The Shenyang New World EXPO in Liaoning province’s capital city of Shenyang crossed over into its second year of operations on March 1. The inaugural second year event will be the 20th China Northeast International Dental Equipment & Affiliated Facilities Exhibition Symposium on Oral Health to be held March 16th to 19th, organized by Liaoning North Exhibition Co., Ltd.

The major exhibition to follow March 23rd to 25th, the 2018 Northeast China AD Exhibition & 25th Liaoning AD/Sign/LED Lighting Expo, is scheduled to utilize all of EXPO’s rental space totalling 28,000 square meters (sqm) and will be organized by Shanghai Modern International Exhibition Co., Ltd.
Following a successful soft opening period during 2017 including nine major exhibitions attended by 1,729 exhibiting companies and over 220,000 visitors and guests, EXPO will begin year two by hosting three major recurrent events during March and April that were held in the same period in 2017.

Diane Chen, EXPO’s general manager, said: “The success of EXPO’s initial exhibitions during the first year and the interest created by the exhibitors and visitors alike ensure the ongoing potential of EXPO’s future exhibition business. Additionally, regional and national conferences are finding the venue most attractive. Its central business district location, direct link to the city’s METRO underground system, over 6,700 hotel rooms within three METRO stations of the venue, and state of the art facilities make EXPO one of the most sought after exhibition and conference venues in northeast China.”

EXPO opened over a year prior to the adjacent elements of the total project it anchors. That project consists of over 1.4 million sqm of construction space including two adjoining hotels, northeast China’s largest retail shopping mall, three residential towers and two future office towers. With the exception of the office towers and one of the hotels, all project elements will be open by the end of 2018.

Accordingly, EXPO has been operating in an extended soft opening period to accommodate the completion of the massive project that is fully funded and operated by New World China Land in association with affiliated operating companies of the New World Group in Hong Kong.

Cliff Wallace, chairman of Shenyang New World (Management) Ltd., said, “I remain confident that EXPO is a model venue for China’s second tier exhibition markets and will make significant contributions to the growth of Northeast China’s exhibition and meeting industry.”

Daktronics was asked by Western Kentucky University (WKU) to design, manufacture and install a new LED video display for L.T. Smith Stadium for football as well as two LED video displays for Diddle Arena for basketball. The installation will begin this spring to have the displays up and running for events in 2018.

“The new video boards at both of our venues will bring the most updated technology to our fans,” said Craig Biggs, WKU’s associate athletic director of facilities and administration. “We strive to bring the fans the best in-game experience and these upgrades will do that. We have had an over 25-year working partnership with Daktronics and they are the best in the business with their products and service. We look forward to continuing that partnership on this project and more in the future.”

The new end zone display for football will measure 32.5 feet high by 70 feet wide featuring a 15HD pixel layout. The new corner displays for basketball will measure 18 feet high by 44 feet wide featuring 10-millimeter line spacing. They will bring crisp, clear imagery with wide-angle visibility to fans in every seat at each venue.

These displays will feature variable content zoning allowing each to show one large image or to be divided into multiple windows to show all of the content fans crave, including live video, instant replays, up-to-the-minute statistics, graphics and animations, and sponsorship messages.

“The new displays for WKU will bring their fan experience to the next level,” said Kyle Adams, Daktronics regional manager. “The upgrade at football, basketball and soccer with LED technology and new audio system will give flexibility and ‘wow factor’ to all Hilltoppers events.”

Diddle Arena will receive a custom audio system from Daktronics. The audio system will be integrated with the video and scoring system to provide full-range sound reproduction while delivering clear and intelligible speech. This powerful system will combine with the displays to provide a dynamic audiovisual experience for Hilltopper fans.

Ungerboeck, a global market leader in venue and event management software, announced the integration of DocuSign with its event and venue management platform further helping customers transform their business by going fully digital. As the global standard for Digital Transaction Management (DTM) and eSignature, DocuSign is changing how business gets done by empowering anyone to transact anytime, anywhere, on any device – 100% digitally – with trust and confidence. The integration with DocuSign will enable the organizations in the events industry around the globe to close business faster with Ungerboeck.

“As we transform the events business around the world in over 50 countries and six languages, we needed an electronic signature partner with global reach. We’re proud to be working with DocuSign, as its secure, cloud-based platform is trusted by millions of companies and consumers around the world,” said Manish Chandak, President/CEO of Ungerboeck. “The Docusign partnership is a continuation of our mission to help our customers create a more seamless experience for their clients and improve their own efficiency.”

“Today’s news is exciting – and we’re thrilled that Ungerboeck is helping to bring the power of DocuSign’s DTM platform and eSignature solution to more companies around the world so they can achieve all of the benefits of the fully digital business,” said Mark Register, SVP of Business Development and Channels at DocuSign.

By leveraging Ungerboeck with DocuSign’s industry-leading DTM platform and eSignature solution, our customers can:

· Close business faster – Documents get completed and signed error free in minutes, dramatically accelerating cycle time to generate approvals – and revenue – sooner.

· Automate back-end document processing – DocuSign automatically pulls and updates information from Ungerboeck to eliminate manual rekeying of data and associated errors.

· Reduce operating costs – Reduce employee time spent preparing, sending, tracking, reconciling and handling documents, and eliminate costs associated with paper, ink, printing, faxing, scanning and overnighting documents.

· Increase customer satisfaction – DocuSign offers customers the convenience of signing agreements anytime, anywhere, on any device – including offline signing when Internet access isn’t available.

In 2017, the City of Houston hosted Super Bowl 51, weathered Hurricane Harvey, celebrated their first World Series Astros win and set another record-setting year in convention sales. Visit Houston announced for the third straight year, an unprecedented number of room nights tied to future conventions were booked in 2017. The sales team booked 429 conventions and meetings in 2017, representing 802,852 room nights, up from 765,401 room nights in 2016.

Key bookings attained in 2017 include the American Dental Association in 2022 and National Association of Realtors in 2025. Many of the citywide conventions secured in 2017 are first time bookings, thanks in large part to recent improvements that further showcase Houston as a world class destination. Houston First, which operates in partnership with the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau under the brand name “Visit Houston”, and that partnership is responsible for bringing conventions and tourism to the city.

The 2017 numbers were bolstered by a highly successful Super Bowl LI, renovation of the George R. Brown Convention Center, activation of Avenida Houston (downtown’s newest pedestrian-friendly entertainment district), along with new restaurants and hotels including the 1,000-room Marriott Marquis, which complements the 1,200-room Hilton Americas-Houston, both of which are connected to the GRB. Having two headquarter hotels, along with the boldly-redesigned walkable entertainment district provide the sales team with a much more attractive package to better compete with other cities for convention business.

“Our city is experiencing the return on investments in our convention district. More conventions and hotel room nights result in more jobs and an overall positive economic impact on Houston,” said Dawn Ullrich, retiring president and CEO of Houston First. “Our sales, events and services teams are to be commended for their tireless work to grow and strengthen Houston’s convention and meeting business.”

“When you consider where we were three years ago, the upward trend in room nights is even more impressive,” said Mike Waterman, president of Visit Houston. “Our sales team’s production jumped from 550,000 room nights in 2014 to more than 800,000, a 41 percent increase, surpassing our 2017 goal by more than fifty thousand room nights. Houston has spent the last several years improving our infrastructure to compete on a global scale. We are thrilled that our global profile as a destination is being solidified and we expect this positive momentum to continue to build.”

In addition to record convention sales, the organization’s website network, led by VisitHouston.com, logged 7.8 million visitors in 2017, up from 7.4 million in 2016. Global attention because of the Super Bowl and World Series combined with strategic marketing and public relations efforts resulted in more than 140 interviews and 434 positive articles, both domestic and international about Houston as a destination.

You, as an IAVM member, are our most important asset. Without your commitment to the association and to the venue management industry, we wouldn’t be here. Because of your support, we are featuring member profiles in our I Am Venue Management series. If you are interested in participating in the I Am Venue Management series, please visit http://www.iavm.org/i-am-venue-management-share-your-story.

If I wasn’t doing this I’d be a: Singer. I went to school for vocal performance and was convinced I would be a professional musician through most of my younger years. If I had it to do over again, I’d probably try to see that through.

Most impressive person I’ve ever met: This is so hard, because I’ve met so many impressive and inspiring people. Can I just indulge a short celebrity story instead? I rode in an elevator with Channing Tatum once, and after making some (very) small talk, he exited the elevator and said to me, “Later, Mama.” I was able to pick myself up off the floor about 15 minutes later.

I unwind by: Exercising. Gosh, I really hate when people say that, but it’s true at this point in my life.

On my desk right now is: More piles than I should probably admit to. Looking across them I can identify notes from our weekly staff meeting, a sales plan I have yet to review, a box of blank thank-you notes, and the latest Pollstar.

My favorite IAVM program/conference/event/session I ever attended was: ICMC (now GuestX) in Philadelphia, 2006. It was my first introduction to IAAM (at the time), and I was hooked. It’s strange that I don’t remember many names of people I met there, but I remember the buildings they worked at vividly.

If I were on the other side of the seats, I’d be a: Again, I’d probably be a performer. Although, I always liked the role of the production manager as well. Anything but stage manager. I did that for a couple of festivals early in my career, and it was brutal.

One trait an up-and-coming venue manager should have is: Curiosity. I actually think that’s something that has served me really well in my career. As I was getting started, I was always asking, what’s he doing? What’s she doing? How can I do that? How can I improve upon that? There hasn’t been a single piece of our industry that I haven’t wanted to learn and better understand, from media buying to basic refrigeration. You don’t truly know something until you’ve done it or experienced it yourself.

One up-and-coming venue star in the arena industry is (name/venue): Just one? Definitely keep your eyes open for Cassie Jones (New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center) and Justin Aquino (Utah Valley Convention Center).

One of my goals for this year is to: Help the IAVM Membership Committee achieve its objectives. I’m honored to serve as Chair this year, and the group has set some aggressive goals, including outlining a Group Membership category for our Allied members and reviewing and improving IAVM’s online educational content.

How do you plan to help elevate the profession? I hope I can elevate the profession by being an effective ambassador and educator. The economics of what we do is of course critical, and probably the most popular talking point, but our cultural presence is often equally important, especially in smaller markets. We have to exercise creativity in how we partner with local businesses and leaders with few resources. Some venues are important providers of diversity to their community in how their buildings are programmed. It’s important that everyone, inside and outside the profession, understand the gravity of the venue managers’ role as leaders and stewards.

Where do you see new growth opportunities in the profession? Innovation! Anyone that’s had a conversation with me about the industry over the last couple of years has probably heard my stump speech about the need for more practical innovation. How do we get to hands-free ticket scanning? Metal detectors that are actually part of a door frame? What’s the next big thing?

How do you stay current with industry trends and developments? In addition to the multiple ways IAVM keeps me connected, I love attending conferences and following industry trades. I have more Google Alerts than I can possibly read every day. But I do think the best stuff often comes from our clients. I ask them questions like, who’s doing the best pre-con? What’s the best event document you’ve seen from a venue? Best backstage catering presentation? I get some of my best inspiration from that feedback.

Who are three people you’d invite to a dinner party and why? Judy Garland, Janis Joplin, and Dave Grohl, because … well, could you imagine?