The Fox Theatre Institute (FTI) has awarded over $85,000 to four immediate need projects under the organization’s newly-created Urgent/Emergency Need Grant, a part of FTI’s expanded funding efforts to support historic Georgia theaters.

For the theater or historic performing arts venue to receive an Urgent/Emergency Needs Grant, the historic venue must have found operational needs that require immediate action to save the structure itself, or unanticipated delays that hindered the venue’s ability to maintain its current programming and economic health. The Urgent/Emergency Need Grant is one of four grant funding categories through FTI – including Urgent/Emergency Need, Historic Structures Studies or Planning, Technical Assistance and Services, and Preservation Grant – all of which allows up to $500,000 of much needed statewide grant subsidy.

“Awarding urgent or emergency funds are a top priority for FTI,” said Adina Erwin, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Fox Theatre, Inc. “Historic venues can find themselves in great financial need and we are fortunate to be able to respond with non-matching grants for immediate funding. In our first year implementing the urgent and emergency funding, we found four key performing arts venues to support, ensuring their patrons ongoing access to the arts. We are continuing to accept applications, and we hope to continue to fill in gaps of funding to support Georgia’s important architectural and cultural landmarks.”

The following historic theaters or performing arts venues have been awarded Urgent/Emergency Needs Grant through FTI:

Conyers Rockdale Council for the Arts (CRCA), (Conyers, GA), Amount to receive: $11,348 – CRCA opened to the public in Oct. 2000 and is home to dozens of productions each year, including a long-standing relationship with the local theater company. FTI funds allows CRCA to replace its 17-year-old HVAC unit in time for the theatre to continue its scheduled programming.

Festival Hall, (Greensboro, GA), Amount to receive: $19,640 – Festival Hall, formerly the Greene County High School Auditorium, serves as a Greensboro community landmark for local visual arts as well as theatrical and musical performances. Due to years of layering of materials, the stage has become dangerous for performers. With the grant, the stage will receive a new floor safe for performers and theater staff.

DeSoto Theatre, (Rome, GA), Amount to receive: $20,000 – Downtown Rome’s 1929 Historic DeSoto Theatre is the only remaining historic theatre left in Rome. Although state-of-the-art in 1929, the grant will allow the DeSoto Theatre to upgrade its original fire safety features.

Theatre Albany, (Albany, GA), Amount to receive: $34,393 – Theatre Albany opened its doors in 1932 and is one of the oldest arts organizations in Albany. With FTI funding, repairs will be made to the historic façade of the building recently damaged by severe tornadoes in early 2017.

“The Fox Theatre Institute provides needed financial resources for historic theatres who have struggled to find partnering, supporting, or matching fund programs,” said Leigh Burns, the recently appointed director of the Fox Theatre Institute. “Currently, no other organizations in Georgia provide grant assistance specific to theater preservation, and notably direct funding that does not requiring a match. For many treasured Georgia historic landmarks, we are the only option to staying operational while making necessary repairs to ensure audience safety. The organizations that utilize our funds are the lifeblood for our downtowns, and spur community and economic development for their hometowns, and often the broader Georgia regions.”

As part of the Fox Theatre’s ongoing commitment to Georgia’s historic theaters, the FTI grant program seeks to provide significant economic and cultural impact to local communities across the state. FTI’s Preservation Grant Program and Historic Preservation Services have supported 15 projects totaling more than $360,000 in maintenance and physical improvement efforts across Georgia over the past nine years. FTI is part of the Fox Theatre’s overall strategic plan to further increase its impact and outreach.

Since the launch of FTI in 2008, the Fox Theatre has committed more than $1 million to the overall program, including ‘Fox in a Box,’ a free interactive curriculum-based resource for area elementary schools; Georgia Presenters, an innovative statewide talent booking consortium; and Preservation Grants to encourage preservation of historic theatres with outside funding not readily available elsewhere.

The 2017-18 FTI grant season launched on May 1, 2017 with the Hampton 70: A Celebration of Colonel Bruce Hampton concert, in which a portion of the tickets sold benefited FTI. The all-star music celebration raised over $50,000 in the one-night only event.

IAVM’s Public Assembly Venue Management: Sports, Entertainment, Meeting, and Convention Venues textbook is the perfect reference guide for any professional in the venue management industry, regardless of whether you are entering the industry or a seasoned professional looking to expand your knowledge base.

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Four of the industry’s top academic professionals in Kimberly Mahoney, Ph.D., Lee Esckilsen, CFE, Adonis “Sporty” Jeralds, CFE, and Steve Camp, CFE, authored the latest textbook that will serve as an invaluable resource for your professional development.

“The textbook is a great reference tool for all industry professionals, including those just entering the industry and experienced professionals working to expandtheir knowledge into other aspects of venue management,” said Dr. Mahoney, assistant professor, Sport Management, University of New Haven. “It is also a useful reference tool for those executives mentoring others in the industry or for internal professional development programs. The textbook provides a wonderful foundation of industry knowledge which serves as a perfect jumping off point to build upon with venue-specific information.”

“The textbook is an important tool for IAVM members because it can assist the manager in providing 

their staff members a basic, but rather complete, description of how all aspects of the venue management process function,” added Camp, a retired venue veteran based in Charlotte, NC. “This prepares the employees for advancement within their existing organization or enables them to consider other options as their career journeys develop.”

In addition to exploring the history and role of public assembly facilities, the textbook also examines the fundamental principles of venue management and ownership, safety and security, booking, fiscal practices, operations, event management, and much more.

“The most gratifying fact about this textbook, to me, is the fact that those 

using the textbook as a teaching guide for venue management classes around the country have told us that they think it is the best venue management textbook available,” Camp said. “I am also aware that a number of managers have purchased the textbook for each of their department heads because they consider it a valuable reference source and believe it can assist them in providing their staff with more information about the business, thus resulting in a more knowledgeable and prepared organization.”

Fellow authors Esckilsen and Jeralds are also long-time IAVM members and individuals with venue backgrounds before venturing onto college campuses. Esckilsen is associate professor, Johnson & Wales Sports, Entertainment & Event Management Division, while Jeralds is a clinical instructor at the University of South Carolina.

“The textbook addresses the core functional areas common to all public assembly venues presented by authors who have a combined 100-plus years of experience in public assembly venue management,” Mahoney said.

To purchase your copy of this professional development reference tool click here.

IAVM members receive a 30% discount off the retail price. For information on IAVM membership, click here.

The IAVM Foundation Silent Auction will launch Friday, October 27^th, at 8:00 am CDT. Current items available for online bidding include:

• Two tickets and one-night hotel accommodations for the Guns N Roses, Not in This Lifetime Tour, for November 14^th, at the BOK Center in Tulsa, OK
• 8 Luxury Suite tickets and 5 Lexus Garage Parking Passes to a Dallas Mavericks 2017-18 regular season game at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas (Two Packages)
• Cavaliers #0, Kevin Love autographed basketball jersey
• LA Dodgers #21, Donald “Zack” Greinke autographed baseball jersey
• New York Yankees baseball cap autographed by Constantino “Tino” Martinez
• 2016-2017 Nashville Predators Autographed Jersey

 
The IAVM Foundation Silent Auction is an anticipated tradition and an important fundraiser. By bidding on items, you are helping increase the positive impact of the venue industry by funding research, education, resource development, and scholarships/internships.

The Foundation is also seeking additional donated items that can be used to add to the auction site from individuals, companies, foundations, and governments, so that they can continue to ensure the perpetual success and growth of the public assembly industry. Organizations/individuals who donate will be notated on the website within the item’s description. The Foundation is a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to which donations are fully deductible to the extent of U.S. tax law.

If you have an item you would like to donate please contact mailto:foundation@iavm.org for more information.

A partnership between Simpleview and EventBooking has simplified convention center bookings and venue management. Through an integration of their software tools, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) that use Simpleview’s CRM platform will have the opportunity to view a local convention center’s internal calendar, with permission, if it is powered by EventBooking’s venue management software.

A single sign-on connection to EventBooking software within Simpleview’s CRM platform will enable DMO event planners to review the calendar availability of the convention center as they manage their leads. This integration automates what was once a manual information-sharing process and simplifies meeting and event management for DMOs.

In September 2016, EventBooking — a booking and venue management software company — began collaborating with Simpleview, a lead provider of CRM/CMS systems and digital marketing solutions for DMOs. Greg Evans, Vice-President of Sales & Account Services at Simpleview, commented that the end-goal was to offer DMOs and convention center clients access to top-quality website utility and CMS functionality: “We saw a way to bring more value to DMOs and convention centers by collaboratively developing an integration between Simpleview’s CRM and EventBooking’s calendar software.”

“This integration provides a level of convenience for our shared customers,” said Steve Mackenzie, President of EventBooking. “It allows venues and DMOs to quickly move the booking process forward with simplified communication about viable leads and solidified dates.”

Long-time clients are already looking forward to the additional integration. Kim Bumpas, CDME, CMP, President of Visit Knoxville Tennessee said, “We’re truly excited to know that Simpleview and EventBooking will be working even more closely together to help us streamline meeting and event bookings. I firmly believe every efficiency added to our staff translates to even better service for our visitors and partner businesses.”

Jeremy Pierce, Assistant General Manager at Irving (TX) Convention Center, commented on his anticipation as well: “We work very closely with our Visitor Bureau. When they’re talking to prospective clients, they always need to know the availability of the spaces in our convention center. The integration between Simpleview and EventBooking will automate this process so they will be able to access our EventBooking calendar within their Simpleview CRM. This level of automation will cut down the number of emails and phone calls we usually have to make, allowing us to give information to potential clients in the fastest manner possible — a real win for the City of Irving!”

The University of Houston (UH), in conjunction with IMG, has asked Daktronics to design, manufacture, and install the largest LED video display for a Texas softball venue at Cougar Softball Stadium. The fifth largest softball installation Daktronics has ever completed will encompass 576 square feet, set for completion early in 2018.

“A state-of-the-art video board will immediately elevate the game-day experience for our fans and student-athletes,” UH Head Softball Coach Kristin Vesely said. “Fans will have the ability to see replays and the personalities of our players on the big screen, while the board’s capabilities also opens doors for in-game marketing and quality streaming opportunities.

“To have the one of the biggest video boards in the nation, we could not be more thrilled with the notoriety it will bring for us to share the direction we are moving as a program and athletic department. We want to thank all of our Diamond Club members for seeing our vision and investing in order to make this possible.”

The new outfield display will measure 24 feet high by 24 feet wide to bring a large presence to every game as it engages and entertains Cougar fans with live video, instant replays, statistics and scoring information, graphics and animations, and sponsorship messages. It will feature a 13HD pixel layout for to bring crisp, clear imagery for a great view from every seat in the stadium.

The display is capable of variable content zoning allowing it to show one large image or multiple zones of differing content to bring fans the information they crave at every event.

Included with the installation, the university will receive a content package to be created by Daktronics Creative Services, an award-winning, in-house creative team, at the request of the school.

Daktronics LED video and messaging display technology provides industry leading environmental protection for a long lifetime with consistent performance and low power consumption, providing value and excitement for years to come.