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

The Broadway Musical Crisis
—Commentary
“The rise of the commodity musical, then, is at least as much a symptom as it is a disease. Either way, it will probably not be cured in our lifetimes. To be sure, American theater remains vital, but the center of that vitality is now to be found off Broadway and in theaters outside New York.”

Eagles to Test Google Glass-enhanced Stadium Experience at the Linc
—CSNPhilly.com
“One of the things the Philadelphia Eagles are hoping to stay at the forefront of is the fan experience at NFL games.”

Shut Up and Spend: Inside the Electronic Music Money Machine
—The Verge
“Electronic Dance Music didn’t grow into a serious industry in America until it was boiled down into those three little letters.”

Anyone Got a Broom?
—Daily Mail
“Army of 800 litter pickers begins cleaning up this mess at Glastonbury…but it will take SIX WEEKS to get the site back to normal.”

Big Data’s Athletic Moment: Turning Sporting Arenas into Preferred Business Venues
—SmartData Collective
“In essence, with so many business-people coming to games to close deals or foster a sense of company collaboration, arenas have the opportunity to turn stadiums into business spaces that deliver the necessary business experience to close a deal.”

(photo credit: Justin in SD via photopin cc)

For the first time, executives from Live Nation Entertainment’s Ticketmaster, Concerts and Touring divisions will be at VenueConnect 2014, the annual conference and trade show hosted by IAVM.

In addition to the opportunity to network with some of the world’s top live event promoters, “Live Nation Entertainment Backstage” will include a premier education session focused on the latest dynamics in show booking.

Standing Out In A Crowd (Sunday, July 27, 1 p.m.)

Execs from Live Nation Entertainment will appraise the traditional and emerging role of the venue—exploring the new world of concert promotions where revenue optimization is essential and the venue is viewed as a yield management partner. Moderated by Cole Gahagan, EVP of Client Revenue with Ticketmaster, session panelists include Mike Evans, President, Live Nation Arenas; Gerry Barad, COO, Live Nation Global Touring; and Brad Wavra, SVP, Live Nation Touring, Live Nation Concerts.

“Our venue partners are tremendously valuable to Live Nation Entertainment, and we feel it’s important to express that from all branches of our company,” said Mike Evans, president of Live Nation Arenas. “We take pride in the array of services we provide venue managers – from the world’s greatest live events, to the most advanced ticketing and event marketing solutions in the industry—and we’re looking forward to sharing the latest developments on those services at this year’s conference.”

VenueConnect 2014 takes place July 26-29 in the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon. iavm.org/venueconnect

NFL.com released its “Best College Football Stadiums” list as part of its “14 for ’14” series.

“What does it take to have a great stadium? Certainly some history, mixed in with a little bit of mystique, combined with a great view and plenty of fans yelling at the top of their lungs,” Bryan Fischer wrote.

Here are the top five, according to its list.

1. The Rose Bowl—No matter who is playing in the bowl game, there’s nothing like watching the sun set on the San Gabriel Mountains while seeing great football being played on the field on New Year’s Day.”

2. LSU’s Tiger Stadium—”The tailgating scene is ridiculous, it has a unique exterior design, the opposing fans are stuffed a mile away from the action and it can get louder than anywhere when the Tigers need the noise.”

3. Washington’s Husky Stadium—”Thanks to a $250 million renovation this is one of the nicest venues in the sport and the administrators somehow managed to make it even louder with fans closer to the action than ever before.”

4. Texas A&M’s Kyle Field—”Even if you don’t look at what the field will be like a year from now, this is still one of the best places to watch football thanks to the fans, affectionately known as the 12th Man.”

5. Oregon’s Autzen Stadium—”With all the amenities you can ask for from field level to the press box, a trip to Eugene for a game here should be on the bucket list.”

Please visit NFL.com to see the rest of the list, and let us know in the comments section how much you agree or disagree with the list.

(photo credit: jcwpdx via photopin cc)

You might want to stand up for this. Researchers recently discovered that standing during meetings boosts excitement around group projects and reduces turf defense.

“Organizations should design office spaces that facilitate non-sedentary work,” said Andrew Knight of the Olin Business School at Washington University. “Our study shows that even a small tweak to a physical space can alter how people work with one another.”

Knight and colleague Mark Baer had participants in the study work together in teams for 30 minutes on the creation of university recruitment videos. The teams worked either in rooms with tables and chairs or ones with tables but no chairs. The participants also wore small sensors on their wrists to measure how their bodies react when they get excited.

The researchers found that teams who stood had greater physiological arousal and were less territorial about their ideas than the sitting teams. Because the standing teams were less territorial, ideas were shared more easily and the end result was higher quality videos.

“Seeing that the physical space in which a group works can alter how people think about their work and how they relate with one another was very exciting,” Knight said.

As leaders, you often have control over office configurations and furniture selection.

“The manipulation that we investigated in this research—in which we simply removed chairs from the room—was relatively small, yet produced meaningful differences in group arousal and group idea territoriality,” Knight and Baer wrote in the study. “Our results suggest that if leaders aspire to enhance collaborative knowledge work, they might consider eschewing the traditional conference room setup of tables and chairs and, instead, clear an open space for people to collaborate with one another.”

(photo credit: Ben Terrett via photopin cc)