Venue Coalition announced that it has promoted Jordan Racine and has expanded its booking team with the addition of Teresa Guy.

Jordan Racine has been promoted to booking/operations manager for the venue consulting organization. In his expanded role at Venue Coalition, Racine will focus on business development and new booking opportunities, while continuing to service new and existing Venue Coalition arena clients.

Racine graduated from Lyndon State College in Vermont, where he was actively involved with events on campus and developed experience with talent booking and festival production. In 2014 and again in 2015, while attending college, he interned for James Taylor handling a wide variety of day-to-day responsibilities. He joined Venue Coalition in 2016 and is now actively booking events for Venue Coalition arena members.

“We are so proud to have Jordan on our team. In the time he’s been with us, he has grown tremendously and continues to take on larger projects and greater responsibilities,” said Andrew Prince, executive vice president/managing partner.

“I am beyond happy to be growing as a part of the booking team here at Venue Coalition,” Racine said. “Each day, I come to work motivated and excited about booking shows for our venue members, and I look forward to serving our clients more in this new role.”

Venue Coalition continues to expand its booking team and announced that Teresa Guy has joined the organization as booking manager.

“We’re really pleased to have Teresa join our growing booking team. Her background and experience both with a major concert promoter and also as an agent will be a tremendous asset to our organization and we are confident that her contribution will help us to continue to grow and to offer exceptional service to our venue partners,” said Jeff Apregan, president and founder.

“I’m excited to join the exemplary team at Venue Coalition,” Guy said. “Having worked on the agency and promoter side, it’s great to expand my knowledge base as a venue advocate, working on large-scale events across North America.”

Guy joins Venue Coalition with more than a decade of live music experience across booking agencies, promoter companies, and radio stations. She acted most recently as a booking agent at major booking agencies including APA and The Agency Group. She previously worked in the booking office at Nederlander Concerts and cut her teeth as on-air talent at a CBS Radio affiliate in San Diego.

The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) announced the appointment of Carolyn Johnson as director of marketing and communications.

Johnson worked most recently at Hostplus, where she led the marketing efforts. Prior to joining Hostplus, she held a number of senior marketing positions with premium brands including Pacific Brands and Crown Resorts.

Johnson has extensive experience in key areas including customer experience design, development and implementation of business and digital transformation, and communications. She has also worked closely with sales, operations, and technology departments.

MCEC Chief Executive Peter King said he was delighted to have Johnson join the MCEC team in the newly created position. “I have no doubt that Carolyn’s background and wealth of experience will serve our venue well,” he said. “This is an exciting time for MCEC and I’m looking forward to Carolyn joining us in July.”

“It’s great to be a part of such a dynamic and progressive team, particularly at such an inspiring time in MCEC’s journey,” Johnson said.

She will begin her role on July 9.

Taylor Harrison Speegle, director of corporate relations for Walton Arts Center/Walmart AMP, has been named a member of the 2018 Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 class. Each year, Arkansas Business honors 40 intriguing business and political leaders who are under 40 years old.

Speegle graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with a degree in theater then completed graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with focus on production design and management.

Speegle worked for Walton Arts Center from 2008-2010 before leaving for graduate school. He returned to the area and rejoined Walton Arts Center’s team as director of development for the Walmart AMP.

“I’m the business guy behind what’s going on in live entertainment,” Speegle said. “It fits me really, really well. I love talking about production with the team at Walton Arts Center. I also really love the idea of crunching numbers, making sure we’re staying on budget.”

In his current role, Speegle is responsible for all corporate fundraising for both venues including Masquerade Ball and Art of Wine at Walton Arts Center and AMP Fest, the region’s beer, food and tech festival, at the Walmart AMP.

“I have always been a mission-driven kind of guy,” he said. “As a nonprofit, we’re raising money to expose children in northwest Arkansas to the performing arts and art in general. That was afforded to me as a child, and I want to make sure that happens for everybody.”

Voting for the 2018-2019 IAVM Board of Directors will open at 10 AM CT on Monday, June 25, 2018. You will receive an email the morning of June 25 from Survey & Ballot Systems with login information to the ballot.  The subject line will read: 2018-2019 IAVM Board of Directors Election – login information below.

The complete slate including biographical information and photos will be available for viewing through the ballot site, as well as on the IAVM web site.

If you do not receive the email by 11 AM CT on the 25^th of June, please contact Rosanne Duke via email or by calling 972.538.1025.

Turns out that 2018 is becoming quite a year for Michael Marion, CVE, general manager of the Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Marion ascends to IAVM’s highest volunteer position next month at VenueConnect in Toronto when he becomes the chairman of the board of IAVM, joining an illustrious list of predecessors.

But before Marion gets to accept the gavel from Doug Booher, CVE, and make some remarks in Toronto, first came the little matter of his being named the 2018 recipient of the distinguished Ray Ward Award given during the recently concluded Venue Management School (VMS) at Oglebay. Actually, the award is a huge matter and named after an industry icon in Ray Ward. This year’s award carries extra significance as Ward passed away in early May.

The award is bestowed upon an individual associated with VMS whose dedicated service and extraordinary contributions over a period of at least six years have resulted in significant and long lasting improvements to the overall success and quality of the school. The award was created and initially presented to namesake and industry icon Ray Ward in August 1996.

“I was sitting at the table the night of graduation and Bob Hunter, VMS chair, started talking about the recipient,” Marion said. “I had no idea it was me, but when he said the recipient had been teaching nine years, I thought to myself, ‘I’ve been here 9 years, umm.’ Once he started talking about Mississippi State, the cuss jar and the fact I was friends with Saved By the Bell’s Mr. Belding, I figured it out.

“It was quite moving. Ray taught me when I was in school in the early 90’s. After coming to teach, I sought him out and made a point of getting him to tell me some Bill Graham stories. He was super committed to VMS and when I went through the chairs, he sent me a file of documents of ideas that he had collected over the years to improve the school. I was saddened to hear of his passing, but I know his legacy will live on at VMS. As overwhelmed as I was, I did have a sad moment that I couldn’t call Ray and let him know.

Marion is also very respectful of the list of winners, the school itself, and what it all means to an industry he loves.

“I feel I am in rarefied air with the other winners,” he said. “The folks who have led VMS are a special bunch who have done so much to advance the venue industry. The fact that such a great program is put on by volunteers with support from IAVM staff speaks to the commitment of the Regents. My annual trek to Wheeling is one of the highlights of my year. The energy of the students and instructors charges my batteries like nothing else.”