Imagine knowing the exact speed a NFL player runs a route or the health status of an athlete on the field. That’s possible, or will be soon, thanks to radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags.

According to a story on The Verge, the NFL partnered with Zebra Technologies—a company that manufactures RFID-based motion tracking systems—this summer to help track various stats.

“The league’s focus is actually less on providing analytics for its member teams and more on augmenting the fan experience,”  Vlad Savov wrote. “In fact, in order to ensure fairness, the NFL isn’t releasing the data it’s gathering to the teams until all 31 stadiums have installed the sensor system necessary to track the RFID tags.”

Seventeen stadiums (NFL teams in Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, New England, New Orleans, Oakland, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington) currently have the technology installed.

“The company describes 2014 as a ‘best effort’ year, with half the NFL stadiums being outfitted with its sensor networks and only occasional uses of the technology manifesting themselves in game broadcasts till now,” Savov wrote. “But the vision for this technology is much grander than its present state.”

Check out the rest of the story on The Verge to learn more about the bigger vision for this technology.

(photo credit: runneralan2004 via photopin cc)

Congratulations to two of our member venues on achieving LEED certifications!

First up, the Cleveland Convention Center has been awarded LEED for Building Design and Construction (LEED-BD+C) Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC). The center earned the certification for green design and construction in the areas of energy use, lighting, water, and material use as well as incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies. For example, the venue includes a 12.5-acre green roof with extensive additional plant life and soil material that filters and reuses storm water. Also, Levy Restaurants—the exclusive food and beverage provider for the convention center—has partnered with SMG to start two honeybee colonies to produce honey for dishes in the facility.

“We have learned that the national honey bee population is in jeopardy and, last winter, nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies were reported to have died,” said IAVM member Mark J. Leahy, general manager of the Global Center for Health Innovation and the Cleveland Convention Center. “Honeybee colonies provide a vital component in the food chain and this represents our initiative to create a sustainable honey bee population onsite that can produce honey for our Levy Restaurants kitchen in the facility and pollenate plants and crops in the area.”

Next up, the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) is now the world’s largest LEED certified convention center. It was awarded Silver certification by the USGBC.

“We could not be happier to receive this certification,” said IAVM member Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA), the state authority that governs the GWCC, Georgia Dome, Centennial Olympic Park, and manages the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center. “Our staff has worked diligently to green our event practices, reduce our environmental impact, and preserve our facilities for future generations. This recognition solidifies our leadership role in our industry and demonstrates our commitment to the community.”

GWCCA staff created a sustainability committee in 2005 and hired Tim Trefzer as the center’s first sustainability coordinator in 2010.

“Tim Trefzer and the GWCCA Sustainability Committee did an outstanding job securing this award,” said IAVM member Mark Zimmerman, general manager of the GWCC. “We are very proud to be LEED Silver certified; this is a monumental achievement for the GWCC and the convention industry as a whole.”

(Images: Cleveland Convention Center and the Georgia World Congress Center)

Here’s a quick and easy way to get happier—change your walking style.

Researchers at Queen’s University in Canada recently discovered that making people walk in a happy or sad way affects their moods.

“It is not surprising that our mood, the way we feel, affects how we walk, but we want to see whether the way we move also affects how we feel,” said Nikolaus Troje, a senior fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advance Research and co-author of the study.

Troje and his co-researchers showed study participants a list of positive and negative words and then asked them to walk on a treadmill as they measured their gait and posture. A screen showed the participants a gauge that moved left or right depending on if their walking styles were more depressed or happier. They weren’t told what it was measuring, and the researchers would coach them into moving the gauge left or right.

The participants afterwards wrote down as many words as they could remember from the earlier list, and those that walked in a depressed manner remembered more negative words than positive ones. The researchers suggest that the style of walking created the mood.

So, the next time you’re feeling a little down, just change your walk to something a little happier. Perhaps with more arm movements, your head held high, and a pep in your step. Maybe some like this.

(photo credit: moriza via photopin cc)

Yesterday, I was given an inside look at AT&T Stadium’s event operations during the Monday night football game. Paul Turner, CFE, CSSP, director of event operations and security, invited IAVM staff and guests to the stadium for a “secret shop” activity in which we were given access to various levels of the stadium for observation and evaluation. Not only was this my first time attending a game at AT&T Stadium, but it was my first NFL game experience.

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This free webinar for venue professionals and companies will include lessons learned from Dallas/Ft. Worth venues, recent updates from front-line agencies, and best practices regarding current regulations and codes for handling bloodborne pathogens in a venue. Learn from the collaborative efforts of IAVM’s Ebola Task Force, formed to assist in providing relevant resources and updates regarding the current pandemic. Additional resources and information are available at iavm.org/avss/ebola.

The webinar will be moderated by Russ Simons, chief listening officer and managing partner at Venue Solutions Group, and a member of the IAVM Ebola Task Force. It will take place Friday, Oct. 31, from noon-1 p.m. (EDT). Registration spots are limited. Please sign up now to ensure participation.

(photo credit: NIAID via photopin cc)