Thanks to the generous support of SearchWide and Ungerboeck Software International, 30 young professionals, 30 years of age and under, will receive full complimentary registration to VenueConnect in Baltimore, a travel stipend of $850, and a one-year complimentary Young Professional IAVM Membership.

“Identifying and developing future leaders is an important priority, and IAVM has stepped up to the plate in a big way with this initiative. Venue management is an exciting and challenging career path, and it is crucial we prepare this group for the complexities of leading this industry forward,” said Mark Gnatovic, senior vice president of SearchWide and a Foundation Trustee. “Having access to industry education and industry leaders will create significant learning opportunities for these individuals. I’m looking forward to meeting the 2015 IAVM 30|UNDER|30 inaugural class.”

In addition to over $2,000 in benefits, the 30|UNDER|30 recipients will be recognized at the Venue Industry Awards Luncheon at VenueConnect on Monday, August 3. They will also be provided year-round continued education for professional growth in the venue industry to help program participants become better, more productive employees through increased access and exposure to industry networking and thought leadership.

As part of the Build an Amazing Future campaign focused on students, young professionals, and mid-level venue management, the IAVM Foundation’s Board of Trustees are thrilled to see this program come to life.

“On behalf of the IAVM Foundation’s Board of Trustees and committed donors, we are honored to announce the inaugural 30|UNDER|30 class of 2015,” said Jason Rittenberry, CFE, president and CEO of IRG Sports + Entertainment and chair of the IAVM Foundation. “We are truly building amazing futures for some of the top rising stars in the industry!”

Over the next few weeks, we’ll individually spotlight this year’s recipients. For now, let’s meet the IAVM Foundation’s inaugural 30|UNDER|30 class of 2015:

A new study from the University of Illinois at Chicago shows that when bosses put their employees’ needs over their own needs, customer satisfaction and job performance by employees improves.

“The best business leadership style is far from, ‘Do this. Don’t do that,'” said Sandy Wayne, one of the study’s researchers. “A servant leader looks and sounds a lot more like, ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’ Or, ‘Let me help you….’ Or, ‘What do you need to…?’ This approach helps employees reach their full potential.”

Employees admire bosses who care about them and return that admiration with great teamwork, loyalty, and dedication to an organization.

“It’s contagious. The employees see their leaders as role models and often mimic those qualities, creating a culture of servant leadership,” Wayne said. “This serving culture drives the effectiveness of the business as a whole.”

The researchers conducted the study at the Jason Deli’s national restaurant chain and included 961 employees at 71 restaurants in 10 metropolitan areas. Wayne said that the restaurants with servant leaders experienced a 6 percent higher job performance, an 8 percent more customer service behaviors, and a 50 percent less likely to leave the company from employees.

(Image: UIC Business)

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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