(IAVM Note: The world needs all voices and we need all hands on-deck. Do you have a public platform? If so, use that voice for the cause of dignity for all. Spread the message of human rights for every individual. Spread the message of love, unity, and respect for all. Should you have money, donate to the cause of inclusive opportunities. If you have time, donate that time and your energy to the cause.)

By Frantzer LeBlanc, MBA, CVP

One of the greatest things about our country is that everyone has the opportunity to become successful. Where you start in life does not have to become your destiny. You can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. That thought was always encouraging to me. I grew up in a very impoverished area of Philadelphia. My mother did the best she could, but she was a single parent raising two children trying to provide a life for us with only a high school education.

For most of my childhood, we moved more times than I can count. We were also on welfare and sometimes got food from the food bank until I was 18-years-old. Although I knew my father, I did not have him in my life. I have been working since I was in middle school partly to help my family and also to have a little spending money. The first job I had was when I was 12-years-old, working as a custodian at our church and also helping the local handyman in our neighborhood with side jobs.

Growing up in these conditions, it can be difficult to dream a life for yourself more prominent than what you see around you. But I did! I wanted to go to college following in the footsteps of my Uncle Tim, who at that time was the only person in my immediate family that graduated from college. This process was not easy for me either; I worked through my entire high school years and worked a full-time job while in college to support myself as I started living on my own after I turned 18 and I took out loans to pay for tuition.

I became the first person in my entire family to achieve a Master’s degree, and have had a successful career in college athletics and now in venue management. I serve on the Board of Directors of IAVM, I wrote two articles that were published, I have been asked to speak at many different Universities to talk about my expertise, and I have the privilege and honor of mentoring over 15 individuals. But despite overcoming my challenging upbringing, achieving many of my goals, and becoming a valuable member of our society, the truth is none of that matters. At times, I am reduced to what you see, a black man.

Growing up as a youth in the ’80s, my mother and grandmother would share their stories of dealing with racism, segregation, and unjust killings of black people. At a young age, I remember hearing the story of Emmett Till, the way he was murdered and why. In 1991 I watched on TV as Rodney King was brutally beaten by LA police officers, and I watched on TV as a grocery store clerk murdered a black teenager. In both of these cases, the individuals committing these crimes were not convicted.

As we moved into the new century, the same problems plagued us. This year I watched George Floyd being murdered by members of the Minneapolis police department. I watched Ahmaud Arbery being senselessly murdered on the street while running and heard the story of Breonna Tayler being murdered in her own home by police officers. As I contemplate these situations, I think that could have been me.

I want to try to make you understand how watching these videos and hearing these stories feels to me. Some of you are old enough to remember 9/11. You, like me, remember exactly where you were when the planes went into the buildings. You remember the stories of the innocent people who were murdered that day. And like me, you remember how scared we were that day wondering what was next and if there would be another attack. Then we as a country wanted justice, we wanted to find out who did this, and we needed to get them.

Now imagine that we never were able to receive that justice, and every year there was another attack that we had to watch and experience that same pain and fear all over again. How angry as a country would we be? Every time I see a video of another black person being unjustly murdered during their encounters with police and others for performing regular life routines, I relive every encounter I had all over again as well. The anger of the injustice that I had to endure overwhelms me, and the sick part is I feel “lucky” that I am alive. Each time one of these murders happen without justice, that pain and fear are both multiplied.

• When Trayvon Martin was murdered on the street for “looking suspicious,” I remember when I was 16 years old going to a bank in a suburb of Philadelphia to cash a check. After I left the bank, a police officer pulled me over and asked me why I went into the bank. After I told him I went in to cash my check, he informed me that there were robberies in the past at this bank and asked to check my ID. I asked him did the bank call the cops; he said no. Five minutes later, I was surrounded by five officers against a wall. I was so angry that this was happening to me just for cashing my check legally. I raised my voice at the officers, and I will never forget this. One of the officers said, “stop raising your voice to me. I can get nervous, and you don’t want me to be nervous.” Luckily for me, the sixth cop that arrived pulled everyone away and calmed the situation down. I went to the police station to try to file a complaint, and nothing came of it.

• When Christian Cooper had the police called on him for merely asking a woman to follow the laws and put her dog on a leash, I remember when I was 18 years old as a freshman at Liberty University. I was falsely accused of threatening to hurt one of my dormmates. It was my word against his, and his version of the story was taken as facts. I was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor, taken to jail and thrown out of college. I will never forget the look of pleasure on the officer’s face as he put handcuffs on me in front of my friends and arrested me. Luckily for me, when the case went to court, the judge saw the facts and put me under one-year judicial probation that allowed me to clear my record after the year was complete. I believe that case should have been thrown out, but I had a public defender so I guess beggars can’t be choosers, right?

• When Amadou Diallo was killed by four police officers in New York City, I remember at 20, visiting one of my white friends in Lancaster, PA. There were three of us in the car, two of whom were African American. We were pulled over by the cop, for what, I still do not know. The officer demanded that we all give him our ID’s, so he could check our records, I always assumed. After he obviously found no warrants open on us, he took our white friend out of the car and told him he should not hang around guys “like us.” Even though this cop never met us before, in his eyes, this 20-year-old white kid should not hang around two Black males. We were able to leave after our friend refused to leave us.

• When Phillip Pannell was shot in the back and killed by a police officer, I remember at 21 while driving home from work, a cop car flashed its lights into my rearview mirror, blinding me. I pulled over, and when the officers came to my car, I asked them if I did anything wrong. One of the officers asked me why I was driving through this neighborhood. I told him I was going home. He asked me if I bought drugs today. I told him no. He asked if he checked my car, would he find crack? I told him no and told him to check my car if he wanted to, although I was terrified that they might plant something in my car. After 10 minutes, these officers told me I could go. They followed me for another five minutes before leaving me alone. I still have nightmares to this day that a cop would plant something in my car when I get pulled over.

• When Philando Castile was murdered in front of his child during a routine traffic stop, I remember at 31 going to lunch during work when I was working in Long Island. I made an illegal U-turn and was rightfully pulled over by an officer. After I was pulled over, the officer asked me for my license and registration. Having been trained by my previous experiences, I warned the officer that my registration was in my glove compartment, and I would have to move and open it up to retrieve it. The officer put his hand on his gun and asked me if I had anything in my glove compartment while he was shaking nervously. Trying to ignore that question and remain calm, fearing if I showed how offended and how angry I was, I might not survive this encounter, I told him no, just the registration. He kept his hand on his gun until I gave him my license and registration. Once he saw my license, he asked me if I lived in Brooklyn and what I was doing here. I told him that I worked on Long Island and was going to lunch. He kept asking me why I was on Long Island, not comprehending that I worked there. He asked me if I had any weapons with his hand on his gun again; I told him no. He wrote me a ticket and told me I shouldn’t come to that area. I left to go back to work angry with that experience, but grateful I was alive.

• When Botham Jean was murdered in his apartment by an off-duty police officer entering the wrong apartment, I remember at 35 after purchasing my first home. I was outside, cutting my grass. Apparently, someone called the cops on me because I went into the garage. The officers came to me while I was outside and asked me where the owner of the house was. I told him I owned the house and he looked surprised and said, “really?” I asked him if there was a problem; he told me someone called the cops. I told him this is my house and everything is fine. I had to confirm by showing this officer my license, and he left.

So why am I angry? To you, the one video could feel like a single incident; for me, it is a reminder of my pain and that at any point, I could be the person in that video being murdered. I am angry because if you talk to any black man in America, they can share similar stories of their encounters with police. I am angry because I have to plan my daily running routine around what is the most visible and least residential area to limit any chance of cops being called on me. I am angry because I should not have to be scared every time that I get pulled over by a police officer. I am angry because I should not have to have a conversation with young black men and, eventually, my son about how to act when you get pulled over by the police so you can survive. I am angry because if I carry a gun, I am looked at as a criminal and not a 2nd amendment loving American. I am angry because I should not have to hear people say to me, get out of the country if you don’t like it when all I want to do is make it better. I am angry because being a minority in our country is tough, being poor in this country is nearly impossible, and being a black man in this country can be dangerous. And mostly, I am angry because no matter how much I have and will accomplish, I will still be judged by the color of my skin.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” To create the change we need, I need all of you who are not minorities to help. Care enough to ask the hard questions with the intent to learn. I don’t need you to understand what it feels like to be me. I just need you to understand that being me is different from being you and not accept that that reality as okay. I need you to become an advocate with us, demanding justice when needed and demanding change to end the systematic racism that has plagued our country throughout its entire history. I need you to be angry with me and then empathetic enough to help me change our society.

I will choose not to remain angry but become hopeful because tomorrow always brings an opportunity for change. One of my favorite songs is one recorded by Louis Armstrong called “What a Wonderful World.” Louis Armstrong recorded this track in 1968. Louis Armstrong is a black man who lived through the Great Depression, three wars, experienced racism and segregation, and participated in the civil rights movement.

His explanation of what this song meant to him has always stuck with me. When asked to explain, Mr. Armstrong said, “All I’m saying is see what a wonderful world it would be if only we’d give it a chance. Love, baby, love. That’s the secret. Yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we would solve lots more problems. And then this world would be better. I am hopeful that you, the unaffected, will join me to make this country better for everyone who lives in it and fight with me for justice.

Frantzer LeBlanc, MBA, CVP, is Director of Events and Operations at the UMBC Event Center | OVG Facilities in Baltimore, Maryland.

By R.V. Baugus

Does it not seem years ago that any public assembly venue saw its last live event take place? The simple truth is that it has been less than 90 days, but oh how it seems like forever.

During that very short time span we have witnessed the bottoming of the economy, rampant job loss, full-blown death numbers from the COVID-19 coronavirus, and, most recently and sadly, the death of an unarmed African American male by a white police officer in Minneapolis that has drawn protests and more all across our great country.

So, can we please — please! — open our venue doors soon to return to a sense or normalcy for everyone while understanding and working toward deep-rooted issues within our country that must be solved?

Those days of opening are actually sooner than later, we are happy to share.

Let’s start with the magnificent Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, which will host its first event since March with the 47th Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior National Volleyball Championships on July 14. The significance is that the venue is among the first in the convention center sector in the country to host an event since the pandemic effectively shut down the industry with the March 11 declaration while games were in play that the National Basketball Association was postponing its season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus.

The convention center game plan for the tournament is thorough, as it should be for an event taking place over 12 days and occupying almost one million square feet.

Among the key points as presented by venue Executive Director Mark Tester to the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force.

* Teams arrive in three waves with no spectators.
* Courts will employ physical distancing and staggered start times, with dedicated entrances and exits throughout the building and temperature checks at certain entries.

OCCC expects its Global Biorisk Advisory Council Star (GBAC) accreditation by July 14. GBAC (see other story in Front Row News) involves meeting detailed guidelines and performance criteria on sanitation, disinfection and infectious disease prevention best practices. The advisory council’s parent organization is ISSA, known until 2005 as the International Sanitary Supply Association.

Elsewhere, the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) has announced a new competition that will begin in June and culminate in a championship event with fans in attendance at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in July.

The “PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge” competition will feature 48 professional bull riders split into 12 teams and two divisions. Teams will face off until two finalists remain, with the finals slated for July 10-12.

The first four weekends of the team challenge in Las Vegas will be closed to the public (June 5-28), but the championship weekend will be a ticketed event that is open to spectators.

This will be the first PBR event that is open to fans since early March and likely one of the first national events to feature spectators since the COVID-19 crisis began.

Brian Haenchen of the Sioux Falls ARGUS LEADER noted that the venue will be “open to fans (for the first time) since early March and likely one of the first national events to feature spectators since the COVID-19 crisis began.”

ASM Global, which manages the Denny Sanford Premier Center, will activate its Venue Shield, an “advanced environmental hygiene protocol that reduces physical touch points, increases venue sanitization and cleanliness, and provides various health monitoring guidelines and services.”

Among the guidelines for the PBR include:

* Tickets will be “for only approximately 35% of the capacity for PBR events at the arena.”
* Seating that separates fans with a “minimum four- to six-foot buffer between ticketed seats and minimizes the potential for crossover for fans entering and exiting their seats.”
* Medical testing and screening for “all staff as they enter the venue,” as well as “complimentary facial coverings for fans.”
* More efficient “’top to bottom’ exit following the event to reduce aisle, hallway and exit congregation.”

Finally, have you heard that the NBA is inching closer to resuming that end-of-regular-season and playoffs that shut down on March 11?

The NBA’s Board of Governors is set to approve a restart to its season that would include 22 teams playing at Disney World in Orlando. The league is targeting a July 31 date to start the tournament. The league’s safety protocols will include daily testing for coronavirus in addition to limiting contact between players and Disney staff.

Meanwhile, Major League Soccer (MLS) is moving forward with a season restart in Orlando as the players union recently approved the plan. The players also agreed to a proposal that cut salaries for this season while also extending the collective bargaining agreement through 2025. MLS Commissioner Don Garber said the league will take a $1 billion revenue hit because of the coronavirus hiatus.

As for Major League Baseball, um, let’s not talk about that right now. We will get back to you if and when the MLBPA union and owners can come to some sort of agreement for teams to begin and play some type of 2020 season.

All in all, let’s give thanks as our venues begin the crawl to welcoming guests. Please share with us your venue or others you know with definitive opening dates so we can be the bearers of some good news in these very trying and challenging times.

By Jon Adkins

Following the recent debut of its GBAC STAR™ facility accreditation program, the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC), a Division of ISSA, announced that additional organizations have committed to accredit their facilities. GBAC STAR is designed for any size facility—including schools, offices, hotels, airports, assisted care facilities, stadiums and other public venues—to establish a comprehensive system of cleaning, disinfection and infectious disease prevention.

Recently committed facilities include:
• Lincoln Financial Field, home to the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles
• Staples Center in Los Angeles, home to the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks
• Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.
• Georgia World Congress Center Authority: Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta and Savannah Convention Center
• New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
• San Diego Convention Center
• Christ Fellowship Church and its locations throughout South Florida
• The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd., which represents more than 400 hotels in over 80 countries.

In addition to these large-scale facilities, small businesses like Puffy’s Tavern in New York City and La Coutoure Salon in Palos Park, Ill., have committed to pursue accreditation for their facilities, illustrating the broad appeal of GBAC STAR in the marketplace. GBAC STAR also has garnered additional support from leading industry organizations, including:
• Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) and its more than 195 members that produce over 3,500 events globally
• Freeman + Go LIVE Together, a coalition of leaders from the live events industry that represent more than 4,000 companies with U.S. operations and 112 other countries
• The Infection Prevention Strategy (TIPS), a nonprofit that extends to 30-plus countries and advances innovations, ideas and processes in global health
• Unique Venues and its 1,100 members throughout the United States and Canada.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with the response that the GBAC STAR program has received and are excited to welcome a new group of dedicated participants,” said GBAC Executive Director Patricia Olinger. “With more and more organizations committing to follow the GBAC STAR framework, we can create a world that values cleanliness and implements it to the highest degree.”

The industry’s only outbreak prevention, response and recovery accreditation, GBAC STAR helps organizations establish protocols and procedures, offers expert-led training and assesses a facility’s preparedness for biorisk situations. The program ensures facilities use best practices to limit future outbreaks, empowers cleaning staff to do their jobs safety and effectively and gives customers greater peace of mind.

“Now is the time for businesses of every size to be transparent about the measures they’re taking to protect customers and employees, including proper cleaning and disinfection,” said ISSA Executive Director John Barrett. “GBAC STAR program participants demonstrate their commitment to going the extra mile by implementing prevention and response best practices that support health and safety.”

“Since the onset of this pandemic we have been committed to ensuring our facilities are safe for the return of our customers, show attendees, and team members,” said Frank Poe, Executive Director, Georgia World Congress Center Authority. “Working with GBAC to achieve GBAC STAR accreditation will ensure the highest cleaning and disinfection standards are being implemented at the Georgia World Congress Center and Savannah Convention Center. We would expect nothing less of ourselves and for our facilities.”

Facilities that previously announced they are pursuing GBAC STAR accreditation include: Hard Rock Stadium in Miami; Hyatt Hotels & Resorts; VisitDallas, the Dallas Tourism & Public Improvement District and Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas; McCormick Place in Chicago; the Las Vegas Convention Center; and Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group.

“When our fans, players and staff are able to return to Hard Rock Stadium, we want them to have peace of mind that we’re doing everything we can to create the safest and healthiest environment possible,” said Tom Garfinkel, Vice Chairman and CEO of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium. “We didn’t want to create our own standard, we wanted to be accountable to the most credible third-party standard that exists. Working with GBAC ensures compliance with critical guidelines for the highest standard of cleanliness and it is our hope that other venues will follow suit as we navigate through these unprecedented times.”

Additional industry groups that previously announced their support of GBAC STAR with their constituents include: International Association of Venue Managers; International Facility Management Association; the Global Market Development Center; Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association; Informa Markets; International Association of Exhibitions and Events; Professional Beauty Association; Media Edge Communications; and Trade Show Executive Media.

To learn more, watch GBAC’s video here.

For accreditation criteria and facility applications, visit www.gbac.org.

Jon Adkins is Vice President of Marketing for ISSA, The Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association.

June 4, 2020

The Honorable Jerome Powell
Chairman
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
20th Street & Constitution Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20551

The Honorable Steven T. Mnuchin
Secretary
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20220

Dear Chairman Powell and Secretary Mnuchin:

On behalf of the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) membership, I write to ask for your leadership in helping our members obtain much needed financial assistance during this national crisis for the public assembly venues at which they work. Public assembly venues exist in every community in the United States. IAVM members are the front-line staff at public assembly venues, including arenas, stadiums, performing arts centers, amphitheaters, convention centers, universities, fairgrounds, amphitheaters, etc., which serve as the bedrock of economic activity in both large and small towns across America. From barbershops to local restaurants and hotels, public venues are responsible for helping drive revenues to independent locally owned businesses. Other local businesses and individual staff work exclusively in presenting live events and they too, have been financially damaged with the lack of events to support. This multiplier effect could be the determining factor between a struggling and a thriving community-based business district, in a post-pandemic era.

Currently, the majority of the venues described above are not eligible for the PPP program or the Main Street Lending Program, due to their status as not for profit quasi-governmental entities.

The PPP program currently excludes non-profits that are publicly created. Over 72% of IAVM’s members work at venues that, although established by a political subdivision of a state or local government, fund their operations primarily through event revenues, just like privately-owned venues. They receive little to no funding from government, and because these venues are not included in state and local budgets, they will not receive federal COVID-19 relief funds designated for state and local governments.

We understand that the Federal Reserve is currently considering making changes to the Main Street Lending Program, to allow not-for-profit organizations to qualify for certain program loans. We are in full support of such efforts and ask that any newly adopted changes in the Main Street Lending eligibility requirements extend to public assembly venues established by state and local governments.

The significant contributions of public assembly venues to our local economies should not be overlooked during the current time of crisis, nor should their eligibility to qualify for a loan under PPP or a newly revised Main Street Lending Program rest solely on the question of whether they are public versus private not-for-profit organizations.

We respectfully ask for your leadership and support in assuring that public assembly venues are included in the Administration’s COVID-19 relief efforts.

Thank you in advance for considering this request.

Sincerely,

Brad Mayne, CVE
President and CEO

By Randy Garner

The Palm Springs Convention Center has produced an informative health and safety video to assist event planners and exhibitors as they prepare for the time approval is received to open. The educational video shows how clients and guests will be welcomed to the Convention Center, how room set-ups will be modified, and options for different size meeting breakouts including classroom and theater seating.

Other elements of the video include banquet seating along with food and beverage changes made by Savoury’s, the Palm Springs Convention Center’s exclusive caterer. Details of signage, hand sanitizing stations, sneeze shields, floor stickers, use of rope and stanchions for flow control, and cleaning procedures are also included. View the video at www.PalmSpringsCC.com

“I am very proud how our leadership team came together and are one of the first in the industry to develop a comprehensive health and safety strategy to successfully open the Palm Springs Convention Center when the time is right,” said Rob Hampton, General Manager of the Palm Springs Convention Center and Bureau of Tourism. “We have been busy working with our valued customers to move and modify meetings and events while assisting with implementing the necessary changes that will be required for our modified opening.”

As part of the new safety program, the Palm Springs Convention Center is implementing a “Palm Springs Health & Safety Promise.” This best-in-class program provides the highest levels of cleanliness and safety, while inspiring consumer confidence, all in partnership with leading medical professionals, industry experts, and public health officials. At the very heart of this effort is a focus on making guests and employees safe and comfortable in a welcoming environment. It provides the most advanced hygienic safeguards to serve clients, guests, staff, teams, and all other visitors.

Randy Garner is Public Relations Manager for Visit Palm Springs.