Iowa-based venue management company VenuWorks and Ungerboeck announced a strategic partnership to bring Ungerboeck’s world-leading venue management platform to VenuWorks’ roster of venues, enabling a higher level of sophistication and standardization across all venues in their management network.

VenuWorks manages venues across the United States—from arenas and theatres to convention centers and outdoor spaces, all on behalf of its clients. By partnering with Ungerboeck, VenuWorks bolsters its ability to maximize venue utilization and reduce both direct and indirect operating costs through real-time key performance metric reporting.

As a result of the partnership, VenuWorks will become the first private management company to fully consolidate into one system all customer relationship management, sales, forecasting, event management, customer service, operations and complete audit ready financial accounting, analysis, and reporting. With the click of a button, Ungerboeck platform’s data will empower each venue’s management and staff to quickly make the best business decisions for the city and promoter, meeting planner, exhibitor, and attendee guests.

“We are thrilled to partner with Ungerboeck,” said Steve Peters, CVE, founder and president of VenuWorks. “From booking to balance sheet, each venue will operate on a single solution that houses all promoter, sponsor, planner and exhibitor, and financial information.”

Manish Chandak, President/CEO of Ungerboeck added, “Security and efficiency and visitor experience are major drivers for venue management today. With this partnership, VenuWorks is now best positioned to align its end-to-end venue management expertise with our unified software platform and industry best practices. We wish them well on new acquisitions and driving efficiency in their existing operations.”

EventBooking was named the winner of a Bronze Stevie® Award through the Annual American Business Awards, in the Communications / PR Campaign of the Year category. Their winning PR Campaign was the unique Road to VenueConnect road trip, in which three staff members toured the nation in an RV to have face-to-face discussions with venue professionals in 18 marquee venues across the country. At each of the 18 stops, EventBooking facilitated round-table discussions to explore how they could further evolve their software to be a “dream tool” for those in the venue and events industry. The trip ended at IAVM’s VenueConnect 2017 in Nashville and was covered by the touring group in Facility Manager magazine.

A division within the Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards are the United States’ premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the country were eligible to submit nominations for the awards that were presented in June at a gala ceremony at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.

More than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories, including Best New Product or Service of the Year, Marketing Campaign of the Year, Live Event of the Year, and App of the Year, among others.

The idea for the Road to VenueConnect campaign evolved into a mission to interact with as many venue professionals as possible, with the intent to build stronger relationships through learning more about any needs EventBooking could possibly meet. Founder and CEO John Platillero elaborated on this mission, stating, “As a venue software company, we were curious: What issues do people have day-to-day as they run their venue? How does venue technology currently help them in their job? What sort of advancements in venue technology could alleviate those? Far from a sales pitch of any kind, we wanted to recognize the hard-working people of the events industry and facilitate discussions—discussions that would give EventBooking more insight as to how we could make their jobs more seamless.”

More than 40 pages of notes were collected as a result of hearing feedback from over 150 venue professionals. All notes were organized, archived, and presented to the EventBooking software development team so the most popular ideas could be acted upon / programmed into the software. Media coverage of the journey included the four-page feature article in Facility Manager Magazine, an online feature in IQ Magazine, a live guest appearance on IAVM’s monthly podcast The Venue, as well as a 20-minute speaking opportunity on the IAVM trade show floor as part of VenueChat.

To select this year’s Stevie Award winners, more than 200 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process. The Road to VenueConnect garnered multiple comments from the anonymous judges, such as:

“Amazing idea and great initiative. Technology has made life easier but greatly reduced face-to-face contact, which is so very important. Great job guys.”

“I’m a big believer in the value of face-to-face meetings with customers, and this sounds like an excellent way to connect with customers, capture market intelligence, and generate publicity in one fell swoop.”

Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards, stated that the nominations submitted for The 2018 American Business Awards were “outstanding,” and, “the competition was intense. Those recognized as Stevie Award winners should be immensely proud of this accomplishment.” Details about The American Business Awards and the list of 2018 Stevie winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

AEG Facilities announced that the City of Glendale has extended the company’s contract to manage Gila River Arena, home of the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, for an additional five years through June 30, 2026.

“AEG Facilities has done an exceptional job of overseeing all aspects of the operation of the Gila River Arena,” said Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps. “From day one, AEG Facilities has provided the arena the best set of resources, operational expertise and economic vision to further the venue’s outstanding reputation. Through our partnership with AEG, we have clearly established Gila River Arena as one of the most important arenas in the region.”

In its two years of partnership with the City of Glendale for management of the arena, AEG Facilities has led the way in securing content such as the return of Professional Bull Riders (PBR) and UFC to the market as well as stops on acclaimed global tours such as Coldplay, Pink, Elton John, Drake, Sam Smith, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Roger Waters, Queen, WWE, Chainsmokers, Panic! at the Disco, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Just this past year alone, the Gila River Arena hosted more concerts, sold more tickets, and accumulated the highest gross ticket sales at the venue since 2009.

“We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with the City of Glendale for years to come,” said Dale Adams, general manager, Gila River Arena and vice president event development, AEG Facilities. “Gila River Arena is a first-class venue that continues to attract the most popular events on tour today.”

AEG Facilities has managed the Gila River Arena’s operations since 2016. During that time, the company has provided such services as event programming and content development, purchasing, vendor venue services, advertising, marketing, and event-day operations for the arena. Additionally, AEG Facilities has implemented its industry-leading proprietary initiatives at Gila River Arena including AEG S.A.F.E., AEG 1Source, AEG 1EARTH, AEG 1Force, AEG Encore, and AEG Energy Services.

Glendale’s Gila River Arena anchors by the Westgate Entertainment District and is also adjacent to the University of Phoenix Stadium.

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management) Limited (“HML”) is committed to sustainability and strives to be at the forefront of a more sustainable event industry. To this end, HML has introduced a new sustainability initiative under the slogan “Think Before Plastic,” with a series of new measures being rolled out from the start of its new fiscal year on July 1, 2018.

One such measure is the replacement of plastic disposable cutlery with non-plastic alternatives at all HKCEC restaurant outlets and concession stands. Plastic straws are also no longer provided, with paper straws available upon request. As a result of these measures, HML expects to cut out the use of over 1,300,000 pieces of plastic disposable cutlery and more than 330,000 plastic straws in 12 months.

HML has also discontinued the sale of plastic bottled beverages from all vending machines for staff members and contractors working in back of house areas.

Community engagement is important to the success of any sustainability initiative. HML is therefore encouraging visitors and event attendees to bring their own bottles when attending events at the HKCEC, and to make use of the 18 water fountains in the HKCEC for free refills. Of these water fountains, 13 are located inside the exhibition halls, four are in the corridors of meeting rooms, and one is located in the back of house area for the use of staff members and contractors. To promote the water fountains, prominent signs have been added in exhibition halls and meeting room corridors.

Monica Lee-Müller, HML’s managing director and also the primary driver of the “Think Before Plastic” initiative, said, “All of us – venue operators, event organisers, exhibitors, buyers, visitors, event attendees, dining guests – have a responsibility towards our environment. HML is striving to be at the forefront of a greener event industry, and one way we are doing this is by encouraging our customers, event organisers, contractors, suppliers, and stakeholders, as well as other event industry players, to think before using disposable plastic items.

“Cutting out disposable plastic cutlery and plastic straws is only the beginning, though. We are continuing to work on sourcing non-disposable plastic alternatives for various other items, such as meal boxes and cup lids.”

HML was the first organisation in Hong Kong to achieve ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Management System recognition. This certification recognises that HML has fully incorporated the concept of sustainability into the entire event management cycle, including its operation procedures and guidelines.

One of Western Australia’s leading media and communications professionals, Graham Mason, has been appointed to the newly created role of Head of Media, Communications and Government Relations at Optus Stadium.

In this role, Mason will help build and maintain the reputation of Optus Stadium and its Operator, VenuesLive WA, leading the day-to-day management of key media and government relationships.

Mason boasts an outstanding CV covering more than 20 years media and government experience, including significant positions in the West Australian media industry across Seven West and 6PR. He also spent a number of years as a senior member of the media team within the former State Government and joins Optus Stadium most recently from NBN Co.

“We are delighted that Graham will be joining the Optus Stadium and VenuesLive WA team,” said Mike McKenna, Optus Stadium CEO. “He has an outstanding CV with a background and skillset that will add significant value to our talented team. With over one million fans having already attended events during the first six months of operations, the second half of the year is proving equally successful. 2019 is just around the corner and it’s going to be another exciting year for the stadium with a fantastic calendar of world-class events already secured. It is certainly an exciting time to join the team and we are looking forward to Graham commencing in mid-August.”

“In a very short time, Optus Stadium has become an iconic landmark in Western Australia,” Mason said. “Becoming part of the team that is managing this spectacular stadium is a privilege and I already look forward an exciting year ahead of world class events and showcasing Western Australia to the world via this magnificent venue.”

VenuesLive WA was appointed by the State Government as Operator of Optus Stadium in June 2016. The team boasts over 80 permanent staff with a further 2,500 casual staff who support event day operations.