By Monica Sedelmeier

The City of Waco (TX) announced that Dan Quandt will serve as the Director of Conventions & Tourism, a position he has held on an interim basis since November 8, 2021.

The Director of Conventions & Tourism manages the Waco Convention Center and the Waco Welcome Center in addition to spearheading tourism marketing for the City as a whole.

Quandt is well known in the tourism industry, having served as CVB director for Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Lincoln, Nebraska, before coming to Texas to head up the South Padre Island Convention Center and Convention & Visitors Bureau for 13 years, and the Amarillo Convention & Visitors Council for seven years.

Quandt has served as chair of the Texas Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus and on the board of the Texas Travel Industry Association. He was a founding member of the National Association of Sports Commissions and holds several industry certifications, including Certified Tourism Executive, Certified Destination Management Executive, and Certified Sports Event Executive. He has a BA degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of North Dakota.

Waco City Manager Bradley Ford said, “I am thankful we were able to bring Dan on to lead the Conventions and Tourism team. The experience he brings from the travel and tourism sector is invaluable.”

Monica Sedelmeier, Public Information Officer Communications and Marketing Department

From Pollstar

Oak View Group has announced the creation of a national Theater Alliance with an initial roster of venues in markets across North America that will benefit from collective buying power, routing of non-traditional content, sponsorship opportunities, industry best practices and resources, as well as shared proceeds from an annual fundraising gala.

Named senior director of the Theater Alliance is recent Oak View Group hire Noël Mirhadi, formerly a music agent at multiple major talent agencies. She’s spearheading the Alliance alongside Joe Giordano, OVG vice president overseeing the Theater Alliance as well as the previously formed Arena and Stadium Alliances.

“What we’re trying to do is to meet the needs of the venues where they are and make sure that we’re creating value for the entire ecosystem here,” said OVG360 CEO Chris Granger. “We want to serve the industry and all of its stakeholders. That means how do we best serve the venue, the artists, the fans, and corporate partners in the communities in which we operate? All members are going to have access to everything, but venues are different. They do have similar challenges, but they’re gonna be different in terms of what matters most to them.”

Modeled largely after OVG’s Arena Alliance that launched in 2015, the Theater Alliance is designed to provide similar services to a sector that may not have the resources, seating capacity, or staff of the typical arena or stadium-sized venue.

“It’s important to note that outside of booking, these buildings have operated kind of in a silo historically,” Giordano said. “Now we’re bringing together all the different departments, from operations, ticketing F&B, all the different things that make the wheel turn.”

Giordano was previously assistant general manager at the BOK Center in Tulsa, also an ASM Global regional booking manager and content developer overseeing more than 40 venues. He notes the Alliance’s “five pillars” – book together, buy together, sell together, think together, and brand together. He says the Theater Alliance is an example of the “brand together” mantra, “Showing how high-level the network is and how the program can maximize their revenue and increase buying power.”

Theater Alliance membership is invite only, with Granger saying the annual fee is around the middle five-figure mark. He says the Alliance seeks top-class venues and organizations interested in a long-term relationship.

“We are going out proactively to those venues and operators that are the best of the best,” Granger said. “The value of the Alliance comes not just from the OVG partnership, but from the relationship with one another, right? We want you to participate with us for, let’s say, three or five years as a starting point. We want to make sure there is opportunity for you to reap the benefits of the collective and for us to learn as much as we can about your venue. A one-year relationship serves nobody.”

The Alliance venues (see below for list) range from New York properties Beacon Theatre, Theater at MSG and Radio City Music Hall and extends to other high-profile theaters such as ACL Live at Moody Theater in Austin, the Pabst Theater Group in Milwaukee to the Paramount Theatre in Oakland.

“We are thrilled to be amongst the first members of Oak View Group’s Theater Alliance. OVG has proven to be an innovator in our industry,” says Pabst Theater Group Chief Operating Officer and talent buyer Matt Beringer. “With the formation of the Theater Alliance, we look forward to combining their expanded national reach and expertise with our 20 years of experience booking and operating world class independent concert venues.”

“313 Presents is proud to be an inaugural member of the OVG Theater Alliance,” added Howard Handler, president of 313 Presents in Detroit. “The Fox Theatre, Detroit’s crown jewel, is a destination for everyone within our community. This alliance provides opportunities for us to share and learn best practices from other iconic theatres around the country and to deliver even more to artists, tours and our guests.”

Mirhadi has extensive experience in the theater world, being a classically trained musician herself and for 14 years working at talent agencies representing artists largely within the performing arts realm. She says she jumped at the chance to help form the Alliance with Giordano called.

“It was an easy sell coming from Joe, a longtime colleague and friend,” said Mirhadi. “He really wanted someone who had deep knowledge and relationships in the theater space to help identify these partners to formulate not only the menu of services we’re offering but also identify which we wanted to be part of our inaugural class.” She said there are active discussions with several other potential member venues, which could be announced in the coming months.

The Theater Alliance is establishing its own philanthropic organization to raise funds to be shared among members, with proceeds going either directly to non-profit members to philanthropic partners of privately owned or for-profit members to benefit programs such as local music or art education programs.

“Many of these buildings are nonprofit in nature and are extremely expensive to run and operate, so we thought that it was important to support them at the philanthropic level as well,” Mirhadi said. In partnership with music industry’ social responsibility program Music’s Promise, the Theater Alliance Fund will be open for donations all year, Mirhadi said, with an annual benefit gala rotating cities.

Oak View Group Theater Alliance Members

ACL Live at Moody Theater (Austin, TX)
AT&T Performing Arts Center (Dallas TX)
Beacon Theatre, Theater at MSG, and Radio City Music Hall (New York, NY)
Boch Center (Boston, MA)
The Chicago Theatre (Chicago, IL)
First Interstate Center (Spokane, WA)
Fox Theatre (Detroit, MI)
Kimmel Center (Philadelphia, PA)
Pabst Theater Group (Milwaukee, WI)
Paramount Theatre (Denver, CO)
Paramount Theatre (Oakland, CA)
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (Pittsburgh, PA)
Portland’5 Centers for the Arts (Portland, OR)
Ryman Auditorium & Grand Ole Opry House (Nashville, TN)
Segerstrom Center for the Arts (Costa Mesa, CA)
Stifel Theatre (St. Louis, MO)
Tulsa Performing Arts Center (Tulsa, OK)

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By NBA.com

The Delta Center is coming back to Utah. The global airline will assume the naming rights for Utah’s premier sports and entertainment center – which is home to the Utah Jazz and more than 320 evenings of events each year – effective July 2023 as part of a multi-year partnership between the two organizations.

This agreement is a homecoming for Delta, harkening back to the arena’s original opening in 1991 when the airline held the naming rights as part of its first sponsorship with the NBA franchise. Within the long-term agreement, Delta will serve as the Official Airline of the Utah Jazz, adding to its current role as an Official Community Partner of the team. Delta will also hold numerous sponsorship and branding rights with the team, including media, hospitality, and employee engagement extensions.

Delta and the Utah Jazz will continue partnering to support community programs across the state where nearly 5,000 Delta people currently live, work, and serve.

“Today we celebrate a new chapter in the longstanding history between Delta, the Utah Jazz, and the Salt Lake City community,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. “The homecoming of the Delta Center represents a continued investment and dedication to Salt Lake City, and together we will provide a leading sports and entertainment experience to the city and Jazz fans worldwide.”

“I have so many amazing memories of the Delta Center as a kid, and I know that countless people throughout Utah and beyond had similar experiences creating core memories there, whether watching the Olympics & Paralympic Winter Games, the NBA Finals, concerts, or other incredible events,” said Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz and chairman of Smith Entertainment Group. “We are excited to partner with Ed Bastian and the entire Delta team to not only bring back the arena’s original name, but also leverage the amazing work Delta is doing to provide incredible experiences for the people of our state and help show the world how amazing Utah is.”

By Mindy Noonan

The Events Industry Council (EIC), the global voice of the business events industry on advocacy, research, professional recognition and standards, announced the election of officers and directors to its 2023 Board of Directors. IAVM President and CEO Brad Mayne, CVE, will serve on the 2023 Board.

Sherrif Karamat, CAE, President and CEO, PCMA and CEMA transitions to Chair of EIC, having held the role of Chair-Elect in 2022.

“As the global federation that powers the Certified Meeting Professional and Sustainable Event Standards, and provides crucial guidance on sustainability and regeneration, EIC has a unique leadership role in our industry,” Karamat said. “I look forward to working with the EIC team, members and strategic partners on issues that are truly fundamental to our industry’s strength and growth.”

Karamat will be supported by incoming Chair-Elect, Ana María Viscasillas, Federación de Entidades Organizadoras de Congresos y Afines de Latino América, Board Liaison and Immediate Past Vice President for COCAL.

“I look forward to working alongside Sherrif in his role as Chair to support the EIC mission of enriching lives and driving economic growth through the power of events worldwide,” Viscasillas said.

This year, EIC will continue to provide valuable research on industry trends. In the first quarter EIC will release results of its quarterly Global Business Events Barometer and Economic Significance Study. In April, EIC welcomes the in-person return of an event exclusively for the CMP community: CMP Advance and will also host its first EIC Leadership Summit to foster peer-to-peer conversation, connections, and leadership on key issues facing our industry.

“With the support of our members, partners, volunteer leaders, CMP and SEPC community, this is going to be a very exciting year at the Events Industry Council as we continue to lead and engage in global dialogue and collaboration,” said EIC CEO Amy Calvert. “These programmes will unite industry thought leaders from across the globe to engage in dialogue around equity, inclusion, regenerative event practices and building capabilities for our workforce.

“At EIC, we embrace our role catalysing needed change in our sector and sharing our story broadly as events play an essential role as a force for good in our global society – inspiring our current and future workforce.”

EIC board members are nominated members of the overall Events Industry Council that consists of more than 30 organisations in the events industry. These leaders are the governing body for the overall council with fiscal responsibility and strategic direction for all EIC programmes.

The full board is listed below:

2023 Board of Directors Officers:

Chair: Sherrif Karamat, CAE –President & CEO, PCMA and CEMA
Chair-Elect: Ana María Viscasillas, MBA, CDME, DES, CED – Federación de Entidades
Organizadoras de Congresos y Afines de Latino América, Board Liaison and immediate Past Vice President COCAL
Immediate Past Chair: Cathy Breden, CMP, CAE – International Association of Exhibitions and Events, COO and Center for Exhibition Industry Research, CEO

2023 Board of Directors:

Jason Dunn Sr., Executive Director – National Coalition of Black Meeting Professionals
Jennifer Glynn, CIS, CITP – Society for Incentive Travel Excellence
Senthil Gopinath, CEO – International Congress and Convention Association
Stephanie Harris, President – The Incentive Research Foundation
Brad Mayne, CVE, President and CE – International Association of Venue Managers
Tina Wehmeir, CMP, CAE, CEO – AMC Institute