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).

Brad Schrock, a principal at IAVM allied member and sponsor 360 Architecture, recently spoke with the Silicon Valley Business Journal about the San Jose Earthquakes’ new stadium.

“Across the U.S., the thing that’s at the forefront is we design these stadiums to compete,” Schrock told reporter Nathan Donato-Weinstein. “And the competition is the 72-inch flat screen TV and the comfort of being there and not fighting traffic.”

Schrock said that some ways to compete against the sofa is to heighten the guest experience with items such as individual screens at every seat or immersive technology. There’s also a new trend involving capacity.

“There’s an increasing trend of driving down capacity,” Schrock said. “The goal is to create more demand. We’re seeing that a lot in the NBA. It gets to this issue of, you’d rather be in a sellout situation.”

Please check out the Silicon Valley Business Journal for the complete article, to learn more about Schrock, and if he really set out to build the longest bar in the U.S.

(Image: 360 Architecture)

A new center in the Hebei province plans to help give musical theatre a boost when it opens in China.

“With an investment of around 2 billion yuan (US$323 million) from the local government and Beijing-based production company Ovation Cultural Development, the operation covers an area of about 95,000 square meters with a musical theater and related facilities to be completed by 2017,” the China Daily reported.

The first production will be a Mandarin version of Into the Woods, which will have 100 performances in Beijing in November before going on a national tour. The show has been in development for three years, according to Li Xiaofei, general manager of Ovation Cultural Development.

Musical revenues in 2013 were 230 million yuan ($37.2 million), Li said, an increase of more than 20 percent year over year. More than one million people attended a musical theatre performance in 2013.

“The musical market in China is very promising,” said Li in the China Daily. “Unlike some other Western art forms, like opera and ballet, musicals are commercial and entertaining. It doesn’t require professional knowledge to appreciate.”

(photo credit: tenementpalm via photopin cc)

Theatre performances engage many of your senses—sights, sounds, speeches. Smells, though, aren’t usually covered, unless the person sitting next to you is having a bad hygiene day. But maybe there’s a time and place for scents during a play.

“I split up scent design into two categories. One is an ambient smell or scent, which is scenting the theatre or the performance space as the audience is walking in. It’s part of the initial impression. It’s more like an installation, so it serves to transport the setting, or to make it ‘other,'” said David Bernstein, a scent designer, profiled in The Clyde Fitch Report. “The second is more like scent cues. Rather than scenting the space when you walk in, it’s the introduction of aromas to coincide with the action on stage.”

Writer Dillon Slagle spoke with Bernstein to learn more about how scent design integrates with other design elements and how it affects an audience’s expectations.

“When you make a space smell different from wherever the audience came from, immediately you have this fast lane to the part of their brain that’s connected with emotions, that’s connected with memory,” Bernstein told Slagle. “You’re making a very clear and a full transformation of their perception of the space that they’re walking into that a set can’t do, that lighting can’t do, that nothing else can do. That’s the most positive effect it can have on the audience. It’s the most dimensions you can have.”

That sounds great; however, I have the same question one of the article’s readers posted: How do you protect those who are sensitive or allergic to certain scents?

Please read the rest of the article to learn more about scent design and Bernstein, and let us know your thoughts about scent design during performances. Good, bad, indifferent?

(photo credit: bradleygee via photopin cc)

There was a lot of news this past week. Here are some stories that caught our eyes.

Player-tracking System Will Let NFL Fans Go Deeper Than Ever
—USA Today
“The NFL partnered with Zebra Technologies, which is applying the same radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology that it has used the past 15 years to monitor everything from supplies on automotive assembly lines to dairy cows’ milk production.”

Robots Replace Fans at Korean Baseball Stadium
—CBR
“Some movements of the robots can also be controlled over the Internet by supporters who are not able to get to the stadium. They can also upload their faces for that personalised ‘touch.'”

Globe Theatre Takes Out 100 Audience Members With Its Gory Titus Andronicus
–The Independent
“The Independent can disclose that more than 100 people either fainted or left the theatre after being overcome by on-stage gore – making it a strong candidate for the most potent show in British history.”

Wyly Theatre Welcomes Six Small Companies as Part of New Collaboration
—The Dallas Morning News
“Six small, acclaimed local companies will make their Wyly Theatre debut as part of the Elevator Project, a new collaboration between the AT&T Performing Arts Center and the Dallas performing arts community that kicks off Aug. 22.”

Walk This Way: These “Smart Shoes” Vibrate to Point You in the Right Direction
—Digital Trends
“Wouldn’t it be nice to just know exactly where to turn at any given moment?”

(Image: USA Today/NFL)