but support that of those around them.

You work with all levels of teams and leagues, so what can you tell us that will make this session a “must” for folks to attend at it relates to Universities?

Mental health and wellness is a huge topic at universities right now. Studies are showing that our most depressed and anxious populations tend to be our adolescents and young adults – so we’re looking at a critically important group of people in society. Understanding some of the background of where people are coming in and how to manage them – not just from a reactive, but rather, a proactive place – can be a game changer.

How are we now beginning to emerge from the pandemic as it relates to what you see and hear in your daily work?

The epidemic of mental health that America is experiencing doesn’t appear to be improving or changing for the better – and COVID certainly didn’t do anything to help this. Although it feels like we’re nearly “out of the weeds” with COVID, there are new stressors and fears emerging for people. Whereas a year and a half ago, it was life and death to protect yourself and your family, now we see challenges around re-integration and socialization – on top of what COVID has exacerbated. A recent article in Forbes explained that 93% of managers are seeing mental health impacting their employees – and their bottom line, citing, “Top issues included grief, burnout, discrimination, and stress…coupled with the strain on families due to the pandemic…creating a mental health crisis.” We’re seeing a ripple effect throughout our society, our economy and everywhere in between. Our worlds have been up-ended, and we’re going to need more tools and resources for our mental health and well-being if we hope to have any chance of successfully coming out of this on the other side.

We love for our attendees to go home from a session with a solid takeaway that they can implement or act on. What would it be from your upcoming session?

My hope is for attendees to understand just how much our attention impacts everything we do, see, feel, and experience. Most of us have no clue where our attention is, but what we choose to focus on matters and makes a difference. If we can utilize the latest research and models and begin to apply the tools coming out of high-performance psychology, we can move the needle. And if we can move the needle, we can begin to optimize our mindsets to achieve anything we put our focus toward.

By R.V. Baugus

Paul Cramer, President & CEO of The Classic Center in Athens, GA, is an IAVM member who understands the importance of workforce development, which may never be more important as it is as events pop back up on calendars and business returns to public assembly venues. As work teams rebuild, Cramer and his venue go the extra mile to attract local candidates who otherwise might not have a window into the industry.

For that reason and many more, Cramer will lead an education session at VenueConnect in Atlanta that needs to be circled on your calendar to attend. Before Cramer gets before the crowd in Atlanta, we got him before all IAVM members here in an interview to discuss the topic and more.

RV: I like the word “funnel” in your session title of Workforce Development: How to Create Sustainable Hiring Funnel for Your Venue. Can you elaborate some on how “funnel” fits in describing the topic?

PC: We used the term funnel as we try to meet people in our community where they are. We live in a community with 30-plus percent poverty so we have people who have little or no education. We have a Bread For Life Program for them, we work with the area career academy allowing high school students to earn college credits with dual enrollment, we have articulation agreements with the local two-year college and four-year university. We try and attract them to the industry and show them how they can get the training they need to be successful in not only acquiring a job but showing them a career pathway. By focusing them on more than a paycheck we have had luck with attracting the right candidates to an industry that is extremely rewarding and offers unique benefits that are simply not offered in other area career pathways.

RV: Talk briefly just about your core philosophies when it comes to education at The Classic Center and then what you were able to do that you are now sharing with others in the industry.

PC: We believe in the continuum of education and meeting people where they are. We call it growing our own. We believe that we need people who have a longer term vision of growing with our industry. We focus on the pathway and encouraging all hires to look down the road and plan a career pathway. Then we assist them with a continuum of education and college scholarship program supported with an endowment which is created in our foundation to support hospitality workforce development.

RV: How did you go about getting your partnerships and how might others sitting in your session do the same at their venues?

PC: We get the community involved. We explain to our donors that this is a way of lifting people out of poverty. We train those in poverty and connect them with jobs. We invite the community to their graduations. We let the students speak out on their accomplishments. Our foundation allows people to contribute to a hospitality endowment. We have raised over 700k in a short period of time which now provides annually for $25k specifically for hospitality workforce development. We also offer unique benefits, great health care, two-for-one match on retirement program, and as a culture we encourage entrepenurial skills. Our partnerships with large affiliate companies also assist greatly. Levy for example is a partner with us and we have great success stories of entry level culinary folks rising up to executive chef positions over a short period of time.

RV: What is the importance of recruiting, retaining, and developing your staff? Do you have numbers that show your success in doing so?

PC: Yes, our Bread for Life program has a 14-year history of receiving federal funding and connecting 98% of our trainees with direct positions. Our career academy has grown from 14 students to 340 students. Our hospitality academy is a summer high school program that has helped to grow our initial two-year college program from nothing to 200 students. Our four-year degree program will now begin to work with the complex to have student interns earning full semester credit in the facility while they work – no stats yet. Fifty percent of our staff have been with us for over five years, and upper management has on average been retained for 15 years.

RV: Are there any major takeaways you would like to leave your audience as they return to their venues?

PC: Meet people where they are and provide real life training that can quickly get them where they need to be. Provide all employees with a long vision of where this industry can take them. Promote the positive aspects of the job and focus on your culture. Truly partner with all levels of education and get your community involved.

IAVM continues to partner with TwinLogic Strategies to advocate for and on behalf of our members and the entire venue management industry as we work to recover, reopen and get back to business. post-pandemic.  Below is an update of the latest efforts at the SBA and Congress:

SBA SVOG – Slow-Going, but SBA Aims to Speed Up Process with Additional Teams:

SBA officials have told Congress and stakeholders this week that they plan to process all of the more than 15,000 applications to the Shuttered Venue Operating Grants program by mid-July,  and a goal of 10,000 by July 4.   This is after the agency has faced multiple public complaints, including a stern letter from Senators last week, about the significant delays in the program’s launch and myriad technical problems with the portal for applicants.

As of Friday AM 6/25:

• 5680 applications processed with 1876 awarded. 
• 1387 queued for award. 
• 152 declined. 
• 900 cued for decline
• 881 with needed technical corrections 
• 662 still being worked through for either technical corrections or for decline.

The SBA reports that the average length of time between award notification and receipt of funds is three days.

SBA officials say they are still working out the kinks with the SVOG portal, but have made shifts and additions to their internal teams to speed up the review and award process and improve its technical assistance services for applicants.  Applicants should still email svogrant@sba.gov but with the internal changes, they should receive a quicker, more substantive response to their questions.

Questions/Remaining Issues with SVOG:

Will the SVOG Run out of money before all applications are processed?  No.  Based on the number of applications submitted, SBA has told Congress it expects $11.7 billion in applications.  The Fund has $16 billion.  If there is left over money, they’ll likely allow existing recipients to apply for supplemental funding. 

Processing: There is still a backlog among applications that have been reviewed and are just awaiting final approval, as well as between approvals and awaiting final awarding and disbursements. This past week, they provided cross-training between the different categories of workers so that they can easily shift people between roles in order to find the right balance and work-flow.  There are plenty of people past the review process but not the approver process. As the review process takes approximately four hours, and the remaining processes are rather swift in comparison, they still believe that they will hit their July processing goals.

4506-T They are launching a new 4506-T form curing process that provides applicants with a pre-filled form so it’s easy to sign and send back. That began on Friday.

Technical Corrections Notifications:  If venues have technical errors that need fixing, they will be notified via email on Monday 6/28.  

Appeals for Award Modifications:  The SBA has cleared the legal hurdles and found there is nothing barring reconsideration on the award amount. Now they have to determine the process and present it to the Administrator, likely happening next week. Reconsiderations will be made after this whole approval process is done. 

Appeals Process for Rejected Applications:  At this time, applicants can re-apply only if there are technical issues or errors on the application, but not if they were deemed ineligible.  SBA has not yet determined if applicants that have been rejected due to ineligibility can re-apply.   Unfortunately, once the application is rejected, the SBA says it is technically unable to provide a reason for that rejection.  They acknowledge that this is a problem and say that they are working on it, but it could take a while.

Congressional Efforts to Help Venues Get Back Up and Running:

• A Senate Travel and Tourism committee held a series of hearings this spring on the challenges facing the entertainment, hospitality and conventions industries to reopen. Key challenges include the labor shortage, lost revenue due to shuttered venues and then once reopened, less revenue due to limited capacity requirements; and significant costs to reconfigure facilities.
• Two pieces of legislation have been introduced by Nevada’s U.S. Senators and the Representative who represents Las Vegas to address some of these issues.
  • The Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act (S. 477, Sens. Cortez Masto (D-NV)/ Cramer (R-ND) and H.R. 1346, Rep. Horsford (D-NV)) would support the convention and trade show industries by establishing a tax credit for the cost of attending or hosting a convention, business meeting or trade show between January 2022 to December 2024. It would extend the Employee Retention Tax credit for another year.  It would restore the Entertainment Business Expense Deduction by repealing the changes made by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It would also provide a modest tax credit for qualified travel expenses for many Americans. This legislation has 7 Senate cosponsors and 89 House cosponsors.
  • The FRESH AIR for Businesses Act (S. 122, Sens. Rosen (D-NV)/Cramer (R-ND) and H.R.1398, Rep. Bordeaux (D-GA)): This legislation would provide a tax credit to businesses and nonprofits for up to $15,000 to cover up to 50% of the costs of air filtration systems and equipment.  This legislation has less support.  There is one cosponsor in the House and one in the Senate.

Status: The sponsors of these bills are working to get them included in comprehensive infrastructure and tax legislation Congress and the President aim to pass this year.  IAVM will work for inclusions of these measures in the package.