By Donna Cannatella

It was an honor for our team here at the Chesapeake Conference Center, managed by VenuWorks, to play a part in helping serve the needs of our community during the coronavirus pandemic.

I coordinated with Chef Kristen with Mercy Chefs in Portsmith, VA, to have our venue Chef Mario and his team volunteer with Mercy Chefs to help prepare food for families in need in our community. I learned of this great opportunity while in the Hampton Roads Chamber Zoom meeting just last week.

Mercy Chefs is a faith-based, non-profit disaster relief organization that exists to serve professionally prepared meals to victims, volunteers, and first responders in national emergencies and natural disasters such as the one we are currently facing. They are in great need of professional chefs and F&B staff to prepare quality home cooked meals. My team enthusiastically volunteered to assist in any way possible. Their first day was Tuesday, April 28, and they will be back again to volunteer their services.

We are so happy to be a part of serving our community and helping in any way that we can to help feed the hungry and feed our first responders who are battling COVID-19 on the front lines.

Stay safe. Stay well.

Donna Cannatella is executive director of the Chesapeake Conference Center in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Pictured from left: Chef Kristen of Mercy Chefs, sous chef, Wakanda, Nikki, and Chef Mario.

By Joy Washington

Antonio Birch, an alumnus of the University of South Alabama who worked as a student at the USA Mitchell Center, never thought he would have a dream job at his alma mater.

After earning his bachelor of science degree in business management with a concentration in entrepreneurship from the USA Mitchell College of Business, he received his first job in banking. He was later hired at South as an events coordinator.

Birch’s dream became bigger when he was promoted to event service manager at South. His daily responsibilities are to manage logistical activities for all of the events held at the Mitchell Center, Moulton Tower and Alumni Plaza, the Chi Omega Amphitheater and the USA Faculty Club.

“I am responsible for event services aspects of several facilities,” Birch said. “I assist with the planning, monitoring, directing, delegating, supervising and managing the event coordination, security, crowd management and contracted service provider functions.”

Birch loves what he does and enjoys supporting his clients. He first got the event management bug when he worked at the Mitchell Center as a student.

“What I love most about this new role is my ability to be part of the entire process of an event, from brainstorming ideas with clients to executing the event,” he said. “People enjoy events that lead to a memorable experience. I am a proud member of a team that makes sure that our clients have excellent events.”

Victor Cohen, arena manager for USA Mitchell Center and other campus facilities, said he is pleased to have Birch on his team.

“After graduation from South, Antonio was fortunate to start his career in the financial world,” Cohen noted. “I knew that facility management was in his blood. After some time had passed, we were able to have him rejoin the Mitchell Center team as our event services coordinator. Because of Antonio’s solid foundation and aptitude for this industry, it was a no brainer to promote him as an event services manager. I am very proud of him as a person and for the many accomplishments he has achieved with us.”

Birch is married to USA alumna Shaquana Giles. They are expecting their first child.

Joy Washington is Director of Public Relations in the USA Office of Marketing and Communications.

By Stacie Bauer

With over 90% of events scheduled for 2020 being cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry has suffered major economic loss and event professionals are increasingly turning to virtual tools to deliver their next event.

Ungerboeck now offers managing your event as a virtual event via its registration platform. This is done by offering customers a choice of their virtual event provider such as GoToWebinar from LogMeIn or Zoom. This allows customers to seamlessly manage their online participants, events details, and engagement statistics directly in the Ungerboeck platform.

“Our customers are facing very challenging times and it is our responsibility to adapt our software to their evolving needs,” said Ungerboeck President & CEO Manish Chandak. “This virtual event extension to our platform offers our customers a way to stay in touch with their visitors and members and generate a new revenue stream while easily managing all the aspects of their virtual event in Ungerboeck from their registrants, to payment processing, orders, sessions, and much more.”

Ungerboeck has been responding to changes and requirements of the event and exhibition industry since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, offering multiple resources on their website, organizing virtual summits with panelists from the industry, and working closely with their customers to prepare for the future.

With the integration of virtual event tools in Ungerboeck, the technology provider is actively supporting the industry and looking ahead as the event and exhibition industry is presented with changing needs.

Stacie Bauer is Event & Sponsorship Coordinator, Marketing, at Ungerboeck Systems International.

By Julian Bowman

Fair Park First and Spectra, managers of Fair Park in Dallas, worked with the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) to bring the NTFB Disaster Relief Mobile Pantry to Fair Park on April 2 and 16.

The NTFB converted their mobile food pantry to a drive-through model to limit contact with clients and needed a location in South Dallas with substantial drive-through space. The NTFB contacted Spectra in March to see if the 277-acre campus would be available to help with distributing food to local residents. Fair Park First/Spectra quickly began to work with the Dallas Police Department on a plan to accommodate the local food bank.

During the first NTFB event, over 6,000 food boxes were distributed in just under 3 hours. Due to the overwhelming demand, the NTFB, Fair Park First, and Spectra put together another food distribution event at Fair Park (April 16). The Texas National Guard was brought in to assist with the second event, giving away larger food boxes to over 2,200 households. The event served as another way that Fair Park can support the surrounding community.

“We’re thankful that we were able to host these two food pantry events to benefit our neighbors in south Dallas,” said Spectra’s Peter C. Sullivan, General Manager of Fair Park. “We look forward to continuing to work with the North Texas Food Bank to give back to our community and help where we are able.”

“As a venue marketer, I live for the crowds and the media coverage. It usually gives me a buzz of excitement. It was different for these two events. Seeing all the news cameras on site, and the cars lined up for a couple of miles was sobering. I hope opportunities for mass food distribution events go away sooner than later, but if there’s a need, I’m proud that I’m part of a team that can help.” — Julian Bowman

Between the two events, nearly 13,000 food boxes equating to more than 180,000 meals were distributed to families in need during the COVID-19 crisis. The food bank estimates between 50% and 70% of the recipients were using the food bank for the first time. The two events were the largest distribution events in NTFB’s history.

Julan Bowman is Senior Director of Marketing at Fair Park.

By Hilarie Carpenter, CTA

Live with Kelly and Ryan’s Kelly Ripa has done it. Dancing with the Stars pros Jenna Johnson and Val
Chmerkovskiy have done it. Carson Daly has done it live on the TODAY Show. With stay-at-home orders in effect across the country and the world, self-haircuts at home have become a growing trend. Now it’s ASM Global Regional General Manager of Van Andel Arena, DeVos Place, and DeVos Performance Hall Richard MacKeigan’s turn! Maybe.

In an effort to support the Heart of West Michigan United Way Coronavirus Response Fund, the ASM Global team in Grand Rapids is hosting a fundraiser on the Van Andel Arena Facebook page with a goal to reach $2,500 in donations. If the goal is met, MacKeigan has agreed to let his 17-year-old son Wil cut his hair into one of five fantastically iconic styles with remote assistance from Kathy Showers of AKA Salon and record the whole thing for the public to view. Even better, MacKeigan and his wife Terri will match donations up to the $2,500 goal!

The public (let’s hear you, IAVM members!) can donate via the arena’s page and vote on which new do MacKeigan will get. The choices include The Boy Band (curtains), The Paul McCartney (bowl cut), The James Hetfield (mullet), The Anthony Kiedis (mohawk), and The Bieber (top knot.) The fundraiser will be active until Wednesday, April 29, 2020. If the fundraising goal is met, MacKeigan is prepared to have his locks chopped the same week. To donate and vote, click here.

“My wife told me it’s time for a haircut,” MacKeigan said. “So, I thought if I’m going to give a home haircut a try, I might as well do it for the amusement of other people and to help support the West Michigan community that I am proud to call home during this very difficult time.”

Heart of West Michigan United Way, in partnership with local foundations and funders, has established a Kent County Coronavirus Response Fund for people to donate to help meet immediate needs in the community related to the COVID19 pandemic. The fund will support the nonprofits who are serving vulnerable populations during this time.

Donations and voting are taking place on Van Andel Arena’s Facebook page. For those that do not have a Facebook page, direct donations to Heart of West Michigan United Way can be made here.

Hilarie Carpenter, CTA, is director of marketing for ASM Global – Van Andel Arena, DeVos Place & DeVos Performance Hall.