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.

The board of directors of San Diego Theatres, Inc (SDT) appointed Carol Wallace as Interim CEO of the organization which manages and operates San Diego Civic and Balboa Theatres.

“We are extremely excited to have Carol step in and serve to ensure that the San Diego Theatres continues to be successfully managed,” said San Diego Theatres Board Chair Jim Waring. “Her prior experience with our operation gives her an essential perspective that will allow her to hit the ground running as together we implement a strategic planning review of the organization that is focused on its mission of providing top tier leading performing arts for the region of San Diego and beyond.” The board anticipates beginning the search for a new CEO following the completion of the strategic planning process.

Wallace is the former president and CEO of the San Diego Convention Center Corporation (Corporation) which oversaw the operations of San Diego Theatres, Inc. until 2014 when it became an independent 501 (C)(3) non-profit. Wallace retired from the Corporation in 2016. She is a past IAVM president (chair) and also served as the Association’s interim CEO prior to the hiring of Brad Mayne, CVE.

“I am thrilled to support and advance the important work of San Diego Theatres and help the board as they begin their strategic planning process,” Wallace said. “San Diego Theatres is a critical part of our rich arts community and I am pleased to provide my services during this time of transition.”

San Diego Theatres (SDT) is a 501© (3) non-profit arts organization that successfully operates the Civic and Balboa Theatres in downtown San Diego. With an annual budget of approximately $8.1M, it serves more than 415,000 patrons annually through arts and entertainment presentations. SDT‘s revenues come primarily from ticket sales, rental fees, ticketing, professional services fees, and donations.

AEG Facilities recently received the 10th annual Los Angeles County Green Leadership Award for its “Next Level Sustainability” campaign at the city-owned Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC).

AEG Facilities was honored in the business/private sector category at the County of LA Board of Supervisors meeting during Earth Week. This award is the second sustainability recognition it has received in 2018 for managing the LACC, following the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA) in January.

“The County’s Green Leadership Awards honor commitment to environmental sustainability and remind us that we have to take steps, as individuals, to educate the next generation in ways they can reduce their carbon footprint,” said Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, Chair of the Board of Supervisors.

The “Next Level Sustainability” program was established to reduce the LACC’s carbon footprint, and elevate and expand the LACC’s sustainable practices across five areas – waste/recycling, energy/climate, water, purchasing and education/communication.

More than 30 environmentally friendly practices and procedures were implemented. Highlights include:

•Diverted 7.3 million pounds of construction and demolition waste from the landfill by educating event management, exhibitors, and contractors on more sustainable practices
•Replaced 2,146 LED lamps in all exhibit halls that is projected to save one million kilowatt hours per year
•Installed 710 low-flow 1.28 GPF toilet units, projected to decrease toilet water use by 20-25%
•30,000 square feet of turf were replaced with drought-tolerant landscaping, saving an estimated 320,000 gallons of water per year
•Executed sustainable product purchasing that now accounts for 80% of all ongoing consumables

“We hope to share our achievements with the community as a means of motivation and encouragement to keep working hard towards environmental protection and sustainability,” said Brad Gessner, senior vice president and General Manager at the LACC. “We are honored to be recognized by LA County and excited to continue to make our facility more sustainable.”

The Darwin Convention Centre was awarded winner of the Meeting Venue – 500 delegates or more category at the Northern Territory 2017 Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) Industry Awards, held in Darwin.

The MEA Industry Awards recognize excellence and best business practice in the Meetings & Events Industry. Finalists were assessed across a range of business criteria and the year in review, including their impact on the meetings and events industry as a whole.

Janet Hamilton, Darwin Convention Centre general manager, said, “Our passion is always to showcase the Darwin Convention Centre as a modern, world-class venue with outstanding dining experiences and exceptional service. Winning the award is a true testament to the hard work and dedication of the team.”

Beyond driving the business events industry, the Darwin Convention Centre is also a catalyst for innovation and economic growth in Australia’s Northern Territory. The centre draws industry leaders, innovators, scientists, and academics from all over the world to come and exchange ideas in Australia’s strategically located northern most capital city.

The Darwin Convention Centre is now a finalist for the National 2017 Meetings & Events Australia Industry Awards being held in Adelaide in May 2018.

Meeting & Events Australia is a national, independent not for profit organisation dedicated to servicing the needs of the meetings & events industry and promoting professionalism and excellence in all aspects of meetings and event management. It also promotes the value and effectiveness of meetings and events as an important high-yield sector of business travel and tourism.

Congratulations to our latest Certified Venue Professionals: David Cooper, CVP, Director of Facility Operations at Las Vegas Convention Center and Theresa Lloyd , CVP, Senior Manager Arena Events at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY. 

View all of our current CVP’s here.

Thanks to the generous funding and support from the IAVM Foundation, the CVP program was launched in August 2015 at VenueConnect in Baltimore. It recognizes the competence of middle-to-senior-level managers of public assembly venues as well as assisting the managers in creating a professional roadmap in the venue industry.

The CVP designation says three important things about an individual: he or she is a capable professional, is committed to the industry, and is pledged to continued professional growth and development. Venue professionals who earn the CVP designation are recognized, by those inside and outside the industry, as skilled in their profession.