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

Queen and Adam Lambert to Reunite for Summer Tour
—Rolling Stone
“While Lambert has appeared with current Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor at numerous shows, this will be the singer’s first official tour with the group.”

The 25 Most Amazing College Campus Theaters
—Best College Reviews
“These top 25 theaters celebrate large spaces, history, unique architecture, impressive interiors and innovative designs.”

Why Your Stodgy Old Concert Hall Looks The Way It Does
—Fast Company
“New research supports the idea that the best way to hear music is in a room shaped like a shoebox.”

European Concert-going is Falling According to Eurobarometer
—PanStadia & Arena Management
“Across the EU Countries, respondents generally said that lack of interest or lack of time are the main obstacles to participating in a particular activity.”

Breathing Easy
—The Meeting Professional
“Why have special meal requests and allergies exploded among groups?”

An expert panel of representatives from ARRIS, Motorola Mobility, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, and IAVM member Steve Schwartz, senior research policy manager at Walter E. Washington Convention Center,  spoke as part of today’s WifiForward Coalition breakfast held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The breakfast was held to raise awareness in the media for the efforts of the coalition (which IAVM is a part of) to  encourage the FCC to support new research and help relieve the congestion faced across the current wireless spectrum and to support the expansion of unlicensed wireless to include the 5 Gigahertz spectrum.

Democratic FCC commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, wants to seize the day on expanding unlicensed spectrum in the lower 5 GHz band.

“We should seize this opportunity right now,” she told unlicensed advocacy group WifiForward this morning, according to excerpts of her remarks. “We can take the flexible Wi-Fi rules that have already been the script for an unlicensed success story in the 5.725-5.825 GHz band and expand them to the 5.15-5.25 GHz band. If we do, we could effectively double unlicensed bandwidth in the 5 GHz band overnight. That will mean more unlicensed service—and less congestion on licensed wireless networks. That’s win-win.”

If you’d like to join the conversation, you can follow the Coalition on Twitter: @WifiForward or follow this morning’s social media posts at the WifiForward Tumblr page here.

Learn more about IAVM’s participation in the coalition by reading my earlier blog post here.

Meditation. Mindfulness. Making time to be in the moment. There’s a push for everyone to slow down in our fast-pace world, and for good reason. Science is showing that simple acts of meditation and mindfulness not only change the brain’s physical structure, but they also help you make better decisions.

Researchers at INSEAD and The Wharton School found that one 15-minute, focused-breathing meditation a day may help you make smarter choices. They conducted a series of studies exploring how meditation affects “sunk-cost bias” (i.e., not being able to cut your losses).

“Most people have trouble admitting they were wrong when their initial decisions lead to undesirable outcomes,” said researcher Andrew Hafenbrack, lead author on the research and a doctoral candidate at INSEAD. “They don’t want to feel wasteful or that their initial investment was a loss. Ironically, this kind of thinking often causes people to waste or lose more resources in an attempt to regain their initial investment or try to ‘break even.’”

The researchers discovered that mediation may mitigate this natural bias.

“We found that a brief period of mindfulness meditation can encourage people to make more rational decisions by considering the information available in the present moment, while ignoring some of the other concerns that typically exacerbate the ‘sunk-cost bias,’” Hafenbrack said.

One study had participants report how much they focus on the present moment and read 10 sunk-cost scenarios. They then reported how much they would let go of the sunk-costs. Those who focused on the present moment reported they would ignore sunk costs. In a follow-up experiment, participants listened to a 15-minute recording by a professional mindfulness coach, who instructed one group to focus on breathing. Another group was told to think of whatever comes to mind. Participants then answered sunk-cost scenario questions. A final study had participants answer questions about the time period on which they were focused (past, present, or future) and the emotions experienced.

Meditation increased resistance to sunk-cost bias in all the experiments.

“The debiasing effect of mindfulness meditation in sunk-cost situations was due to a two-step process,” said co-author Zoe Kinias. “First, meditation reduced how much people focused on the past and future, and this psychological shift led to less negative emotion. The reduced negative emotion then facilitated their ability to let go of sunk costs.”

Co-author Sigal Barsade said that meditation can be very practical.

“Our findings hold great promise for research on how mindfulness can influence emotions and behavior, and how employees can use it to feel and perform better,” Barsade said.

Do you meditate? If so, how does it help you in your job? Please share your experiences with us in the comments section.

(photo credit: jessebezz via photopin cc)

Here’s something that you might be interested in. One of our Allied members, Joshua Dachs, is quoted in a Huffington Post article about reinventing arts centers.

The article by John Rampton uses The Old Globe theater in San Diego as one example of how organizations are updating their facilities while at the same time staying true to their missions.

“We had many stakeholders and we managed to please them all,” said Lou Spisto, a consultant and producer. “The plan that we developed with Josh made a huge difference; we stayed true to our vision as we navigated the design, budget and approval process.”

Congratulation Joshua for making the news!

Have you been quoted recently in the news or in an article we can link to? If so, please share your story with us.

(photo credit: Kwong Yee Cheng via photopin cc)

We’re very excited to welcome Jeff Mann, CFE, in April as our new chief operations officer. He brings with him more than 14 years experience in venue management, most recently as assistant general manager of the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. He’s also worked at the FleetCenter/TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona. A graduate of Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, he earned his Masters’ Degree in Sports Management from the University of Massachusetts.

Mann has worked in all facets of venue management. He has worked in event operations, created guest experience programs, and overseen facility operations/engineering and security. He has extensive experience in capital planning and facility renovations.

“We are thrilled to have Jeff leading these vital teams inside our organization.” said Vicki Hawarden, IAVM president and CEO. “His background in venue management, as well as his operational expertise, will help ensure our success as we move into what we believe will be a significant growth phase for our association. I personally look forward to being able to collaborate with Jeff as we look for new ways to bring more value to our members.”

In addition to his professional background, we thought it would be fun to find out what are some of his favorite things outside of work.

Favorite book(s)?
“I’m currently caught up in a series of novels by Vince Flynn.”

Favorite vacation spot?
“Anywhere in the Caribbean.”

Favorite bands or artists?
“Jimmy Buffett. I’ve been to 48 Buffett shows! Or for something a little louder, the Dropkick Murphys.”

What are some of your hobbies?
“I play as much golf as possible, you would think I’d be better!”

Do you play sports?
“See above, and I’ve played baseball and softball recently.”

Favorite movie(s)?
“The Godfather, Slapshot, and Good Will Hunting.”

Favorite food(s)?
“A good steak or really fresh seafood.”

Finally, “y’all” or “you all”?
“I’ve been in the south for seven years, but I’m Boston born and raised so the answer is ‘you guys.'”

I hope y’all will join me in wishing a warm welcome to Jeff.