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.

By R.V. Baugus

For years hockey has kept fans in a safe place from flying pucks and flying players over the rink through the use of plexiglass. Also gives those cross-checking hits a more violent thud of a player into the plexiglass and of course fans love to bang on the glass to heckle the opposition.

All that comes to mind as I sat this past Monday night glued to the latest installment of World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) Monday Night Raw, which since the pandemic started and caused live events to shut down has still broadcast live from the company’s Performance Training Center in Orlando without fans.

Now, as you may suspect, professional wrestling has some of the most, um, vociferous fans there are. Everyone has their own favorite story about the elderly little grandmother seated in the first row berating the wrestling villain, right?

Well, eerie goes to another level watching a couple of guys grapple inside the squared circle with only a referee officiating the melee and no fans in the venue. You can literally hear the ref admonishing the wrestlers for those most illicit ring tactics as well as the trash-talking going on between the competitors.

That had been the norm for a few weeks until Monday night’s show had a handful of WWE’s “NXT” development wrestling stable present surrounding the ring behind barricades encircled by plexiglass. The same glass was on either side of the wrestlers’ entrance ramp as well.

Now, it appears that the plexiglass might be a solution for WWE going forward when fans are allowed to return ringside. If you watch any of WWE’s sports entertainment at all, you know that quite a bit of the action takes place outside the ring and around the ring perimeter. Heck, many a confrontation even goes up and down the aisles. If we are talking droplets of sweat and their impact upon COVID-19, it is easy to see wrestling as one of those places producing the most sweat, not to mention some occasional blood.

If in fact plexiglass is used in the future, it will serve in a powerful way to protect wrestlers and fans during entrances and matches.

As for the NXT wrestlers on hand, they stood in respective locations adhering for the most part to social distancing. Indeed, many a scenario needs to be worked out before arenas and stadiums resume sports and entertainment, but WWE might have found a solution that hockey has used for a long time.

By the way, ref, how can you possibly count to three when his foot was clearly on the rope?

Photo from wwe.com

By Mabel Hung

The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (“HKCEC”) welcomed events back to Hong Kong on May 22-24. With a series of preventive measures in place, the HKCEC welcomed the city’s first exhibition since the COVID-19
pandemic. The 98th Hong Kong Wedding Fair, a three-day local consumer exhibition rescheduled from February, was held successfully and attracted soon-to-weds and couples for wedding products and services.

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management) Limited (“HML”), the private management company responsible for daily operation of the venue, has stepped up preventive measures to ensure a safe, hygienic, and comfortable environment for exhibitors and visitors.

“HML is all set to welcome events back to the HKCEC,” said HML Managing Director Monica Lee-Muller. “The health, safety and well-being of staff members and visitors have always been our top priority. The HML team has been working closely with organizers to reschedule events impacted by the pandemic, and to implement necessary measures to address health and hygiene concerns. With the success of the Hong Kong Wedding Fair, we can demonstrate our commitment of providing professional services and customer care for event organizers
and attendees.“

The HML team cooperated with the organizer to implement special preventive measures in event arrangements, such as floor plan design, queuing logistics, F&B provision etc. All arrangements complied with the requirements imposed by the local authority, and made reference to industry guidelines and best practices.

All visitors, exhibitors, contractors, and HML staff members were required to wear face masks at all times and had their body temperature screened before entering the HKCEC. Social distance practicing was implemented at busy locations such as the Fair ticket counters, food and beverage outlets, and washrooms, where queues were expected.

Sanitation and disinfection were carried out by HML staff regularly to ensure venue hygiene. Public facilities and furniture such as escalator handrails, door knobs, lift panels, tables, and chairs in the exhibition stands, etc., were sanitised frequently. The exhibition hall was disinfected at the end of each show day.

To learn more about the preventive measures at the HKCEC in response to coronavirus, click here.

A video about HML’s measures to ensure venue hygiene and to safeguard the health of
event visitors may be found here.

Mabel Hung is Director – Communications & Sustainability for the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Top Photo: Temperature screening was required for all visitors, exhibitors, contractors and staff before entering the HKCEC.

Bottom Photo: Cleaning and disinfecting work was carried out by HML staff in event venues frequently.

By Mark Herrera

The reality of the event industry is one of unrelentingly disruptive change. This change is happening at an unprecedented pace. Venues of all types must successfully adapt and operate under a set of rules and expectations that are constantly in flux based on the current health crisis. The challenge of this disruption has posed an economical and physical risk but out of this we will see how resilient the industry is and embrace the growth opportunities.

IAVM, having significant influence in a global industry, has a civic duty to assure we provide safe, secure, and healthy environments within all public facilities where crowds assemble. We are an association with a mission to educate, advocate for, and inspire public assembly venue professionals, worldwide.

We are working collectively with all venue types, other organizations and associations to include suppliers, meeting planners, organizers and their respective leadership alongside the federal government and working groups tasked to gather data, poll the sectors, and conduct research as the industry moves toward recovery and identifying what the new “norm” will look like.

Event venues will follow medical and governmental guidance and not circumvent the science of any pandemic. All those working events will follow recovery written guides and remain flexible to assure all attendees to include event staff, suppliers, and planners are the top priority.

Top-line safety considerations for all venues are to allow healthy people to enjoy the facility and event; however, enhanced protective measures such as face coverings and hand washing stations will be more common. Managing the crowd density to assure that physical distancing guidelines are adhered to during ingress and egress will be heavily monitored with physical barriers strategically placed in areas where crowds can be controlled. High-touch surfaces will be identified and enhanced, and cleaning and sanitization will be part of the facility written protocols. Prior to attending all events messaging and communication with employees and guests to include signage on how to prevent the spread of germs will be a common practice. Facility design and touchless points of sale will be more common than before to avoid the transmission of any communicable disease.

IAVM has partnered with a Global Bio-risk advisory council considered as a division of one of the leading trade associations for the cleaning industry worldwide. Through this partnership all other venues can apply to a performance-based accreditation program that helps facilities demonstrate they have the work practices, procedures, and protocols to prepare, respond, and recover from outbreaks and pandemics as it pertains to deep cleaning and sanitization.

In conclusion, it is our goal to collectively come together and make every reasonable effort to provide a safe and healthy environment for those working or attending all events. Although there is no guarantee of a “zero risk” environment, we will continue to implement and measure a means to mitigate all risks associated with this health crisis and we will do it together.

As we move forward, events will not be date-driven and rather data-driven to assure we protect the most important asset, people.

Mark Herrera is Director of Education & Life Safety for IAVM. This article was published in smartmeetings.com.