We hope you got the chance at VenueConnect to check out the IAVM Sustainability Committee’s booth and mini-presentations. If not, here is a quick recap of the sessions:

How OCC Achieved LEED Platinum in 2014—by Matt Uchtman
The Oregon Convention Center (OCC) recently achieved LEED Platinum in March 2014. OCC staff explained the steps they took to go from becoming the first LEED Certified convention center in 2004 to achieving LEED Platinum in 2014. Click here for a link to the presentation.

How Pritchard Sports and Entertainment Group Earned Florida Marlins Best Diversion Ratio Recycling Award—by J. Roland Hayden
This presentation covered the recycling efforts at Marlins Park that earned the team an award for the best diversion ratio in the NL East. The creation of the recycling plan was discussed, along with the resources and partners involved, the procedures they enacted, and the results of their efforts. Click here for a link to the presentation.

Who is the Green Sports Alliance—by Martin Tull
The Green Sports Alliance (GSA) is a non-profit organization with a mission to help sports teams, venues, and leagues enhance their environmental performances. GSA members represent more than 230 sports teams and venues from 20 different sports leagues. Since February 2010, the alliance has brought together venue operators, sports team executives, and environmental scientists to exchange information about better practices and develop solutions to their environmental challenges that are cost-competitive and innovative. Follow this link to learn more.

We thank our presenters once again for offering great information for our members. Keep an eye out for the Sustainability Committee at next year’s VenueConnect in Baltimore, Maryland, August 1-4.

There’s been no shortage of press about the technology ingrained throughout Levi’s Stadium, home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. This past week, though, the team played in a sold-out stadium, and the venue’s app passed its first big test.

“We proved on Sunday that what we said we were going to do could be done,” John Paul, VenueNext COO and co-founder, told Kurt Wagner for Re/code. “It couldn’t have gone better.”

Wagner’s story is nice write-up about VenueNext and its plans to expand to other venues.

“If you haven’t heard of VenueNext, there’s a good reason why. The company just launched publicly on Thursday, and currently operates in just one stadium,” Wagner wrote. “It has, however, been in conversations with more than 15 teams and venues over the past year, said Paul, many of which are watching closely to see how the experiment at Levi’s turns out.”

Check out Wagner’s story to learn more about what VenueNext plans to do to improve the user experience in stadiums and what they’re hoping for in December.

(Image: VenueNext)

You’ve reached the top through hard work, good business practices, and great interpersonal skills. In order to continue success at the top, though, you need a quality that is often overlooked by leaders: perspective.

“Effective leadership is like a successful car ride. To go places, you need gas and acceleration—power is a psychological accelerator. But you also need a good steering wheel so you don’t crash as you speed down the highway—perspective-taking is that psychological steering wheel,” said Adam Galinsky, the Vikram S. Pandit Professor of Business Management at Columbia Business School. “When you anchor too heavily onto your own perspective, and don’t take into account the viewpoints of others you are bound to crash.”

Galinsky is the co-author of a study, “Acceleration With Steering: The Synergistic Benefits of Combining Power and Perspective-Taking,” that shows when those in power view the world from another’s viewpoint, they produce better results in decision-making and business.

Here are three main points the researchers discovered, courtesy of the Columbia Business School:

1) Power diminishes perspective-taking: Although power propels leaders toward their goals, it leads people to anchor too heavily on their own vantage point, insufficiently adjusting to others’ perspectives.

2) Perspective-taking alone is not enough: People with the propensity to focus on what others are thinking tend to be effective navigators of their social world; however they often lack the agency necessary to assert themselves and make change.

3) Power + perspective-taking = an effective leader: When individuals both have power and are turned into good perspective-takers, they a) tend to handle difficult situations more successfully, and with greater respect and fairness and b) facilitate information-sharing, a practice that helps groups make the best possible decisions when faced with complex problems.

Galinsky suggests that there is a synergistic effect when one combines power and perspective. The end result produces better outcomes than if used separately.

(photo credit: ♔ Georgie R via photopin cc)

Scientists just recently twisted two radio beams in order to send data at 32 gigabytes per second, which is 30 times faster than 4G LTE. Why am I telling you this? Well, besides better mobile technology, it’s also an example of how working together can create phenomenal success.

Working together was the underlying theme at 2014 Arena Management Conference. It appeared in several sessions, and one of the most pointed observations came from Russ Simons, managing partner at Venue Solutions Group.

“Success doesn’t take individual inspiration,” Simons said during the “Using VenueDataSource to Your Advantage” session. “It takes all of us communicating information.”

Attendees were encouraged more than once to make sure all parties on a project or event are in the room, whether for security plans or sponsorship proposals.

“You have to have all the people at the table for security discussions,” said Chris Lamberth, director of sport development for 360 Architecture, during the “Arena Security from Design to Operations” session.

“Do your research,” said Steve Kirsner, director of booking and events for the SAP Center at San Jose, during the “Creating & Maintaining a Win-Win Sponsorship” session. “You wouldn’t go on a job interview without research. Do the same thing with sponsorship.”

Clear communication was also emphasized as a No. 1 priority for venue managers.

“Communication is key,” said Jen Sandstrom, senior director of event services for the STAPLES Center/Nokia Theatre, during the “Rock the Rollout: Backstage Best Practices” session. “Every level should understand all the elements that will happen the day of an event.”

Finally, even after everyone is on board for an event and proper research and preparation completed, success depends on a very important quality.

“Attitude is 75 percent of a great experience,” Sandstrom said.

Michael Grozier, executive vice president of clubs and theaters for Live Nation, agreed.

“The single most important thing to instill in a venue team is to explain that this is our one shot to impress the act,” he said. “Make sure people are positive and smiling.”

This goes back to what Simons suggested. In order for the industry to be successful, every person, from bottom to top and back down, must be engaged and focused on improvement, whether that is through knowledge sharing, attending conferences, or participating in surveys for the industry’s betterment.

“We can’t remain out on an island,” he said. “I’m hopeful we’ll stop thinking about ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Without participation, we miss an opportunity to elevate the industry.”

Two of our member venues have received Google Glass to experiment with in order to learn about the pros and cons of the technology when using it in a facility. We’ll be following their progress on the blog here and in FM magazine. The first blog post from the AT& T Performing Arts Center appeared this summer. This second blog post is written by Robyn Williams, CFE, executive director of Portland’5 Centers for the Arts.

Portland’5 was very excited to be selected as one of the venues to tryout Google Glass. It came up in a town hall at the last Performing Arts Manager’s Conference as to how we would handle a patron entering the building wearing one. It was clear that most of us didn’t know much about this technology.

We immediately brainstormed a variety of cool things we’d love to do with it: secret shopping, filming the “second experience,” etc., but it became clear that the first order of business was a chat with our attorney, Nathan. Here were some of his comments:

1. Photo and Video Recording – Google Glass users can discretely record photo and video. This results in countless privacy concerns from voyeurism to surveillance of privileged information. For example, a Google Glass user could snap photos of sensitive or confidential documents. Or, an employee could secretly record a private staff meeting. Some bars and restaurants have already banned Google Glass to protect the privacy of their patrons.

2. Audio Recording – Under Oregon law, a person may not…”(c) Obtain or attempt to obtain the whole or any part of a conversation by means of any device, contrivance, machine or apparatus, whether electrical, mechanical, manual or otherwise, if not all participants in the conversation are specifically informed that their conversation is being obtained.”

So recording with Google Glass of a conversation without the other person or people’s consent might be a crime.

3. Facial Recognition – Google claims to be taking measures to prevent this, but some believe that facial-recognition apps will be available that can use a smartphone data connection to identify people observed by Google Glass. This may not be illegal yet, but could be as states introduce legislation to regulate “wearable computers.”

4. Recording Phone Calls – The glasses also have the capability to record phone calls received through the device. This could lead to violation of state wiretapping laws.

5. Copyright/Intellectual Property Issues – The use of Google Glass at a venue could lead to copyright infringement claims arising from patrons recording audio or video at concerts that do not allow recording or photography. This is an issue with any smart phone but may be much harder to police through the use of Google Glass.

Here’s a great article on the topic of Google Glass and the law.

OK, secret shopping is out. We decided to take some time to really learn how it works and go from there. We handed it off to Joe Durr, director of event services, to see what he could discover. Stay tuned.

(photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc)