After more than 25 years as the premier sports and entertainment venue in Salt Lake City, a new era at Vivint Smart Home Arena has begun with a $125 million renovation to enhance the guest experience on all six levels of the home of the Utah Jazz. As a community gathering place, the arena hosts more than 100 events annually with 1.8 million guests.

An illuminated navy, green and gold J-Note statue, measuring 14-feet high and 21-feet wide, welcomes visitors on the plaza before entering the 12,000-square-foot America First Atrium with an exclusive Jazz Team Store, redesigned lower and upper bowl concourses with new fully cushioned seats in the bowl, and destination dining restaurants.

While no events were held in the summer of 2017, the facility was still abuzz each day as more than 2,000 workers participated in the project, demolishing concrete walls, removing all the green plastic chairs and building new dining, club and social spaces. Salt Lake City-based Okland Construction served as the general contractor for the project with valuable work from 78 subcontractors.

The atrium is the location for the box office, Utah Jazz Team Store full of unique arena-only merchandise and memorabilia, and easy access to the Toyota Club on level two and the suites on level four. Concourse walls have been removed for the creation of a new porch that gives fans a full view of the lower bowl. What they’re seeing is an ocean of blue with the iconic green plastic chairs being replaced by fully-cushioned seats in both the lower and upper bowls.

Fans are able to taste another change. A multitude of food selections – more than 30 restaurants and vendors – have created destination dining with a lineup of new culinary choices. The four corners of the main concourse at Vivint Smart Home Arena feature specialty menus with barbecue from R&R, hand-tossed pizzas from Maxwell’s, Mexican food from El Chubasco, and gourmet hamburgers and signature beef sandwiches from Cubby’s.

Technology has also been deployed to enhance the guest experience through a new mobile Jazz + Vivint app, high-speed public Wi-Fi, cloud-based technology and predictive analytics. More than 400 televisions are located throughout the arena, providing information, directions and a constant eye on what’s happening on the stage or court.

Originally opened as the Delta Center on Oct. 7, 1991, the building was known as EnergySolutions Arena from Nov. 20, 2006 until being renamed Vivint Smart Home Arena as part of a 10-year agreement announced on Oct. 26, 2015.

Construction began on June 11, 1990 and was completed in record-time—15 months and 24 days later, at a cost of $66 million.

Our colleagues at IAFE have sent the below advocacy request. They are asking for assistance by February 8^th. Please note the pre-made letter may need to be altered per your venue type.  Message from IAFE:

Over the past few years you’ve heard quite often about the need of H2B visa workers for the mobile amusement and mobile concession operations. You’re very much aware that most of these businesses generally cannot find drug-free and eager workers from within the US to travel with them. If they don’t have the labor to operate at your fair, what are the consequences? Longer lines, shorter operating hours, or worse – no carnival at all?

Please welcome our newest members who joined IAVM in January 2018. 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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Join IAVM for the 93rd annual VenueConnect  Conference and Trade Show hosted at the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. VenueConnect hosts professionals from a spectrum of public assembly venues including arenas, convention centers, amphitheaters, fairgrounds, performing arts centers, stadiums, universities, and more. This is the only industry conference that inspires industry leaders, provides targeted education, and brings attendees together creating relationships that last a lifetime!

• This year IAVM has 100+ educational sessions available for you to choose from! VenueConnect offers tailored education developed by top industry leaders that align with your venue type.
• BootCamps are back, and with more options to choose from, they are even better than ever! These small-group sessions, held at venues across Toronto, will provide participants with an even greater understanding of venue-specific operations.
• Gain front row access to agents and promoters, and seize opportunities to bring new talent into your venue.
• Get access to the latest industry hot topics and trends.
• The Trade Show floor will feature Venue Chat education sessions, Agent Alley, Block Party, Career Center, food, drinks, & more!

• Multi-Registrant Member Discount! Register 5 or more Professional Members (Professional or Young Professional) on the same registration order and each registrant receives $100 discount…that’s a savings of at least $500!
• This year’s VenueConnect will now feature over 12 hours of Trade Show hours!
• Sector theaters have been added to provide attendees with an opportunity for additional networking with sector colleagues.
• You asked for it, and we delivered it! Not only have we increased the number of education sessions, but we have also lengthened some to allow more time for content coverage.

Don’t Delay!  Register now!!

An all-star panel moderated by Andy Jabbour, co-founder and managing director of The Gate 15 Company, is among the highlights at this year’s Academy for Venue Safety & Security (AVSS) taking place February 15-19 in Minneapolis. Jabbour will lead a discussion for a session titled “Current Topics in Venue & Event Safety and Security.” Panelists include Bill Flynn, president, Garda Risk Management; Doug Reynolds, security director, Mall of America; Dave Horsman, senior director of ballpark operations, Minnesota Twins Baseball Club; John Bonhage, special agent, FBI; Mike Christianson, protective security advisor, DHS; and Glenn Sanders, protective security advisor, DHS.

“We expect for this session to be as current and topical as possible,” Jabbour said. “We have folks who are really, really pros in this area. We will be getting perspectives from local to regional to national, from public to private, hometown security, physical security threats, cybersecurity at facilities, just lots of incredible and valuable information for attendees.”

Jabbour oversees team projects providing Gate 15’s threat-informed and risk based approach to analysis, preparedness and operations in support of private sector and government partners across the critical infrastructure environment, including support to the several information sharing and analysis centers. He also presently serves as a member of IAVM’s Venue Safety & Security Committee, as faculty for AVSS, as well as serving as on the InfraGardNCRBoard.

“We’ll talk about the big events that has gotten everyone’s attention, such as the tragedy in Las Vegas on the 1st of October,” Jabbour said. “It made the whole community stop and think about why this happened and how this happened. We’ll also talk a lot about some common concerns of low-tech terrorism and extremism that are more likely to be created around a facility.

“The implication is that most of the people attending won’t necessarily be dealing with a catastrophic incident like we saw in Las Vegas or the church shooting in (Sutherland Springs) Texas. It would be on a much smaller scale but still very impactful such as a deliberate vehicle ramming. Facility leaders need to look to their neighbors and related facilities to understand the importance of local coordination and to know what’s going on in the neighborhood. We’ll talk about all of that.”

Jabbour said that there is an increased integration of technology such as cybersecurity.

“You’re now blending your physical security person with a cybersecurity person,” he said. “It is important to understand this new blended environment and to try and gain an appreciation for these different disciplines that might be under your operations.”

The panel discussion will emphasis four main topics including Preparedness and Response, Hometown Security, Local Coordination, and Facility Cybersecurity. A Q&A session will follow the panel discussion.

“We want to help venues understand the threat environment, the risks to their facilities, and hopefully give them some nuggets to take away so that they can take action, whether that is a training program or some type of exercise or building a plan or reaching out to their neighborhood partners. We want them to walk out understanding the threat, appreciating the risk, and then go out and do something to get ahead of those concerns.”