After nine months of preparation, the team at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management) Limited (HML) took pride in the successful conclusion of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s Return to the Motherland, and the Inauguration of the Fifth Term Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attended by President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China.

HML is proud to have served the historic 1997 handover ceremony when Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty. With proven track record serving world-class events since then, the 950-member HML team again embraced challenges associated with extensive logistics and hospitality requirements.

Together with an additional 1,500 temporary supporting staff, HML provided professional support to the Hong Kong Government, including the Police, to ensure efficient, safe and comfortable setting for the Grand Variety Show, Flag Raising and Inaugural Ceremonies, fireworks display dinners and many related meetings during the three days on and before July 1, 2017.

Manchester Arena says it is “working extremely hard” to ensure it can reopen on time following the terrorist attack that claimed more than 20 lives in May.

SMG Europe, which operates the venue, is hopeful of work being completed in time for a John Legend concert on September 16. All events have been cancelled at the 21,000-capacity venue since the attack at an Ariana Grande concert in which a suicide bomber killed 22 adults and children and injured more than 250.

With the nail bomb used by terrorist Salman Abedi also causing major damage to the venue’s foyer, the operator has confirmed that repair work is now under way.

In an update, Manchester Arena officials said: “The renovation work has now started in the main public area outside the arena and we are working extremely hard to ensure our re-opening in early September.

“We will continue to keep you informed as much as possible on our official re-opening date and up and coming show information. We still have some great events to announce for 2017 and of course 2018. You can find all show information on our Event Calendar page.

“We also want to express our thanks to all those who have contacted us with their kind wishes and support. Our ongoing thoughts and prayers still remain with all those affected by the atrocity that happened.”

Concerts by Take That, Kings of Leon and Radiohead are among those to have been cancelled in the last two months. Artists including Metallica, Phil Collins and Little Mix are due to play Manchester Arena before the end of 2017.

By Sarah Britt

After a career of facility openings and expansions, one of our industry greats plans to hang up his radio, exchanging it for a fishing hat and retirement. Charles McKee Stone, known as Mack, will be retiring this June after 43 years in the industry.

With a brief stint in the tradeshow business, Mack has worked in five facilities, opening three and expanding two. Mack started his venue management career in his hometown of Greenwood, SC, where he opened the Greenwood Civic Center, and spent four years getting it off the ground. From there, Mack and his beautiful bride, Amy, moved to Myrtle Beach, SC, where he managed the Myrtle Beach Convention Center for five years, aiding in their expansion plans. In an industry based on relationships, it is no surprise that Mack was reached out to when plans to open a convention center in Chattanooga, TN took place. Five successful years later, the next call came from the Phoenix Civic Plaza, where he and Amy spent the next three years. In 1991, in a desire to move back South, Mack took a job producing tradeshows, where he spent the next 11 years.

There had been talk for years about opening a convention center in Columbia, SC, where Mack went to college and played football for the University of South Carolina. In 2002, the municipal partners pulled together and the center’s plans started to take shape. Steve Camp, who was brought in to help get the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center started, shared with the planning committee that he knew of the perfect start to the CMCC team. In 2003, Mack became the Vice President and General Manager of the empty plot of land that was to become the CMCC. He worked through design and construction of the facility, all while assembling his ideal staff (many of which are still with the building today).

The facility opened in 2004 and has flourished ever since. After 13 successful years, the CMCC has more demand than supply with plans of a possible expansion on the horizon. Mack will tell you, “There is nothing more fun than planning an expansion or opening a building,” and when asked how business is in Columbia, “We’ve gotten to be experts at fitting 10 pounds in a 5-pound bag.”

Notorious for his non-stop, hands-on ways, and unique sayings known as “Mackisms,” Mack’s love and knowledge of the industry is apparent within minutes of meeting him. In those crazy venue moments where we all think we’ve seen it all and something even stranger happens, he’ll tell you, “You just can’t make this stuff up. Don’t you just love show business?” He is also the first one on his hands and knees running power if needed, out in the street directing traffic, or greeting and directing attendees at the main entrance on busy days. When a client is having a stressful planning moment, they are “jumpier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” and when a room is set to maximum capacity, it “can’t fit another hominy grit” into it! He has been a mentor to almost every person who has had the honor of being on his team. Mack has always been very deliberate about passing on his knowledge attained over years of experience. He always encourages those pursing this career to get involved in IAVM and to get to know your peers.

As a person, Mack is one of a kind. He’s the type of friend that will go out of his way to do anything for you. He answers middle of the night distress calls, welcomes all to the building as if they were part of the family and depicts the definition of a southern gentleman. When asking his friends and colleagues, there is no one that deserves the opportunity to relax and enjoy life with his bride of 45 years more than Mack Stone. Congratulations Mack, we are all better having known you.

Sarah Britt is director of sales for the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, SC.

Prodigy Sports announced the appointment of Eric Staufer, CVP, as Vice President, Events for TD Garden in Boston.

Staufer most recently served as Division Manager, Event Services at Amway Center & Camping World Stadium. He joined the former Amway Arena in 2006, holding various positions such as Event Coordinator II and Event Supervisor. In 2010 he was named Assistant Event Manger, Booking at Amway Center & Camping World Stadium.

In his new role with TD Garden, Staufer will lead the overall strategy on event organization, which includes scheduling home games of the NHL’s Boston Bruins and the NBA’s Boston Celtics along with more than 200 other concerts, family shows and special events each year at TD Garden.

Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President of Business Operations, Staufer will focus on maximizing TD Garden’s calendar by negotiating, contracting, booking and scheduling high quality sports and entertainment events. In this role, Staufer is responsible for generating new business lines and assembling bids and proposals for up and coming special event opportunities. He will be the primary relationship manager for all new and pre-existing accounts, including the NHL and NBA. In support of the arena’s overarching business strategy, Staufer will collaborate and partner with departments across the company to ensure the maximization of revenue opportunities while increasing healthy brand awareness for TD Garden.

As the co-founder and managing director of The Gate 15 Company (Gate 15), based in Leesburg, Virginia, Andy Jabbour has been a supportive friend to IAVM in high-end safety and security information sharing, panel participation, conference participation, AVSS instructor and serving on the Venue Safety & Security Committee. Jabbour brings a wealth of knowledge from his perspective in leading his company’s risk management and critical infrastructure operations with focus on Information Sharing, Threat Analysis, and Operational Support & Preparedness Activities. He spent a few minutes recently sharing some of his work and specifically how it relates to IAVM and the public assembly venue management industry.

How did you get involved in your current field?

I started my professional career in the U.S. Army. I initially separated in 2004, was kindly called back … and then returned to work to civilian life as a contractor with Department of Defense and then at Homeland Security and the Office of Infrastructure Protection about 10 years ago. While there, I had the opportunity to lead and be a part of several teams in support of a variety of preparedness and operational activities – planning, training, exercises, and responding to real events like hurricanes and other incidents. I had the good fortune of being able to be a part of a lot of broad events bringing together entities from across the federal government and from the private sector critical infrastructure community. Through those experiences and relationships, I was able to go to work directly in the private sector information sharing and analysis community, where I first had the opportunity to meet IAVM during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. From those experiences and opportunities, I was able to bring some unique perspective and approaches together to what my teams are doing today to apply a “threat-informed, risk-based approach to analysis, preparedness and operations.”

How do public assembly venues differ from other types of facilities/structures that you work with in addressing safety and security?

There are obviously a lot of similarities – the general threats that are common across the Commercial Facilities and Transportation Sectors, and the increasing risks associated with technology we’re seeing in many facilities, for example. With the exception of transportation perhaps, there aren’t a lot of facilities that have as much exposure to low-tech terrorism attacks. While with the Public Assembly Subsector there are some facilities that are designed more securely or tend to have more security personnel present, from the mass gathering of people, easy pedestrian (and in some cases vehicle) access, and the design and construction of many of the venues themselves, public assembly venues have some challenging physical security requirements.

It might be natural to assume, for example, a stadium is at greater risk of an attack than, say, a performing arts center. Can you dispel that assumption?

Absolutely. A few weeks back, most wouldn’t have thought of the two UK attacks – the Manchester Arena at a pop singer’s concert and the London Bridge attacks – as highly likely. We tend to think of the higher profile events and facilities but we need to think from an attacker’s perspective. There are reasons why we’ve seen a shift in the Islamic State attacks from focusing on military and government facilities and targets toward civilians. While terrorists would love to attack a nuclear facility, we don’t see that. That’s largely because they want to be successful and know that they’ll get ample media attention and raise anxiety for the shock of their attacks – such as attacking young children in Manchester – and the success of the attack, meaning they want open, easy targets. A stadium may have some areas that are more vulnerable than others but it’s a harder target than a venue or facility where an attacker can relatively easily walk into a large crowd. I don’t want to promote types of attacks here but leaders need to think about things from an attacker’s perspective and should exercise those scenarios.

What are some new types of threats you see on your radar that our members should be aware?

I don’t know if there are a lot of new threats that are “real” – in the sense that we are anticipating attackers would use innovative tactics, techniques and procedures. Probably the biggest “new threats” come in the potential for employing drones into attacks on the physical side and in attacks that may focus on poorly secured facility technologies – new “smart,” Internet of Things (IoT) devices. More likely, we’ll continue to see facilities exposed to the enduring threats of low-tech terrorism and other Hostile Events (active shooters, workplace violence, etc.) and innovate ways to employ cyberattacks we’re already seeing elsewhere – such as innovative cyber extortion aimed at venues’ and other Commercial Facilities’ technology. But there are subtle changes that occur in how those attacks manifest themselves and leaders need to keep an active pulse on what is happening.

Could an incident like outside the Manchester Arena have been prevented? How or how not?

In some ways, sure; in other ways, not really. Physical attacks – those that are not common crime or acts of passion but terrorism or other deliberate attacks, tend to follow what we refer to as the Hostile Events Attack Cycle. That process allows for astute individuals, whether friends and family, that are seeing something that looks off in behaviors and activities, or venue personnel that observe an individual involved in suspicious behaviors to potentially disrupt plans for hostile activities. There are multiple points to see something that alerts them and to intervene, personally or by notifying the appropriate authorities or leaders, to frustrate plots and schemes. For them to do so, they need to be educated, trained, and able to act. On the other end, we can’t expect a zero-success environment for our adversaries. The reality is a determined attacker whose goal is to cause harm and fear can find ways to do so. Whether using a gun, a knife, a bomb, a car, a pipe, or other simple means, if someone wants to approach a crowd and hurt people, that is very hard to prevent. We can reduce risks through preparedness and equipment, we can push out perimeters and harden facilities but, 100% security is neither sustainable nor desirable. If events become so burdensome for patrons, they’ll stay home or find something else to do. It is important that leaders do everything they reasonably can with respect to their time and budgets to prepare and secure their facilities and personnel, but we can’t impose unreasonable expectations on them either. Leaders should be able to demonstrate a reasonable level of investment and preparedness in security and then do their best to manage whatever incidents may occur.

Any common words of advice or counsel for our members to remain vigilant?

The threat environment isn’t getting easier but don’t get overwhelmed. Take it seriously, not in fear but in a measured way. Develop a plan, and work on it in a sustainable, manageable way. Risk management – preparedness and security – is a lot like trying to get and stay healthy. If you’re coming out of winter and find you enjoyed a little more turkey and eggnog than you thought, you’re not going to trim up to your beach body in a week. It takes articulating a goal, developing a plan, and being serious in investing the time week in and week out to lose those pounds and harden that body. This is the same thing. If your risk management program is out of shape, don’t expect to be perfect tomorrow! Come up with some realistic goals, maybe some for now and some down the road, and develop a reasonable plan to achieve those goals by investing a little bit of time and resources in a sustainable approach.