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)

Kevin Carroll is the 2014 VenueConnect closing keynote speaker and is the author of three books—Rules of the Red Rubber Ball, What’s Your Red Rubber Ball?!, and The Red Rubber Ball at Work. As an author, speaker, and agent for social change (a.k.a. the Katalyst), it is Carroll’s “job” to inspire businesses, organizations, and individuals—from CEOs and employees of Fortune 500 companies to schoolchildren—to embrace their spirit of play and creativity to maximize their human potential and sustain more meaningful business and personal growth.

We have an interview with Carroll in the upcoming June/July issue of FM magazine. To get you excited about the conference and the article, here’s a little teaser from the full story.

FM: How much influence does play have on professional success?

Carroll: Play is the foundational piece to us being able to do so many things—problem solving, abstract thinking, innovation, ingenuity. When we were playing as children, we were honing skills in those categories.

You were getting better at problem solving, you were getting better at your imagination, being innovative, being ingenious, using your creative genius. You were doing all those things in play because most of the time what you were trying to do was extend the play, extend the game, keep the game going.

These very early exercises in using your imagination and problem solving and conflict resolution, all these things that you were doing out of necessity to just keep playing, all contribute to your ability to do that when you get into the professional world.

It’s about being around something that gives you joy, being around something that frees you up and doesn’t clog your brain, where you just open up and you’re surrendering to that moment. You’re so present because you’re doing that activity. You’re not thinking about anything else.

Physical activity actually primes the brain, and it’s an access for being more open to ideas. When you understand that physical movement—that breakaway, for example, to prepare yourself to get your mind right—can really increase the likelihood of coming up with the solution, then you really see how play and movement are really significant and important in our success professionally.

You don’t have creative confidence if you’re not practicing your playfulness. If you’re not practicing being innovative, it’s not just going to happen because you have an ideation session or a brainstorming session on your calendar. You have to be prepared for it, and you have to have creative confidence. I think play is at the root of our creative confidence.

There’s still time to register for VenueConnect. See you in Portland!

(Image: www.kevincarollkatalyst.com)