AEG Presents Rocky Mountains in partnership with DDM Presents announced a new collaboration with the Vail Valley Foundation to book the legendary Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater for the Whistle Pig Vail concert series.

The Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail, Colorado, is a spectacular outdoor venue that seats 1,265 guests in covered seating and an additional 1,300 on its expansive grassy hillside with a breathtaking view of the Rocky Mountains.

Each summer for the past 30 years, the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater has hosted an array of cultural and entertainment offerings, ranging from internationally renowned dance and music presentations, courtesy of the Vail Dance Festival, GoPro Mountain Games and Bravo! Vail, to the free weekly concerts of the Hot Summer Nights series. In addition, local chorale and theater presentations annually grace the Amphitheater stage, while headlining concerts round out the summer calendar.

Now, the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater will host headliner rock and pop music all summer long as the new Whistle Pig Vail concert series launches in 2018, with more detail on the artists and dates coming soon.

“Our Vail Valley community loves music, and we couldn’t be happier to be bringing incremental, great music offerings to the beautiful Ford Amphitheater with the help of a legendary group like AEG Presents Rocky Mountains,” said Mike Imhof, President and CEO of the Vail Valley Foundation. “Vail in Summer 2018 is going to be better than ever before, and will set the bar for many years to come in the mountain music scene.”

AEG Presents Rocky Mountains and its principals have a proven reputation of creating strong partnerships and developing successful content in venues including Red Rocks, Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, 1STBANK Center, Ogden Theatre, Bluebird Theater, Gothic Theatre, and more.

“The Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater is one of the most beautiful venues in the world and we can’t wait to help bring more world class music to the Colorado mountains with the Whistle Pig Vail concert series,” said Don Strasburg, CO-President, AEG Presents.

GuestX 2018 is proud to welcome Ruby Newell-Legner, CSP, a Fan Experience Expert with 7 Star Service in Littleton, Colorado to its Speaker Spotlight.

Founder of RubySpeaks (1994), Newell-Legner had a singular mission: to provide the hands-on training employees need to create a more customer-focused work environment where everyone can excel on the job. Over the last decade, she has presented more than 2300 programs in nine countries and has shown tens of thousands of participants how to quickly improve workplace performance. Now, with over 23 years as a fan experience expert, Newell-Legger will bring her experience in staff development programs from over 1000 businesses, including over 29 professional sports teams, to the table as she speaks on how Employee Engagement Comes Before Guest Experience at GuestX in Minneapolis, February 20-22.

“One of the most important elements that I do is start at the leadership level and help them identify their vision, making sure that they are very clear on what they want to stand for in regards to the customer connection experience,” stated Newell-Legger when asked how she would describe her roll as a fan experience expert to someone who may not be familiar with her field. “With that comes a framework that I have developed of seven things that lead into a high service level. The framework covers everything from understanding your customer to making sure that you have a really good onboarding program to orient your staff and invite them to be a part of that consumer experience. We start at the top so that everyone is on the same page, and then work with managers and directors to create a fan experience program for the primary staff. “

One of the things that attendees can expect to walk away with from Newell-Lenger’s session is the that motivating and engaging staff are the first steps to meeting organizational goals and ensuring guest satisfaction. ““Your staff are going to treat your customers as you treat your staff,” she stated. “So, if you want to show appreciation to your fans, you better show appreciation to your employees as well.”

Newell-Lenger finds that one way to show appreciation to your employees is to make sure that all staff are afforded professional development opportunities, like that which is provided by GuestX. “Customer service is the bread and butter of our field,” she noted. “GuestX will help to open them to new ideas. Expand upon what they have already learned, while also filling their knowledge buckets with more tools that they can take back to their employer to further develop and grow themselves and their organizations.”

In addition to her session on employee engagement, Newell-Legner will also lead a round table discussion at GuestX, as well as host a Guest X webinar on January 9^th at 4:30 EST on building a recognition program to motivate staff.

It’s not to late to register to see Newell-Legner at GuestX! Register today!

 

 

Please welcome our newest members who joined IAVM in December 2017. Thank you for being a part of the association!

Also, let us get to know you better by participating in the I Am Venue Management series. Please visit http://www.iavm.org/i-am-venue-management-share-your-story to share your story and photo.

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The wildfires that raced across southern California and resulted in hundreds of thousands of charred acres has simmered. For those who helped shelter not just displaced people but animals as well, the memories remain from an event that goes down as the third largest blaze in modern state history.

The Thomas Fire broke out on December 4 in Ventura County and destroyed multimillion-dollar homes and other structures before moving north along the coast to nearby Santa Barbara County. In

Ventura, the spread of the fire was too close for comfort for Loanne Wullaert, general manager of the Ventura Theater.

“The fire was just about two blocks away,” Wullaert said on the eve of a pre-Christmas Holiday sing-along that took place on December 22 to provide needed items and Christmas gifts to families that lost their homes. “We are at the bottom of the hillside, where there is us, a Starbucks, and a parking lot. The fire burned right down to that. It sort of hit the road and came very close to City Hall and an area where a lot of historical houses are.”

Wullaert said that donations flooded in for the sing-along to help make a season of stress and uncertainty a bit more bearable.

“We had all kinds of toys donated to us and I had like 200 Christmas stockings to give to families,” she said. “The sing-along was mostly people who work here. They dress up and a lot of kids come. Maybe it helps people forget they lost their house for just a while. The show was for the entire community but to benefit the families that have suffered through this.”

At the Del Mar Fairgrounds in nearby San Diego County, CEO/General Manager Tim Fennell opened his doors to take in more than 1,000 horses, along with goats, pigs, sheep, and donkeys.

“We got word of the wildfires and horses needing to be evacuated,” Fennell said. “About 250 of them were actually thoroughbreds from a training facility where half of it burned down and 46 horses were killed. We were up and running in about a week as an evacuation site. The majority of the horses have now moved out, and the ones that remain are the thoroughbreds. The training facility is using the fairgrounds as a training site as we speak and will be through the immediate future until they get back up and running.”

Fennell recalled that the Del Mar Fairgrounds took in more than 1,000 horses in 2003 from another major wildfire and yet another in 2007 when 2,600 large animals and 2,200 people took shelter at the venue.

“We were a major evacuation site for a good 10 days,” he said. “We don’t wait for people to designate us (as a shelter-in-place location). Since 2007 we made an agreement with the county that we would become an official evacuation site. But, again, even with that designation, we don’t wait for somebody to tell us to pull the plug. We just do it. It’s the right thing to do. We don’t worry about getting paid. We worry about taking care of the animals and the people.”

Wullaert and Fennell said that some events had to be moved on their respective calendars, but that there were no major disruptions.

“We were taking horses in on Thursday (December 7) and still had a holiday party that evening,” Fennell said. “That weekend we had a major sellout country and western concert in our arena. Was it an inconvenience? Probably so, but it’s what we do and we still continued to do our other events. We did the concert and had a gun show. We didn’t skip a beat. I have to applaud our team here and a lot of volunteers from the community. It was a huge community effort and very successful.”

For Wullaert, the wildfires brought back a very recent reminder of another natural disaster — Hurricane Harvey.

“When Harvey hit, I decided I wanted to take dog food to Texas,” she said. “I put a post on Facebook saying that I wanted to do that. The community brought trucks of dog food, clothes, and hygiene products. We took trucks and drove to Texas and when I got back the entire community here had filled the theater with so many donations that we had to get a semi to take it all to Port Arthur, Texas.

“That was just in September. When this happened the community responded so fast because it hit home. We had kind of a practice with Harvey. Everybody already knew what kinds of things people needed, so the response was great.”

Wullaert has been at her venue since 1997, and prior to that resided in Santa Barbara when a wildfire broke out there.

“They have lifted all the evacuations so everyone can go home now,” she said. “There are still hot spots that they will be dealing with this month, but the imminent threat is gone. It was terrible how many fires happened at the same time. The Del Mar one was brutal because of the horses. That was a very quiet moment when we heard about that.”

Wullaert said that her staff went to the Fairgrounds the first night of the fire to help evacuate the animals. “To see all the horses and animals they brought in and then you turn around and see the entire hillside right behind you in flames … it was definitely a shock.”

Through it all, the human response of helping those in need shined brightly, something public assembly venues handle very well. The needy are no longer strangers, but human beings needing help. The response is not just restricted to a community aiding a community, either, but a state helping a state, as Wullaert made clear.

“The 805 (area code) loves Texas,” she said. “I cried so much when I came home and saw all the donations for Texas.”

Texas has cried back for California.

Highly respected international entertainment and sports business executive Douglas Waller has been appointed to as Chief Operating Officer at the AEG Ogden-managed Dubai Arena, where his primary focus will be on the commercial and partnerships side of the business.

In announcing the appointment, Dubai Arena Chief Executive Guy Ngata said that Waller “brings significant experience at the highest levels of commercial partnerships negotiations and finance management to the venue.”

As a Vice President at International Management Group (IMG) for the past three years, Waller has worked closely with the organizers of the Expo 2020 Dubai to develop and execute a highly successful global sponsorship program. Prior to that appointment, Waller served as the head of Sponsorship and Licensing for the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai for five years where he was responsible for the sale of commercial rights and management of ICC’s key commercial relationships.

“Doug’s commercial experience and leadership in the sports and entertainment space together with his thoughtful decision making and proven leadership makes him a tremendous acquisition for the Dubai Arena team,” Ngata said. “In addition, his 10 years’ experience working and living in Dubai has given him a sound understanding of the local culture, not to mention a strong business network.”

Waller is looking forward to his new role and to be joining the AEG international family, from the beginning of 2018. “The entertainment and sports worlds are changing rapidly and the Dubai Arena will be a clear choice for new and exciting properties looking to enter or expand their presence in the MEA region,” he said. “The arena offers residents and visitors to Dubai a world class environment to experience live entertainment and sport, befitting a progressive and global city like Dubai. Through its sponsorship, digital media and hospitality offerings, the arena provides the Middle East business sector with an attractive asset for developing brand recognition and customer engagement. I am very excited to be joining a highly experienced leadership team that will support MERAAS in delivering this world-class facility to the people of Dubai and the entertainment capital of the Middle East.”

AEG Ogden will operate the 17,000-seat Dubai Arena on behalf of Meraas, a Dubai-based holding company committed to creating and delivering unique experiences. It is part of AEG Ogden’s growing network in the Asia Pacific region which includes arenas in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Newcastle and three in China, convention centers with entertainment theatre inclusions in Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Kuala Lumpur, and Oman, plus the 52,000-seat Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, and will be a valued addition to AEG Facilities’ family of 150-plus iconic venues worldwide.