You have a game going on. You have a stadium full of people, say, oh, some 70,000 or so. Moving parts are all over the place. So how do you communicate? Glad you asked.

Sherron Washington, M.A. is a marketing and communication (marcom) professional who has imparted her wisdom and expertise for over two decades and will be presenting the Stadiums sector keynote at VenueConnect on “Your Response Matters: How to Become a more Competent Communicator. ”

She has been called “The Marketing Whisperer” by many due to her uncanny ability to assist businesses in developing an innovative, solution-driven, fusion of communication and marketing efforts that increase growth opportunities.

A sought-after international speaker, trainer, facilitator, and professor, Sherron’s energetic passion permeates the crowd and creates an unforgettable electrifying experience. She is also the author of Market Simple: The Blueprint to a One-Page Marketing Plan, and The Oops Moment: Eliminating Marketing Mistakes, Mishaps and Missteps instructional guides on how businesses can create a quick and easily executable one-page marketing plan and eliminate marketing mistakes. Her marcom business acumen, online and offline creates a distinctive and lasting presence that encourages and influences others worldwide.

Sherron communicated with us in advance of VenueConnect about some of her subject matter that you will not want to miss in Chicago.

Communication so often gets tossed around as some kind of generic word. How would you as an expert in this field provide a working definition of communication?

Communication can be simply described as a way to exchange meaning. Effective communication on the other hand is something I define very differently; it is when you have the ability to convey your intended message efficiently.

How did “The Marketing Whisperer” become your identification?

A colleague began calling me that because I helped her with some marketing anxiety she was experiencing and began to share the name with others. She said it was due to my uncanny ability to simplify marketing issues for her. It caught on so much that many potential clients would call me and ask for the marketing whisperer.

By the presentation title, we are guessing that response is a very important part of communication. Can you share more on that?

Communication is often taken for granted. People rarely assess how their response or interaction is vital to the demise or the enhancing of an interaction. Being mindful of our responses (whether non-verbal or verbal) allows us to be more keen in skillfully communicating in order to enhance our engagement with others and resolve conflicts quickly and successfully.

Another interesting word in the title is competent. How potentially damaging is it for someone to not have the necessary competencies to appropriately communicate?

Theorists often describe the term communication competence as “communicating in ways that are effective and appropriate.” Lacking this level of competence can be extremely damaging to if you are unable to do, causing things like poor conflict resolution and making it difficult for you to communicate with others or others to communicate with you.

Our members work in public assembly venues such as arenas, stadiums, convention centers, and performing arts theaters. They obviously have a great deal of interaction both internally with their staff and also with the guests who come to their venues. Is there anything that stands out unique about our particular membership and your presentation audience when it comes to communication?

I like to think of communication as a universal skill that all can benefit from. However, what stands out most to me for your specific audience, is that you all have the ability to have a consistent flow of communication practice both externally and internally. Remember “practice makes perfect” and communication is a learned skill that needs to be actively exercised in order to develop effective competencies required for excellent interactions.

What takeaway would you like attendees to have when they return home to their venues?

I want VenueConnect attendees to walk away with an increased ability to help them accurately respond in various situations and provide them with tactics to teach them open communication styles that lead to more successful outcomes.
​ ​

By Jennifer Norris, CVE

On June 27, more than 100 venue professionals and allied colleagues gathered at the SAP Center at San Jose for an IAVM Northern California Chapter meeting. We met at the arena in their BMW Lounge, which is also home to a fish tank containing tropical fish and three live sharks.

The meeting began midday with a delicious lunch provided by Aramark. There were three educational sessions. The first entitled: Security Gaps in Spectator for Sports Environments, featured Don Lapham, Director, Domestic Preparedness Support Initiative, Department of Defense, and Joshua B. Hill, Phd, an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at The University of Southern Mississippi. Don and Joshua spoke about a current collaboration focusing on safety and security vulnerabilities pre/during/post events, and how to use technology to strike a balance between ensuring everyone is safe and scaring the bejeezus out of attendees.

The second session was a presentation by Steve Clark, CRC (Certified Realtime Captioner), Manager of Home Team Captions (HTC), a Washington, D.C., based real-time captioning company. Steve shared information about ways to prove onsite and remote captioning for individuals and large groups in a variety of settings, including one-on-one settings and conferences, online webinars, civic settings, including live theater performances and commencement ceremonies, and onsite and remote stadium captioning for professional sports teams and universities.

The final presentation of the day was lead by the dynamic duo of Jessica Huang and Aubri Bryan from Expert Quote. Jessica and Aubri led an interactive discussion about the ins and outs of contractual risk transfer and reviewed in detail how to read an insurance certificate and more importantly why all this matters in today’s litigious world.

Jason Blackwell, Assistant General Manager at the Paramount Theatre Oakland, led a town hall meeting where attendees discussed the latest trends in clear bag policies expanding beyond large venues, creating dance space in fixed seating venues, multi-day power outages caused by intentional power shutdown to prevent fires, and cyber-security. At the end of the day participants partook of the wonderful hospitality of meeting hosts Steve Kirsner and Derek Michelson, who had arranged a wonderful happy hour and venue tour, but also a chance to stand on the ice.

This chapter meeting was made possible by a wonderful committed group of volunteers including Jennifer Norris, CVE, San Francisco War Memorial; Steve Kirsner and Derek Michelson, SAP Center San Jose; Courtney Egg, Lesher Center for the Arts; Mario Duran, Event Center at San Jose State University; Leticia Pena, San Jose Theaters; Andrew Shreve, The Cow Palace; Heather McAvoy, Schuler Shook; Leslee Stewart, Paramount Theatre; and Jenn Poret, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

Also essential to our successful meeting was the generous sponsorship of Aramark, SAP Center at San Jose, The Shalleck Collaborative, Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, Schuler Shook, SmartCity, Clos LaChance Vineyards, Fanatics, and accesso – ShoWare.

Photo by Brandon Magnus-Ledesma

Jennifer Norris, CVE, is Assistant Managing Director, San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center.

Family members of former New Orleans Mayor Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial joined Commissioners of the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority and a long list of state and local dignitaries on July 3 to unveil The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Tricentennial History Exhibit, a state-of-the-art interactive digital wall honoring the legacy of the former Mayor and celebrating the city’s more than 300 years of existence.

The permanent digital display, activated by motion-sensing cameras, is 28 feet wide and 13.5 feet tall made up of 42, 55” video screens. The exhibit is designed to showcase the city’s rich cultural and historic heritage dating back to its founding days through a timeline that explores the people, moments and places that shaped the city and made it the unique and diverse “gumbo pot” it is today. Through touch, visitors navigate a series of descriptions, factoids, photographs and suggested cultural destinations that offer interesting and uniquely New Orleans experiences to explore beyond the Convention Center.

Joining the former late Mayor’s wife, Mrs. Sybil Morial, former Mayor Marc Morial and other family members in commemorating the occasion were Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser, current Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Exhibition Hall Authority President Melvin Rodrigue, and Convention Center President Michael Sawaya.

“Dutch Morial was a fierce defender of equal rights and led successful court challenges that brought an end to many segregation policies in Louisiana,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards. “We owe him a debt of gratitude. He recognized the importance of young people and the need for them to participate in the political process. As a result of his fight, the voting age in Louisiana today is 18. Last year, I was happy to join the Morial family and state lawmakers in celebrating the 50 years since he was a member of the Louisiana Legislature. I know this new exhibit will be an excellent opportunity to learn more about his contributions to our state and how they are still impacting us for the better today.”

According to Exhibition Hall Authority President Rodrigue, “The digital experience is designed to give visitors a taste of New Orleans’ history through moving images which highlight key themes and moments that have made New Orleans the treasure it is. A primary theme reflects on the important African-American experience over three centuries, including the Morial family’s civic legacy and leadership as the visionary behind making our Convention Center the economic driver it is for our city and state today.”

One of New Orleans’ most accomplished and determined Mayors, Dutch Morial, secured the funding needed to develop a convention center that supports economic development and the creation of jobs for the City of New Orleans. Through its 35-year history, the Convention Center has created over $86 billion in economic impact, $5.6 billion in new tax revenue for the state and local governments and supports more than 22,690 jobs annually.

“On behalf of my entire family, I want to thank the Exhibition Authority for its extraordinary efforts to bring this beautiful and thoughtful exhibit to fruition,” said Sybil Morial. “Highlighting the passion and vision that Dutch had for the Convention Center project and the City’s future economic development, makes it exponentially more special. The iconic New Orleans Morial Convention Center is a fitting location for a permanent tricentennial exhibit that demonstrates to the world the unique culture, history and civic and business life of our 300-year-old city.”

The digital wall was commissioned by the Authority in 2018 and was created by world-renowned design studio Gallagher & Associates, whose work is featured at the National World War II Museum, International Spy Museum in Washington, DC and other prestigious museums around the world.

In addition to the interactive exhibit, the Exhibition Hall Authority announced the creation of The Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial Award in honor of Dutch’s legacy advancing economic development and small business growth for the City of New Orleans.

Jerry Seltzer, co-founder of Bay Area Seating Service (BASS) Tickets in the 1970s, a San Francisco Bay Area computerized ticket services, died on July 1 of pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 87. From 1983 to 1993, he was a vice president of sales and marketing for Ticketmaster. On his return to the Bay Area he joined Bonjourfleurette.com as marketing and sales director and COO. He co-founded the Sonoma Valley Film Festival (now Sonoma Filmfest) and served on a number of community boards, including the Bay Area American Red Cross, and he helped produce the 30th anniversary special for Cecil Williams Glide church. He later was employed by Brown Paper Tickets in sales.

As of mid-2010, Seltzer was serving as an advisor to gotdibbs.com and working as a volunteer consultant to new amateur roller derby leagues.

It is Seltzer’s involvement and formation of roller derby that he is perhaps best known. Seltzer said that his father had always wanted roller derby to be a legitimate sport, and to be in the Olympics, further adding that with the contemporary grassroots movement of roller derby, including the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), Modern Athletic Derby Endeavor (MADE) and USA Roller Sports (USARS), he thought roller derby could now be an Olympic sport. He is known as “The Commissioner” by some participants in modern roller derby.

“Jerry was one of kind. A man with a mission,” longtime friend Michael Coats told the Sonoma (CA) Index-Tribune’s Emily Charrier. “Whether roller derby, BASS Tickets or the Sonoma film festival, the man could put butts in the seats. Sonoma is a bit lighter today without him.”

Seltzer was a promoter deluxe, much of it due to roller derby, a sport invented by his father, Leo, in 1935. Jerry succeeded his dad in overseeing the league in 1959 and spearheaded a sport popular not just in the Bay Area but by that time fully across the country.

He produced the film “Derby” in 1970, and was featured in “Derby Baby,” a documentary he brought to the 2012 Sonoma International Film Festival, along with a dozen derby players. Nov. 18, 1985 was declared “Jerry Seltzer Day” in San Francisco due to his work with Thunder Road, a drug rehab for teenagers.

Professionally, he was a born promoter who knew how to build an audience. It began with roller derby. The sport was invented by his father, Leo, in 1935, as a cheap form of entertainment during the Depression. When Jerry took over the league in 1959, the sport was popular in the Bay Area but not especially well-known across the nation. Seltzer changed that.

Spreading like wildfire, roller derby was broadcast on more than 110 television networks and played 52 weeks a year, making it one of the most-watched sports of the era.

Personal confession: as a child it was on my must-watch list every Saturday night on Channel 11 at 11 p.m., with memories of those San Francisco Bay Area Bombers, the Detroit Devils, and so many other teams.

Seltzer and Harold Silen founded BASS in the 1970s and its computerized system gave purchasers the opportunity to buy tickets over the telephone. Seltzer later served as vice president of marketing and sales for Ticketmaster, helping it grow into the country’s largest ticketing agency.

Details have not been released for a private memorial that the family will schedule for a celebration of life for a man worth celebrating and who always celebrated others.

Stateside Foods has been announced as the new naming-rights partner of the 6,000-seat Bolton Arena, located in Middlebrook on the boundary between Horwich and Lostock in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, UK.

Stateside Foods has been a partner of the arena since 2013, with the venue having staged a number of the company’s events. The deal is effective immediately.

As part of the new agreement, Stateside Foods will benefit from branding across internal and external locations at the arena from mid-July. The partnership will also be promoted across digital platforms.

Stateside Foods employees and their families are also entitled to a fully-funded gym membership as part of the deal.

“The partnership with Stateside Foods has developed over the past six years,” said John Ashley, head of commercial at Bolton Arena. “By increasing their sponsorship to become the new naming rights partner, this demonstrates the benefits of our working relationship.

“Stateside Foods are one of the largest employers in the local area and we aim to assist them to enhance their brand awareness. With over one million visitors every year, the arena is the ideal platform for Stateside Foods to reach the local community.”

Bolton Arena opened in 2001 and hosted events during Manchester’s staging of the Commonwealth Games the following year. The venue has also hosted Davis Cup tennis matches in the past.