Congratulations to the following members, members’ venues, and Allied members nominated in the 25th Annual Pollstar Awards.

Facility Executive of the Year
David Kells (Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN)
Lee Zeidman (Staples Center/Nokia Theatre L.A. Live – Los Angeles)
Ralph Marchetta (US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ)
Sally Williams (Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN)
Sean Saadeh (Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY)
Trey Feazell (Phillips Arena, Atlanta, GA)

Theatre of the Year
Beacon Theatre (New York, NY)
Nokia Theatre L.A. Live (Los Angeles, CA)
Radio City Music Hall (New York, NY)
Ryman Auditorium (Nashville, TN)

Arena of the Year
Barclays Center (Brooklyn, NY)
BOK Center (Tulsa, OK)
Bridgestone Arena (Nashville, TN)
Madison Square Garden Arena (New York, NY)
SAP Center at San Jose (San Jose, CA)
Staples Center (Los Angeles, CA)

Red Rocks Award for Small Outdoor Venue
Filene Center At Wolf Trap (Vienna, VA)
Greek Theatre (Los Angeles, CA)
The Mountain Winery (Saratoga, CA)

Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (The Woodlands, TX)
Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles, CA)
Molson Canadian Amphitheatre (Toronto, ON)
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park (Alpharetta, GA)

Best New Major Concert Venue
Perth Arena (Perth, Australia)
Pinnacle Bank Arena (Lincoln, NE)

International Venue of the Year
Rod Laver Arena (Melbourne, Australia)

Sound Company of the Year
Clair

Staging/Equipment Company of the Year
Mountain Productions

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

15 Signs You Work in the Event and Arena Industry
—Applause
“If you’ve ever endured long days that turn into nights, a never-ending calendar of events, quick turnarounds and spent months planning for a three hour show… we feel you. Welcome to the event and arena industry.”

Ohio Senators Propose LEED Ban
—Architect
“It’s looking like Ohio, a state long recognized as a pivotal political battle ground in national elections, may have a new legislative dust-up brewing after two state senators put forth a resolution in the state senate last week that seeks to ban the use of LEED in public construction.”

Populous Design for Las Vegas Arena is Unveiled With Glass Facade and LED Overlay
—Kansas City Star
The 20,000-seat arena is being developed privately by AEG, the operator of the Sprint Center, and MGM Resorts International. It’s scheduled to break ground in April and open in spring 2016. Populous was chosen to design the project in June.

How to Seek Out and Market to Non-traditional Event Customers (3-part series)
—Ungerboeck
“Before you activate a marketing strategy to attract new clientele, you should consider the infrastructure you have in place at your convention or exhibition center to determine if you have the right foundation to support your strategy.”

Can a Small Stadium Do Big Good?
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Is everything we know about sports stadiums wrong? Not really. But it might not always be right, either.”

(Image: University of Texas at Austin Frank Erwin Center)

Past research studies have shown that people more often trust others that look like themselves. There’s a new twist, though, on trustworthiness. It’s been discovered that once you find someone trustworthy, no matter the looks, you then begin to perceive that person as similar to yourself.

Researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London did an experiment in which study participants were shown photographs with different percentages of their faces morphed with two other people. Each one was asked whether the photo contained more of their face or the faces of the others. Then a participant played a bargaining game with both of the other people. Trust was reciprocated with one and betrayed by the other. The image morph task as before was conducted again, and researchers say that the volunteers judged the trustworthy player to be more physically similar than the one who betrayed them.

“Recent studies show that when a person looks similar to ourselves, we automatically believe they are trustworthy,” said researcher Harry Farmer in a press release. “Here we show for the first time that the reverse is also true. When a person is shown to be more trustworthy, it can lead us to perceive that person as looking more similar to ourselves.”

The researchers say that the findings have social relationship considerations.

“It may be that our experience of facial similarity tracks information about genetic relatedness,” said study co-author Ryan McKay. “If so, our results suggest that evidence of trust in others also serves as a cue to kinship.”

I guess this helps explain why long-term couples start to look like each other over time.

(photo credit: LeonArts.at via photopin cc)

Jab, jab, jab, right hook—that’s how Gary Vaynerchuk describes his marketing strategy. It’s an apt description for the “thank-you economy” that Vaynerchuk preaches, one in which you give, give, give, and then ask.

Vaynerchuk started his rise to fame by hosting Wine Library TV, a video podcast featuring wine advice and reviews. From there, he’s gone on to write four books and launch VaynerMedia, a social media marketing firm.  He’s never strayed from the belief that in order to receive you have to give.

“A funny thing happens when you give value up front,” he recently said in a New York Times interview by David Segal. “You guilt people into buying stuff.”

That sort of guilt can be applied by trade show exhibitors, too. Rather than push information onto a passive audience and hope they respond, exhibitors must engage with people. They must offer content that is usable and often immediately practicable.

One strategy is speaking at educational events. In a recent Center for Exhibition Industry Research report, 71 percent of exhibitors participate in face-to-face learning sessions as part of their onsite marketing plan. In fact, 86 percent of exhibitors said that speaking at an educational seminar or workshop was effective or highly effective in supporting their marketing objectives.

“Marketing activities that give an exhibiting company singular attention achieve higher effectiveness scores, with speaking at educational seminars/workshops and holding private events outside exhibit hours the most effective ancillary marketing activities,” the report stated.

There are some other good nuggets in the findings.

For example, the top three reasons for exhibiting are to build brand awareness, reach new customers, and to meet with current customers. Also, 80 percent of “exhibitors with annual revenues of $100 million+ find sponsorships of an exhibition special event or session effective as do 74 percent of organizations that participated in 20 or more exhibitions in 2012.”

After reading the report, please let us know how you’re getting out the booth and into the minds of customers. Or better yet, how’s your jab and right hook?

(photo credit: Silicon Prairie News via photopin cc)

Do you know the average number of full-time financial/accounting employees it takes to manage a venue? Or the average number of housekeeping/custodial, guest operations or event personnel it takes? In which areas are you too fat, or too lean? Find out in our 2013 Staffing Survey Report.

Developed by VenueDataSource—funded by the IAVM Foundation—the report presents data about the number of full-time employees (or equivalent) in 27 functional categories. Separate reports are available for arenas, convention centers, and performing arts centers and can be found in our catalog of products (scroll to the bottom of the page). You can also reach out to Frank Ingoglia at Frank.Ingoglia@IAVM.org, and he’ll be happy to assist you in purchasing the report.

Here are some interesting takeaways.

1) Convention centers use almost twice as many FTE employees as arenas, which in turn use twice as many as performing arts centers

2) Large convention centers and arenas use two to three times the number of employees as medium ones.

3) Medium convention centers and arenas use about three times the number of employees as small ones.

4) Large and medium performing arts centers use about the same number of employees, about three-and-a-half times the number used at small ones.

If your venue completed this survey, you can download the report at the VenueDataSource site.

Oh look, an infographic!
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