Success isn’t always fun, says Srini Pillay, M.D., CEO of NeuroBusiness Group, an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School, and a teacher in the Executive Education Program at Harvard Business School. For some people, finding success increases worries that they’ll fail in the future. However, there are strategies for getting out of this mindset.

Pillay, writing on the Harvard Business Review blog, offers the following suggestions to help you enjoy your success.

Avoid Victory Laps
“Learn to moderate when and where you express happiness about your success. Share the good news with other successful people. And focus your conversation on other things you are developing when you are succeeding so as not to annoy people.”

Focus on Value, Not Winning
“When we win, we assume that others will feel similarly, as we project our own feelings onto them. This fear may be unconscious or conscious and may disrupt our confidence, causing anxiety about the effect of our success on other people.”

Be in the Moment
“…stop overthinking the success. Focus on the ‘here and now.’ Let go of worrying about the future and rationalizing the past. Obsession with the past can be distracting and is not always helpful. Also, it will prevent you from clearing your mind.”

Aim Higher
“When you have mastered something, ask yourself: How you can innovate around this? Watch out for your own boredom as it can lead you to sabotage yourself, and also watch out for reactive lateral shifts in job hierarchy simply to escape your boredom of mastery.”

“Even when we consciously want to be successful, enjoying that success can be a challenge,” Pillay wrote. “By following the suggestions above, you can create a framework for managing success so that you can more reliably sustain your success when it occurs.”

Pillay’s post is a good one, and I recommend you read it for a more in-depth discussion about each suggestion.

(photo credit: Scrap Pile via photopin cc)

Behind every great success is a great spouse. At least that is what a new study has found.

“Our study shows that it is not only your own personality that influences the experiences that lead to greater occupational success, but that your spouse’s personality matters too,” said Joshua Jackson, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis and the study’s lead author.

The study is the first of its kind to show that a spouse’s personality traits can affect your career.

“The experiences responsible for this association are not likely isolated events where the spouse convinces you to ask for a raise or promotion,” Jackson said. “Instead, a spouse’s personality influences many daily factors that sum up and accumulate across time to afford one the many actions necessary to receive a promotion or a raise.”

More than 5,000 married people, ages 19-89, were studied for five years. They were given psychological tests to determine how they would score on five types of personalities: openness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. The researchers then tracked on-job performance of working spouses using occupational success surveys, such as job satisfaction, salary raises, and promotions.

The researchers found that employees who had high scores of career success most often had spouses with high conscientiousness personalities. This is probably due to, the researches said, spouses helping with day-to-day chores, employees emulating the good habits of the spouses, and reduced stress because spouses helps keep employees’ personal lives running smoothly.

“This is another example where personality traits are found to predict broad outcomes like health status or occupational success, as in this study,” Jackson said. “What is unique to this study is that your spouse’s personality has an influence on such important life experiences.”

(photo credit: kenteegardin via photopin cc)

It was announced last week that Wembley Stadium’s arch will be fully illuminated by 228 LED floodlights, which will react to social media trends during a football (soccer) match.

“This could reflect a particular team trending with the arch showing their colours, to a live barometer showing fans’ tweets to a question asked in commentary or at half-time,” The Guardian reported.

The arch is connected by EE, a U.K. mobile network and Internet service provider.

“Technology is changing the way that people enjoy the events at Wembley Stadium—how they get here, how they get in, how they buy drinks and snacks, and how they share their experiences with friends and family,” said Roger Maslin, managing director at Wembley Stadium. “Wembley and EE have a shared ambition to use technology to make this stadium the best fan experience anywhere in the world—that’s about being the most connected stadium and integrating mobile into everything people do here.”

Check out the video below from On Demand News to learn more about the new lights and to hear the reporter get tired of talking about team colors.

(Image: EE/Wembley Stadium) 

Researchers are increasingly discovering the negative effects of sitting too much and the positive results of getting outside. By taking a quick walk in nature, one can improve mental health and be more energized for education. Convention center designers and event attendees are noticing this research, too.

“Over the last few years, we’ve been hearing more and more from these people that conventioneers don’t want to be locked in,” Todd Voth, a senior principal at architecture firm Populous, recently told The New York Times. “I really think people that go to conventions are sick and tired of being stuck in a building all day.”

The Times article, “Fresh Air for Conventions,” addresses the increased interest in outdoor spaces attached to convention centers and some of the ways they’re being used.

For example, in an upcoming FM article, IAVM member James Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, writes about the new lawn space at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC).

“With expansion, we have plans to not just grow in size, but to grow smart, thinking about the future of the meetings industry by designing innovative events spaces,” Rooney wrote. “In fact, at the BCEC we recently launched ‘The Lawn on D,’ a first-of-its-kind experimental green event space. Open to the public and available for private events, the 2.7-acre green space not only serves as an important community initiative, but also as a engaging space where meeting planners can get creative and wow their attendees.”

Several IAVM members are quoted in the Times article: Thom Connors, regional vice president and general manager of the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan; Michael Sawaya, executive director of the convention and sports facilities department in San Antonio, Texas; Tim Muldoon, general manager at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Ken Stockdell, vice president at architecture firm HKS; and Charles H. Johnson, president of C.H. Johnson Consulting.

It’s a great article, and I recommend you read it, because outdoor spaces is a positive trend, both for one’s mental health as well as the wallet.

“There’s pressure for finding new revenue sources for these buildings,” Stockdell said. “That’s attractive to the convention center on the operational side of things because food and beverage is the No. 1 income generator after space rental.”

If you’re interested in more topics about convention centers, please plan to attend the 2014 International Convention Center Conference, October 2-4, in Vancouver, British Columbia, where attendees will learn the latest in revenue trends, industry forecasts, and best practices.

(Image: The Lawn on D Facebook page)

It is with great sadness that we share with you that Joe Floreano, CFE, longtime IAVM member and executive director of the Rochester Riverside Convention Center in New York, has passed away due to cancer. He was 67.

“We lost an amazing person and friend,” said IAVM member Lional Dubay, assistant vice president and director of the business services division at the University of Florida. “He will be missed but always in our hearts. My thoughts and prayers go out to Joe’s family during this difficult time.”

Floreano began working at the convention center in 1983, and over the years, received numerous accolades from New York’s senate, assembly, and governor for his leadership skills and community involvement. He was a past IAVM chairman, a Charles A. McElravy Award honoree, and recipient of the 2014 Legacy Award for venue management excellence, awarded by the IAVM Foundation.

The City of Rochester will honor Floreano’s legacy by renaming the convention center as the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center. The mayor, the Rochester Convention Center Management Corporation Board of Directors, and the Rochester City Council and members will gather for a special ceremony on Wednesday, September 24, for the naming, and the city is web casting it live at 2:15 p.m. (ET) at http://www.cityofrochester.gov/mayorwebcast.

“Joe’s many contributions will be with us forever, but this historic and tangible legacy of his leadership will remind everyone, on a daily basis, how much Joe did for the industry and his city he loved so much,” said IAVM member Steve Gregosky, senior vice president of business development for Ovations Food Services.

Floreano’s love for the venue industry was evident to all, and was recognized this past July during the IAVM Venue Industry Awards Luncheon at the VenueConnect Annual Conference & Trade Show in Portland, Oregon.

Jason Rittenberry, CFE, chair of the IAVM Foundation Board of Trustees, and Brad Mayne, CFE, president and CEO of MetLife Stadium, presented Floreano with the 2014 Legacy Award—a prestigious honor that recognized Floreano’s significant support and impact on the industry through his involvement with the IAVM Foundation.

Inseparable from Floreano’s role with the Foundation is the new Build An Amazing Future campaign that debuted during the ceremony. The new projects from the Foundation carry on Floreano’s passion for young professionals in the industry, and include a 30-Under-30 development program, as well as an unprecedented number of scholarships to each of the major conferences and schools hosted by IAVM.

The Foundation is pleased to announce that the Joe Floreano Scholarship fund is being established within the Build An Amazing Future project, serving as an enduring reminder of Floreano’s unwavering commitment to passing an amazing future down to future generations. More information about the Foundation campaign is available at iavm.org/AmazingFuture.

“I am so sorry for the loss of such a great friend and colleague,” said former IAVM President and CEO Dexter King. “Joe was the consummate gentleman, full of love and care for all. I don’t think he ever met a person where he didn’t express genuine interest. He has helped shape my own life through the witness of his own. I will always cherish his time on this earth. Rest in peace, Joe. We will carry on your legacy as best we can.”

(Image: Ira Morris)