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

Today’s Not-so-quiet Social Media Revolution Puts the Performing Artist Center Stage
—Technorati
“Performing arts can literally take their greatest assets, the artists, and leverage the power of social media to craft arts celebrities. Not through trickery or false drama, but through the power of story and art; the very core of every successful performing arts organization.”

Do Your Suite Holders Trust You?
—ALSD
“Or maybe more importantly: Do you deserve to have their trust?”

MGM’s New Arena Won’t Stop Goodman From Pursuing Facility Downtown
—Las Vegas Sun
“Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman remains adamant that a downtown stadium will be built and that both venues could be home to professional sports franchises.”

New CEIR Report Reveals Attendee Floor Interaction Preferences
—IAEE
“This report pinpoints the demand for an immersive experience—evidence that attendees look to take advantage of the in-person, physical environment that is unique to live exhibitions and not available online.”

Atlanta Special FX Creates First Ever Man-Made Logo Clouds at Richmond International Raceway
—Lighting & Sound America
“NASCAR fanatics watched the sky all day as the midway was filled with clouds shaped like smiley faces, driver’s numbers, music notes, stars, and much more.”

(photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc)

(UPDATE: Voting has been opened to the general public via Venues Today‘s Facebook page. If you’re visiting its page via a mobile device, it’s recommended you vote at this link. Voting ends on Friday, May 9.)

It’s time to vote for the 2014 Women of Influence award given out by Venues Today. The award honors three women who have made a difference in the sports, music, and convention industries. You have to be a subscriber in order to vote, and you can vote for five women on the ballot.

Congratulations to everyone nominated, including the following IAVM members:

Jan Addison, CFE
Lynn Carlotto
Lisa Cochran
Cheryl Cohen
Wesley Cullen
Millie Dixon
Vicki Hawarden, CMP
Donna P. Julian
Chris Kibler, CPA
Kathy Kramer, CMP, CFE
Kerry Painter, CFE, CEM
Jill Pepper
Carol Pollock
Cheryl Swanson, CFE
Karen Totaro, CFE
Dawn R. Ullrich
Sally Williams

Please visit Venues Today for nominee bios and to vote.

I’m a huge fan of the TV show Portlandia, so when I found out that this year’s VenueConnect takes place in the city where the dream of the 90s is still alive, I got super excited. After the conference, should I go to the feminist bookstore first? Buy some vintage clothes? Visit a restaurant and ask if the chicken is local?

Eating where the show’s characters do is a lot easier now, thanks to Bon Appétit magazine.

“The IFC comedy series is all about food: raw food, coffee snobbery, birthday dinners, and biker bars,” Ashley Hoffman wrote. “Which only makes sense, since the bizarro world dreamed up by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein is not all that far removed from Portland, Oregon, itself. But how far removed, exactly?”

The magazine rewatched all three seasons and some of the forth season and created a map that matches the fictional food locations with their real locations. Now you, too, can sit in the real James John Cafe and one-up your friends on what you’ve read lately.

Please check out the map on Bon Appétit‘s site, join our VenueConnect Facebook page, and I’ll see you in Portland this summer!

(Image: From Portlandia’s Facebook page)

Arcade Fire played in a warehouse in Brooklyn late last year and loved how it felt. That’s when the group turned to its tour production manager, Richard Stembridge, and asked, “How can we take an arena and make it feel like a club?”

One way he did that was to lower the lighting rig above the audience and the band.

“It creates a vibe,” said band member William Butler. “Having that ceiling over your head makes you feel like you’re in a club.”

Part of Arcade Fire‘s success stems from how easily they break down the wall between band and audience.

“The audience is an aspect of the performance, if not the largest aspect,” said musician Dan Deacon, who performed as an opening act on Arcade Fire’s current tour. “You don’t feel you’re in an arena. I feel like I am just playing a giant house.”

Playing to the amount of audience they have, they have to use giant spaces, such as arenas, said Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Perry.

“How do we use them in a way that makes us feel comfortable and makes it cool for the audience?” he said.

Check out the behind-the-scenes video below to learn more about Arcade Fire’s current tour and venue production and how they’re making it fun for themselves and the audience.

(photo credit: GabboT via photopin cc)

Stress is nothing to laugh about, except that you should. A new study by researchers at Loma Linda University in California shows that laughter can reduce stress by decreasing the hormone cortisol. Excessive cortisol levels can damage your ability to learn and memorize.

The researchers showed a 20-minute funny video to a group of healthy, elderly participants and a group of elderly individuals with diabetes. Both groups were asked to complete a memory assessment, measuring learning, recall, and sight recognition. Cortisol levels for both groups were measured before and at the end of the experiment. A control group of elderly participants also completed the assessment, but did not watch the video.

Cortisol levels decreased in both groups who watched the video, and there was a greater improvement in all areas of memory assessment compared to the control group that didn’t watch the video.

“Due to decreased cortisol levels, elderly and diabetic elderly individuals that watch a humor video that induces mirthful laughter vs. not watching a humor video have greater enhancement in: 1) capability to learn, 2) have greater recall, and 3) improve visual recognition in short term memory function,” the researchers wrote in the study’s abstract.

In other words, less stress equals better memory.

“Humor reduces detrimental stress hormones like cortisol that decrease memory hippocampal neurons, lowers your blood pressure, and increases blood flow and your mood state,” said Dr. Lee Burk, the study’s co-author and a  psychoneuroimmunology humor researcher. “The act of laughter—or simply enjoying some humor—increases the release of endorphins and dopamine in the brain, which provides a sense of pleasure and reward. These positive and beneficial neurochemical changes, in turn, make the immune system function better. There are even changes in brain wave activity towards what’s called the ‘gamma wave band frequency,’ which also amp up memory and recall. So, indeed, laughter is turning out to be not only a good medicine, but also a memory enhancer adding to our quality of life.”

The next time you find yourself laughing, remember that it’s good for your health.

(photo credit: Neil. Moralee via photopin cc)