By Maria Talbert, CVE

All of us know how important connections outside our own organizations are — you wouldn’t be on the IAVM.org website reading this blog if you didn’t believe in the importance of learning from others outside your venue.

There are a number of ways that our amazing association facilitates connections, but the Mentor Connector program offers something truly special: the structure and support it provides mentors and mentees helps to appropriately match individuals and provides them with tools to ensure that their discussions are as beneficial as possible.

The Mentor Connector program creates the opportunity for an industry professional to provide guidance and encouragement to a member who has an identified professional development need. Together, the mentor and mentee create a one-on-one, tailored 12-month program that focuses on improving the skill set of the mentee, enhancing the mentor’s contribution to the industry, and provides a forum for an exchange of ideas between both participants.

Indeed, we ALL have wisdom we can impart and things we can learn from each other, and it is important to know that you are never too young or too old to be EITHER a mentor or mentee.

The next round of mentor/mentee pairings will be completed by Wednesday, May 15, so the application deadline for the spring cycle is in just a few months: Tuesday, April 30.

For more information about this incredible program, visit here or feel free to reach out to me at mtalbert@indiana.edu.

Maria Talbert, CVE, serves as Managing Director at Indiana University Auditorium, a 3,200-seat theatre that has been a model of campus and community programming and engagement since it was built in 1941. She holds a master’s in Arts Administration from IU and has over 20 years of marketing, event, and venue management experience. When she’s not at the Auditorium, you can find her at Vibe Yoga, McCormick’s Creek State Park, or at home with her spouse, Brian, and their daughter, Emily.

Just as many IAVM members enter through the doors of World Headquarters and get a sense of how IAVM staff works for them, the favor is often returned when members serve as hosts to provide tours to IAVM staff to show how venues operate.

Staff was fortunate to receive such a tour on March 25 when Dave Brown, American Airlines Center/Center Operating Company Chief Operating Officer & General Manager, greeted the team from headquarters to provide a tour of the arena in Dallas that serves as home to the NBA Dallas Mavericks and NHL Dallas Stars.

Brown answered a series of questions as he led a tour that moved from the concourse level to suites to locker rooms and finally to indoor loading docks. Along the way, Brown recounted his own introduction to the venue that opened in 2001 at a cost of $420 million.

“Today, it would clearly cost more than $1 billion to build this,” Brown said.

Brown shared his career path working at nearby Reunion Arena as the sparkling American Airlines Center was being built under the auspices of Brad Mayne, CVE, now the IAVM president and CEO.

“I was fortunate to work with Brad for 16 years,” Brown said. “It was an interesting time because Brad and the finance team were officing nearby on Stemmons Freeway and I was in the bowels of Reunion Arena. We were scrambling and eventually got everybody under one roof.”

Brown shared some strategies for sponsor branding throughout the building, how over the years suites have evolved into smaller spaces, and even how the locker rooms for the hockey and basketball tenants differ.

“The hockey guys are seated at lockers so they all face in to each other,” Brown said. “They bleed and sweat together and that arrangement works for them.”

A few paces away is the showcase locker room for the Mavericks, complete with all the bells and whistles that owner Mark Cuban employs to give his team first-class treatment, complete with an under water treadmill.

Standing inside one of the arena’s signature dining areas, Brown was asked about his own favorite memory at the arena.

“It had to be getting the Eagles to open the building,” Brown said. “I was put in charge of finding someone to open the building and kept coming back to the Eagles. They had just gotten back together and I knew they would be the ‘wow” act.

“I contacted John Meglen (now co-CEO of Concerts West), who was tight with (band rep) Irving Azoff. They were touring in Europe. I gave John the date and he sent a note to Irving, who sent a fax back that simply said, ‘$5 million – Irving.’

“I was like, really? It might as well have been a billion. So I sent back an offer and we settled. I said that we could fly them back from Europe, so they cut some of their dates.

“I called (Mavs owner) Mark’s (Cuban) aviation guy, who told me the plane was not sea-worthy for a year. I called a contact at American Airlines. They said they didn’t have plans sitting around waiting to pick up bands.

“Finally, Irving said he would help, that they would fly commercial, but ‘You’ll have to (upon which Brown rubs his fingers together to make the money sign)’ …”

The afternoon’s education session complete, staffers left with a greater appreciation for IAVM members and the role they play at their venues. Call it an afternoon well spent.

IAVM is pleased to announce the launch of FM Encore, a digital quarterly magazine set to debut in April. Each issue of FM Encore will feature a specific industry topic that will be covered on every page of the magazine. For example, the initial issue will have a focus on safety and security with a series of articles on the topic written by industry-wide subject matter experts and IAVM members.

“There are many, many compelling topics in the public assembly venue industry that we address in every issue of Facility Manager magazine, but FM Encore will differ in that one primary topic will serve as an umbrella with a series of articles offering valuable content from cover to cover,” said R.V. Baugus, Facility Manager senior editor who assumes the same role with FM Encore.

IAVM sent a survey to members earlier this year to seek input on topics deemed important for FM Encore to consider covering. Not surprisingly, safety and security placed atop the responses.

“We wanted to make sure that with this being a start-up publication that we listened to our members and what they consider to be topic-worthy,” Baugus said. “Thanks to their strong input, we have able to develop a calendar for the first year’s editorial calendar.”

In addition to the Spring issue’s coverage of safety and security, additional issues will include: Operations/Guest Services (Summer), Security Technology/Cyber Security (Fall), and Diversity and Inclusion (Winter).

“Security is such a far-ranging topic that drilling down to cover the aspects of technology and cyber security made sense as its own stand-alone issue,” Baugus said.

“IAVM’s Allied members have been asking for an effective way to speak to a very targeted, specific audience, and FM Encore, our new quarterly digital magazine is the answer!” stated Becky Setterberg, IAVM director of sales. “Each edition of FM Encore has a specific single-focus topic, making it easy for advertisers to reach the right readership, the purchasers of their products and services. Advertisers can strategically place their brand and products directly in front of consumers, and make their message even more dynamic with the use of embedded videos, podcasts, animations, and direct links to advertiser assets with the use of the digital only format.” 

Be sure to look for your first issue delivered to your inbox in late April!

Please contact rv.baugus@iavm.org with any interest in contributing to future issues of FM Encore.

To learn more about advertising opportunities with the digital FM Encore, please contact Lori Harvey at lori.harvey@iavm.org. Mention this blog post, and receive a onetime 30% discount on your ad in the Spring!

What to Do When Things Go Wrong: A Five-Step Guide to Planning for and Surviving the Inevitable – and Coming Out Ahead, a new book by award-winning event producer Frank Supovitz, will be released by McGraw-Hill Education online and in bookstores on May 17, and available for download on Kindle on May 3, 2019. The book provides knowledge, insight, and prescriptive techniques to help business leaders and project managers navigate through crises large and small.

“We learn more from the things that go wrong than things that go right,” said Supovitz, CEO of Fast Traffic, an event management and consulting firm based in New York. “But, it’s a whole lot better to learn from the things that went wrong for someone else!” The book was inspired by the popular live program of the same name that Supovitz has presented to a wide range of companies, associations, and trade organizations since 2014.

Supovitz, who served more than 20 years combined as the head of events for the National Hockey League and National Football League, shares best practices for crisis management drawn from memorable stories and case studies based on his own challenges, as well as those faced by others in a variety of businesses and situations. Among the most recognizable and revealing stories explored in the book was his management of the team responsible for recovery during the Super Bowl Blackout. Award-winning correspondent Armen Keteyian, who was with Supovitz as a camera crew from 60 Minutes Sports captured the behind-the-scenes story of the blackout, wrote the foreword for What to Do When Things Go Wrong.

What to Do When Things Go Wrong provides the knowledge and insight needed to navigate through any problem. It shows how to think through the five stages of working through every project: Imagine, Prepare, Execute, Respond, and Evaluate.

Executives, managers, and personalities with exhaustive experience in managing tough situations have lavished praised What to Do When Things Go Wrong:

“Together we’ve been through countless political campaigns, The White House, and raising two daughters. Each had its unique challenges. We wish we would’ve had this book through it all. It’s genuinely applicable for every conceivable crisis; how to manage them, but more importantly, how to avoid them.” – James Carville & Mary Matalin

“In governing, managing major projects, and life, things will inevitably go wrong. Those best prepared for adjusting to the unexpected can not only recover but come out ahead. Very few people understand this better than Frank Supovitz. I watched first-hand how he handled major events like the Super Bowl and found this book to be a great entry point for people in business, event planning, or even politics.” – Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans, 2010-2018

“Supovitz’s breezy, personable, and often provocative storytelling style brings to life the more sobering and valuable lessons of avoiding and planning for crises, and then managing them when they happen anyway. What to Do When Things Go Wrong is a necessary read for anyone managing projects or people.” – Paul Tagliabue, NFL Commissioner, 1989-2006

“To you, Super Bowl Sunday may be a chance to gorge on guacamole. To Frank Supovitz, the Big Game is 1,327 disasters waiting to happen. In What to Do When Things Go Wrong, the NFL’s former Super Bowl Czar takes you behind the scenes at the world’s biggest sporting event. You get to laugh at Frank’s stories, learn from his mistakes, and most of all, develop the planning and management skills that will help you keep your next looming disaster at bay.” – Allen St. John, award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author of Newton’s Football and The Billion Dollar Game

Frank Supovitz previously wrote The Sports Event Management & Marketing Playbook (Wiley), the definitive go-to text used by professionals and top sport business university programs for more than a decade.

What to Do When Things Go Wrong is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com, bn.com, and other book retailers.

For more information on What to Do When Things Go Wrong, or to contact Frank Supovitz at Fast Traffic, please email info@fasttrafficevents.com.