Pay per Laugh | TeatreNeu from edududu on Vimeo.

Barcelona’s Teatreneu comedy club doesn’t charge a cover fee. Instead, you’re charged per laugh.

The move is an effort to combat falling attendance numbers, due in part to Spanish government taxes on theatre tickets. In order to make money, though, the venue outfitted every seat with iPad that ran facial recognition software. It recorded every time a person laughed at a cost of  €0.30 (about US$0.38). The max amount an attendee could pay was set at €24 (US$30).

How well did it work? Watch the video above to find out.

IAVM is actively monitoring the impact of recent Ebola incidents. At the direction of Chair Kim Bedier, CFE—and through collaboration with the Academy for Venue Safety & Security (AVSS) and our Industry Affairs Council (IAC)—a task force has been formed to work on relevant communications to the IAVM community. We would like to encourage members to join the current discussion in VenueNet, and to look for more information in the very near future.

The Industry Affairs Council was formed by IAVM to provide insight, recommend answers on positions, and proactively pursue industry representation of legislative issues and positions of advocacy.

Serving on the IAC Ebola task force:

Ryan Thorpe, director of facility operations, McCormick Place/SMG, vice chair of the IAVM Industry Affairs Council
Fred Peterson, director of facilities operations, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, chair of the IAVM Industry Affairs Council
Russell Read, CFE, vice president of operations, AT&T Performing Arts Center, ETCP representative on the IAVM Industry Affairs Council
Paul Turner, CFE, CSSP, director of event operations & security, AT&T Stadium, chair of the IAVM stadiums sector, member of the AVSS Faculty
Bill Powell, vice president of event marketing and sales, FELD Entertainment
Jeff Davis, general manager, College Park Center – UT Arlington
Mark Herrera, director of education, IAVM

(photo credit: hukuzatuna via photopin cc)

Erin Rowland, the sustainability coordinator with the Oregon Convention Center (OCC), prepared a sustainability report for VenueConnect 2014 and recently shared the results with IAVM headquarters.

Some of the interesting findings include that for each day of the event the average attendee consumed only

— 12 gallons of water

— 58 kWh of electricity

— Less than .15 therm of natural gas

— Less than one pound of garbage

— 1.5 pounds of recyclable and compostable material

“VenueConnect is the first conference that OCC has measured the water, waste, and energy statistics,” Rowland said. “Normally, we just measure the waste diversion rate. Waste diversion rates for other conferences/event have varied between 60 percent to 85 percent. Conferences/events with diversion rate above 75 percent usually have a very focused and detailed plan striving to host a ‘zero waste show.’”

Reaching a 67 percent diversion rate for the event, Rowland said, is a great starting point for IAVM.

“This achievement shows that the IAVM conference planning staff and OCC partnered to ensure that most of the material generated during the show could be recycled (sign), composted (food service ware), and was re-usable (durable service ware),” she said. “It also shows that attendees did a good job correctly sorting their waste in our recycling bins.”

Rowland said that the OCC has converted all plumbing fixtures to low-flow fixtures, upgraded more than 70 percent of its lighting fixtures, and during VenueConnect the major heating system was shut off, allowing attendee usage of water and electricity to be very minimal.

Several suggestions were offered in the report for ongoing event success, such as sustainability focused experiences. However, one suggestion came out on top.

“Moving forward, I think engaging conference exhibitors/planners to develop ‘zero waste’ exhibits and to not leave material at convention centers would increase the understanding among the exhibitors/planners about the environmental impact they bring to events,” Rowland said. “It would also have a big impact on the event’s diversion rate.”

Hugh Jackman was on Good Morning America yesterday talking about his new Broadway play, The River. One of the interesting parts of the interview was about how his team and producer are making sure pricing allows anyone that wants to see the show will not have to worry about scalpers. I thought it was very clever, and I wanted to share it with you. Check out the video.

In short, the answer is yes. However, Cindi May—a professor of psychology at the College of Charleston—offers a fuller explanation on the Scientific American website, where she explains new research on the benefits of limiting talent on teams.

Here, May writes about why too much talent is bad.

“Think teamwork. In many endeavors, success requires collaborative, cooperative work towards a goal that is beyond the capability of any one individual. Even Emmitt Smith needed effective blocking from the Cowboy offensive line to gain yardage. When a team roster is flooded with individual talent, pursuit of personal star status may prevent the attainment of team goals. The basketball player chasing a point record, for example, may cost the team by taking risky shots instead of passing to a teammate who is open and ready to score.”

Even though the study focused on sports teams, May writes that the finding’s implications “extent beyond the ball field to any group or endeavor that must balance competitive and collaborative efforts, including corporate teams, financial research groups, and brainstorming exercises.”

Check out the full article at Scientific American to learn more.

(photo credit: xavi talleda via photopin cc)