As Hurricane Irma sets her sights on Region 5, know that all on the Region Board, as well as your colleagues throughout the association, IAVM leadership, and staff, are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers. Many of you have lived through previous storms and are no doubt prepared to tackle the inherent challenges. Know that you have a caring professional support group standing by to offer any assistance you might need. First and foremost, stay safe!

The IAVM staff have been in contact with emergency agencies, and have compiled the information below to help you and your immediate families, as you begin to prepare.  Know that we are here if you need anything, and encourage you to reach out to your fellow IAVM family through VenueNet, to let us know you are safe, as well as any immediate needs you may have.

Doug Booher, CFE, IAVM Chair of the Board

Todd Hunt, CFE, IAVM Region 5 Director

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Smart City Networks, the nation’s leading telecommunications provider for the convention industry, hosted Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday to review the communications infrastructure at the George R. Brown Convention Center and NRG Park.

“Smart City began in Houston more than 30 years ago,” said Mark Haley, President of Smart City Networks. “It was a top priority for us to keep emergency response teams and those affected connected when it matters the most. We had a productive meeting with Chairman Pai to give the FCC a thorough update on not only our efforts at our Houston facilities to support the local community, but also in how we design networks that work reliably for both tradeshows and unexpected events like Harvey.”

Telecommunication infrastructures at the George R. Brown Convention Center and NRG Park include automated redundancy and safeguards that have been built into the networks to ensure reliability in natural disasters such as Hurricane Harvey. Also, Smart City has opened up Wi-Fi throughout both facilities and have deployed telephones, internet drops, and power drops as required by city officials and the Red Cross.

In addition to the two shelters in Houston, Smart City has also played an essential role in telecommunication efforts at shelters opened in the Fort Worth Convention Center and the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas. Smart City provided Wi-Fi throughout both venues along with hardline phones, internet drops and VLAN connections for emergency responders and the Red Cross.

Boise Centre, Idaho’s premier convention venue, recently finished a three-year expansion project that added 36,000 square feet of meeting and event space in an effort to accommodate larger regional and national conventions and multiple events simultaneously. In total Boise Centre now offers 31 meeting rooms and 86,000 square feet of highly flexible space all featuring a modern and contemporary design.

On the heels of completion in early June, Boise Centre welcomed 1,500 public health officials to the Annual Conference of the Conference of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). Registrants included representatives from the U.S. and several countries from including, China, India and Sudan. Beverly Christner, Senior Director of Operations, CSTE applauded Boise Centre’s expansion by saying, “We have heard only positive comments on the accommodations at Boise Centre and the friendliness of its staff.”

“It has been exciting to see our expansion in use right away, with 1,500 delegates CSTE is the largest multi-day convention in Boise Centre’s 27-year history,” said Pat Rice, executive director of Boise Centre. “With the proven capability to accommodate conventions with over 1,000 attendees, we look forward to welcoming more national and international events of this size in the future.”

New spaces added during the expansion include a 14,000 square-foot ballroom with a spacious two-story glass enclosed lobby overlooking the city’s civic plaza and fountain, nine additional meeting rooms and a concourse to provide attendees convenient access between spaces. Many of the newly added rooms feature beautiful views of the nearby Boise Foothills or city skyline.

Custom chandeliers crafted from hand blown Italian glass were chosen for an artistic features in the new ballroom and two lobby spaces. A second 6,000 square-foot commercial kitchen was added during the expansion to serve a growing number of events and guests. High-efficiency lighting, a new sound system and wireless internet were installed in the expanded areas.

By Leah Shaw

The people of Houston are humbled and grateful for the overwhelming outpouring of kindness, prayers and relief efforts we have received from across the country/globe. Countless examples of the Heart of Houston emerged over the past week. The strength, resilience and genuine kindness displayed by friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and complete strangers truly encapsulate the spirit of this special city.

Visit Houston is especially proud of our six employees who expertly converted the George R. Brown Convention Center into a fully functioning emergency shelter, ready to take in community members within a mere 90 minutes of receiving the call to action. It is this passion, hard work and determination that gives us hope for the future of this great city.

“We are proud of the way Houstonians have rallied around one another to help their neighbors and their communities as we begin the long process of recovering and rebuilding. Houstonians are resilient and we’ll emerge from this stronger than ever,” says Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. “We are also encouraged by the business community’s commitment to helping Houston through this. As the flood waters recede and the airports begin to return to normal, we encourage our convention visitors to not cancel their plans, and we thank those conventions who have ensured us they are still coming. Your support is critical in helping Houston recover and rebuild.”

Hour by hour the landscape changes here, but progress is being made.

Visit Houston continues to work closely with all major hotels, restaurants and retailers in the area to obtain the status of their operations. Here is an update on key facilities as of last Friday:

•Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center (GRB) and surrounding campus, Avenida Houston, is currently fully functional and has sustained minimal damage. The GRB continues to serve as an emergency shelter. As of Friday, September 1, the GRB shelter population had dropped to just under 2,000, from its peak of over 10,000 and we expect this number to decline as we work swiftly with local and national agencies to find transitional housing for those sheltered in our facilities.

•We have communicated with all groups planning to use the GRB through this fall. At this time, five groups planning to use the GRB through Sept 14th have been rescheduled for later dates in 2017, and all others are currently on schedule as planned. Our current goal is to reopen with the Texas Society of Association Executives September 17-19. “We are grateful for the outpouring of support from the meetings and hospitality industry,” says John Solis, Senior VP of Sales. “As of this morning we have had no groups cancel their meetings for 2017, and we are confident we will meet, and in true Houston fashion, exceed their expectations.”

•According to the most recent reports, surrounding hotels in downtown Houston sustained minimal damage and are fully operational. According to the Hotel Lodging Association of Greater Houston, roughly 95% of hotels in and around the Greater Houston area are open for business.

•Both George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby Airports resumed limited domestic passenger airline operations on Thursday, Aug. 31, with the expectation to be fully operational next week.

“I am so proud of the Greater Houston community, the selfless desire to help each other is truly inspirational. Clearly hospitality is in our DNA,” says Mike Waterman, president of Visit Houston.

We understand the uncertainty this creates for so many who had plans to visit Houston. We have moved quickly from rescue to recovery and rebuilding. Many have asked, how can we help. We are in discussion with the hospitality community to set up a fund to help hospitality employees impacted by hurricane Harvey. We will provide that information as soon as we have it.

Leah Shaw is the public relations director of Visit Houston.

IAVM has always been more than an association. We are a family. When one of our members or member venues experiences something devastating, we all pull together as a community to help.

With the events of Hurricane Harvey unfolding over the past week, several members of our IAVM family in Southeast Texas and Louisiana have been hit with devastating floods and tornados. As we tend to do in this industry, our member venues have opened their doors to help evacuees in need of shelter. Members themselves have also offered services and assistance, as the number of those in need of assistance grows.

We understand that those of you in the effected area are focused on the guests in your facilities and cleaning up, because that is what we in this industry do…”just keep going on with the show.” However, we want to remind you that we are here for you, your staff members, and your immediate families. We want to encourage our members who need assistance, as well as those who would like to offer assistance, to post on IAVM’s internal discussion board platform, VenueNet.  While this tool is always helpful for information sharing among our members, it is an especially valuable resource in times of crisis.

We hope you will utilize VenueNet to let us help you in whatever way you need, or to simply keep in touch to let us know that you are OK. Our thoughts and prayers are with each of you.

Doug Booher, CFE | IAVM Chair of the Board

Kerry Painter, CFE, CEM, CMP | IAVM Region 6 Director