The Orlando City Council on Monday unanimously approved SED Development LLC to construct a complex next to the Amway Center. The mixed-used venue will feature a corporate headquarters for the NBA’s Orlando Magic, a hotel, a conference center, and residential and retail facilities.

“Like with the Amway Center, this has been several years of planning and working with the city to find the right avenue to add another great piece that will add to the core of downtown,” said Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins on NBA.com. “So it’s incredibly exciting to get to the approval stage. Now, the real work begins in planning for construction. It’s going to be a long project and from start to finish we’re probably looking at five-to-six years. But we’re very excited to get started.”

RTKL—the design firm responsible for places such as L.A. Live, the Kansas City Power and Light District, and Berlin Live—plan to make the complex “uniquely Orlando,” suggesting that it will host a variety of musical, cultural, and community events.

“We’ve been talking for about 10 years now about trying to create a new downtown for Orlando and what these venues can do to create economic development and spur other mixed-use development. Because of the recession, it never happened,” Martins said. “So this is the opportunity to get it really started and be the spark. Hopefully, this is just the beginning. Hopefully there will be other developments that pop up and revitalize downtown so that locals want to live and work and play and eat and be entertained.”

The Orlando Magic will continue to partner with the Parramore neighborhood. The organization in the past has donated more than 3,500 service hours, built nine reading and learning centers, and two playgrounds.

“It’s our neighborhood and it’s important to us that we continue to help revitalize it,” Martins said of Parramore. “We think this is another step. Hopefully this is a spark for others to invest in that part of downtown. Downtown really stretches from Orange Avenue to the Citrus Bowl. So this is an opportunity to spark the western side of that stretch.”

(Image: NBA/Orlando Magic)

The current and future leaders of the world are the ones who played team sports in high school.

“Participation in competitive youth sports ‘spills over’ to occupationally advantageous traits that persist across a person’s life,” said Kevin M. Kniffin, a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and lead researcher.

Kniffin’s research shows that people who played a varsity high school sport are thought to be more self-confident, have more self-respect, and exhibit more leadership than those who participated in other extracurricular activities. The research also found that varsity athletes exhibited higher pro-social volunteerism and charitable activities.

“In our study of late-career workers, those who earned a varsity letter more than 50 years ago do demonstrate these characteristics more than others—plus, they donate time and money more frequently than others and possessed great prosocial behavior in their 70s, 80s, and 90s,” Kniffin said.

Well, now that that’s on the table, let’s take a poll.

(photo credit: K.M. Klemencic via photopin cc)

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

Stadium in Berlin Gets Transformed Into Giant Living Room for World Cup, Includes 700-inch Television
—TechEBlog
“Best of all, admission is free for the giant living room, known as WM Wohnzimmer, and it has room for up to 12,000 people.”

Dallas Summer Musicals Bolsters Theater Sound System with Technology for Hearing Impaired
—The Dallas Morning News
“The program offers hearing access in a number of ways, including a revamped sound system, upgraded and high-fidelity headsets, a loop system that is compatible with telecoils (known as t-coils) in hearing aids, and, the latest addition, frequency modulated (FM) ‘classroom compatible’ seating system, which is the same listening technology used in schools.”

World Cup 2014: Japanese Fans Clean Stadium After Losing 2-1 to Ivory Coast
—The Independent
“Despite seeing the Blue Samurais lose 2-1 against Didier Drogba’s team at the Arena Pernambuco in Recife, Japanese spectators armed with bin liners patrolled their side of the stadium and gathered up discarded litter…”

How to Manage Workplace Stress in Five Simple Steps
—The Guardian
“Stop telling yourself off and recognise what you need to be happy. And if all that fails, work out the cost to the bottom line and show your boss.”

How Data Beats Intuition at Making Selection Decisions
—Scientific American
“In predicting job performance, for instance, the predictions of hard data outperformed a combination of data and expert judgment by 50 percent.”

(Image: TechEBlog) 

That grumpy person at your job may be your best worker. According to a new study published in Social Psychology, a person considered a “hater” may be a better employee because he spends time on fewer activities.

Researchers  Justin Hepler (Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Dolores Albarracín (Annenberg School for Communication and Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania) found that people who like many things have a positive attitude and do more things during a week compared to people who dislike many things (the haters), who end up doing fewer things during the same time frame.

Helper and Albarracín showed in two studies that “likers” and haters don’t differ in the types of activities pursued, but that haters just do fewer of them and focused more time on their chosen activities.

“The present results demonstrate that patterns of general action may occur for reasons other than the desire to be active versus inactive,” the researchers wrote. “Indeed, some people may be more active than others not because they want to be active per se, but because they identify a large number of specific behaviors in which they want to engage.”

Helper and Albarracín suggest that these findings can be implemented in work strategies. For example, if you have a hater at work, find an activity he likes and let him focus his whole attention on it. He will develop better skills and be more productive.

He just may not be the most pleasant person to be around.

(photo credit: c r i s via photopin cc)

The industry is mourning the passing of FELD Entertainment’s Mark “Radar” Hennen, who lost is six-year battle with cancer on Sunday.

“Known for his compassion, gentleness, and unconditional love, Hennen was much revered by his friends, his family, and the hundreds of venues and industry executives he interacted with throughout his 18 years in the industry,” Dave Brooks wrote in a wonderful tribute in Venues Today.

IAVM Chairman John Bolton, CFE, and Hennen were close friends for nearly two decades.

“We hated negotiating with each other, but I loved hearing his sighs on the other side of the phone when I wouldn’t agree to what he wanted,” said Bolton, vice president for SMG Entertainment. “We would argue and mostly laugh back and forth until we had a deal both of us could live with going forward.”

Bolton said that one of the things he admired most about Hennen was his spirit and openness in sharing his journey with cancer.

“It really was an inspiration, and his positive attitude about it was truly eye opening,” Bolton said. “Last summer, we both ended up on Cape Cod for summer vacation at the same time. It was such a joy to see him there surrounded by his best friends having the time of his life. I’m so thankful I was there. ”

Christy Jacobs, IAVM’s director of marketplace sales, remembers meeting Hennen for the first time at VenueConnect in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

“He walked up to me, smiled, and said ‘I’m Radar, now let’s talk toppings,'” Jacobs said. “We both laughed out loud, as he had totally caught me off guard. He was referring to the ice cream social that FELD hosts at our Arena Management Conference, and he wanted to make sure we didn’t have just the ‘typical sundae topping(s).’ He wanted a list of varieties and all of the options. He was a lot of fun to work with and he always had a wonderful, positive energy. Radar will be truly missed.”

I encourage you to read Brooks’ story about Hennen, and please share your favorite memories about him with us in the comment section.

(Image: Venues Today)