As you head into your weekend, take a moment and watch this delightful “30 for 30” short about the San Francisco Giants’ mascot from the 1980s.

“The Anti-Mascot” is directed by Colin Hanks and tells the story of a team, the fans, and a hated crab.

If there is one phrase I have heard more than any other in the nearly six years I have been general manager, it’s this: That’s not how we’ve always done it.

And before you immediately think the phrase is uttered from office or event staff the most often, I will tell you… it’s not. That phrase comes from our fans, participants, and other key stakeholders not employed by our facility.

Tradition is a funny thing and something I have struggled with mightily over the years. It’s a constant dance between introducing new and improved event management techniques and keeping with the very traditions that keeps this facility alive and operating with an abundance of passionate and dedicated fans and participants.

When we made the move to electronic ticketing in 2011, nearly 90 percent of all ticket orders for our biggest event of the year (a three-day event with more than 25,000 fans per day) came via the telephone into our office. The orders were taken over the phone and tickets mailed out shortly before the event. Sometimes, depending on various factors, we would send someone to meet them or take them to their homes. The home delivery was just something that happened—it’s not advertised or part of any package. It has just been our staff going the extra mile to accommodate people who, for example, will be sitting in the same two seats this fall for the 30th consecutive year.

Going to electronic renewals and ticketing was a big shock that continues to boggle some of our fans’ minds to this day. We still take nearly 40 percent of the orders over the phone, and we still drive those tickets to that small group of people—just because.

Change is not something embraced very easily in our niche world of drag racing, and I’m OK with that as long as we still have those fans willing to sit in those same seats year after year. I am, however, trying to do a better job of blending the historical values of tradition with new amenities and technologies that help us put on better events.

What makes drag racing so unique is the heart of the competitors and fans and the way they pass down their love and passion through the generations. So we’ve become better at using surveys and just talking to those fans and racers about change before making any changes to the way we do business.

We also know that we need to use technology and better training to maintain safe and professional events. My focus continues to be blending better event management while keeping tradition at the forefront and giving history its due recognition. It’s a constant struggle, but worth it to see the next generation of fans growing up at the track and sitting side-by-side with fans that have been here from the beginning.

(Image: Facebook)

There are a lot of great discussions happening on our member-only VenueNet site, and some of you may not have time to read them all or participate. If you’re one of those people—or someone who would rather listen to a discussion than read about it—then we have the solution for you.

I’d like to introduce to you IAVM’s new podcast, The Venue, a monthly call-in show about the issues you face every day. The show will broadcast every fourth Friday of the month from 2-2:30 p.m. (CST). The first show airs Friday, May 22.

Follow this link to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/500903778941863425

Greg Wolfe, IAVM’s professional development manager, and myself will be the regular hosts, and each month we’ll have a different guest host.

Join us this Friday, May 22, for the first episode of The Venue. We’ll talk about such VenueNet topics as selfie sticks, vaping, insurance, vouchers/comps, and any other hot topics that happen this week.

More than 600 people participated in two webinars last week that addressed adverse situations at venues.

In the “Public Demonstrations and Civil Unrest Affecting Public Assembly Facilities” webinar, speakers offered recent examples of venue disturbances and how managers and staff prepared for and responded to the situations.

For instance, Orlando Venues Executive Director Allen Johnson, CFE, talked about a die-in protest at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, and the how open communication throughout the day mitigated any negative outcomes. (Read more about the protest and how the venue handled it in “Safety and Security During a Protest Rally.”)

Adina Erwin, vice president and general manager of the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, also talked about a protest in her venue in December 2014. Some of her best practices recommendations include maintaining good communications with public safety agencies, monitoring websites and social media activity of protest groups, and identifying an alternate manager-on-duty.

Other speakers included Leslee Stewart, general manager and CEO of the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California; Robert Noonan, security director for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) in Boston; Matthew O’Loughlin, public safety manager for the MCCA; and Denis Braham, co-chair of the Sports Business and Public Venues Practice Group. The webinar was moderated by Russ Simons, chief listening officer and manager partner at Venue Solutions Group.

Click here to listen to the full webinar.

Earlier in the week, webinar participants heard from John Wilborn, director of the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. Wilborn talked about the recent shooting at his venue. Takeaways from the webinar include

• Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) was an aspect of the Curtis Culwell Center’s preparedness for this incident, and that changes to the property were based on lessons learned from the Boston Marathon attack.

• Managing the external communication of attendees was challenging, and developing protocol to minimize individuals revealing their specific location during a shelter-in-place situation is an important aspect of emergency plans.

Click here to listen to the Wilborn webinar.

We announced the recipients of the IAVM Foundation’s inaugural class of 30|UNDER|30 last week and told you we’d spotlight the recipients over the next few weeks.

Our first spotlight is on Abbie Vander Bol, the event supervisor for the Show Me Center on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

“Seeing people smile as they came in for an event and watching them talk about how much fun they had was why I fell in love,” Vander Bol said when asked about what made her fall in love with the industry. “It has been honor to be nominated for the first class of 30|UNDER|30.”

Please watch the video above to learn more about Vander Bol and her passion for the industry. Thank you, also, to SearchWide and Ungerboeck Software International for their generous support of the IAVM Foundation’s 30|UNDER|30 program.