By Beckie Liwacz

Across the past week or two, we’ve seen major conventions cancelled, tours postponed and seasons suspended. In preparation for all of these games, concerts, conferences, and other events, the food was already onsite and being readied by executive chefs and their culinary and/or concessions teams. With news of these cancellations, what happens to all that food?

Spectra, an international venue management and food services & hospitality company, has been working with its convention centers across North America to identify opportunities for food recovery, donating into the local community or among part-time staff. In many instances, Spectra is collaborating with Food Recovery Network, a national nonprofit that fights food waste, to locate the most appropriate place for the food donation.
A handful of examples include (we have many more):

Mayo Civic Center (Rochester, Minn.)—The multi-purpose convention center and event facility donated 300+ pounds to a local food bank and another 200+ pounds to venue staff.

Utah Valley Convention Center (Provo, Utah)—Delivered all the center’s perishables to the Provo-based Food and Care Coalition.

Owensboro Convention Center (K.Y.)—Donated all produce and dairy products to local Daniel Pitino and St. Benedict shelters.

Atlantic City Convention Center/Boardwalk Hall (N.J)—Donated all perishables to the Salvation Army, AC Rescue Mission, and the Boys & Girls Club of America.

Ocean Center (Dayton Beach, Fla.)—Scheduled pick-ups for local community organizations.

Columbus Convention & Trade Center (Columbus, Ga.)—Donated produce to SafeHouse Ministries, an organization that serves homeless, addicted, and/or incarcerated men and women as they transition back into the Columbus community.

Beckie Liwacz is a Communications Publicist with Spectra.

By Kristina Lankow

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Swiftel Center full-time team recognized the on-site kitchen as an asset to support local community programs. The team connected with the Inter-Lakes Community Action Partnership (ICAP) and Brookings (SD) Area United Way. Through this collaboration, the Swiftel Center catering is preparing more than 400 frozen meals that will be distributed by ICAP throughout the Brookings community. This is the first week of the collaboration, with all parties recognizing that the need for additional frozen meals may grow as the community continues to navigate the changing conditions due to COVID-19.

Following the direction from the City of Brookings, the Swiftel Center facility is currently closed to the public. However, even while the doors are closed, the full-time team is continuing to carry out the mission of the facility “…to enhance the quality of life for the citizens of the region…” The full-time team is continuing to work and find ways, like this catering collaboration, to serve Brookings.

Frozen meal packs are available to any 60’s Plus Dining clients. Quality, balanced, nutritious meals are flash frozen in specialty sealed containers. These frozen meals can be heated in a microwave or oven, and provide one third of daily recommended nutrition amounts. For each seven-day meal pack, clients can select seven frozen meals from the ten available options. In addition, each seven-day meal pack includes a small loaf of bread, fruit juice and a half gallon of milk. Packs are offered for a free will donation; the suggested amount for each seven-day meal pack is $27.

Adults who would like to place a seven-day meal pack order can contact the 60’s Plus Dining program manager Julie Scubelek at 605-692-1407 and jscubelek@interlakescap.com. Families who would like to place an order for a loved one are also encouraged to contact the program manager. There are also volunteer opportunities available including meal delivery volunteering. Contact the program manager for more information.

Kristina Lankow is Sales & Marketing Manager for Swiftel Center, managed by VenuWorks.

By R.V. Baugus

The City of San Diego shared in a press release that the San Diego Convention Center will be utilized as a haven to protect homeless individuals during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. The plan will create more space to serve people experiencing homelessness and allow for adequate physical distancing within current shelter facilities.

“San Diegans from all walks of life right now are struggling as we cope with the impacts of COVID-19. We’re only going to get through this pandemic by taking care of one another and working together,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in the release. “San Diegans are wondering how they’ll pay rent and small businesses are trying to stay afloat while some of our most vulnerable living on the streets seek protection from this virus. We’re turning plans into action to get all San Diegans the relief they need.”

Already, 55 families moved from the City’s Bridge Shelter on the upper level of Golden Hall operated by Father Joe’s Villages to two motels using some of the 200 rooms that were secured by the County for the Regional Task Force on the Homeless for homeless individuals. Additional updates will be provided as they’re made available.

“We have an unprecedented multi-agency collaboration that is working very quickly to rebuild our system to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among our homeless population while at the same time continuing to provide top-notch service to residents,” Kohler said. “We are thinking creatively to stand up new shelters, expand our capacity and maximize our staffing resources to serve the needs of both our sheltered and unsheltered populations.”

Other IAVM convention center members are also stepping up to help their communities.

McCormick Place in Chicago will transition into a makeshift hospital to treat about 3,000 patients by April 24, with 500 beds to be available in the coming week, according to the head of the Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite.

The venues Hall C, with assistance from FEMA, will treat 500 people, while Hall B will handle 750 patients, and Hall A would host some 1,800 individuals needing greater care.

“Somebody once said, ‘Let’s go build a hospital in the middle of a parking lot.’ You can’t do that in two or three weeks, and we don’t have any more time than two or three weeks,” Semonite said in a release.

“The city is working in partnership with the state of Illinois, the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA and MPEA to develop capacity for a large quantity of hospital beds to serve residents in need of care as COVID-19-related hospitalizations are expected to surge in the coming weeks,” a Chicago Department of Public Health spokesman added in a statement. “The temporary health site at McCormick Place will function as a field hospital, providing a large quantity of beds, including 500 anticipated to come online in the coming week. We remain focused on working in partnership to build up resources and staffing for this site and across the system so that we can combat COVID-19, alleviate added stress to our hospitals and health care workers and ensure patients across Chicago receive the care they need.”

Meanwhile, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas will be the site of Texas’ first pop-up hospital to treat coronavirus patients, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Sunday. With Dallas County representing the most virus cases in the state, the venue will set up 250 beds at the outset with the ability to increase. As of Sunday, the county reported 488 cases of the virus.

“Existing hospitals will continue to be the primary location to treat and care for those in need,” Abbott said at a news conference. “But we must prepare for the worst-case challenges as they arise.”

While that number of beds are not required yet, both the governor and an Army general said that the operation could house up to 1,400 beds if needed and that the Corps of Engineers has placed large-scale medical kits and equipment at the convention center ready for use.

The expectation is for the beds to be set up by Tuesday, while a homeless shelter is already in use at the venue.

By R.V. Baugus

Venue managers will tell you that they find their most sleepless nights happen when they worry about keeping their guests safe. When word came down from the National Basketball Association the night of Wednesday, March 11, that the season was being suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, General Manager Dave Brown of the American Airlines Center in Dallas said he experienced one particular emotion: relief.

The Mavericks were playing the Denver Nuggets in what will be a historical footnote as the last game the league played before the season took a hiatus. Brown was at the arena for the game and had an opportunity to soak in a crowd mood that started in full throttle for a game between two teams that could have met in the playoffs to one that later became aware through news feeds on telephones what was about to happen, that the game was about to take a very real back seat to a virus that would soon consume the country.

“We couldn’t protect our guests anymore,” Brown said, noting that for the previous two to three weeks the venue had heeded best sanitation practices from the Center for Disease Control. “This had to happen for us to protect our guests. We were doing the things we were told to do and doing it to the best of our abilities but we know now that was not going to make that big a difference.

“I felt a tremendous amount of relief in terms of we don’t have to play that game anymore. We were resigned to the fact that our industry and our world was going to change. We don’t know how that’s going to play out but I feel a lot better sitting here in my office with nobody in the building than I did a week ago with 18,000 people in there that were in harm’s way because of this.”

While outside a full line of cars prepare to enter a drive-through screening process for the coronavirus, Brown shifts gears to talk about the good that can come out of this national pandemic.

“I think it’s a massive reset for our society,” he said. “I like to use the term, we’ve been so drama-driven the last few years and trying to find a little drama in every situation, good, bad, exploited one way or another. Well, we’ve got it now, and maybe folks will want a little less drama on a daily basis going forward.”

It is impossible to gauge the economic impact that the shutdown has on events at American Airlines Center, just as it is for any other venue in the country. It all depends, of course, on how long venues remain dark.

“It is devastating from the revenue side, but we didn’t cause this,” Brown said. “It’s not like we or our teams screwed up something. I think this gives us a tremendous opportunity to come out of this smarter and stronger and to be better prepared for anything like this in the future. It is such a shock to the system but I think it’s a good reset, as I said, to appreciate what we have and the good times a little bit more. When that first guest walks back in the door – whenever that is – that’s going to be the most important guest that we’ve ever hosted here.”

Had the basketball and hockey seasons played on, Brown’s team was tasked three days later on a Saturday to host a Mavs game at 1 pm and a Dallas Stars game that evening. Even with the NBA announcing the suspension, there was still thought that the league might play games with no fans in attendance. At the time, hockey was still operating as normal with fans. Dealing with both of those scenarios for that particular Saturday weighed on Brown’s mind.

“How do I do that?” Brown asked. “How do I do a closed arena at 1 o’clock and then tell all the employees and people who have to make this building ready when you have guests, OK, come in and let’s get this other show on the road. I couldn’t possibly have been able to do that. Thank goodness the NHL suspended or we would have had a real dilemma here.”

Brown is proud that the arena can help by offering the drive-through testing. He noted that American Airlines Center was not able to participate with relief during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 because “we were up and running, so Reunion Arena became a refuge and the convention center to some degree for a period of time. We couldn’t give back or do anything but this is there for us to help and make a difference to others.”

They are doing that in a way that forces Brown to hark back to his younger days in the industry.

“For logistics I’ve got to go back to my old event coordinator days,” he said. “We are coordinating with the City of Dallas and Dallas County, Parkland Hospital and the Federal government. It’s a big deal and I’ve been working on this since Mayor (Eric) Johnson reached out and asked if we would participate. We were happy we could do something during the crisis and continue to make a difference.”

By Dee Ann Hirsch

Monday, March 23 will forever be a day like none other for me. As I drove away from our venue, I did not know when I would see it again. I fought back tears as I drove by our lagoon and worried who would check on our geese and ducks who have recently stopped there to nest. I wondered who would check on our historic artwork to ensure it was safe and had not been vandalized. I worried about my team that would still have to come in during these uncertain times. It had been hard enough to watch our bookings cancel one after the other, but that hollow feeling of uncertainty I will never forget. For the first time, I was forced to envision my world without my job.

Like many of you, the vast majority of our team is sheltering in place here in the Dallas area, and that means there has been a lot of change for all of us. Our transition to managing our venue from afar is probably not unlike all of yours, but I hope there is comfort knowing each and every one of us is experiencing the same conversations, the same feelings, the same stresses, the same sadness.

To help us transition, there were a few things that happened prior to the “Shelter in Place” order issued by Dallas County. We immediately adjusted our essential staff schedules to help reduce the likelihood of transmission of the virus. Splitting our two work teams into four, and adjusting their days and times to report in a way that would limit exposure to one another. We worked, as did many of you, to obtain additional supplies for cleaning, hand sanitizing and sanitization of restrooms and work spaces.

Workers who could work from home but needed laptops were issued equipment typically used by our internship program, and we worked to identify anyone who did not have the ability to get internet service at home.

Training on how to use the Microsoft 365 applications such as Microsoft Teams, Yammer and Zoom was provided to those staff members to whom it was most applicable by other tech savvy members of our team. All personnel who would be working from home were instructed to take critical files (electronic and hard copies) with them to minimize having to travel during the shutdown. To assist workers who would still have to travel in to work, we issued a letter that could be given to police or code enforcement should someone be stopped either coming or going from the office.

Of course, we went through the exercises of cost cutting. Slashing our expenses where possible, we shuttered exhibition space, turned off electronics and equipment that would gobble up valuable budget dollars. Our staff drained our fountains, returned rented equipment, and even cleaned out the refrigerator, ensuring no food waste was left in the buildings that could encourage pests. Our team evaluated what services could be cut, eliminated improvement projects, and cancelled trainings and trips. Anything that could be eliminated was either eliminated or significantly reduced. Our accounting team called on outstanding receivables, and looked at ways to manage cash flow. Even our vendor partners evaluated their services to see how they could help us reduce our expenses.

There were additional considerations for Fair Park, as well – we are also a 277-acre public park home to five museums, two performance facilities and several other resident institutions. Understanding who and what was open and closed, and communicating that information to the public had to occur quickly. And as those closures mounted, we began thinking about how to monitor the number of people using the park and what service amenities would remain viable. Ultimately, we reduced the number of vehicular access gates in use from five down to one, and we limited our pedestrian access to only two locations. Public restrooms and drinking fountains were closed. Guests arriving by vehicle were stopped and informed that none of our facilities were open, but they were free to stroll and enjoy the grounds. (Currently in Dallas, public parks and access to them is not restricted; Dallasites are allowed to go for a walk, exercise, ride a bike, etc.) People attempting to enter the park after hours faced more stringent security checks than usual. New protocols were drafted and provided to the security team, complete with additional emergency telephone numbers for staff should they be needed.

And just like that, we were gone. I was the last one to the leave the park on Monday. It was quiet and serene. The lights were coming on for the evening, and it had just rained – the fragrance of the spring shower still hung in the air. Everything looked so normal, but everything had changed. That moment in time is stamped in memory.

We as venue professionals – it is in our DNA to serve. We welcome the opportunity to work when others are relaxing and enjoying their time off. We are often behind the scenes helping to make memories for others. Our work hours can be long and they are almost always fun, but not this day.

Many of our venues are being activated to serve our communities in other ways, as shelters, as storage, as staging, and much more. It is uplifting to see our industry and communities come together again for the common good. While Monday’s memory will always be with me, I will choose to remember all of the good that our venues contribute to the health and well-being of others. It is that thought I will let occupy my mind during this most unusual time.

Stay strong and stay safe venue friends.

Dee Ann Hirsch is Assistant General Manager of Dallas Fair Park.