VenueConnect 2018 is an outstanding opportunity to check one more item off your “Golf Bucket List.” We are sure that “Playing a Round of Golf in Canada” is on that list! On Sunday, July 22^nd, the annual IAVM Foundation Golf Tournament will tee off from Lionhead Golf and Country Club’s Masters Course, which is recognized as one of the most challenging courses in Ontario.

This year’s golf tournament continues the tradition of providing classic business development, networking, fun and philanthropy. The IAVM Foundation is the beneficiary of this event with all proceeds going to support our scholarships, awards, and educational programs that impact, develop, and inspire current and future leaders of IAVM.

As a participant of this event you will be able to meet some of this year’s scholarship recipients during the day. Please register soon to participate in this event.  There are only 120 spots for golfers, and they are filling up quickly. The IAVM Foundation Golf Tournament is an excellent way for Allied Members to showcase their companies by becoming a sponsor for the event.   Sponsors are invited to attend the event, whether they are golfing or not. Those who select our Flag and Tee Sponsorship will be able to meet every golfer as they play your hole.

The IAVM Foundation Golf Tournament is an anticipated annual tradition at VenueConnect. We look forward to seeing you at Lionhead Golf & Country Club in Ontario on July 22nd!

George John Smith, 83, of Rochester, died unexpectedly at his home on Saturday, April 28, 2018. George was born on Sept. 21, 1934, in Philadelphia, to John and Louise Smith.

George joined the Navy after high school, serving a tour in Korea. Following his time in the Navy, he moved to the Midwest with a group of close friends to attend Yankton College in South Dakota.

After college, he met his wife of 50 years, Joann. The two raised three daughters together. His career as a facility manager took the family throughout the Midwest including South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota.

Before retiring, George managed the Rochester Civic Center. During his retirement, he was an active member of his church, volunteered as a mediator, and served on the board for the Gift of Life Transplant House.

George was a devout Catholic, and his faith inspired him to help others. He is known for his storytelling and his sense of humor, something not lost on long-time colleague Roger Newton.

“George and I started working in Des Moines at the same time,” Newton said, “he as director of the brand new Des Moines Convention Center and me as GM of Veterans Auditorium.

“I learned after a few months that, well, George had more time on his hands than did I. George loved to talk and loved to tell stories. He would call me most afternoons to chat and I would usually have to end the conversation to call promoters to keep trying to book shows. I found out that George grew up with five sisters and he lived with his wife and his three girls. Poor guy couldn’t get words in growing up or at home, I surmised.

Newton said that his friend was also fond of merriment and jokes.

“George loved a good prank,” Newton said. “He, Dick Geyer, and Frank Jirik were always playing jokes on each other and one day Dick and Frank got George good. Apparently Dick had a local radio newsman in Rapid City make up a fake news story that Dick had been fired by the mayor for improprieties. He played the recording for Frank then Frank and Dick called George with the ‘bad news.’ After telling him they then played the ‘news’ story. George fell for it and after the call he immediately started calling several industry contacts to try to find his friend Dick another job. When Dick learned about George making all those calls he had to call George to let him know it was a joke.

“This was George. Loyal to friends and wanting to help. When I read about all his volunteer work in retirement I again thought this was so like George wanting to help others. RIP my friend. There are a lot more laughs in heaven now that you are there.”

Rex Post has been a part of the public assembly venue industry for a long time and knows seemingly everyone in the business. George Smith is one of those individuals he recalls with fondness.

“George after retiring was the volunteer’s volunteer in Rochester,” Post said. “He worked with the courts, his church, and with the Mayo Medical Center. George became a saint to the Post family when he took the time to sit with my older brother Bob during his bouts with esophageal cancer. He would sit with Bob to give my sister-in-law Verna a chance to take a break or get some rest during the months of this procedure. I happened to be able to take a few days in between Monster Truck dates in the upper Midwest and took time to spend with Bob and to take George out. I had to rassle the bill from him when we did go out for dinner. He insisted because I was in HIS TOWN. George even took the time to attend my brother’s funeral service years later which was a 200-mile round trip. Not sure if the Vatican would approved but he is SAINT UNCLE GEORGE in my family.”

Post also had another story to recall about his friend from an IAVM (then IAAM) annual conference.

“It was the annual conference in Minneapolis in 1994,” Post said. “It was after the golf tournament and Tom Powell’s softball game in the Metrodome. I was on the IR after the game due to some poor cart driving getting outta the facility so I was nursing a dislocated toe. Three of my mentors decided I needed to have some sustenance and liquid pain medication to dull the pain. The details will remain for another time since I believe the stattue of limitations might still be in play, but George Smith, Tom Powell and Don Sandefur, plus Tom’s wife, proceeded to take me to a nearby steak house. The waitress was given an order of every 20 minutes to refresh the table with beverages. The trio must have known there was an extra cask of Scotch on hand. After an hour, we decided we might be wise to order dinner and soon after Denzel Skinner joined us and needless to say it was a festive eve. The next day, George found me and had one question: Did we actually eat dinner?

“God bless George Smith and to those that showed others the way before him.”

Survivors include his wife, Joann; daughters, Laura of Edina, Brigid (Vic Russiff) of The Woodlands, Texas, and Margaret (Tom French) of Minnetonka. He was a loving grandfather to Noah and Sophie Russiff, and Owen and Jonah French. He is also survived by his two sisters, Stephanie Southrey and Ann Flamm of Philadelphia. He is preceded in death by his parents and three sisters.

The funeral for George will be at 4 p.m. Friday, May 4, at St. John the Evangelist church in Rochester with Visitation one hour before the service.

Coliseum – a top name in international stadium conferences – is coming to Detroit, Michigan with over 30 top international names in the sports venues business as speakers at the Coliseum Summit US 2018 on May 9-10, 2018.

“Coliseum is excited to be back in the sophisticated stadium business market of the USA,” said Michael Rennschmied, the CEO of MJR Group, the organizers of the event. “The conference program in the US is geared to meet the local demands of the stadium and arena business in the Americas and therefore completely different from the ones in the Middle East or Europe for example,” he added.

Some of the prominent names from the distinguished array of speakers include Tim Larkin (2026 United Bid Committee, US), Jim Renne (Rossetti, US), César O. Esparza (Monterrey Int. Stadium, Mexico), Bryan R. Sperber (ISM Raceway, US), David Harris (Optus Stadium, Australia), David Campbell (Geiger Engineers, US), Mike Lorenc (Google, US), Jim Willits (Chicago White Sox, US), Carlos Perez (LaLiga, Spain), Robert Jordan (Van Wagner Sports & Entmt., US), Jim Darrow (Detroit Tigers, US), Chris Moore (Meyer Sound, US), Brendan Russell (Tampa Bay Lightning, US), Tony Raubolt (KLA Laboratories, Inc., US), Michael Lussier (SHEERFILL, US), Brad Mayne (IAVM, US), Aran Rush (Sacramento Kings, US), Philipp Lehnert (Vector Foiltec, Germany), Darryl Dunn (Rose Bowl Operating Company, US), Ryan Gedney (HOK, US), Mike Cerha (Ottawa Sports and Entmt. Group, Canada), Scott Meyers (24/7 Software, US), Darren F. Johnson (Detroit Lions, US), Jared Kozinn (Detroit Lions, US), Truscott Miller (Miami Marlins, US), Steve Burgess (Series Seating, US), Gregory Six (AS Monaco, France), Alex Versen (Uber, US), Scott Kachelek (Philips, US), Rick Brenner (Michigan Int. Speedway, US), and Judith Grant Long (University of Michigan, US).

The speakers will share their unique case studies and experiences to throw light on the myriad of challenges faced by the sports venue sector and also deliberate upon the possible solutions.

Nearly 150 venue specialists have already registered to participate at the summit so far. “The delegates as well as speakers are from very well known clubs and venues and represent a range of new and under-renovation stadium projects,” Rennschmied said.

Coliseum summit offers a unique platform for experts from the stadium and sports venue business to come under a single roof to discuss the future of the sector. The conference is formatted to highlight 11 different segments of the stadium business, namely: venue design, construction, business, technology, education, green venues, operations, security, venue VIP, venue experience and destination.

Beginning this year, the conference has added two additional but crucial segments of broadcast strategy and brand development.

“No other conference has such a variety of topics covered,” Rennschmied said.

The sessions at Coliseum Summit US would highlight experiences and stadium projects in the US as well as from other regions of the world including Australia and China.

Participating delegates will also get unique ‘behind the scene’ experiences through two venue tours that would include the Little Caesars Arena Tour on May 8, a day ahead of the start of the summit; and also Ford Field Tour on May 9.

Conceived and executed by the MJR Group, Coliseum is a global series of stadium and arena business conferences, a sports venue news online-platform and an international publication dedicated to the various challenges of designing, constructing and operating of sports venues all around the world. It is the only global sports venues business summit with 5 dedicated stadium and arena conferences every year in 5 key regions in the world: Europe, US, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Latam.

For more information on Coliseum or the Global Stadium & Arena Business Conference, please visit http://www.coliseum-online.com/.

When Dr. Richard Peddie, best-selling author and the first president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment in 1998, stands before the audience at VenueConnect in Toronto on Wednesday, July 25, to present his Executive Track keynote on “Creating a Winning Culture,” there will no doubt be those who do NOT attend because they believe their workplace already has such a sterling culture and environment in place. Perhaps, but that is exactly why such individuals should plan to be in the session from 10:45 – 11:30 am.

“Standing still is not an option,” said Dr. Peddie, whose plaudits also include building Air Canada Centre, BMO Field, Maple Leaf Square and bringing Major League Soccer to Canada with the launch of Toronto FC. “”The world is moving constantly. What wins stadium of the year or arena of the year one year within a couple of years could be way behind. It takes an attitude that you are always looking to improve.”

Dr. Peddie provided an example with the local MLS team. “We always challenged our F&B with the other teams where I was involved, but when we got a soccer franchise I challenged them to come up with a menu that is very international to reflect the fact that football — soccer — is the No. 1 sport in the world. They responded and came up with some pretty crazy ideas.”

The very nature of sports teams dictates that at the end of the year there will be one crowned champion and a number of “runner-ups” who fell short of the ultimate goal. Dr. Peddie noted that obviously every team wants to be a winner, and while it is not possible all the time on the pitch, field, or court, that does not mean that the other aspects or arenas of the venue should fall short of meeting customer expectations.

“Everything is pretty much a meritocracy, and no more so than in sports,” he said. “In most major sports you have 29 losers and one winner. There can be more winners on the business side, the arena side, the venue side. A winning organization wants to be a wining organization and one that attracts and retains people. If you have a good culture that pushes winning with values, you’re going to have more success. When we talk about the whole culture of winning, I am not talking about winning at all costs. There are too many examples of individuals who have done that in sports, but their values were horrible and eventually they are caught. I believe that having a value space in an organization creates a great culture and a great winning organization.”

Dr. Peddie said that much of his session will focus on vision and values, which he calls “the cornerstone of all my leadership pitches.”

“You have to have those in place,” he said. “They have to be the lens you evaluate everything through. For instance, one of our values at Maple Leaf Sports was to excite every fan. In our vision and values statements were 18 words, a far cry from most places that have about 200 words. I always told our full-time and part-time people to excite every fan. You did that through great food and beverage, great service, and really solid on-court or on-ice entertainment. Of course, you ideally did it with the team’s too, but our people were empowered to excite every fan. If that meant that if someone drops a hot dog and you see that happen, you replace the hot dog. It’s giving great service, making sure the place is clean and fresh.”

Dr. Peddie said that he is also a strong advocate of best practices. “Other people call it legitimate plagiarism,” he said with a laugh. “One of the benefits of going to a conference like this is if someone is really smart and has their antenna up, they are not talking a lot but asking a lot of questions.”

Using another example, Dr. Peddie said that when he was chosen to bring a basketball team to Toronto in 1993, he went and toured 20 of the 28 NBA arenas and took notes.

“There are things at Air Canada Centre that I picked up from other buildings,” he said. “I was recently at the new NBA arena in Detroit (Little Caesars Arena) and that place … I mean, if I was building an arena today I told Tom Wilson (president and CEO of Olympia Entertainment) that I would steal so many of your ideas! I had a 41-year career but not sure how many good ideas I had. I was smart enough to see other people’s good ideas and modify them a bit for my marketplace. I told him that they were Air Canada Centre on steroids!”

But even a sparkling new venue must guard against complacency to maintain a winning culture.

“There is always a chance that you get stagnant,” Dr. Peddie said, “and you start resting on your laurels. The world moves too quickly that you will be passed by. Once you lose that momentum there is something called the Sigmoid Curve. It is used in business and shows a curve that goes up and goes to the top. Once there, are you going to go over the top of the hill and start sliding down or are you going to use the top of that hill to spin off into another direction? That’s a challenge.

“We did a strategic plan with our own business and knew we could not stand still. Our owners wanted to see increases in enterprise value and we wanted to be an exception place to work and attract the best people. That’s what best practices can do for you.”

Visit VenueConnect 2018 for more.

By Jennifer Norris

Hosting a Chapter Meeting is like throwing a party for your venue colleagues. It is fun and gratifying. It is a way to work quickly and effectively with a local team of venue management volunteers. Chapter meetings provide opportunities to develop your leadership and public speaking skills. You have a lot of sovereignty to make the meeting what you want and develop educational content that suits you.

Our recent Northern California meeting started with lunch and ended with Happy Hour and included venue tours. We also did a short business meeting. With three full educational sessions, we were already content rich, so we chose not to do a full town hall, but anything is possible. Some chapters meet 10 am – 3 pm, while others like ours meet noon – 6pm to allow people drive time.

IAVM HQ will support you along the way with information and resources. In working together to create the meeting, you will make a bunch of new venue management friends. You will be helping to expand and diversify the leadership of IAVM.

Secrets to Success
• Use the IAVM How to Host a Meeting as a resource
• Use IAVM HQ as a resource for:
o IAVM website to post meeting registration link, agenda, directions, etc.
o list of current members and non-members in your area
o registration services
o IAVM collateral to have at your meeting
• Create a committee of willing volunteers, and make it diverse in terms of sectors, gender, and make room for everyone who is able. Don’t go only to the tried and true volunteers or your friends, but widen the net and be inclusive. I found my volunteers by sending an email inquiry to the IAVM members in my area (got email addresses from HQ). At least eight people is optimal.
• Get buy-in, from potential attendees, numerous times in the process:
o Poll the members for volunteers
o Send a poll to members to select the best date (list dates the venue is available)
o Send a save the date as soon as date and location is selected
• Plan on 2.5 to 3 months from first phone meeting to event date. Meet by phone with your committee once every two weeks. Use this time to choose topics and set agenda. Review sponsor giving levels. Discuss panelists. Divvy up the work.
• Divide and conquer! Decide on responsibility for tasks, encourage committee members to use their colleagues to complete tasks so that we are mentoring volunteerism and reducing our own work loads. Make sure everyone has a task.
o Session Champions (1 or 2 people working on each session)
o Meal Team – gets quotes from caterers, choose menus, negotiates in-kind donations, handles linens, etc.
o Graphics Guru – creates visuals such as save the date, creates basic support slides and compiles PPT or Prezy presentations from presenters
o Sponsorship Team – (1 or 2 people) Creates the giving levels, send solicitations, tracks solicitation promises and fulfillment, communicates with region treasurer about invoicing sponsors and making sure payments are received and acknowledged
o Logistics – lay-outs agenda, room set-ups, run of show and event timelines

For a complete Chapter Meetings overview and how to get one started in your area, click here.

Jennifer Norris is assistant managing director of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center.