It seems that sporting venues keep trying to outdo each other on a daily basis. The latest example is the Timsah Arena in Turkey. The soccer club Bursaspor are known as the Green Crocodiles, so it’s fitting that their upcoming facility features a crocodile around it with eyes and a mouth that lights up at night.

Check out the video above to see more of this reptilian venue in action. And as my co-worker asked, wouldn’t it be cool if a new trend in the U.S. was to design stadiums based off team mascots?

Amazon Local last week expanded its ticketing service to all 48 West End shows in London. The company previously offered tickets based around deals or discounted tickets. That has changed.

“Although that will still be the case for some shows, this is a move to being a genuine ticketer,” a spokesman for Amazon told The Stage. “We are moving away from deals to offering the full range of ticket prices, from bottom to full price.”

The spokesman told the publication “that Amazon Local now has access to every seat on sale in a production.”

And according to the Retail Gazette, “All costs are up front, with no additional charges appearing at the check-out stage when customers are ready to pay on Amazon Local.”

(Image: David King/Creative Commons)

Please welcome our newest members who joined IAVM in December 2014 through February 2015—a total of 507 new members. Our network of professionals is growing and we are reaching record numbers. Thank you for being a part of the association!

Continue Reading →

IAVM is pleased to announce the nomination of Doug Booher, CFE, for Second Vice Chair of the IAVM Board of Directors, a prestigious honor denoting exemplary leadership and dedication to the sport, entertainment, and convention/exhibition industries. In this role, Booher will become a Senior Officer of the organization, serving a four-year term, ascending to the Chairman position for 2017-2018.

Booher currently serves as director of Indiana University Auditorium and University Events. Known for its presentation of a wide variety of events, from university ceremonies and conference events to the latest comedy, concert, and Broadway attractions, this 3,200-seat proscenium venue has been a model of campus and community programming and engagement since it was built in 1941. In 2010, IU Event Services was created to provide event staffing, management, and consulting for major university events including IU Athletics events at Assembly Hall, Memorial Stadium, and Bill Armstrong Stadium. As an integral facet of the university community, IU Auditorium and IU Event Services thrive on student involvement and participation. Each year, more than 1,000 IU students work in volunteer, internship, and hourly employment positions within the organization, for which Indiana University earned IAVM’s 2012 Venue Education Award. Together, IU Auditorium and Event Services serve more than one million visitors each year.

Throughout his 20-year career in venue management, Booher has presented extensively in the areas of guest service, event management, and artist contract negotiation—and serves as an adjunct lecturer in IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Booher joined IAVM in 1996 and is a graduate of the Public Assembly Facility Management School (now VMS) at Oglebay. He earned his Certified Facilities Executive (CFE) designation in 2010.

“I am so excited to have someone as smart and thoughtful as Doug Booher joining us as a senior officer of IAVM,” said Kim Bedier, CFE, chair of the IAVM Board. “Our membership can rest assured it is in very good hands for years to come.”

“I’ve worked with Doug in numerous capacities in my time here at IAVM, and he always provides thoughtful input,” said Vicki Hawarden, CMP, president and CEO of IAVM. “He is an accomplished professional and a strong leader, and I look forward to welcoming him to the IAVM officer team.”

Upon being notified of receiving the nomination, Booher added that, “IAVM is a venerable organization with a rich history of supporting its members’ efforts to enhance their communities. It is an incredible honor to have the opportunity to work with our 4,800+ members, volunteer leaders, and dedicated staff to insure that our association continues to be a source of unmatched educational programs and rich networking opportunities for generations to come.”

Booher follows in the path of a great number of predecessors that, over the past 90 years, have helped to shape the industry, and ultimately, the communities they serve. IAVM members will vote electronically on this nomination, and, if elected, Booher’s service as Second Vice Chair will be formally recognized at IAVM’s annual conference and trade show, VenueConnect, August 1-4, 2015, in Baltimore, Maryland.

The hospitality world can offer the venue world some great insights, especially when it comes to revenue management. Consider a 2013 study from Pennsylvania State University that looked at how user generated content works alongside price to affect perceptions of quality and value. Findings from the study include

—Price is not an indication of quality for consumers. In fact, reviews have a strong influence on consumers’ perceptions of hotel quality.

—Competing on price alone is not a winning strategy. Bench marking against the competition isn’t enough.

—Reviews are preferred to evaluating a hotel purchase. When reviews conflict with ratings, consumers rely on sentiment and ignore ratings.

—Discounting poorly rated properties doesn’t build perceived value. Negative reviews and low ratings doesn’t change the difference in value between low and high price.

One of the most powerful drivers in pricing decisions is social media.

“Social media has added another layer to the already complicated job of pricing hotel rooms,” said Breffni Noone, PhD, associate professor at the School of Hospitality Management at The Pennsylvania State University. “The advent of online travel agents, such as Travelocity.com and Expedia.com, ushered in an era of price transparency, forcing revenue managers to pay close attention to their price position relative to competitors. With reviews and ratings readily available at the point of purchase another element is interacting with price to influence the purchase.”

Noone is one of the professors at this year’s Senior Executive Symposium (SES), May 11-14, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Her class, “Managing Facility Capacity: The Revenue Management Approach,” will focus on the types of revenue management, the necessary conditions for revenue management, and guidelines for application in facility management, all using examples from the airline and hotel industries.

SES applications close on April 10.

(Image: reynermedia/Creative Commons)