I’m about to tell you two great things about chocolate and cats. You’re probably thinking, “Those two things are already great; how much greater can they be?”

Well, according to research published in the journal Heart, eating up to 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of chocolate every day is linked to lowered heart disease and stroke risk.

Researchers tracked the health of more than 20,000 people over 12 years before concluding their findings, which showed that higher levels of chocolate consumption were associated with younger age and lower weight (BMI), waist: hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, inflammatory proteins, diabetes, and more regular physical activity. The calculations showed that compared with those who ate no chocolate, higher intake was linked to an 11 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 25 percent lower risk of associated death.

Also, the researchers said that there doesn’t appear to be any evidence showing that chocolate should be avoided in those who are concerned about cardiovascular risk.

Now, let’s talk about cats.

Jessica Gall Myrick, an assistant professor at Indiana University, surveyed approximately 7,000 people about their cat video viewing behaviors and how that affects their moods.

“Some people may think watching online cat videos isn’t a serious enough topic for academic research, but the fact is that it’s one of the most popular uses of the Internet today,” Myrick said. “If we want to better understand the effects the Internet may have on us as individuals and on society, then researchers can’t ignore Internet cats anymore.”

Myrick found that participants in the study

—were more energetic and felt more positive after watching cat-related online media than before.
—had fewer negative emotions, such as anxiety, annoyance, and sadness after watching cat-related online media than before.
—often view Internet cats at work or during studying.

“Even if they are watching cat videos on YouTube to procrastinate or while they should be working, the emotional pay-off may actually help people take on tough tasks afterward,” Myrick said.

So, grab a chocolate bar and watch more cat videos online. Your health will thank you.

(Image: Justina Kochansky/Creative Commons)

The Oregon Convention Center plans to place 160,000 square feet of solar panels on its roof by mid July. SolarCity will build and own the two-megawatt system and sell the power wholesale to the center in a 20-year deal.

Matt Uchtman, the center’s director of operations, told the Portland Tribune that the system will fulfill approximately 25 percent of the venue’s annual energy needs.

The convention center currently uses 7.6 megawatts to 8 megawatts of energy annually.

“Our utility usage is dropping, but we’re not done,” Uchtman told the paper.

The venue is one of only two U.S. convention centers to be certified LEED platinum.

“We are committed to ongoing LEED certification and continually looking at ways to drive positive change at the convention center, and always hope to be sustainable,” Scott Cruickshank, the center’s executive director, told the Tribune.

Does your venue operate at a loss? If so, how does your deficit compare with venues in your competitive set? Does your venue finance and budget for major construction or expansion costs the same way as other venues like yours?

The VenueDataSource 2015 Capital Funding Survey obtained the answers to those questions and many others from more than 150 of IAVM’s member venues. Here are a few of the survey results:

• In their most recently completed fiscal year, 64 percent of the venues reported they operate at a deficit – We know the average deficit, and we share that with you.
• Nine out of 10 facilities that operate at a deficit receive additional funding from non-operating revenue sources – And we tell you those sources.
• In the past 15 years, 62 percent have undergone major construction or renovation – We tell you how those projects were financed.

To learn more, contact Frank Ingoglia at frank.ingoglia@iavm.org to arrange purchasing the 2015 Capital Funding Report. You can also purchase informative reports on Management Salaries, Operating Expenses and Revenues, Sustainability and Safety and Security at the VenueDataSource website.

Our next recipient spotlight of the IAVM Foundation’s inaugural class of 30|UNDER|30 is Sarah Fieger, house and volunteer services manager at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, Texas (home of the 2016 Performing Arts Managers Conference).

“What venue managers need to do is communicate the possibility and excitement of seeing a performance or game live so we can build that sense of community within our audiences and keep them coming back,” Fieger said.

Please watch the video above to learn more about Fieger, and thank you to SearchWide and Ungerboeck Software International for their generous support of the IAVM Foundation’s 30|UNDER|30 program.

“Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.” –Bruce Springsteen

No matter what type of venue we work in—whether it is a 1,500-person club, a 50,000-person stadium, or a 80,000-music festival—as venue operators, we all share the same goal: to deliver the world’s greatest guest experience for our fans attending the event. Whether you are a performer on stage or the first baseman for an MLB team, we all have a role in delivering that experience.

At Nationals Park, we recognized a culture needed to be developed that unified all our game day team members (over 2,700) that instilled passion and pride that everyone is part of the Nationals family. Our goal was to find a way to connect our staff with our guests for every event we hosted, so they would continue to come back every time. Every guest we seated, every cash transaction, every car we parked, and bag we search is an opportunity for our staff to make a memorable and lasting impression for our guests. How do you teach your team the importance of  this?

TEAM Service was developed to create a culture of service excellence for all Nationals Park game day team members regardless of the company they work for. We are one unified team whose members work together to satisfy and delight our guests, creating a memorable experience for each and every one. Part of this commitment to our guests is that we expect all team members, regardless of their individual department or company, to go above and beyond to satisfy our guests and handle any conflict with care and respect for the individual. Do you have a program that all departments are a part of, that your game day team is a part of?

As we are building our program and still continue to improve it everyday, we hold monthly meetings with the 12 different department managers that make up our different game day staff departments consisting of:

• Guest Experience team
• Box Office team
• Ticket Services team
• 50/50 team
• Grounds crew
• Scoreboard team
• Tour Guides
• Food and Beverage team
• Parking team
• Security team
• Housekeeping team
• Entertainment team

It is important that in our monthly meetings we are asking questions of what is working well and what we need to improve upon. We speak directly with our game day team, listening to what they are looking for and what we can improve upon as leaders, too. In defining this program, it was more than just an awards and recognition program, but creating a family, with a mission statement, core values, and logo that were separate, but aligned with our organization’s core values. We created a game day staff brand.

Our logo, mission statement, powerful quotes, and core values are in our game day staff entrance (called the TEAM Service entrance), every break room, our training programs we call “work shops” and “Spring Training,” and some of our rewards such as length-of-service pins and MVP awards. By creating this brand, we were able to see our guest comments rise and our guests becoming apart of our TEAM Service rewards and recognition program where they vote for the MVPs of the Year. How do you reward and recognize your team?

We continue to find new ways to create that service excellence we all strive for, but remember that each time our game day staff are in the building to recognize them for going above and beyond the call of duty to help deliver the world-class guest experience we want for every event.

(Image: Joseph Gruber/Creative Commons)