Like a bunch of Walking Dead zombies, people are leaving their desks, walking around downtowns, searching for tiny monsters. Pokémon Go is the most popular app in years, and it’s causing everything from car wrecks (please don’t Poke and drive) to finding dead bodies. You thought Twitter brought the world together. Nope. It’s Pokémon Go.

You might be saying, “I’m in a venue, what does this have to do with me?” Fair question, to which I respond, “You have tiny monsters in your venue and people are going to visit you to capture them.”

“America’s stadiums are proving to be a rich hunting ground for those players who are doing their best to catch ‘em all,” Sports Illustrated reported. “So far fans and teams have posted screenshots with all manner of Pokémon appearing in the home turf of the Panthers, Brewers, Redskins and more.”

One venue is capitalizing on the app, which is being used an average of 43 minutes and 23 seconds a day, according to data from SimilarWeb.

The Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) in North Carolina plans to sell $5 tickets for gamers to search for the monsters in its stands, seats, and empty field from 11 a.m to 1 p.m. on Tuesday. All the proceeds will benefit Second Chance Pet Adoptions.

“Over our last homestand we found that the DBAP proved to be a hotspot for Pokémon, with characters popping up in all areas of the stadium,” Bulls General Manager Mike Birling told WRAL.com. “The problem was, many of the Pokémon were on the field, and our fans weren’t able to catch them. [Now], we can make sure no Pokémon at the DBAP goes uncaptured.”

Are you obsessed with the game? Have you opened up your venue to gamers? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

(Image: Milwaukee Brewers/Twitter)

I believe it’s safe to say people want to be happy. We seek it in various ways—playing sports, watching TV, listening to music, etc. All of those are great, and I’d like to propose a way you may not have thought about: eating more fruit and vegetables.

A new study in the American Journal of Public Health shows that happiness benefits were discovered for each daily portion of fruit and vegetables consumed. (They also make life more meaningful.)

“Eating fruit and vegetables apparently boosts our happiness far more quickly than it improves human health,” said study co-author and University of Warwick professor Andrew Oswald. “People’s motivation to eat healthy food is weakened by the fact that physical-health benefits, such as protecting against cancer, accrue decades later. However, well-being improvements from increased consumption of fruit and vegetables are closer to immediate.”

More than 12,000 randomly selected people participated in the longitudinal study and kept food diaries in 2007, 2009, and 2013. Adjustments were made for effects on incident changes in happiness and life satisfaction for people’s income changes and personal circumstances.

The results?

“Increased fruit and vegetable consumption was predictive of increased happiness, life satisfaction, and well-being,” the authors wrote. “They were up to 0.24 life-satisfaction points (for an increase of eight portions a day), which is equal in size to the psychological gain of moving from unemployment to employment. Improvements occurred within 24 months.”

Consider this study the next time you reach for a snack. Instead of a bag of chips, choose a banana.

(photo credit: Jon McGovern via photopin cc)

The International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) announces the selection of Brad Mayne, CFE, as its new President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective July 19, 2016. Mayne will also serve as the President and CEO of the IAVM Foundation.

IAVM represents public assembly venues from around the globe. IAVM’s active members include managers and senior executives from auditoriums, arenas, convention centers, exhibit halls, stadiums, performing arts centers, university complexes, and amphitheaters.

SearchWide was the executive search firm that brought in all the great candidates for this position.

“Throughout his career, Brad has garnered respect from every facet of our industry,” said Karen Totaro, CFE, IAVM chair. “He has worked across sectors in various leadership roles, including within IAVM, which has earned him awards and praise. We are excited to have him take over the helm of IAVM.”

The appointment of the veteran public assembly venue professional and one of the industry’s most respected and accomplished practitioners brings Mayne back to the Dallas area, where he served as President and CEO of Center Operating Co. and the American Airlines Center from 1998-2012. Mayne earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Leisure Studies in 1978 from the University of Utah before embarking on his public assembly venue career at the Salt Palace Center in Salt Lake City, UT. He earned his Certified Facilities Executive (CFE) designation in 1992.

“I am thrilled to take on this new professional challenge for an organization that is critical in advancing the work and professional practice of venue management and is so highly valued among industry professionals,” Mayne said.

Mayne has most notably been involved in IAVM through his service at the Venue Management School at Oglebay and the school’s Graduate Institute, where he has served as dean since 2012 and served on the school’s Board of Regents since 1997. Among the long list of awards he has received throughout his career are the Charles A. McElravy Award in 2009 and the Legacy Award from the IAVM Foundation in 2011.

“Having an industry leader with Brad’s abilities, relationships, and leadership will help advance the strategic goals of the Foundation, which works to ensure the perpetual success and growth of the public assembly industry,” said Bob Hunter, CFE, incoming chair of the IAVM Foundation.

If you have five minutes and an interest in acoustics, I recommend watching the above video. In it, Nicholas Edwards, an expert in auditorium acoustics, compares two concert halls and illustrates how their design affects audiences’ perception of sounds.

“From concert halls of the past, we can learn how to design concert halls of the future,” Edwards said.

The San Diego Convention Center’s famous Sails Pavilion is one of many $25.5 million in capital improvements approved by the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank) Board of Directors on June 28, 2016.

“I am very proud of the collaborative efforts of all the parties involved,” said Laurie Coskey, chair of the San Diego Convention Center Corporation [SDCCC] Board of Directors, in a statement. “Collectively, the State, the City, and the Convention Center staff and Board of Directors all came together and through cooperative teamwork, created a responsible funding plan that will pave the way for significant improvements of the facility. This historic investment will begin the upgrades of the San Diego Convention Center, a long-serving economic driver. We look forward to sharing the planned improvements with our clients, as we continue to give them more reasons to come back over and over again, to reinvest further in San Diego.”

Eight capital improvement projects funded by the IBank loan include escalator modernization, updating fire- and life-safety systems, installing new cooling towers, and rejuvenating the Sails Pavilion.

“For more than 25 years, the San Diego Convention Center has served as a gathering place for organizations, associations, and members of the San Diego community to meet and share ideas, experiences, and knowledge,” said SDCCC President and CEO Clifford “Rip” Rippetoe, CFE, in a statement. “We are honored to provide a space that allows so many to come together and we look forward to upgrading our facility so that we may continue providing our guests with an outstanding experience.”

(Image: San Diego Convention Center)