Wearables, wearables, wearables—they’re everywhere, or at least they’re going to be everywhere soon. Whether they’re on your wrists, threading through your shirts, or floating on your eyes, we’ll all soon be able to know more about ourselves and easily control our worlds. It’s a movement that I’m pretty excited about, especially when it affects live events, such as music festivals.

NBC News recently published a story about wearables and the future of concerts. One of the interviewees was Martina Wang, head of music and entertainment for Eventbrite, who talked about the increasing popularity of live streaming music festivals.

“While many in the industry feared that streaming would cannibalize ticket sales, festivals are actually finding that it serves as an ideal advertisement for future attendees, Wang said,” Everett Rosenfeld reported for NBC News.

Rosenfeld wrote that concert attendees are more than ever using their mobile devices for everything from holding tickets to arranging meet-ups to social media blasts.

“But the firms building apps for payment and moment-sharing are not thinking big enough, said Nick Panama, co-founder of music label-turned event technologies company Cantora,” Rosenfeld reported. “Relying on phones and apps is detracting from the concert experience, he said.”

Technology, Panama said, needs to enhance the sensory experience, and his company is working on ways to do that with a project called Nada.

“Nada employs wearable technology to merge the convenience of mobile app functions, including cashless payment and paperless ticketing, while surpassing the connective and analytic capabilities of social media,” Rosenfeld reported. “All of this is contained in a faceless and input-less wristband.”

Check out the NBC News story to learn more about how technology and wearables will change the concert going experience.

(Image: Cantora)

The June/July issue of FM magazine is printed and currently mailing. Our cover story is a profile of IAVM’s in-coming chair, Kim Bedier, CFE. Other feature topics include emergency response lessons from commercial airlines, college sports and alcohol, and why you should give a man a moose.

One of the more fun sections is our Up Close spread, where we feature a venue or event along with some interesting facts. For this issue, we profiled the Long Beach Arena (pictured above), which recently installed a large”flying” suspended steel-tension grid as part of its Pacific Ballroom renovation. Attendees of the Arena Management Conference (AMC), September 14-16, will have a chance to experience the renovated Long Beach Arena when they visit as part of the conference.

This year’s AMC sessions include discussions about mobile technology, non-musical shows, the dangers of in-house promoting, and more. Please visit the conference website for more information and to register. Early-bird registration ends August 8.

(Image: Long Beach CVB)

If you’re attending this year’s VenueConnect, you’ll want to download the conference app before you leave home. Powered by AVAI Mobile Solutions, the app gives you access to speaker bios, offers real-time notifications, schedule updates, and you’ll be able to create a personal itinerary to remind you of the sessions, programs, and events you don’t want to miss.

You can download the app directly from the App Store or Google Play.

Loretta Hudelot wants to help you be smarter in your job, and one way to do that is to know what your customers care about and what your customers’ customers care about.

Hudelot, the enterprise insights manager for Freeman Companies, will present a session at this year’s VenueConnect on Sunday, July 27, that will give attendees insights into how technology is affecting businesses and how it has changed what customers want from companies.

Greg Wolfe, IAVM’s professional development manager, recently spoke with Hudelot about her session, and you can listen to his short interview above to learn more about her session and to understand what’s going on with event technology.

The Boise Centre broke ground on its expansion earlier this month. The expansion is part of the Civic Center Plaza development in downtown Boise and is adjacent to the current facility.

“Over the years, Boise Centre has built a reputation for delivering the highest levels of guest service and quality events,” said IAVM member Pat Rice, executive director of the convention center. “Our vibrant city and newly expanded meeting space will position Boise to secure larger regional and national conventions that will benefit our local economy.”

The new construction and planned renovations to the existing building will nearly double the Boise Centre’s current 50,000 square feet of meeting and event space. Completion is estimated in the third quarter of 2016. The expanded space will include a 15,000-square-foot ballroom, 14,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, 7,000 square feet of prefunction/lobby space, and connectivity to the existing Boise Centre via a skywalk. The expansion is being built directly across the Grove Plaza (civic plaza) from the existing Boise Centre. The lead architecture firm is tvsdesign of Atlanta, along with Conventional Wisdom Consulting.

The City Center Plaza project is being developed by Gardner Company and will include not only the expansion of Boise Centre expansion, but also construction of the Clearwater Building, a technology focused office building that will include the Boise State University computer science department, a multi-modal transit center, and restaurant and retail spaces.