By Naz Sabripour

During this time of uncertainty, many people have been forced to uproot their lives and replace the familiar with an almost entirely new way of life. The ongoing effects of coronavirus (COVID-19), has hit Pasadena, like many destinations, hard in ways that our organization never imagined would happen.

When looking at what the Pasadena Center Operating Company (PCOC) could do to help support our community, especially those in need, we did not hesitate when the opportunity came along to provide healthy meals for students and families of the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD). Understanding that many of these students come from low-income families where three meals a day might not be possible, we wanted to find a solution.

Over the past five weekends, since March 28th, PCOC and its exclusive food and beverage provider, Centerplate, have prepared, delivered, and distributed over 15,000 meals for students and families of the Pasadena Unified School District. Each Saturday and Sunday, 20 PCOC staff members volunteered to transport, set up and distribute meals (1,550 each day/3,100 total weekend). The healthy meals have included a sandwich, fruit, bag of cookies, juice, or milk.

“The meal distribution program has been an amazing experience for the PCOC team, as it is an opportunity to go above and beyond our everyday roles and give back to our community,” said Gianna Wilkins, senior event manager. “Families and local community members are so appreciative of the service we provide and continue to extend their sincere gratitude every weekend. All the positive and supportive feedback has made me grateful for my involvement with the program and to also be a part of Pasadena and PCOC. I am very humbled and honored to not only be a part of something that is shedding light during this difficult time, but also allows me to put others first and stand together with my team as one united front, as one community.”

“Volunteering for PUSD has been a rewarding experience and I feel so blessed and fortunate to belong to an organization that values its local community,” added Amanda Westervelt, destination services manager for the Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Each weekend, we show our community that we are here for them through the good and difficult times. Precaution is taken to ensure the safety of our team, from social distancing to gloves and masks. But the fact we are physically out there serving our community means the world to these families. We have started recognizing familiar faces and even receive drawings from kids with ‘thank you’ pictures. When COVID-19 is over, they will remember the laughs, jokes and the impact we made …. remembering PCOC fondly. And isn’t that what we do in hospitality? Make people have an unforgettable experience? So, whether they are coming from out of town or live in our neighborhood, we are here for them.”

It has been a rewarding five weekends and a pleasure to partner with the City of Pasadena and Centerplate to provide for those in need. And what better way to continue the spirit of helping others than to announce that the PCOC will extend the meal distribution program by providing an additional four weekends of healthy meals to the PUSD. This will take place May 2-3, 9-10, 16-17 and 23-24.

Naz Sabripour is Executive Director of the Pasadena Convention Center.

Photo of Centerplate team preparing meals courtesy of Pasadena Center Operating Company.

By Donna Cannatella

It was an honor for our team here at the Chesapeake Conference Center, managed by VenuWorks, to play a part in helping serve the needs of our community during the coronavirus pandemic.

I coordinated with Chef Kristen with Mercy Chefs in Portsmith, VA, to have our venue Chef Mario and his team volunteer with Mercy Chefs to help prepare food for families in need in our community. I learned of this great opportunity while in the Hampton Roads Chamber Zoom meeting just last week.

Mercy Chefs is a faith-based, non-profit disaster relief organization that exists to serve professionally prepared meals to victims, volunteers, and first responders in national emergencies and natural disasters such as the one we are currently facing. They are in great need of professional chefs and F&B staff to prepare quality home cooked meals. My team enthusiastically volunteered to assist in any way possible. Their first day was Tuesday, April 28, and they will be back again to volunteer their services.

We are so happy to be a part of serving our community and helping in any way that we can to help feed the hungry and feed our first responders who are battling COVID-19 on the front lines.

Stay safe. Stay well.

Donna Cannatella is executive director of the Chesapeake Conference Center in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Pictured from left: Chef Kristen of Mercy Chefs, sous chef, Wakanda, Nikki, and Chef Mario.

By Joy Washington

Antonio Birch, an alumnus of the University of South Alabama who worked as a student at the USA Mitchell Center, never thought he would have a dream job at his alma mater.

After earning his bachelor of science degree in business management with a concentration in entrepreneurship from the USA Mitchell College of Business, he received his first job in banking. He was later hired at South as an events coordinator.

Birch’s dream became bigger when he was promoted to event service manager at South. His daily responsibilities are to manage logistical activities for all of the events held at the Mitchell Center, Moulton Tower and Alumni Plaza, the Chi Omega Amphitheater and the USA Faculty Club.

“I am responsible for event services aspects of several facilities,” Birch said. “I assist with the planning, monitoring, directing, delegating, supervising and managing the event coordination, security, crowd management and contracted service provider functions.”

Birch loves what he does and enjoys supporting his clients. He first got the event management bug when he worked at the Mitchell Center as a student.

“What I love most about this new role is my ability to be part of the entire process of an event, from brainstorming ideas with clients to executing the event,” he said. “People enjoy events that lead to a memorable experience. I am a proud member of a team that makes sure that our clients have excellent events.”

Victor Cohen, arena manager for USA Mitchell Center and other campus facilities, said he is pleased to have Birch on his team.

“After graduation from South, Antonio was fortunate to start his career in the financial world,” Cohen noted. “I knew that facility management was in his blood. After some time had passed, we were able to have him rejoin the Mitchell Center team as our event services coordinator. Because of Antonio’s solid foundation and aptitude for this industry, it was a no brainer to promote him as an event services manager. I am very proud of him as a person and for the many accomplishments he has achieved with us.”

Birch is married to USA alumna Shaquana Giles. They are expecting their first child.

Joy Washington is Director of Public Relations in the USA Office of Marketing and Communications.

By Stacie Bauer

With over 90% of events scheduled for 2020 being cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry has suffered major economic loss and event professionals are increasingly turning to virtual tools to deliver their next event.

Ungerboeck now offers managing your event as a virtual event via its registration platform. This is done by offering customers a choice of their virtual event provider such as GoToWebinar from LogMeIn or Zoom. This allows customers to seamlessly manage their online participants, events details, and engagement statistics directly in the Ungerboeck platform.

“Our customers are facing very challenging times and it is our responsibility to adapt our software to their evolving needs,” said Ungerboeck President & CEO Manish Chandak. “This virtual event extension to our platform offers our customers a way to stay in touch with their visitors and members and generate a new revenue stream while easily managing all the aspects of their virtual event in Ungerboeck from their registrants, to payment processing, orders, sessions, and much more.”

Ungerboeck has been responding to changes and requirements of the event and exhibition industry since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, offering multiple resources on their website, organizing virtual summits with panelists from the industry, and working closely with their customers to prepare for the future.

With the integration of virtual event tools in Ungerboeck, the technology provider is actively supporting the industry and looking ahead as the event and exhibition industry is presented with changing needs.

Stacie Bauer is Event & Sponsorship Coordinator, Marketing, at Ungerboeck Systems International.

By Julian Bowman

Fair Park First and Spectra, managers of Fair Park in Dallas, worked with the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) to bring the NTFB Disaster Relief Mobile Pantry to Fair Park on April 2 and 16.

The NTFB converted their mobile food pantry to a drive-through model to limit contact with clients and needed a location in South Dallas with substantial drive-through space. The NTFB contacted Spectra in March to see if the 277-acre campus would be available to help with distributing food to local residents. Fair Park First/Spectra quickly began to work with the Dallas Police Department on a plan to accommodate the local food bank.

During the first NTFB event, over 6,000 food boxes were distributed in just under 3 hours. Due to the overwhelming demand, the NTFB, Fair Park First, and Spectra put together another food distribution event at Fair Park (April 16). The Texas National Guard was brought in to assist with the second event, giving away larger food boxes to over 2,200 households. The event served as another way that Fair Park can support the surrounding community.

“We’re thankful that we were able to host these two food pantry events to benefit our neighbors in south Dallas,” said Spectra’s Peter C. Sullivan, General Manager of Fair Park. “We look forward to continuing to work with the North Texas Food Bank to give back to our community and help where we are able.”

“As a venue marketer, I live for the crowds and the media coverage. It usually gives me a buzz of excitement. It was different for these two events. Seeing all the news cameras on site, and the cars lined up for a couple of miles was sobering. I hope opportunities for mass food distribution events go away sooner than later, but if there’s a need, I’m proud that I’m part of a team that can help.” — Julian Bowman

Between the two events, nearly 13,000 food boxes equating to more than 180,000 meals were distributed to families in need during the COVID-19 crisis. The food bank estimates between 50% and 70% of the recipients were using the food bank for the first time. The two events were the largest distribution events in NTFB’s history.

Julan Bowman is Senior Director of Marketing at Fair Park.