By R.V. Baugus

Mark Herrera, IAVM Director of Education and Life Safety, is a leading face and voice at IAVM regarding the Association’s heavy involvement in working with governmental entities as well as member venues to help work through the current pandemic and work toward bringing live events back to the public.

Mark is starting to build a heavy load on the live interview trail and most recently appeared in a segment with Miami’s Newsradio 610 WIOD to discuss precautions being taken that might help speed up the reopening process for venues across the country.

You will want to listen in here to catch Mark’s interview.

By Lorraine Carli

As the federal government and many states begin allowing businesses to reopen, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has developed a checklist to help building owners and facility managers prepare, ensuring that fire protection and life safety systems in commercial and multi-occupancy residential buildings are properly checked and functioning.

“During the lockdown policies in place over the past couple of months, many of the ongoing inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) activities typically required by locally enforced codes and standards may not have been completed for a variety of reasons,” said Val Ziavras, technical services engineer at NFPA. “Regardless of the level of ITM performed during this time, it is imperative that building owners and facility managers verify the performance of all building fire protection and life safety systems prior to reoccupation.”

The new NFPA resource addresses the factors that should be confirmed by a qualified person before re-opening a building to ensure the safety of all its occupants. Based on the assumption that the building was in compliance prior to being closed, the checklist provides some initial steps to help make sure the occupancy is safe enough to reopen until a qualified professional can complete the regularly scheduled ITM of all fire protection and life safety systems. Ziavras notes that this process should be completed as quickly as possible.

“Any alterations to the building that adhere to public health guidelines, such as the installation of physical barriers or automatic door openers, will need to be evaluated to ensure that they are properly designed and installed and do not negatively impact the fire protection and life safety systems currently in place,” said Ziavras.

The newly available checklist reflects the latest in a series of COVID-19 related resource developed by NFPA to address fire and life safety issues, concerns, and challenges that have emerged over the past couple of months. Additional resources are developed as they are added to the NFPA website.

Visit the NFPA coronavirus landing page to access all newly released documents, as well as existing COVID-19 related information, guidelines, and resources provided to date.

Lorraine Carli is in the Public Affairs Office at the NFPA.

By R.V. Baugus

We all know that the coronavirus pandemic has rocked economies all over the world, and it has also seen some businesses that have thrived during the ongoing crisis. Our industry, of course, knows only too well what the current environment of dark days means to the bottom line.

An interesting study came my way recently from FitSmallBusiness.com that looked at the best and worst industries to survive COVID-19. Leveraging data comes from Statista and MarketResearch.

Not surprisingly, the $117 billion cleaning and sanitation industry is growing at a rapid speed with demand at an all-time high as those companies will be hiring at rapid rates with new measures in place.

It is easy to cite the events industry on the low end of the report in our current situation, but once doors open and events return we know that ours will be an industry that the public will long for with the myriad safety measures being put in place thanks to the work of IAVM with numerous partners around the world.

The report can be found here.

By R.V. Baugus

Two of Schuler Shook’s finest have been feted with the title of Fellow by the American Society of Theatre Consultants (ASTC). Company partners Jack Hagler and Todd Hensley are proud recipients of the honor bestowed by ASCT.

Hagler has been actively involved in IAVM and especially the performing arts sector for years and boasts more than 32 years of industry experience. He manages the company’s Dallas office and has been an ASTC member since 1993, where he has served on its Board of Directors as Vice President and has also been the ASTC Liaison to IAVM since 2005.

Hensley also has more than 32 years as a theatre consultant and has held ASTC membership since 1998. He has
served on the Board of Directors and President and is currently active on several committees. Hensley has
consulted on more than 400 projects with Schuler Shook and serves as Partner in their Chicago office.

Congratulations to both! You make the industry proud!

By R.V. Baugus

IAVM is sending out a survey this week to attendees from last year’s VenueConnect in Chicago asking for your reply to recommend education sessions you would like to have take place at this year’s VenueConnect.

“We are pushing out a survey this week with the simple question, ‘What type of education would you like to see?” said Mark Herrera, IAVM Director of Education and Life Safety. “Everything will surround itself around the current health crisis, and it is important for the sessions to speak to what is going on today. We want to take in the information and put it back out in sessions so members can apply it to their facility during this pandemic.”

Herrera said some relevant topics include leadership in a crisis, working in remote teams, business continuity plans, regulatory and procedural issues, and legal pitfalls and ramifications, among others.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Herrera said that many of the sessions originally planned have been taken off the table to make room for providing the most needed sessions for attendees.

“It is very important to deliver a conference to continue with a focus on today’s health crisis,” Herrera said. “We want to provide cutting-edge educational offerings that are tailored and structured to your professional development but also as it pertains to the current pandemic.”

Herrera added that the deadline will likely be this Friday and stressed the urgency and importance for those receiving the survey to participate and meet the deadline.

“We are garnering feedback to take in information we might have overlooked,” he said. “VenueConnect is moving forward to deliver to our members in whatever form the conference takes place.”

The importance of being prepared to act to today’s changing environment is one that also has to be considered. Faced with novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we all know that unforeseen circumstances can get in the way of any event, including VenueConnect 2020.

“IAVM understands that our members come first as we work collectively with our federal and association partners, industry working task forces, sector committees, and certifying entities to assure reasonable efforts are made to host live events safely for the entire industry,” Herrera said. “IAVM is prepared to shift to a virtual conference that will allow us to create valuable professional connections, explore new and innovative ideas in the venue management industry, and provide impactful learning opportunities in a safe and healthy environment.”