We’re ready to launch the next “class” of venue professionals, allied partners, students, faculty, or young professionals and wanted to let you know how to get involved. To kickoff these spring partnerships, the Mentor Connector Program webinar is this month, Wednesday, March 18, 3-4 pm EDT.

If you are interested in signing up as a Coach, Mentor, or Mentee, please register by entering this address in your browser: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4723610069813115393.

Did you know you can earn CFE points? Learn all you need to know about the program by signing up for the free webinar.

To participate in the program, you must be a current IAVM member. Please submit your Mentor or Mentee application by Wednesday, March 25. This will allow the IAVM Mentoring Task Force time to pair you with a mentor and coach. Please return your form to me, your member care manager, by email to summer.beday@iavm.org. Feel free to email or call 972.906.7441 if you have questions.

Download the application form from www.iavm.org/mentor-connector-program. We look forward to your participation in this incredible FREE benefit of IAVM membership!

I want to point you in the direction of a good article on TechCrunch written by one of our Allied members. In “4 Ways Stadium Hospitality Technology is Defending the Live Event,” Centerplate’s Bob Pascal asserts that innovation at stadiums is reinventing the guest experience.

“Rather than fighting an either-or battle against technology, live event venues are increasingly seeing the additive benefits of emerging technologies,” wrote Pascal, the company’s chief marketing officer. “The same features and devices once seen as threatening to in-person presence at live events are becoming the keys to unlocking an even greater venue experience when integrated on-site.”

Pascal outlines four tech examples of what fans can expect in the future.

1. Wireless Networks
“High-density wireless networks are becoming more commonplace, as stadiums increasingly need more than just a standard router to handle the universal use of smartphones by today’s fans.”

2. High-tech Stadiums
“The venue-specific, context-aware apps offer such features as food and drink delivery to seats, seat finders and the current status of bathroom/concession lines, all delivered straight to the fan’s phone.”

3. Cashless Payments and Paperless Tickets
“Trips to the ATM have become less frequent, and consumers increasingly want to pay with plastic or their mobile phones.”

4. Drone Tech
“Teams like the Sacramento Kings are beginning to explore the usage of drones for their new arenas as a means to survey available parking spaces and provide unique in-arena camera angles.”

Please visit TechCrunch to read the full article. And check out our story on virtual reality to learn more about how the Kings are using this technology to enhance the guest experience.

(Image: Alfredo Mendez/Creative Commons)

Venue managers must constantly keep their minds in the present and in the future, sometimes at the same time. It’s difficult and taxing, but sometimes there are ways to accomplish both without straining physical and mental resources.

One way is to re-frame your thinking. For example, The Langham, Hong Kong changed the name of its housekeeping supervisors to guest experience managers. This small change had a big impact on the hotel’s operations.

“Our main guest satisfaction measure, a guest survey completed by guests post departure, has shown a 7 percent post implementation of our guest experience manager roles,” Dean Dimitriou, the hotel’s executive assistant manager of rooms, told Dr. Michael Oshins in an interview. “We also receive up to 30 guest comments per month from guests reflecting how impressed they are with the service received by these guest experience managers.”

Dimitriou said that the guest experience managers’ sense of accomplishment increased because of their opportunities to engage with guests. And then there are the financial benefits.

“A dollar figure cannot be placed against the increase of guest satisfaction; however we have seen a 50 percent increase in enrollments into our loyalty program based on our guests satisfaction during their stay, which is in turn resulting in an increase in the repeat guest ratio,” Dimitriou told Oshins. “So the increase in guest satisfaction is increasing the number of loyal guests we have and the fact our repeat guests not only will enable us to secure future repeat business, their off-spend and average rate is typically higher than average.”

Dr. Oshins is one of the many great teachers at this year’s Senior Executive Symposium (SES), May 11-14, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is a professor at Boston University, where he teaches hospitality leadership, among other courses. For SES, he will help attendees learn to re-frame their thinking in order to be more creative and how to build service quality and value for their organizations.

These types of high-level, status-quo busting courses are exactly the right fit for many venue managers who feel they’ve “been there, done that” and are seeking new ideas and strategies.

“The teachers at SES, the intimate settings, and being on the college campus created and fostered an environment for learning new material because the teachers who taught are top-notch,” said IAVM member Kim Stone, executive vice president and general manager of the AmericanAirlines Arena. “I learned quite a bit while I was there about more overall management leadership topics. I found it really thought-provoking, it was a wonderful place to learn, and it really stretched your thinking as an executive. It’s just invaluable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another organization that I’ve been affiliated with that had that type of curriculum, and I think it’s fantastic.”

SES this year focuses on visionary management for leaders, and applications are still being accepted.

Theatre critic Maddy Costa wrote an editorial The Guardian this week that I find fascinating, probably because it’s new concept for me. She raises the question: “What might the theatre landscape look like if it were more relaxed, not occasionally, but all the time?”

“For an art form so dedicated to thinking about human behaviour and interactions, theatre is remarkably bad at allowing its audiences to be human beings once they take their seats,” Costa wrote. “You might have bought your ticket weeks before, but if you’ve had the bad luck to catch a cold in the interim and enter the auditorium with a cough, you can expect to be pretty much despised. And disability is much more stigmatised.”

Costa offers an example of a theatre patron who has Tourette’s syndrome, which makes her tics impossible for her to be silent during a performance.

“As a result, she has been made to feel unwelcome by other audience members, and for many years stopped going to the theatre altogether,” Costa wrote. “The gradual introduction of one-off ‘relaxed’ performances, aimed at people with disabilities and their carers, have given her greater access, but these are still few and far between.”

Why is that?

“At the root of the problem is the expectation that people in an auditorium should be homogeneous, conforming, and undifferentiated, so as not to distract either the performers or each other,” Costa wrote. “But the whole point of theatre is that disruption should be possible: that’s what it means to be live.”

A recurring conversation at the 2015 Performing Arts Managers Conference was about how to engage communities and find new audiences in an era of declining attendance. Perhaps one solution (and I’m not saying it’s the best solution) would be to offer “relaxed” performances, ones where you can rustle a loud candy wrapper or send text messages to your friends without being told to put away your phone.

Maybe some of our performing arts centers are already offering these types of shows. If so, please speak up. I’d love to know how they work for you.

(Image: David Gilmore/Creative Commons)

The Board of Directors of IAVM exists to ensure that RESULTS are delivered to the members of the Association. On behalf of the dedicated volunteers who make up the Board, I offer this report of what we have been focused on as your representatives.

The Mission of IAVM is “to educate, advocate for and inspire public assembly venue professionals, worldwide.” On our recent member survey, many of you told us Education and opportunities for professional development comprise the No. 1 reason you join IAVM. A large percentage of you also told us that you are very happy with the opportunities currently provided. Exciting things have been happening in this area: The Academy for Venue Safety and Security (AVSS) has been co-located with “GuestX,” a customer service focused version of the former Crowd Management event. As I write this, registration is strong for both at their new home in Dallas. I just returned from a highly successful Performing Arts Managers Conference in San Francisco, where we didn’t just learn how to be better venue managers but we also learned about the city’s fascinating history as related to its arts facilities (it involved a lot of things burning down). Congratulations to the Performing Arts Program Committee for an excellent event.

We have been Advocating on your behalf in several areas. When the Ebola scare arose, Fred Peterson and his Industry Affairs Committee sprang into action and presented a webinar led by Russ Simons. Other topics under its close scrutiny include drones, Wi-Fi blocking, and food labelling. If it impacts you and your ability to successfully operate your venue, we are on it.

Inspiration abounds at IAVM thanks to the IAVM Foundation and its new focus on Building an Amazing Future. The Joseph A. Floreano Scholarship + Internship Program kicked off recently by recognizing and supporting five future leaders at PAMC. Congratulations to the first scholarship and internship recipients Annie Salamunovich, Laura Kendall, Jennifer Smart, Justin Sullivan, and Kendall Judy. The 30|UNDER|30 program is now accepting nominations – thanks to the generous support from SearchWide and Ungerboeck, this program provides 30 venue professionals with the ability to attend VenueConnect 2015 in Baltimore, year-round continuing education plus a one-year Young Professional Membership.

You can help us further inspire by showing your support though a variety of Foundation initiatives including your $100 donation to the “100 Women of IAVM”, by your volunteer service on committees, and your dedication to excellence. Please consider applying on behalf of your venue for this year’s Venue Excellence Award in your sector category.

Worldwide, we are in discussions to extend our affiliation with the Venue Management Association (Asia Pacific) in Australia. Each year, our respective venue management schools participate in an instructor exchange program, and this past November welcomed the success of the inaugural Australian Graduate Institute. We look forward to our continued partnership.

As a Board, we have been working to shift our efforts to the strategic direction of your organization, to make sure we are laser focused on ensuring you as members receive the benefits you expect from IAVM. At the mid-year board meeting in January, the Board went through a strategic evaluation, facilitated by our consultants (and board governance experts) from the Aspen Group.

Our first assignment was to create a picture that represented our current organizational structure. We identified several issues:
– Size of the current board is large (over 20 members)
– Half of the board turns over every year
– Board meets face to face only twice a year
– Board would like to be able to move with flexibility, adaptability and speed

We then asked ourselves the question, if we had the luxury of rebuilding the organizational structure from the ground up, what would it look like?

Knowing the challenges as identified above, and calling upon your vast experience dealing with boards in your own workplace, what are YOUR thoughts on how we could address the issues? How can we be more effective while being transparent and reflective of our membership? The Leadership Development and Nominating Committee is currently led by Past Chair John Bolton, and he would like to hear from you. Your Board representative will also reach out for your thoughts and suggestions.

Finally, Jason Judy, IAVM’s director of marketing, led the Board through a brand discovery exercise. He asked us to consider a couple of questions I will leave you to ponder:

– What is one enduring truth about IAVM for you?
– What is your best IAVM moment?

I hope you will join us this August in Baltimore for VenueConnect—registration is now open for the 90th annual conference and trade show, where you will be sure to add to your long list of “best IAVM moments.”