The Kentucky State Fair Board has undergone a new rebranding for its facilities and in-house produced events. Kentucky Venues is the new identity for the Kentucky Exposition Center, Kentucky International Convention Center, Kentucky State Fair, National Farm Machinery Show, North American International Livestock Exposition and Kentucky Hoopfest.

“This new brand identification more clearly states who we are and what we are: venues, events, entertainment and agriculture,” said President and CEO Jason Rittenberry. “Kentucky Venues plays a vital economic role in both the community and the Commonwealth. The rebranding includes the launch of a new name, logo and website, www.kyvenues.com.”

The Kentucky State Fair Board will continue to serve as the governing entity. Since the board was established in 1938 to produce the Kentucky State Fair, its business has grown to encompass two major convention facilities and in-house produced events – including the Kentucky State Fair, National Farm Machinery Show, North American International Livestock Exposition, Championship Tractor Pull, World’s Championship Horse Show, North American Championship Rode and Kentucky Hoopfest. These facilities are recognized as major economic drivers for the Commonwealth. An economic impact study from 2014 revealed that $483 million in annual economic impact stemmed from activities and events at the Kentucky Exposition Center and Kentucky International Convention Center.

“The agency is already recognized in the convention and tradeshow industry for operating major venues,” Rittenberry said. “But Kentucky Venues — and the renovation of the convention center — more strategically positions us to attract new business that wasn’t previously possible. The new brand also eliminates confusion arising over whether facilities are solely for Kentucky State Fair use.

“Kentucky Venues will remain true to the Kentucky State Fair Board’s mission: to advance Kentucky’s agriculture and tourism industries and economy while serving the entertainment, cultural and educational interests of the public. The new brand will enable us to achieve this more effectively and with more success, because Kentucky Venues clearly communicates who we are and what we do, and that’s a powerful tool in this competitive marketplace.”

By Paul Turner, CFE, CSSP

In January of this year AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, concluded its eighth NFL season. Since the stadium opened in June of 2009 as the new home of the Dallas Cowboys it has seen virtually every kind of event. Football, soccer, basketball, concerts, motor sports, conventions, gymnastics, the Super Bowl, the Final Four, the NBA All Star Game, the Academy of Country Music Awards, the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship game, WrestleMania, live opera simulcasts and even women’s championship bowling. We have packed a lot into our first several years and we have made a lot of progress in learning how guests experience the building and figuring out the best way to manage operations.

So as we ended the 2016 NFL season and moved through our series of dirt events (Monster Jam, Supercross, Pro Bull Riders, The American Rodeo), I took a moment for self-reflection. Opening a venue – especially a stadium and one of the magnitude of AT&T Stadium – has been an incredible experience. In those early days we struggled, quickly moving from one event to another without much time to sort things out or plan for the future. Our staff would long for the days when all of the hard-earned experience was behind us and we “settled in” to running the facility. We desperately wanted to master all aspects of event planning and stadium operations and deliver “perfect” experiences to our guests and clients. And through a lot of hard work, experimentation and some measure of luck, we have done pretty well. We are not perfect – and we never will be – but I believe that we are consistently delivering on the promises we have made to ownership, our season ticket holders, our guests who attend the myriad of events, and our event clients. We have been profitable and we have shown that AT&T Stadium is a valuable community asset for the City of Arlington and North Texas.

In June it will be AT&T Stadium’s 8th anniversary. Our schedule of future events is starting to look familiar. NFL games. College football. High school football. Concerts. Motorsports. Recurring private convention events. What was a few years ago a novelty and the “next big challenge” has the appearance of being routine. We have done it before. We have the records from past events to fall back on. It was great the last time we did it, so let’s just do that again.

As I sit back and reflect on the last eight years, I get worried. The confidence that has come with experience and success makes us ripe for complacency. And complacency is often the first ingredient in the recipe for failure. You get confident. That confidence builds comfort. Comfort saps energy. A lack of energy turns into a lack of action. A lack of action breeds decay. We need to fight complacency and ensure that all of the investment in effort and expertise that got us where we are propels us forward into a future filled with more success.

It’s time to fight the good fight. It’s time to get to work.

But this is a different kind of work. Instead of building, inventing, creating and putting into place all of the things we needed when AT&T Stadium first opened, it is now time to shift and become more analytical about our operation. We need to be more introspective and closely examine our status quo. We need to challenge all of the things we are doing today to make sure that they are the right thing to do, that we are doing it in the right way and that we are still working toward common goals.

Two weeks ago at my department staff meeting I challenged each person on our team. I told them that now was the time for them to look at their operation, tear it apart and find what needs revision, fixing, what needs to be thrown out and what needs to be reinvented. I told my team that we cannot assume that our operation is as good as we may think it is. We know we have “blind spots,” problem areas that are hard for us to see because we are so close to the work or because we make assumptions about how things are working. I told my team that at the next staff meeting I wanted each of them to report back to the group with a list of things that they were going to do to help reexamine, renew and recharge our operation. I asked each of them to look at the specific things in their area – the things that they are personally responsible for – and find projects that would help move our operation forward. I encouraged them to also look at the bigger picture. If there were things outside their role that needed attention, we needed to know that, too.

Last Tuesday we had our department meeting and each person shared their list to the group. I was really impressed. Each person had done a great job of identifying areas for improvement and specific actions that they can take to address a need. As we enter into a quieter time in our schedule, I am confident the time will be productive because each person has identified meaningful projects and is accountable to the entire department for getting things done.

So what is the lesson here? Well, I am betting that where I found myself and my team – on the edge of complacency – is where some other people may be (or they may be knee deep in complacency). My intent here is to provide encouragement to all to fight complacency and embark on a plan to critically examine your operation. Identify areas of improvement and opportunities for innovation. Many of these entail pure effort and not huge expenditures of cash. Have the courage to question all that you do. You may find yourself being validated (yes, this is the best way to do this and we are really good at doing it!). But you may also find there are areas of neglect, decay and waste that are corroding your work and your work environment. And what you take on does not have to be huge. You can take small, incremental steps toward improvement. The important thing is to fight complacency and get something done. You owe that to your organization. You owe that to the people you work with. But mostly, you owe it to yourself.

It’s time to fight the good fight. It’s time to get to work.

Paul Turner, CFE CSSP is Senior Director of Event Operations for the Dallas Cowboys and AT&T Stadium. He represents the Stadiums sector on the IAVM Board of Directors, is Chair of the Academy for Venue Safety & Security and is a Venue Management School faculty member. He can be reached at pturner@dallascowboys.net.

Please welcome our newest members who joined IAVM in February 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.

Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director of the Frank Erwin Center, John Graham, announced last week that he will retire from his position at the end of August 2017. Graham is only the second director of the Frank Erwin Center, following Dean Justice, CFE who opened the venue in 1977 at the University of Texas at Austin.

Graham got his start in the arena industry in 1980 as the events manager of Assembly Hall (now State Farm Center) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He spent nine years at Assembly Hall, working his way up to assistant director and then associate director, before moving to Austin to join the Frank Erwin Center as associate director in May 1989. He was then promoted to director in October 1990.

During Graham’s 28-year tenure, he was instrumental in bringing world renowned events to the Frank Erwin Center including the first ever WWF (now WWE) event in 1989, which was a sellout with approximately 17,000 fans in attendance, the Davis Cup quarterfinal between the U.S and Spain in 2011, two nights of Paul McCartney’s 2013 “Out There” tour, a project which took approximately two years to come to fruition, and most recently, the iHeartCountry Music Festival, which returns for its fourth year this May.

“I knew of John’s great work long before I became Men’s Athletics Director from attending events ranging from graduations and concerts to memorial services,” said Mike Perrin. “I’ve always had great admiration for how he managed the Erwin Center. Along with all of the Longhorn athletics events he’s overseen for decades in a first class fashion, he consistently attracts some of the finest entertainment available to our campus and the city of Austin. There’s always something special going on at the Erwin Center, and John and the staff do an amazing job of handling every detail so a variety of events can go off without a hitch. The quick turnaround between tightly scheduled events has always impressed me. Since becoming Men’s AD my appreciation for John and his service to our Athletics Department and University has only grown. We will miss him, his good humor and his positive presence, but I join his other admirers in wishing him the best in retirement.”

Former Chancellor of the University of Texas System Dr. William Cunningham remembers fully well the responsibilities that came along with Graham’s position.

“John Graham has one of the most difficult jobs at The University – managing the Frank Erwin Center,” Cunningham said. “He is responsible for the financial integrity of the Erwin Center, as well as maintaining an excellent relationship with the performers, staff, and patrons of the Erwin Center. John’s drive for excellence in all endeavors will be greatly missed at the University when he retires.”

Fitting for a program taking place on a college campus, when Russ Vandenberg, CFE, thinks of the IAVM Senior Executive Symposium (SES) that will be held on May 15-18 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, he thinks of the four-day school for senior-level venue managers and other individuals on a leadership track inside their organization in terms of college degrees.

“I had gone to the Venue Management School (VMS) and then the Graduate Institute (GI) and here comes the SES,” said Vandenberg, chair of the Board of Governors for the symposium. “I knew at that point that if VMS served as an undergraduate degree, then GI served as a graduate degree in my mind and SES had to be the PhD for the industry.”

After working his way through all three schools, Vandenberg graduated from SES in 2013. He began his Board of Governor chair service the next year and now sits as chair as he prepares for a seventh trip to Cornell. It is an experience he can’t get enough of.

“Every year I gain something more,” Vandenberg said. “I feel like I am a student all over again. You can’t absorb enough of this stuff. I feel so fortunate to have gone those many years. That probably isn’t the path for everybody, but when you believe in it so much you want to support it and give something back. I feel like that is my way of giving back to my association. I’m a cheerleader. I’m standing on top of the chair. For others who have gone through it, I haven’t heard a single person say that they regretted going. Not one person has said it is a waste of time or money.”

Carl Adkins certainly falls into that category. Adkins served as the long-time general manager of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and will serve as executive director for three mega-events coming to Atlanta over the next three years, including the 2019 Super Bowl at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Other major upcoming events include college football’s national championship game in January 2018 and the college basketball Final Four in April 2020. Officially, Adkins is executive director of the Atlanta Football Host Committee. Much of Adkins’ increased professional responsibilities has its roots in the SES.

“SES was such an excellent program I actually attended three times,” he said. “The first three years were so great that I worked hard to get on the Board of Governors so I could come back and go through the program again a few years later. Thanks to some term length quirks, I was fortunate enough to serve another three years including two years as Chair of the Board of Governors. I’ve always felt it was the best program in IAVM’s arsenal of offerings. There is the Ivy League faculty, incredible setting, intimate classroom environment and time to get away from the day-to-day grind and really THINK.  I would, and still do, tell folks they’re missing out on something special if they haven’t been.”’

Vandenberg agrees that SES serves as the pinnacle of IAVM programming.

“IAVM did it right when they put this program together,” he said. “They gave us an opportunity to put our skills to the test and apply it toward real-life experiences. Being in a small group was also very positive for me with just the interaction with students and the exchanging of ideas. That’s what IAVM is about, as well.”

Vandenberg has been in the industry since the 1980s and remembers those days when there was not a lot of professional education to be found in the industry.

“Other than district meetings, as they were called back then, and a few operational conferences, we really did not have a lot of programs around,” he said. “VMS came along in 1987 and was something I could not wait to do. I applied for a scholarship out of our district and fortunately was awarded it to go. Once I got a taste of seeing what others could do and how they did it, I was hungry and couldn’t wait for the next year. I am looking at the certificate on my wall right now. I graduated June 6, 1991.”

This year’s SES will have as the theme Leadership Culture For The Future. There will be focus on Diversity in the Workplace, Ethical Dimensions of Leadership, Loyalty & Brand Management, and Applied HR Strategies.

“The caliber of instructors is incredible,” said Vandenberg, general manager of the Seaside Civic & Convention Center in Seaside, Oregon. “You are in a setting with 50 to 75 senior executive and I don’t mean senior as in senior citizen but as in classifications. We’re talking fellow general managers and assistant general managers. It is not limited to that, either. There are a lot of people that work in other areas of facility management. It is sort of a final frontier as far as I am concerned for public facility managers. You don’t get better than this.”

Actually, you might. Vandenberg and his peers have often chatted about what really could be next on that distant frontier of learning.

“What’s beyond this?” he asked. “Everybody says, we don’t know, but people are starting to get hungry again for this kind of education. A lot of people like me who have gone through it wonder what is on the horizon. Why limit ourselves?”

For now, though, there is a March 15 deadline for applications to be accepted. Others will be honored later if space is still available.  For more information, click here.

IAVM wishes to also acknowledge others who take their valuable time to serve on the Board of Governors to help promote the very best in industry education. Those individuals are Lisanne Lewis, CFE – Vice Chair; Kathy Lowrey – Past Chair; Paul Broadhead; Kim Gallucci; Michael Garcia, CFE; Michael Johnson; Bill McDonald; and Anne Wheat, CVP.