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The Shaw Conference Centre (SCC) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada announced the appointment of Richard Wong to the position of general manager. The move became effective on November 6.

“We are excited to welcome Richard to the EEDC family as the new general manager of the Shaw Conference Centre,” said Brad Ferguson, president & CEO, Edmonton Economic Development Corporation. “Richard brings an exceptional history of leadership experience, augmented by deep community involvement and passion for our city. I am confident the Shaw Conference Centre will continue to thrive and grow under his leadership.”

“It’s an honour to be trusted with the public stewardship of one of the city’s most iconic assets,” Wong said. “I look forward to joining the world-class team who has positioned the Shaw Conference Centre as a premier convention facility and community destination for over 34 years.”

Wong comes to the Shaw Conference Centre with more than 30 years of experience in the venue, event management and hospitality sector. He has previously held executive roles with Nova Hotels, Travel Alberta and Sutton Place Hotels Group.

Wong is proud to call Edmonton home and this is reflected through his many contributions to the community. He has previously served on the boards of the Edmonton Destination Marketing Fund, Edmonton Downtown Business Association, Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation, Edmonton Police Foundation, and more.

Tacoma Venues & Events announced a multi-year alliance designating Heritage Bank as title sponsor for the Heritage Bank Box Office at the Tacoma Dome.

Through this partnership, guests will see new Heritage Bank Box Office signage on the exterior of the venue and branding will be incorporated throughout ticket sales materials.

Heritage Bank was founded in 1927 with the belief that when banks and neighbors work together, great communities grow stronger. Heritage has remained true to this vision—and close to its roots—offering financial solutions that put their customers first. Their business bankers in downtown Tacoma are dedicated to understanding customer’s business and providing personal expertise and products that they need to be competitive in today’s marketplace.

“We are honored to partner with an organization that reflects our core values including providing an outstanding and unique experience for every customer,” said Tacoma Venue & Events Director Kim Bedier, CFE.

“Heritage Bank is excited to partner with the Tacoma Dome,” said Nigel English, SVP, Commercial Banking Regional Manager for Heritage Bank. “The Heritage Bank brand is centered on community roots. Partnering with one of the community’s best gathering places was a natural fit with our commitment to stability, strength and longevity.”

Ticketmaster will continue to operate the Heritage Bank Box Office. More than 500,000 tickets are sold annually to Tacoma Dome events. Events currently on sale include Maroon 5, Monster Jam, Jeff Dunham, Shania Twain, Katy Perry, and more.

This exterior change is one of many scheduled for the Dome. Renovations, including state-of-the-art telescopic seating, modified loading docks and dressing rooms will provide an enhanced experience for guests, promoters and artists. Construction will be completed fall of 2018.

Following its best-ever year of business, Populous has appointed more than a dozen staff members to Principal and Senior Principal status and added Senior Principal Bruce Miller to its global Holdings Board. An accomplished leader of Populous, Miller has led numerous successful baseball and professional soccer projects since joining the firm in 1989, including Target Field and Orlando City Stadium.

Miller is often cited as an expert source on stadium design for media including Sports Business Journal, Urban Land Magazine, National Public Radio, Design Intelligence, The Business of Sports, and Athletic Business. He has been guest lecturer at NYU and has spoken to industry leaders at the Freitas Seminar during the Winter Baseball Meetings. He was named a Sports Business Journal 40 Under 40 winner in 2003.

Promotions to Senior Principal:

Bob Gillcrist, Kansas City
Shireen Hamdan, London
Jonathan Mallie, New York
Brian Mirakian, Kansas City
Sherri Privitera, Kansas City

Promotions to Principal:

Brad Albers, Kansas City
Marc Bertolino, Kansas City
Steve Boyd, Kansas City
Steve Caudle, Kansas City
Tiric Chang, Beijing
Rhys Courtney, London
Jeanette Johnson, Denver
Marc Klein, Denver
Whitney Williams, Kansas City

“It is an exciting time for Populous – we are very much looking forward to the future. The promotion of these gifted individuals around the world signals a bright future for us,” said Earl Santee, Managing Director of Populous Americas.

Populous experienced a 15 percent increase in staffing for 2017, and expects to grow by another 15 percent through 2018.

When Marc Hagenlocher, director of operations and events of the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, California, toured with the venue’s insurance carrier and broker in the wake of sustained damage from the Tubbs Fire that spread throughout Northern California, he heard a refrain that the facility would not open until 2018.

Tsk, tsk. Never underestimate the resolve of those in the public assembly venue industry who want to work as quickly as possible to be a salve to their hurting community.

“That was not going to be acceptable to us,” Hagenlocher said. “Aside from the east end of our building and the East Auditorium, I don’t know the lowdown on all the damage we sustained. A separate 3,000-square-foot facility is a total loss. Our sculpture garden and sculpture walk which is an outdoor large scale exhibit is about one-third completely totaled, one-third damaged, and one-third unscathed. When you look at what’s around us, this facility shouldn’t be standing. It’s just mind-blowing. Still, we knew we were going to be open and ready to deliver.

“The community is looking to us as a place for healing and a sense of normalcy. We are absolutely committed and driving to get this place stabilized, get it presentable, and get our doors open.”

While the facility was open on November 6 for limited use, the curtain went up in earnest on November 9 with a Shopkins Live! Shop It Up! performance that evening. A concert by the group Air Supply will follow on November 11.

Indeed, the Burbank Center has come a long way in a relatively short period of time.

“I live about a mile or so from the center in a development that was one of the affected communities,” said Rick Nowlin, president and CEO of the venue. “The fires started around here somewhere late in the evening about 9 pm on October 8 and then a lot of evacuations began taking place the next morning, which was a Monday.

“The fire started in the evening and thankfully nothing was going on at the center. The first responders were able to put it out. Marc and I were talking by 4 that morning about the fire and just where everything stood.”

Nowlin said that of the 140,000 square feet some 40,000 square feet was seriously impacted, most notably an educational building that called the Anova Center for Education that is a school for some 130 autistic children. That building was destroyed and the students are now in temporary facilities scattered about the Greater Santa Rosa and Windsor area.

“Our auditorium is also a total loss,” Hagenlocher said. “We have three theaters, including the 1,600-seat Ruth Finley Person Theater where we do most of our programming, the Carson Cabaret with about 200 in an open floor configuration, and the East Auditorium of 400 seats that is a total loss.”

Hagenlocher has spent most of the past month at the facility meeting with city officials, the Army Corp of Engineers, and others as they scrambled to get the venue back in an operating mode.

“The scale of this really is unprecedented in California,” Hagenlocher said. “It’s the biggest wildfire ever with six digits of square acres. Everyone is directly affected or has an employer or friend or family. We lost five percent of the Santa Rosa housing stock. In a city of 170,000-something people, to actually lose five percent of the housing stock is devastating.”

Hagenlocher noted without a hint of exaggeration that the fires that impacted the venue will become a case study for what can happen.

“Every year we get the emergency responders to come out,” he said. “Being a facility like ours, our event staff is quite used to call 911 for various things for all sorts of emergencies that happen on the property. We invite our first responders, whether it’s the sheriff’s department or the fire department, to talk with our staff about the what-ifs. I will tell you that never in any of those talks did they ever imagine this being a what-if. It was almost always like, if you have a fire within the facility, what do you do to get people out? When do you decide to evacuate?

“Sometimes that comes with its own risks being a big enough facility that we might have a fire alarm on the far end when does that evacuation get triggered? Those are some shades of grey in learning to have staff start thinking about those things. What happens often is things go on autopilot and the staff knows what to do even though it’s not clear cut where you check one box or another. It’s various shades of grey, but they never would have told you … about something so far beyond the wilderness area that comes into town and has this kind of reach. None of them.”

Nowlin expressed thanks to his colleagues in the industry who have contacted him by email and other means asking if there was anything they could do to help. “Our entire team led by Marc has been just incredible in working with local authorities to get the organization moving forward and back on track,” he said.

A Gofundme page has been established on the venue’s website. Nowlin said that it has not been pushed a lot and has not been actively promoted, but it does exist. He noted that during the past month the venue has been able to accept mail and make daily deposits although most of the staff has been working offsite from home or in temporary housing for those evacuated from their residences.

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