I just had the following press release come across my desk featuring news from an IAVM member venue. Are you a member venue that has news to share? Please send it our way at editor@iavm.org, and we’ll publish it here on the blog or in our weekly newsletter (sometimes both places!).

Now, on to the news.

Work is under way on a $79 million expansion of the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota, set to debut in 2017. When complete, the expansion will nearly double the size of the center’s meeting and event facilities.

The expansion will bring the total amount of space at the Mayo Civic Center to more than 200,000 square feet—enough to host two 1,000-person events simultaneously. A new 40,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom will offer a seating capacity of more than 4,000 people, a ceiling height of 32 feet, and high-end finishes. A state-of-the-art kitchen and expanded food service facilities will also be included in the expanded Mayo Civic Center.

The center will feature a 25,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a 25,000-square-foot arena, a 12,000-square-foot auditorium, and 23 breakout rooms.

“The vision behind the expansion is focused on creating regional economic impact, broadening facility usability and services, and meeting the public assembly needs of a growing and thriving community,” said Donna Drews, executive director of the Mayo Civic Center. “Mayo Civic Center’s 188,000-square-foot convention center will broaden Rochester’s convention and meeting marketability, and free up existing facilities for concerts and entertainment—a key goal of the convention center expansion planners.”

Don’t even think twice about chewing tobacco at a sports venue in San Francisco. Starting Jan. 1, 2016, that pursuit will be against the law.

“Mayor Ed Lee on Friday signed into law an ordinance to prohibit the use of smokeless tobacco at athletic venues, specifically singling out baseball, which has a long history of players masticating and spitting tobacco juice in view of children who worship them,” the Associated Press reported.

The law is the first of its kind in the U.S. and includes electronic cigarettes and “moist inhalable snuff.” Violators will be asked to leave the playing fields.

“The home of the World Champion Giants has set an example that all of Major League Baseball and the rest of the country should quickly follow,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement. “When baseball stars use smokeless tobacco, the kids who look up to them are much more likely to as well. Our national pastime should have nothing to do with promoting a deadly and addictive product.”

Major League Baseball said it supports San Francisco’s efforts to ban smokeless tobacco, while the player’s union said that it’s aware of the law and no public comment at this time.

(Image: Eric/Creative Commons)

Finding somewhere to park in a crowded lot can be a pain. That could change, thanks to a new technology called “ParkiT.”

The new system is cheaper than sensor technology currently being used and would provide parking lot managers and attendants information in real time about exactly where open spots are. That information could then be shared with drivers through electronic signs or a driver-friendly app.

“Parking is something we’ve all struggled with,” said Jennifer Ding, a ParkiT team member and undergraduate at Rice University. “We’ve all been there driving around circling and circling, and just when you think you’ve found a spot, it’s a Mini Cooper.”

The team’s goal is to take that hassle out of parking for everyone—the driver and the parking lot operator.

APPS AND SIGNS
“We created a new technology that can identify where open spaces are located,” Ding said. “Being electrical engineers, we decided to take a different route from sensors and use cameras and computer vision. Our cameras overlook large parking lots with 50 to 100 or more spaces.”

“The camera takes a picture of the lot every minute,” said Omar Turk, also a ParkiT team member. “The camera then sends the picture to a server, where we process it with some computer vision and machine-learning algorithms. When we get the results, we display it on a user interface for the parking lot operator to see.”

Once the lot operator has access to the information, they can pass it along to the driver through digital signage pointing to open spaces or via a mobile app.

“Right now there’s no cost-effective outdoor solution for detecting parking spots . . . and they’re not very accurate,” said team member Andres Cedeno. “This is detrimental because operators don’t really know what’s going on with their lots. They don’t know the occupancy rate when it’s filling up, and that’s really frustrating for drivers because they can’t find a spot—and operators know this.”

Current technology uses sensor systems that cost about $400-$800 per parking spot, and they have to be installed into the pavement. ParkiT’s system would cost lots less than $50 per space.

WHAT ABOUT GPS?
“There are GPS parking locators out there, but they’re mostly useful once you’ve parked and you can record where you are,” Cedeno said. “GPS really can’t tell you where there are cars at any given point.”

The team has consulted with various Houston-area parking facilities, including the Texas Medical Center and Houston Hobby Airport.

“We’ve heard from some of the places we’ve consulted with that they could increase their sales in contract parking by 10-20 percent just by knowing when and how much they fill every day,” Cedeno said.

After graduating in May, Ding and three Rice engineering students will take the project forward and create a company to develop ParkiT further.

“The plan is to install several trials throughout Houston this summer,” Ding said. “If we can prove the value of this technology, we would hopefully spread throughout the city . . . and who knows, maybe beyond that to throughout the country.”

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Regardless of the type, size, or location of your venue, safety and security is one thing we all must think about and be concerned with on a daily basis.

VenueDataSource (VDS) has surveyed our members on our typical safety and security practices, and the results from the Safety and Security Report are in and ready for you and your team to use in safely managing our venues.

Our safety and security research quantifies the current practices and procedures utilized to secure the lives and safety of venue customers, staff, and the property itself—and gives us all some things to think about regarding our own venue’s security procedures.

Some of the results are not that surprising, including that 91 percent of responding venues have security cameras. But did you know that only 71 percent of them actually monitor those security cameras? Does your security staff actually monitor your venue’s security cameras? Should you reassess your own procedures to ensure your cameras are being used fully as the asset they are intended to be? Is it OK to use cameras as a reactive tool rather than a preventative one?

The results of the survey may lead to further discussions within your organization about how to improve the safety and security of your venue. That’s why we ask questions, compile the results, and share with our members. We want to assist you and your team in being the most prepared as possible in a time with ever-changing challenges and threats.

This report will tell you that 90 percent of the reporting venues have a written procedure in place for handling bomb threats. But only 68 percent of these venues supply the switchboard personnel with the bomb threat checklist and reporting procedure. Worse still, only 42 percent of the reporting venues currently schedule regular training in bomb threat procedures for all personnel who answer incoming phone calls.

Is your operation one of the 68 percent that supply your switchboard personnel with a bomb threat reporting procedure—or one of the 32 percent that doesn’t? Is your venue one of the 42 percent that train all phone-answering staff in bomb threat reporting—or one of the 58 percent that doesn’t?

We have all seen the news and know that bomb threats, unfortunately, have become a more common occurrence in our society. A written procedure is a great first step, but nothing compared to sharing it and training the staff that is most likely to answer the phone should that dreaded call be made to your venue.

The Safety and Security Report has incredibly powerful tools and information that will only help a venue and its staff be more prepared. It’s worth the read, considering what’s at stake.

The Safety and Security Report is available to all IAVM members at venues that completed the survey. If your venue completed the survey, but you have not received the report, or you would like to purchase the report, contact VenueDataFrank, Frank Ingoglia at frank.ingoglia@iavm.org. Frank can help with this or any other report question.

VDS is here to help our members achieve amazing things. Information is empowerment and we rely on you and the other members to keep moving forward and accomplishing our goals.

You can find us on this monthly blog, on Twitter @VenueDataFrank, in weekly newsletters discussing trends, facts, and asking poll questions, at the sector conference and VenueConnect—everywhere you VDS, you’ll find us. No matter where you go—there we are.

IAVM will live-stream an interview with John Wilborn, director of the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. The conversation will provide a close look at the planning and real-time response from Wilborn and the event management team during the May 3rd incident, when two men attempted to attack an in-progress event with assault rifles.

Interview Details
Tuesday, May 12
2 p.m. CT
Listen to the Recording Here

“John’s willingness to share his recent experience with colleagues and peers at IAVM is a tremendous opportunity for venue professionals seeking to learn from this incident,” said IAVM president and CEO Vicki Hawarden, CMP. “We are a close, connected community, and we are grateful to learn from the Curtis Culwell Center’s ability to handle this attack so effectively.”

In addition to the interview, Wilborn and team members from the Curtis Culwell Center will further discuss this incident during an interactive session at the VenueConnect Annual Conference & Trade Show, August 1-4, in Baltimore, Maryland. Attendees include venue professionals and partner companies from stadiums, arenas, convention centers, performing arts centers, and racetracks around the world.