By R.V. Baugus

As Sharoni Denise Little, Ph.D., Ed.D., and Nick Schact pointed out in their highly anticipated session on Leading from the Top: Building an Inclusive Venue Culture, it is impossible for an organization to be at peak effectiveness if in fact that leadership in diversity, equity, and inclusivity does not begin with the very top in the chain of command. It is not enough for mid-management to build such an inviting culture, something every venue and its top management should take heed.

“It is very important to recognize as leaders when we think about diversity, equity, or inclusion, what exactly are we seeking to accomplish?” said Little, who serves as Vice Dean/Senior Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Professor, Clinical Business Communication at the University of Southern California in addition to being CEO of The Strategist Company. “As executives, we have to look at how we monetize everything we do and recognize if there is a cost benefit analysis of ensuring that every member in our organization is getting to experience to the fullest because we know that the converse might be lower productivity, demotivation, harm to the culture, and that definitely is a risk when we look at risk management.”

So, what should that positive experience look like?

“If we are seeking belong where I know that I can come to a space and do my job and that I am connected to the organization and the people in it, I can contribute and not look at any barriers or limitations,” Little said. “But, there has to be evidence of the benefits of it throughout the organization in terms of policies and practices of the leadership. To really understand these concepts first-hand, we are not saying it’s a one size fits all. We cannot create our organizations to be only adapted for leaders or for particular departments, but how are we creating spaces that meet people where they are?”

With a rapt VenueConnect audience that reached 220, it was a session that certainly had the attention of attendees.

“If people don’t feel they have the three factors of survival, safety and security, and social, they can’t think about what the needs of the business are,” said Schact, Chief Global Development Officer for Society for Human Resources Management, in an analogy he related to Pavlovian conditioning. “In leadership roles, we have to model this to be effective. We can’t turn this over to somebody. You can say, I’ve got a chief diversity officer or a diversity and inclusion council to handle all of that. If your behavior doesn’t speak to this inclusive presence that is valuing the diverse population teams we have in our organization, then no one is going to pay any attention to what you say or what they think you are saying. They’re just going to follow the example that you create. Diversity alone doesn’t cut it. Diversity alone is just a numbers game although it is a necessary first step. If we don’t do the rest of it, we don’t get anything else done.”

Moderator Cynthia Tucker, vice chair of the IAVM Diversity & Inclusive Leadership Committee and Assistant Director of Event Operations, University of Southern California – Trojan Event Services, posed the question of why should venue managers have diversity as a core priority, or one of the core priorities.

“Venue comprise spaces and places where our customers can come for purpose,” Little responded. “When they come, from an external perspective they are wanting to not only enjoy the experience but they want to see a reflection of who they are. When we think about being thoughtful, intentional, and strategic about the type of experience we want consumers to have, we have to reflect that in our strategy and our planning. So, as venue managers it’s important that we say why this should be at the forefront when you think about, for example, the type and ways in which we make decisions in terms of composition, in terms of setup, in terms of how we meet them. They are coming to us with an intentional objective.”

Tucker shared that in a poll involving IAVM members that 58% have an EI plan while 42% do not. Asked to address some steps the lower number group could take to formulate a plan, Schact said, “Start by getting executive buy-in. It has to come from the top.”

“Anybody can put together a plan,” he added. “A plan is just writing stuff down on a piece of paper. But if you don’t have commitments to the plan, you won’t move past this very first thing.”

After that, Schact said it is possible to focus on the specific issues needing to be solved.

“It may be representational,” he said. “Do we have diverse representation in our population? If we do, the question then becomes one more of equity. Is there equitable representation across the organization? Do the diverse populations actually feel included?”

The two experts went on to discuss a myriad number of topics related to the session title that by the end of the panel presentation should needle that 42% up.

By R.V. Baugus and Amy Fitzpatrick

The “Public Assembly Facilities Recovery Guide” is now available as written guidance designed to help venues make reasonable decisions as it relates to the health and safety of all venue occupants. IAVM has conducted extensive research to provide recommendations that are advisory in nature, informational in content, and intended to assist venues in providing safe and healthy workplaces. This guide is not designed to circumvent government guidance. As the pandemic continues to evolve rapidly, the Reopen and Recovery Taskforce continues to monitor and evaluate scenarios that impact our members. This written guide serves as a working document that remains flexible and may be adapted for each venue’s specific reopening needs.

“While developing the written guides, our working task force assured that event venues will follow medical and governmental guidance and not circumvent the science of any pandemic,” said Mark Herrera, IAVM’s Director of Education | Life Safety.  “The written recovery guide reflects extensive review and input from subject matter experts across the spectrum of public assembly venues and will continue to evolve as more scientific and medical information becomes available to assure all attendees and  those working within all public assembly facilities are the top priority.”

IAVM’s task force worked collectively with representatives from all venue types, inclusive of other organizations, associations, sports leagues, the Federal Government, and alongside association leadership to gather data and and conduct research in order to develop the “Public Assembly Facilities Recovery Guide” so that all public assembly venues have written guidance designed to help them move toward recovery.

“The guide started out as research for my organization but turned into an opportunity to help an industry I love,” said Eboni Wilson, guide co-author. “The guide is a compilation of all the latest information and resources related to COVID. It allows our colleagues one place to find the information they need regarding COVID and our industry.”

“This guide is the result of months of research, collaboration, and strategic planning,” added Zakiya Smith-Dore, MBA, CVP, University of Florida Performing Arts and co-author of the guide. “While no one anticipated the pandemic or that it would last as long as it has, we are grateful for everyone who immediately jumped into action to help us understand how to overcome the challenges of this unprecedented time. I am confident that our industry will only continue to grow stronger as a result of the efforts of IAVM.”

To download the guide, click here.

Several individuals have played an important role in making the Public Assembly Facilities Recovery Guide a reality. Special thanks to the following in addition to co-authors Eboni Wilson and Zakiya Smith-Dore:

CONTENT WORKING GROUP
• Agmar Varela Lopez
• Jessica Stanley
• Kenneth Malik
• Samantha Willrich
• The Reopen & Recovery Taskforce

EDITORS
• Billy Langenstein, CSSP
• Dominic Bruno
• Eileen Kulish
• Joe Levy, CVE
• Joey Sampson
• Kathryn Carlson, CVP
• Larry Perkins, CVE, CPP, CMP
• Lori Garza
• Mark Herrera
• Paula Kirchman, CVE
• Phil Costa, CVP
• Rob Levin
• Robby Elliot, CVP
• Russ Simons
• William Flynn

By R.V. Baugus

Brad Gessner, CVE, ASM Global’s Senior Vice President, Convention Centers at the Los Angeles Convention Center, bid a retirement adieu to the industry earlier this year after a sparkling 42-year career in public assembly venue management.

Let’s just say before he left the building, he was ushered back in for a curtain call during VenueConnect to be recognized with the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award as bestowed by IAVM’s Convention Center Committee.

Gessner was surrounded on a Zoom screen by the top individuals at four of the AEG venues that the long-time industry veteran oversaw in Rob Hampton, Palm Springs Convention Center; Teri Orton, Hawaii Convention Center; Jorge Perez, Puerto Rico Convention Center; and Ellen Schwartz, Los Angeles Convention Center; along with Committee Chair Naz Sabripour.

“Although I retired at a great time, I do miss working with you guys and the great teams in LA, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Palm Springs. What I really got out of all this is it sounds like I’ve got a free hotel room in four resort communities,” Gessner said after each of the four gave the boss a standing offer to visit anytime.”

Turning serious, Gessner thanked Stacey Church and the committee for selecting him and placing him in – appropriately named enough – distinguished company.

“Honestly, when you retire you get scratched off the list and you go to the bone yard but when I got Stacey’s call I was surprised and I was flattered and really appreciative to receive this recognition,” Gessner said. “I’m in good company. I remember the first year it was awarded and I’m shocked that I’m in their company. All of them are people that I knew and admired and still do and all have been and are great leaders in our industry.”

Gessner then proceeded to provide a roll call of Who’s Who names who previously were recognized with the award, including Tom Liegler, Don Jewell, Jimmie Fore, Dan Saunders, Cliff Wallace, John Christison, Dick Shaff, Tom Mobley, Peggy Daidakis, Bob Mayer, Carol Wallace, Frank Poe, Steve Schwartz, and Jeff Blosser.

“To be in that company is very humbling and most of you who know me there’s not much humbly about me but it definitely has humbled me,” he said. “I also want to thank Bob Newman and the opportunity he gave me back in 2012 to start a new convention centers department with AEG. Bob is now the president and CEO of ASM Global, a powerhouse company, but it was Bob’s leadership and his support of me really gave me the opportunity for us to do what we were able to do in LA, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Palm Springs. We were four-for-four and for that I am obviously very proud.”

Gessner gave credit to all of the teams assembled at all the venues he has worked and led.

“It has been a great 42-year career and I’m not telling any of you anything you don’t know that we really are in an incredible profession,” he said. “We manage buildings generally, but the folks that we work with means we are really in the people business. Although I am very proud of a lot of the accomplishments that we did and I always say it takes teamwork, I think the one achievement that I’m most proud of is being able to assemble really good people and to be able to see so much character and look at their experience and their work ethic and their content of character.”

Then to be able to get the folks that are on our team to perform incredibly and the things that we accomplished together I really do believe that it is a major teamwork. I want to thank Bob Newman and the whole team from AEG for making us all look good because it was one heck of a deep bench.”

Gessner finished his remarks by acknowledging his decades-long affiliation as an IAVM member and urged individuals to become engaged in the association.

“I was one of those old-school guys that didn’t want to give up the IAAM name (before it was changed to IAVM) just because that’s what it had always been,” Gessner said. “Having been a member for over 30 years and what the association provides to us members through networking opportunities, educational opportunities, advocacy and helping to find a way for us to reopen and get everybody back to work … support IAVM, get active in IAVM.”

Attendees who missed this prerecorded portion of the session can still view it by clicking HERE.  The full conference recordings, even those held live this week, will be available beginning November 3rd through the conference platform.

Earlier this year, Exhibitor Media Group, which produces both EXHIBITOR magazine and Find It – Marketplace, the buyer’s guide to trade show products and services, announced the 30 venues that qualified for its second annual Centers of Excellence list, which recognizes North America’s best convention centers for trade shows and events. Small, medium, and large convention centers located anywhere in North America were invited to apply, and entrants were evaluated using an objective algorithm weighted to reflect how EXHIBITOR magazine readers value a variety of variables. In addition to being named among the 2021 Centers of Excellence, a number of facilities qualified for special awards in the following categories.

“Being named among our Centers of Excellence is a huge accomplishment,” said Travis Stanton, editor of EXHIBITOR magazine. “But to further acknowledge the best of the best, these special awards recognize the exhibitor-friendly venues that consistently exceed expectations and collectively raise the bar with regard to what a convention center is and should be.”

The finalists for each special award are listed below, and the winners will be announced during a ceremony held in conjunction with IAEE’s Expo! Expo!

Best Convention Center (over 1 million square feet of exhibit space)
Anaheim Convention Center
McCormick Place
Orange County Convention Center

Best Convention Center (500,000 – 1 million square feet of exhibit space)
Enercare Centre
Los Angeles Convention Center
Walter E. Washington Convention Center

Best Convention Center (100,000 – 500,000 square feet of exhibit space)
Greater Columbus Convention Center
Minneapolis Convention Center
Vancouver Convention Centre

Best Convention Center (under 100,000 square feet of exhibit space)
Edmonton Convention Centre
Greater Tacoma Convention Center
Overland Park Convention Center

Best New or Improved Convention Center
Caesars Forum
Cox Business Convention Center
The Broadmoor Event Center

Best Customer Service & On-Site Support
Cobb Galleria Centre
Mohegan Sun
Overland Park Convention Center

By R.V. Baugus

Lisa Harrington, CEO & Founder of Abiding Strategy, kicked off IAVM’s virtual VenueConnect as the Opening Keynote speaker with a presentation titled “Leadership in a Crisis” before an engaged audience of 610.

So, just what exactly is this crisis, you ask? Tsk, tsk, we all know that answer, and Harrington had all the right suggestions in a session that was encouraging and uplifting while at the same time dealing with the realities in which we live.

The session is best summed up with a quote Harrington gave that said it all: “We’re all in the same storm even if we’re not all in the same boat.”

This holds true even in the public assembly venue industry, where indeed while people work in the same industry (storm), no two members are likely at the same place as it regards to health, employment and more (boat) in regards to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Leaders are not immune to these issues, either, but being able to maintain leadership in these turbulent times is more critical than ever.

“Stress is important to us but we have to manage stress, particularly in a crisis,” Harrington said. “But if we didn’t have some stress in our lives, we’d be jelly. We would be too relaxed. We would never get anything done and would have not motivation.”

You might be thinking “give me the jelly,” but pause for a moment to seriously reflect on Harrington’s comment and you will see the sense that it makes. There is the notion that all stress is bad, but that too is a falsehood.

“It is important to understand the difference between good stress and bad stress,” she said., “Getting married, having children, taking a vacation, those are all good stresses. A bad is obviously a pandemic and other crisis. The key is to manage all of them to help you grow and get better. This too will pass. All are temporary, which is why they are called crisis.”

Harrington noted that stress is not a one-time event, even though there are one-time events that cause stress. There are often ongoing and relentless stresses, she said. Sometimes we don’t recognize them as sources of stress and therefore we do not take the action we need to deal with them.

“The first stage we had with the pandemic was anticipatory grief,” she said. “We anticipated but didn’t know how long it would take or be handled. We still don’t really know but have made some progress, even we’re a long way from being through it.”

Harrington said that how all of this is seen through the lens of leaders is crucial as it relates to employees and keeping them motivated and happy.

“The first is to not be an ostrich and ignore it and pretend it will go way,” she said. “Your industry is so critical to the recovery of this country. The idea of having a place to gather to see that coming in the future and being able to talk to people and hug people is going to cure us, going to heal us of what we are experiencing. You are the ones that will have those places available.

“The thing is to recognize the problem. What does it look like for you and others? Is there shock, denial, difficulty concentrating, even feeling guilty if you are continuing to work while others aren’t, which is survivor’s guilt. People can see that in you and you can see that in your employees.”

Indeed, difficulty concentrating is currently a major problem. Harrington talked about how the human brain works and the importance of knowing you are not alone. “You have your peers here at IAVM and others in the industry. We literally all are going through these phases of stress,” she said.

“You know what? Sometimes showing a little vulnerability and letting the team know that you’re feeling the stress … I don’t like this either, I’m struggling a little bit, too, is OK,” she added. “Let’s have a round-robin via Zoom or a phone call to talk to each other. As the leader you can show that stress affects everyone and that they are not alone either, but you can lead them through. It is important they understand that.”

Consider the notion, according to Harrington, that our brains have not had an opportunity to catch up to the warp speed in which we have moved since the advent of technology.

“Life moves too fast,” she said. “Just from the last 200 years vs. all time, you understand why our brains haven’t totally evolved yet and why instincts keep taking over. We used to live in tribes of 20-40 people. We weren’t going around the world with 8 billion people. The evolution in our body didn’t keep up with evolution in technology. And so … our brains couldn’t keep up with that.

“Good managers know that healthy people will perform better. We know when we are stressed, we need to keep healthy and keep moving. The No. 1 thing we are seeing is the idea of continuing to move when we are at home. People say they will just sit on the couch until this is over. That might be OK for two to four weeks, but we are now into the seventh month.”

Effective leaders don’t even have to always bear the responsibility of doing healthy and fun things for employees to keep employees healthy in mind.

“Have some structured play,” Harrington said. “Why not gather with your colleagues around some coffee 15 minutes before you begin your day. These types of things are so easy to do and help promote a good and positive environment even before you begin your tasks.”

A robust Q&A session followed with attendees starved to learn more from Harrington about several facets of leadership, stress, and pandemic-related topics.

Among those topics included the notion of hybrid teams and schedules as the future of the industry and understanding that communication is key when staff does not know what is going on and will always assume the worst.

As for what that workplace of the future will look like, Harrington said that studies have shown that 6% of companies under $20 million in revenue will not return to an office.

Attendees who missed the prerecorded opening keynote can still view it by clicking HERE.  The full conference recordings, even those held live this week, will be available beginning November 3rd through the conference platform.

It is not too late to participate in VenueConnect. To get registered, click here.