IAVM member Roy Sommerhof made the news this week when he spoke with WBAL in Baltimore (home of VenueConnect 2015) about M&T Bank Stadium’s $35 million improvement project.

“Most notably, all the concession stands have been renovated,” said Sommerhof, vice president of stadium operations for the Baltimore Ravens. “All the equipment inside of them has been replaced. We have more points of sale and more variety on the upper level for fans, and so we think the service will be better.”

You can listen to the full interview below, and if you’re a member who has made the news, please email us at editor@iavm.org so we can feature you on the blog.

(photo credit: Kevin H. via photopin cc)

Sure, free Wi-Fi is nice, but it’s useless if your phone’s battery dies. This is where uBeam comes in, and this week the company received some great press on its announcement of a working prototype that will be built for consumers.

In the simplest terms, uBeam is a wireless charging system. It charges your phone via ultrasound, which is converted from electricity through a charging station. The charging station is thin (no larger than five millimeters thick) and can be attached to a wall. Yes, your venue could become one large phone charger.

“This is the only wireless power system that allows you to be on your phone and moving around a room freely while you’re device is charging,” uBeam CEO and Founder Meredith Perry told The New York Times. “It allows for a Wi-Fi-like experience of charging; with everything else you have to be in close range of a transmitter.”

The goal is to have uBeam available to consumers within the next two years with two different charging stations—one for small spaces, such as homes and offices, and the other for larger venues, such as stadiums, conference centers, and music halls.

“We’re going to sell directly to consumers, and we’ll sell them to restaurant chains and hotels—we are going to saturate the market with uBeam transmitters,” Perry said in the Times article. “In addition to your local coffee shop saying it has free Wi-Fi, it will also say it has free uBeam.”

The 2014 Venue Industry Awards Luncheon—sponsored by Ungerboeck Software International and emceed by Chris Bigelow, founder and owner of The Bigelow Companies—took place during the 2014 VenueConnect Annual Conference & Trade Show in Portland, Oregon. The awards, hosted each year by the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM), honored exceptional venues and professionals in several categories.

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The Green Sports Alliance (GSA) will offer a free webinar for IAVM members on Wednesday, August 27, from noon-1 p.m. (CDT) on greening efforts and fan engagement.

“From the millions who attend sports events each year to the exponentially higher number who follow sports closely on TV and the Internet to still others who are simply casual observers, sports reaches into the lives of the vast majority of citizens,”  GSA said in a description about the webinar. “And while fan engagement impacts may be harder to track than a waste diversion rate, it is difficult to argue that the potential impact of influencing the attitudes and behavior of billions of followers around the globe is far higher. On top of that, fan engagement around environmental initiatives holds significant potential to drive revenue and attract new sponsorships as well.”

The webinar agenda is as follows:

1. Dave Newport—Director, Environmental Center, University of Colorado & Board of Directors, Green Sports Alliance: Welcoming remarks and presenter introductions.

2. Steve Seiferheld—Senior Vice President, Turnkey Intelligence: Results of recent survey on sports and the environment, based on the responses of more than 1,000 self-identified sports fans.

3. Lisa Boaz—Senior Manager of Marketing & Advertising, St. Louis Rams: “Go Green” platform and other environmental fan engagement initiatives of this long-standing NFL franchise.

4. Matt Williams—Director, Office of Sustainability, University of Florida: Partnership between Gator Athletics, UF Sustainability and nonprofit Neutral Gator to offset Athletics’ CO2 footprint while helping individual fans and the local community.

5. Discussion/Q&A

Registration for this free webinar is now open.

Rick Antonson is an apostle for cathedral thinking.

“It is the one way to keep the living generation tethered to the future,” he told an audience at TEDxStanley Park.

Cathedral thinking is about the long term and shared ambitions. It’s working on something now knowing you will not be around to experience the finished project. It’s about helping create a better world for future generations.

“It’s not what we do that matters. It’s what we cause to happen,” Antonson said. “We should all be involved in unfinished work.”

The concept of cathedral thinking stretches back to medieval times, Antonson said, when architects, stonemasons, and artisans laid plans and began construction of the soaring, cavernous structures that would one day serve as places of worship, community gathering spaces, and safe havens.

“Those who began such work knew they’d never live to see their task completed,” he said. “Cathedral thinking has been applied to space exploration, city planning, corporate mandates, and other long-range goals that require decades of foresight and preparation so future generations can enjoy their full realization. Though there are many instances in which cathedral thinking can be applied, they all require the same foundation: a far-reaching vision, a well thought-out blueprint, and a shared commitment to long-term implementation.”

Antonson is the keynote speaker at the 2014 International Convention Center Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, October 2-4, where he will ask the audience, “What is your cathedral thought?”

He was formerly the president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver. Under his leadership, Tourism Vancouver played a significant role in shaping Vancouver and British Columbia’s future. The organization launched the bid for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games, where Antonson served as a Games Ambassador.

Tourism Vancouver also initiated the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Taskforce, which led to an expanded center that is partially funded by Tourism Vancouver’s $90-million investment.

Antonson took Vancouver through “Rethink,” a yearlong, post-Olympic look at “What’s next?” asking big questions and engaging a community of interests to focus on “10 years down the road…” Many commitments came out of that process, one of which was to prepare a Tourism Master Plan—a rare undertaking in a mature destination.

He travels extensively around the world and is the author of To Timbuktu for a Haircut: A Journey Through West Africa and Route 66 Still Kicks: Driving America’s Main Street. His forthcoming book is Full Moon Over Noah’s Ark: An Odyssey to Mount Ararat (Dundurn, September 2015).