I am currently a sophomore at Kennesaw State University (KSU) in the metro Atlanta area of Georgia. I am studying marketing with a concentration in sports marketing. Kennesaw State University is a non-traditional school, meaning a very high percentage of the student population is in the work force. With that being said, it is somewhat difficult to find work in the surrounding area of the second largest university in Georgia with more than 25,000 students.

The overall goal for many students who work is to find an exciting job that is beneficial to a future career. I found a position with Night Owl Productions, which is a student-run entrepreneurial venue management group that provides support for KSU’s Sports and Entertainment Park, including the Fifth Third Bank Stadium. This is my second job and a much better fit for me than working at the mall.

I got involved with Night Owl Productions my freshman year because one, it looked like an awesome job working concerts, sporting events, and festivals, and two, because I needed some extra cash. I started out as a—what we call “crew call”—worker who only worked on the day of events. I did this for the fall and realized that the event world was something I was passionate about. The following spring, I was promoted to a part-time worker for the facilities department doing the hands-on grunt work, which I loved.

A couple months later, an opportunity arose to interview for the role of executive lead of Night Owl Productions, and I thought I might as well interview for it. Fortunately, I was blessed with the position. I think the full-time staff was impressed with my leadership qualities and could see that I was ready to work hard and eager to learn. Night Owls have a motto, “Whatever It Takes,” and I had shown that no job was too big or too small, and all jobs are important when you are helping to orchestrate events and running a venue.

We have hosted four major events this fall: the Major League Lacrosse Championship, the Backyard Bash featuring Corey Smith and Love and Theft, the Kennesaw State University Homecoming football scrimmage and concert featuring by Wiz Khalifa and Ty Dolla $ign, and our own two-day hot-air balloon festival called Owl-O-Ween. All events we host are run by students in Night Owl Productions in all aspects. We provide street teams, ticket sellers, ushers, production assistants, conversion, runners, and hospitality staff. In addition, we staff our own KSU sporting events that are hosted at the stadium. This fall, more than 66,000 fans were served and Night Owl Productions hired more than 200 students who worked these events.

We hosted our first ever Homecoming inside our stadium this year. The football team’s scrimmage was the first time the public was able to see our new NCAA Division 1 football team in action. After the scrimmage, we transformed a football field into a concert set-up in exactly two hours! The concert attracted 9,100 paying fans to see Wiz Khalifa.

Just two weeks later, we held our first ever two-day festival called Owl-O-Ween, which we stepped up from being a one day event last year. It is Atlanta’s largest costume party and only hot-air balloon festival. Over the two days, we drew 32,000 patrons into our venue, and this event was recognized by Cobb County Travel and Tourism as the “Attraction of the Year.”

I am sharing the story of my current job to highlight the importance of getting started early in the venue world. I have already been able to attend one IAVM VenueConnect conference in Oregon, which was life changing! Since I did start so early, I have three whole years to maybe be able to attend more IAVM conferences and keep contact with all the amazing venue leaders in the country I was able to network with while interning. I will have the advantage of having real-world experiences and working in a variety of positions. This job will afford me the opportunity to learn both front-of-house and back-of-house operations, as well as the business model that makes it work.

Becoming a part of the venue industry is simple as long as you start early and work hard. I started at the very bottom, but with hard work I was able to earn my stripes and quickly work my way to a position of leadership. Now I am privileged to learn things at 19 years old that most people do not experience until they are much older. Getting my career started early, of course, helps prepare me for the future, but it also makes school much easier. Now I am able to relate everything I am learning in my business classes and apply it to my venue career, and also everything I am learning in the event side and apply that to my classes. Overall, I am lucky that everything fell in to my lap the way it did, or I may not have found my passion or future career.

(Image: Kennesaw State University)

The IAVM Foundation Board of Trustees collectively came together on Tuesday, December 2, to participate in the global fundraising initiative known as #GivingTuesday to raise money for the IAVM Foundation’s new campaign, “Build An Amazing Future,” focused on scholarships, internships, young professional development, and a new mid-level certification. To learn more about the Foundation and our amazing future, please visit iavm.org/amazingfuture.

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The Japanese company Hitachi released news this week announcing it has developed walk-through-style finger vein authentication technology for security gates in large venues.

Convention centers or sports stadiums, etc., where a large number of people congregate, can easily become the target of criminal activity, and greater security is called for to ensure the safety of the facility. In particular, personal identification is critical to preventing suspicious persons from entering a premise, and therefore interest is growing in biometric identification methods which are relatively difficult to forge. Currently, biometric methods such as fingerprint and facial recognition are being used in airport immigration and other places, however, these methods currently require the person stand still for recognition, leading to congestion when a large number of people arrive. Walk-through methods on the other hand, which would provide high throughput, have not been able to provide high verification accuracy.

The company outlines two main features of the technology.

1. The technology can instantly detect the position and orientation of several fingers as a person goes through a gate. 

Previous forms of finger vein authentication required the finger to be placed in a fixed position, thus requiring the individual to standstill. To enable greater flexibility, Hitachi expanded the finger detection space to encompass the whole hand so if fingers are placed in that space, regardless of number, position or orientation, finger vein patterns are detected instantaneously. As a result, the user need not be concerned with the position of the finger, and can quickly pass through a gate.

2. The technology can capture a clear finger vein image in relation to finger position or orientation.

Technology was developed to capture a clear finger vein image by automatically controlling the lighting to illuminate the fingers from optimal positions regardless of the position or orientation of fingers presented. Further, by combining the vein pattern from several fingers, an even higher level of verification accuracy was obtained compared to illuminating just one finger.

The system would require people to pre-register before use and entry into a venue, and the scanner can process approximately 70 people per minute. Hitachi is still working refining the scanner, which could be available to the public in two years.

(Image: Hitachi)

Waste diversion offers a great way to lower your operating costs and connect your facility to your community!

Every year we throw away tons of useful items that go straight into the landfill. This holiday season, challenge your staff to look for new ways that you can minimize the waste that goes in the trash receptacles at your facility.

Ideas to Get the Ball Rolling

After that next big event, donate the signage to a children’s center so that they could be used for art projects.

Big banquet coming up? Cardboard containers could be the basis for great centerpieces and decorations with a just little creativity.

Still printing event posters? Use it for wrapping paper.

Turn pallets into team branded outdoor furniture and auction it off.

Compost all of your food scraps used by the facility, and let surrounding neighborhoods collect and use it for free, where permitted by law.

Facility Must Haves

Sorting trashcans to separate the types of waste.

Staging area to turn trash into treasure and for donation pick-ups.

Training program for your custodial crew to identify recycling/up-cycling opportunities and areas for improvement.

Single stream recycle planning: have specific bins if an event will use a specific product such as styrofoam or polystyrene.

One more thing—don’t forget to recycle your Christmas tree! It can be ground into mulch, and many municipalities offer free drop-off facilities. Please make sure to have all decorations, ornaments, tinsel, lights, and stands removed. Flocked trees cannot usually be recycled.

(photo credit: anthonylibrarian via photopin cc)

Want to get under par? Perhaps some Charlie Parker will help. Maybe smooth out your swing? Try some Sonny Rollins. Really, any jazz will do, because a new study shows that listening to it will improve your golf game.

“The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of selected genres of music could influence golf putting accuracy over no music, and to determine whether one genre of music elicited superior performances,” the authors wrote in the study. “With the exception of rock music, participants performed significantly better in all musical trials compared to a no music condition. Further jazz resulted in the best performances, and there were no significant differences by gender.”

Twenty-two participants with at least eight years of golf experience took part in the experiment, which consisted of six trials of putting at pre-designated locations around a hole. They listened to different genres of music (or no music) while putting.

“Other research has shown that country music improves batting, rap music improves jump shots, and running is improved by any up-tempo music,” said study co-author Ali Boolani, an assistant professor of physical therapy and physician assistant studies at Clarkson University in New York. “But the benefit of music in fine motor control situations was relatively unknown. Hopefully, this is the first step in answering this question.”

The researchers were unable to clearly explain why jazz helps one with a golf game but they have some ideas.

“Jazz is derived from improvisation, which appears in similar arts such as the theatre,” the authors wrote. “Although speculative, listening to jazz may encourage greater improvisation from the listener. Thus, participants in the present study may have better observed the grain and slope of the green and were more open to creativity in the putt.”

To learn more, please read “The Influence of Musical Genres on Putting Accuracy in Golf: An Exploratory Study” published in the Journal of Athletic Enhancement.

(photo credit: Severin Sadjina via photopin cc)