In this issue of the newsletter, in addition to my personal experience in an automobile driving from Dallas to San Antonio last week to attend the Texas boys’ state high school basketball tournament, you will read insightful blogs from IAVM members Jeff Davis and Steve Mackenzie. I believe you will learn much from the thoughts and commentary that both of these gentlemen share, and will even likely be able to relate to the information in some form or fashion.

We would like to encourage IAVM members during these uncertain times of COVID-19 coronavirus to share your own insights and stories, whether current or from the past. We can all learn from each other and as your Association believe it is important to disseminate information to help make educated decisions.

Whether you have written something on Facebook, LinkedIn, or elsewhere on social media, please do not hesitate to share with us your stories. Simply send your copy to rv.baugus@iavm.org. As a matter of fact, the blogs by Jeff and Steve were granted to us to use after the authors wrote them in Facebook and LinkedIn, respectively.

By Steve Mackenzie

How ironic that only a few weeks ago I posted a blog about a life of travel, some tips to hopefully make your flights more comfortable and easier – and within a few days the world of travel as we know it has been changed forever.

I love to fly – and throughout my life I have lived through many major incidents that made most people avoid airports and flying, but not me.

I flew during the pilot’s strike in Australia in 1989 – when the two domestic airlines in Australia were totally grounded for around four months by the unions over a pay dispute. During that time the only ways to fly were on Air Force transport planes, or a couple of international carriers (like Lauda Air) that came in to operate on a temporary basis. I loved the experience! Didn’t stop me in the slightest!

I flew from Australia to the USA just over a week after 9/11 to attend a company conference, when most of the world thought anyone boarding a plane to the USA should be instantly committed to an insane asylum. LAX was a ghost town, and the planes were virtually empty. I felt entirely safe and canceling my flight was never an option I entertained.

I flew to Hong Kong during the SARS outbreak in 2003 because I wanted to attend the annual Rugby Sevens tournament when the rest of the world wanted to live in a bubble. I even saw a local wearing a facemask with a hole cut in it so he could smoke a cigarette! I attended the event and didn’t get sick in the slightest (if I don’t count the hangover). Never once did I consider canceling my flights.

I flew into LAX the day a TSA team member was tragically shot dead by a crazed, unstable gunman in 2013. I was actually on a plane between STL and LAX and on the inflight wifi when the news broke – we were diverted to John Wayne airport and then I caught a shuttle to LAX but had to walk the final mile because the roads around the airport were closed down. The airport was in total chaos and I ended up being put on a flight back east to meet another connection to my eventual flight to China. It was chaos but I felt safe and never once thought about cancelling my flight.

But this week my perspective changed. I canceled our family flight to London for Spring Break. First time I have ever voluntarily canceled a flight.

EVER.

I wasn’t going to, even though COVID-19 hysteria was gripping the world. I don’t cancel. In fact I was quite looking forward to the empty airports, no lines at the tourist attractions, etc.

But on Wednesday night, things changed. The government here announced a travel ban from Europe (this still didn’t affect our trip directly), events were getting cancelled almost hourly, and the hysteria seemed to rise from DEFCON Level 4 to Level 1 almost instantly. Our flight wasn’t due to depart due unil Saturday, and I was still on the fence but the more I thought about things, the more I tried to consider the situation objectively. My parents-in-law were coming, and whilst I wasn’t worried about my own personal health and the thought of contracting the virus, they are in the high risk bracket – time to stop thinking about myself and consider others that this could affect. That was step one in making the decision. Step two was that there was a very real possibility the countries included in the ban could extend to the UK whilst we were away. And a vacation was not important enough to risk getting stuck somewhere or worse, being quarantined at a military base on the way back.

So we canceled, no big deal – we could maybe even fly somewhere interstate next week instead.

But as I started calling the various airlines, hotels/Airbnb sites that we had booked the UK trip with, I started noticing the timeframes for calls due to the volume – wait times of two hours plus. And even a couple of friends were posting on Facebook their frustrations at call times and the challenges they were facing trying to get home from work trips in the midst of this crisis we are in.

And that drove home the REAL reason why we shouldn’t be flying for the next week or more – it’s not the virus, it’s not the inconvenience of tourist attractions and events being closed down or canceled – it’s the humanity of it all. There are literally thousands of people trying to get home to their families right now, having their lives thrown into disarray purely because they were on a trip when their world was turned upside down last week. They need to get home, their families need them to be with them, they want to be with their loved ones in these scary and uncertain times that are unfolding day-by-day. Most of these people don’t have the luxury of airline or hotel statuses like I have, and have to wait hours/days to get rebooked. Why should I add to the mess that is airline travel right now for my selfish want to have a vacation? There is no reason at all for me to be further congesting an already overloaded system.

So here’s my advice to everyone – don’t fly. Stay home this week and next unless you need to get to your loved ones. Nothing else is that important. When this nightmare eventually blows over (and it WILL blow over), we can all get back to normal traveling – but in the meantime do your bit to slow down not only the spread of the virus, but also to ease the burden and stress on people getting home, and the service staff that are stretched to the limit dealing with this whole situation.

Steve Mackenzie is President at EventBooking. If experience is the best teacher, Steve knows a thing or two about flying. Having traveled over two and a half million miles since 2010 he spends an average of 400 hours a year on a plane.

By Jeff Davis, CVP, CMP, CVE

For my friends in the faith-based community who are continuing to hold events and services, who are out there saying this is all fear-driven, who are throwing bible verses around … please stop. Please take a moment to understand the facts.

I oversee two public assembly venues with a total capacity of nearly 10,000 people, or the size of a small town. I’m very cognizant in providing a safe, secure environment for events to take place. Less than a week ago, I was promoting the continuation of events. Sure, I was watching the developments of the Coronavirus closely, and we were proactively implementing changes to provide a safer environment – adding hand sanitizer stations, doubling and tripling our cleaning and disinfecting procedures during events, wiping down surfaces, the same actions other venues, stores, restaurants, and churches are doing. I was supporting events and within days, rather, hours, that stance changed.

The decision to support the mass cancellation of events… the decision to close our venues and bring entire industries to a halt was not an easy one. Days later, it’s still very surreal. But one thing I can assure you, it was NOT driven by fear. It was based on facts. It was a result of taking time to educate ourselves, understanding what was happening in other parts of the world, and making a conscious effort to help get ahead of this pandemic. It was about taking a radical step to be part of the solution knowing it would disrupt normalcy for a while. It was the right thing to do.

So please stop saying that this shut down is just a reaction out of fear. Please take some time to understand the “why” behind this effort. There are numerous resources about “flattening the curve” and simulations on how this slows the spread of a virus. Understand that these radical decisions are to give our healthcare system – doctors, nurses, and the industry that supports them – a fighting chance to help treat those who will need that level of care in the coming days as the virus spreads, rather than overwhelming them and crippling the system, as it has in other countries.

Yes, as a society, we are navigating uncharted waters with this kind of a response. And the natural reaction to uncertainty, much of it fed by media and uninformed people, is anxiety, fear, and panic. Don’t be a part of the problem. Don’t throw around bible verses that come across as judgmental. And please don’t continue to hold gatherings thinking you’re safe because “it only affects a small percentage” or “it’s not in our area yet.” Look at China, Italy, Spain and others, and how it all started with ONE person introducing the virus in those countries. And it quickly overwhelmed them. And odds are, it may already be more widespread in your area than you realize. We’re really just now beginning widespread testing for the virus, and still today, there are many suspected cases that are not being tested for various reasons or limited test kits/testing resources.

To paraphrase from a post I recently saw: On the backside of this, we may look back and say we overreacted and did way too much. But I would rather look back saying that, than looking back and saying we did way too little, too late.

Please understand what you can do in this effort. Educate your friends, family, and social groups. Don’t be afraid to take radical steps that will help save lives. Lead by example. Do the right thing. Offer hope and encouragement in a time that many are uncertain of what the future holds.

Jeff Davis, CVP, CMP, CVE, is Executive Director for UTA Special Event Facilities at the University of Texas at Arlington.

By R.V. Baugus

“Hey, R.V., it’s Rachel at the Alamodome. Where are you?”

Two long-time friends and I had started our drive from Dallas to San Antonio the morning of March 12 to enjoy what had become a new tradition — watching the Texas boys’ state high school basketball tournament. We had already discussed plenty on our drive, including the decision made by the National Basketball Association just the night before to suspend its season. We knew that many meetings and conventions had either canceled or postponed around the country as COVID-19 coronavirus had made its way into the United States. I shared with my friends the impact our public assembly venue industry would face in terms of lost events that may or may not be rescheduled. As we drove, we already knew that even the tournament we were going to see that brings in 24 teams and communities from around the state to participate in six classifications in semifinals and then championships would be witnessed only by fans who had pre-purchased tickets and that no tickets would be sold at the box office to help keep the crowd attendance and thus any risk of coronavirus lower. At the time, the NCAA said it would operate its March Madness with games played but no fans inside the venues. It all sounded so surreal.

Back to Rachel’s question. As the awesome administrative assistant to the awesome Alamodome General Manager Steve Zito, Rachel Arredondo’s question immediately sent my mind into two options before I even replied. One, her question was asked to tell us that wherever we were at on our drive to continue on down I-35 toward San Antonio. The second option was the more realistic one to me, that the tournament was going to operate under a vastly different set of circumstances or perhaps be canceled or postponed.

“We just drove past Waco and headed toward Temple,” I answered, an indication that we were still at least a couple of hours from San Antonio, depending on notorious I-35 traffic.

Sure enough, Rachel began confirming option two for me.

“Steve is in a meeting with the UIL (University Interscholastic League, which oversees Texas high school athletics) right now deciding whether to cancel the rest of the tournament,” she said. “I’ll call you again as soon as I know for sure.”

We took a quick yay-or-nay vote and decided that the guys’ trip was still on and that we would push onward to San Antonio. Before reaching Austin, Rachel phoned once more to share that, indeed, the remainder of the tournament was canceled.

We reached Austin and went to Matt’s El Rancho for some Mexican food. We were seated in an area near the bar with four or five televisions surrounding us tuned to sports programming. Aside from us, four young male business professionals were seated nearby and riveted to THE PLAYERS Championship golf tournament that sufficed as the lone, live sports event being shown on all the televisions. As we munched down chips, the nearby guys yelled out, “Come back!” a phrase that called into a hit golf ball finding reverse spin to come back closer to the cup. Or, it could have been a plea from anyone working at the restaurant toward any exiting patron on a day when it did seem that business was lighter than normal at this iconic establishment.

We later arrived at the La Quinta Medical Center location in San Antonio and upon walking to the elevators noticed a television in the dining area tuned to one of the news channels covering everything coronavirus. It would prove to be how we spent quite a bit of our own time while at the hotel, just watching news and hearing reports that sounded surreal at the time only to have another layer of news piled on top that was even more jaw-dropping.

Just the previous Sunday at church, our pastor delivered a message dealing with fear. Now, five days later, I got to put that message into practice, as did we all. I believe in the importance of striking a balance as best as possible between taking common-sense precautions with our health and listening to those more expert than me to give me some solid principles and advice. I also do not think it is healthy to take a “sky is falling” attitude. To better understand the latter, try buying bottled water, sanitizer, wipes, or toilet tissue at your neighborhood store. Chances are you can’t, because if your community is like mine, none of those products remain on shelves.

When normally we would wake up on Friday morning in San Antonio excited to drive over to the Alamodome to watch the Class 2A semifinals that start at 8:30 a.m., there was no such urgency, so it was an opportunity to sleep in some.

Crystal Howard is a friend who has worked for years at this particular La Quinta location, and prior to heading out for lunch we saw Crystal and got some of her take on the situation. She said (not surprisingly) that the hotel industry already felt the crunch caused by guest cancellations that in many cases were caused by event cancellations. The trickle-down effect was in full force and once again reminded me of the impact in our very own association and membership.

Later that afternoon, I made may way over to the Alamodome to try and see Steve Zito. His schedule, like many of yours, had to have been incredibly chaotic in having last-minute meetings and making some very critical decisions or being at least a party to those decisions. Sure enough, Steve was just about on his way out the office door for a meeting elsewhere in the venue, but still shared with me some of his last 24 hours.

Steve revealed that all the schools and coaches were on board with the revised lower-attendance seating decision. He had also returned to his office late the previous night to be in conversations about Fiesta San Antonio, the city’s biggest annual event scheduled for April that had been postponed until November due to the pandemic. The 11-day party generates more than $340 million in economic impact to the community.

Wednesday became Thursday, and in addition to the NBA announcing its suspension on Wednesday night and the NCAA changing its status from “attendance with essential personnel only” to cancellation of March Madness, Steve found himself in more meetings around the noon hour once again with the UIL to discuss the tournament even as its third game was in progress below on the Alamodome basketball court.

And so, like its counterparts at the collegiate and professional level, the boys’ state high school basketball tournament would conclude once that third game between Dallas Madison and Coldspring-Oakhurst finished. There remains a possibility of continuing the tournament at some point, but that is a conversation and meeting for another day, not while the stoked fires of coronavirus are trying to be extinguished around the country.

We spent one last night in one of the greatest cities anywhere before driving back to Dallas on Saturday. Such a drive on I-35 means one more trip through traffic-snarled Austin, but that was not the case this particular day. This was to be the weekend in Austin for the South by Southwest Festival, an event that generates millions for the city’s economy and in fact helped lead to the basketball tournament moving from Austin to San Antonio just a few years earlier.

But on this day and this weekend there would be no SXSW in Austin, no crazy traffic, no energy generated by crowds and by events, the very things that make our business pop. No, it would be a pretty uneventful drive back home while we all awaited the next batch of coronavirus news to come along.

Photos: The Alamodome’s new court got in only three games before tournament play was halted, while outside on the marquee facing I-10, a most practical message was delivered.

On behalf of the IAVM Board of Directors and Staff, we would like to extend our deepest concern and support for our members, friends, colleagues and events impacted by the current 2019 novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) health emergency. As you know, IAVM remains in constant contact with federal and local agencies, as well as our membership, regarding the current status of how COVID-19 is affecting our industry so as to stay abreast of the situation to make the best decisions and offer support.  We encourage you to keep checking using and commenting on our own VenueNet and our COVID-19 Outbreak Resources webpage for more information.

We are supported and being encouraged by the Executive Committee to offer town hall focused webinars to keep our industry informed and collaborating professional to professional.  We are working now to schedule those, and will provide information on those offerings soon.

The Executive Committee has also called a full board meeting for later today to discuss ways in which we can better serve our members during this time of challenge. We will send out additional information regarding the board meeting soon after.   

*As of today, SES, VMS, VC20 remain scheduled.  This is subject to change daily as we watch the effects of COVID-19 unfold.

As always, IAVM leadership and staff are here to assist in any way we possibly can. Do not hesitate to reach out for assistance.

Brad Mayne, CVE

IAVM President & CEO