As venue professionals we are all aware of Severe Weather Season. It’s the time when Mother Nature ramps up the likelihood of a severe weather incident, and it typically runs March to August. While once isolated to a few months, severe weather has now become a full-time concern, and the severity of storms has seemingly increased. This up-tick in destruction isn’t all in our heads, fed by social media and personal accounts captured on camera phone video. It’s real and you better buckle your seatbelts and batten down your venue’s hatches.

A recent USA Today story about a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences report shows that deadly and destructive thunderstorms, and the violent tornadoes they produce, are forecast to see a “robust” increase across parts of the U.S. in upcoming decades because of climate change. While most previous research has been inconclusive, this study is one of the first that’s found a solid link between climate change and severe storms.

“Springtime severe thunderstorms could increase by as much as 40 percent over the eastern U.S. (roughly from the Rockies to the Atlantic) by the end of the century,” says lead author Noah Diffenbaugh of Stanford University.

In addition to spring, the study also predicts an increase in storm days in winter and fall as well. Overall, for the entire year, the researchers forecast an increase in severe storms of 25 percent to 30 percent. Continue Reading →

From IAVM President and CEO Vicki Hawarden, CMP:

“We had an extremely productive IAVM Board of Directors conference call in October. The board unanimously approved the adoption of a new IAVM membership model, allowing a venue to secure a $3,000 group membership which allows up to 20 professional members, interns and stakeholders (such as the mayor) to join the association. More details will come as the program is more fully developed and launched, tentatively set for April. Also, the board discussed the proposed IAVM bylaws changes and the member feedback received so far, and confirmed its intention to use this information to re-evaluate the changes and the voting timeline during its January meeting.

“The new IAVM website is nearly complete. By the time the board meets in January, board members and other volunteer leaders will have the opportunity to review the new site and provide staff with valuable input. An external launch of the site is planned for the spring, once we have used this early feedback to make improvements where necessary.”

Download the complete October 2013 Leadership Report here.

There was a lot of industry news this past week you may have missed. Here are some headlines that caught our eyes.

The Case of the Errant Hot-Dog Toss
—Slate
“Can a hulking man in an outlandish costume fire a projectile into a crowd, hit someone in the eye, and get away with it? Maybe—if the costumed guy is the Kansas City Royals mascot, and the projectile is a hot dog that’s fired into the stands during a baseball game.”

SMT Panel: How NFL Programming is Driving Viewership
—Sports Business Journal
“The opening panel at Day 2 of the ’13 Covington & Burling Sports Media & Technology conference was a discussion among three NFL team presidents and two network execs on what is being done and what we can expect in relation to the in-stadium experience.”

Want to Innovate? First Get Rid of What’s Not Working
—Convene
“Sometimes in order to get things done, futurethink CEO and founder Lisa Bodell was saying, ‘You have to stop doing things.'”

Can You See the Opportunities Staring You in the Face?
—Harvard Business Review
“Companies suffer from inattention blindness too. And in a business context, the weird thing that gets overlooked can turn out to be a crucial differentiating factor. If one company doesn’t notice it, another will—to great advantage.”

Google Maps Now Lets You Preview International Travel With Images of Airports, Rail/Subway Stations
—The Next Web
“Google Maps features a range of international transit locations, including 16 airports, more than 50 train and subway stations and even details of a cable car station in Hong Kong and the inside of an Emirates A380 plane at Dubai Airport.”

How to Get Press for Anything
—Medium
“Should you listen to my advice? Yes, absolutely. I even reached out to my friends at TechCrunch, Forbes, ReadWrite, and other publications so that you could hear directly from the writers themselves on the best way to get their attention.”

(photo credit: Kevin H. via photopin cc)

Our latest issue of Facility Manager is now online and available for you to flip through, read, and share.

Highlights include features about projection mapping, technology trends in venues, situational awareness, and Nina D. Simmons’ favorite app.

Please check out the issue, and let us know what you think. Thank you.

I’d like to continue with the narrative I’ve started about knowing yourself and how it makes you a better leader with another story on that topic from Rice University. Researchers there found that conscientious people are more likely to provide good customer service because they are aware of how positive interactions affect perception. The study examined links between personality traits and effective behavior in customer service scenarios.

“Performance in a professional service capacity is not just knowing about what the product is and how it works, but how to sell and talk about it,” said Stephan Motowidlo, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Psychology at Rice University and the study’s lead author.

Motowidlo said that historically, institutions have been very good at examining the technical side of individuals’ jobs through IQ tests. However, an interest in the nontechnical side—the “softer, interpersonal” side—has increased.

“Much like intelligence impacts knowledge acquisition—driving what you learn and how much you know—personality traits impact how interpersonal skills are learned and used,” Motowidlo said. “People who know more about what kinds of actions are successful in dealing with interpersonal service encounters—such as listening carefully, engaging warmly, and countering questions effectively—handle them more effectively, and their understanding of successful customer service is shaped by underlying personality characteristics.”

Motowidlo hopes the study will encourage future research about how personality helps individuals acquire the knowledge they need to perform their jobs effectively.

(photo credit: wenno via photopin cc)