Venue Coalition announced that it has promoted Andrew Saunders to Director of Booking. In his expanded role, Saunders will focus on business development while continuing to service new and existing Venue Coalition arena clients.

Saunders started his career with Venue Coalition in 2012 after graduating from USC’s Music Industry and Business Entrepreneurship programs. After working at Venue Coalition for two years, he was recruited by Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, one of the industry’s most prestigious business management firms, to work in their tour accounting office. While at the firm, Saunders worked on a number of projects, including North American and European tours for James Taylor. In 2015, Saunders returned to Venue Coalition as the company’s Booking Manager.

“I’m looking forward to this opportunity to service both new and existing clients and to book and develop incremental content for our arena members” Saunders said.

“Andrew has a thorough understanding of our client’s needs and he has done an outstanding job of servicing our members,” added Jeff Apregan, President. “He has accomplished so much in such a short time. Wwe are excited for this new chapter to begin.”

Venue Coalition is a live entertainment consulting company that provides strategic planning, project management and talent booking services for arenas, theaters and public assembly venues. On behalf of their venue clients, Venue Coalition actively reaches out to key decision makers in the live entertainment and touring industries to influence routing decisions and ultimately increase event days in each of its participating member arenas.

We have all had that moment when an Instagram post or a Snapchat story of our friend makes us feel like we are not quite as cool or included as we should be. FoMO, or the Fear of Missing Out, refers to the feeling of “fear of not being included in something (such as an interesting or enjoyable activity) that others are experiencing.” It was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 2016. Following this current trend, millennials and people in general prefer to spend money on experiences instead of goods, and this new emphasis on experiences is changing the role of the modern-day arena.

Continue Reading →

The Tacoma (WA) City Council has approved an amended agreement with Yareton Investment and Management (Washington) L.L.C., as well as property conveyance for a hotel project for the Greater Tacoma Convention Center. Conducted without public subsidy, the development represents one of the first major foreign direct investments in a commercial project on publicly-owned land in Tacoma. It is also the largest privately funded development downtown in the city’s history.

The project, estimated to cost approximately $150 million, will be completed in two phases.

The first phase, projected to cost at least $85 million, will involve the construction of a 4-star, 300-room hotel with a 10,000 square foot grand ballroom, retail and other function rooms. The hotel operator is Interstate Hotels & Resorts in Alexandria, VA, the leading U.S.-based global hotel management company, operating branded full- and select-service hotels and resorts, convention centers and independent hotels worldwide. The brand is Marriott International in Bethesda, MD, which encompasses a portfolio of more than 6,100 properties in 30 leading hotel brands spanning 124 countries and territories.

The second phase, estimated to cost approximately $65 million, will involve the construction of approximately 200 apartments/condominiums based on market demand, with retail, after the hotel is operational.

The development is projected to boost utilization of the Greater Tacoma Convention Center, and generate substantial revenue through property, sales, B&O, utility and hotel-motel taxes. It is also projected to create approximately 1,000 construction jobs and 200 full-time hotel-related jobs.

The development is scheduled to break ground on August 8, 2017.

Julie Bunker has joined Portland’5 Centers for the Arts as the new director of operations.

Bunker has 20 years of experience in increasingly responsible roles within operational management at various companies. In her most recent position, Bunker was the director of design and construction at Pinnacle Entertainment, a Las Vegas-based casino entertainment company, where she managed projects in the Midwest.

She has also previously been the director of design for Ameristar Casinos and the vice president for facilities and operations at the Omaha Performing Arts Center.

Bunker’s experience is enhanced by her Masters degree in Management from Bellevue University and her Bachelors of Arts from the University of Arizona. She has also taught venue management at her alma mater. Bunker is passionate about continuous improvement and being a part of a winning team.

“We are so excited to have Julie on our team,” said Robyn Williams, CFE, executive director at Portland’5 Centers for the Arts. “Julie brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective that will allow P’5 to continue to serve our community by offering a home for the finest performing arts experiences for many years to come.”

As the director of operations, Bunker is responsible for the overall leadership of operations. Specifically, she will lead efforts in these areas:
• The daily operations of building maintenance
• Stage-related services
• Grounds maintenance
• Custodial services
• Security and capital projects
• Oversee event and performance load-in and load-out, setup and teardown
• Develops and implements appropriate policies, programs and services to ensure effective utilization of resources and regulatory compliance
• Serves as a member of the management team

“At Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, we hire a workforce representative of the communities we serve, understanding that a diverse workforce strengthens our organization,” Williams added. “We value diversity and support a positive and welcoming environment where all of our employees can thrive.”

“I am very excited about joining Portland’5 Centers for the Arts. The performing arts has always been my first love and returning to it by way of Portland’5 is particularly exciting given the organization’s stellar nationwide reputation,” Bunker said of her new position.

I arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Monday, September 12, 2005. After making the six-hour drive from Dallas, I parked in front of the Cajundome, the on-campus arena at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette that is home to Ragin’ Cajun athletics, concerts, family shows and much more.

It was close to 4 p.m., and I gathered my notebook and recorder to conduct an interview with Cajundome Director Greg Davis. The drive will always be memorable for one special thing: the two dozen donuts that sat in the passenger seat of my car and made the trip with me.

I had stopped around the corner from my home at a donut shop I regularly frequented (for better or worse) to get a couple treats for the road. I told my sweet friend Sue who stood behind the counter where I was going and why I was going to Lafayette. My visit was to see for myself what Greg and his tireless staff was doing with some 3,000 individuals still residing in his venue in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the coast just two weeks prior and turned Davis’s venue into an immediate shelter for busloads of people fortunate enough to be placed on buses and sent away from the devastation in New Orleans.

Sue listened to my story and asked me to wait for just a minute. I obeyed and watched as she boxed a couple dozen donuts. She handed them over the counter to me and said, “Please take these to your friend and for his people who are working.” It was Sue’s gift, what Sue could do, and so I thanked her and embarked on a most difficult voyage of riding in a car with 24 hot donuts sitting shotgun next to me.

I gathered the donuts along with everything else and walked toward the administration area of the Cajundome. This sat just to the right of the ticket window, where the word TICKETS was covered by the more ominous words POST OFFICE. Yes, the Cajundome had a post office and even its own zip code for those temporarily housed within. Many referred to the denizens of the facility as evacuees, which I suppose technically they are as they were blessed to at least evacuate New Orleans with their lives. Davis, though, chose to refer to his inhabitants in the more humane and less labeling term of residents. It was just one of countless things that Davis did on the fly and that deservedly made him a hero to everyone inside his arena.

Davis walked me throughout the facility and even introduced me to some of the residents. Many called out to “Mr. Davis” and Greg knew many by name as well. I have never seen such humanitarianism on display. It was one reason why I came. What would have been concession stands getting ready to serve hot dogs and popcorn for the upcoming basketball season were now covered in writing where residents could get baby diapers, baby wipes, contact lens supplies and more. A sign in the middle of the stand simply read, “Thank you for your patience.”

Portable showers were built in 24 hours and located outside the arena where residents, practically all who arrived on buses in filthy rags and bearing the stench of the heat, could wash their tired bodies.

There was so much more from what Davis and his valiant team did during the two months that his building housed residents. Once the last resident found housing elsewhere, the Cajundome would reopen in January. In the process, the venue became the model for mega-shelters, those places that temporarily house individuals in times mostly of Mother Nature’s destruction.

Twelve years later, on July 18, 2017, I made the same six-hour drive to the Cajundome. This time, it was to attend a book release for The Day of the Cajundome Mega-Shelter, an occasion marked with several speakers who were part of the small city inside the venue those months in 2005. Former Governor Kathleen Blanco spoke, as did Davis and several others. All spoke with reverence and the importance of bringing the book to life as a record of history. Emotions fittingly ran raw. I sat as an outsider with a renewed appreciation for the spirit and compassion of the city of Lafayette and the state of Louisiana. It was evident and it was on display.

While there was reflection, the event was anything but somber or melancholy. No, instead it was a celebration of good, of when people put feet to the fire and help each other in desperate times of need. This is our people and our industry at its finest, and it is embodied in people like Greg Davis and so many others.

Please visit Acadian House to order.