The International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) has awarded the prestigious 2016 Convention Center Lifetime Achievement Award to Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) Executive Director Frank Poe, an IAVM member since Jan. 1, 1980.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented during the 2016 International Convention Center Conference in Pasadena, California, recognizes individuals who have had a significant impact on the convention center industry and the IAVM community.

“To be recognized by your peers is a tremendous honor,” Poe said. “If you consider those who have received this award in the past, to be included with that group is humbling.”

Prior to accepting the position of GWCCA executive director in April 2010, Poe was director of the Convention/Event Service Department for the City of Dallas (Dallas Convention Center, Union Station, Dallas Farmers Market, Office of Special Events, and Reunion Arena) where he started his career in 1972 as a part-time laborer. He was appointed general manager of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando from 1979 to 1980 and found his way back to Dallas for the next 17 years holding several leadership positions in the center’s Event Services and Cultural Affairs departments. He was named executive director of Alabama’s Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in 1997, a position he held for seven years until moving back to Dallas in 2004 to assume the aforementioned director position for the next six years.

Poe served as president of IAVM from 2000-2001 and chair of the IAVM Safety and Security Task Force from 2001-2004. A founding member of the IAVM Academy for Venue Safety & Security, Poe served as its dean. He also serves on the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors and on the Board of Directors for Central Atlanta Progress.

Poe graduated from Texas A&M University-Commerce with a degree in political science and history.

“Frank is an iconic leader in our industry who has influenced so many of our current and future leaders,” said Carol Wallace, the 2015 Convention Center Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. “It is wonderful that he will be recognized for his achievements.”

The IAVM Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Poe on Friday, October 28, 2016, during a luncheon at the International Convention Center Conference. The conference will be held October 27-29 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California.

NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) is conducting a survey that is gauging how decision-makers, such as venue managers, use NWS watches, warnings, and advisories. Your feedback will play an important role in any decisions on how to improve NWS hazard messages.

This survey is part of the NWS Hazard Simplification Project, which is analyzing the use and effectiveness of NWS watches, warnings, and advisories and evaluating possible alternatives to these terms. The survey will assess the extent to which organizations (at all levels and in various sectors) have formally incorporated watches, warnings, and advisories into their decision-making processes via policies, protocols, laws, etc. For instance, are there venues with a written policy that says if a Blizzard Watch is issued, then XYZ needs to happen?

Survey answers will help the NWS understand the potential policy impact on various key partners if it significantly changes watches, warnings, or advisories, such as altering the meaning or name of a particular watch, warning, or advisory.

This survey will close October 31, 2016. To take the survey, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/62DX6TC.

If you have any questions or comments, email hazsimp@noaa.gov.

For more information about the overall Hazard Simplification Project, visit http://www.weather.gov/hazardsimplification.

(Image: Darren Hsu/Creative Commons)

Growing up, I was passionate about sports and would spend most of my time playing the sport of the day at a local park with friends. It was fitting when I reached college, with a lack of superior athletic ability, that I found a sports management program. I saw it as a career solution as my dream of being a professional athlete was crushed in middle school.

Like most millennials, I was blind to the fact that a degree doesn’t guarantee a job. Fortunately, I found one of the rare, paid internships in the industry coaching youth multi-sport camps. This was the best—I was getting paid to teach youth the fundamentals of the sports I grew up with. Unfortunately, the internship came to an end and the offer that followed was in a different city and felt too risky.

The struggle was real after that as it seemed every interview just lead to more frustration. Then I received a call from a guest speaker I kept in touch with. He had a friend looking for part-time help with a “sports” photography company. You know, the ones that take your high school team photos. Later he called again, asking if I could drive a truck to help supply and set up 4-on-4 flag football tournaments. “Of course” were the first words out of my mouth, and I took off on separate trips to Dallas and Miami, where I built key relationships for the future.

A full-time job was still a need and due to my work with the camps, an opportunity to teach an extended kindergarten/after school program became available. This was very rewarding work that I enjoyed but there was still something missing. I wanted to do the work I studied in college. My resume was everywhere and humility had become my best friend.

Then my phone rang and it was another friend of the guest speaker. He was looking for people to drive a truck up and down the east coast setting up lacrosse tournaments. The school I was at graciously allowed me to take a leave of absence for the summer and I hit the road. Most of our time was setting up sponsorship activations and documenting the impact to help with renewals, but it allowed me to work with several different organizers and pick up what I did and didn’t like about their event operations.

The summer ended and I went back to teaching. The following spring, I received an email from a friend I made helping out with the flag football tournaments. The company he was working for had part-time jobs helping with promotions of a professional sports team and assisting with events at a sports complex. I signed on for both not knowing where either would lead while continuing to teach, as both jobs had odd hours. The promotions expanded my grass-roots marketing knowledge and allowed me to be a part of the in-game entertainment segments. The event assistant role taught me a lot of the procedures I still implement today, with a few tweaks of my own.

A year later, an event coordinator role opened up and I was finally offered the opportunity to prove my worth. Here I took over the operations of an adult soccer league while managing other clients at the facility. However, it was the ownership in the adult soccer league, something I knew little about, that really fueled my passion to find efficiencies and grow a business.

Since that journey, promotions and new jobs have followed, but the lessons I learned on this four-year expedition helped mold who I am today. For some, it’s about being in the right place at the right time and for others it’s about the journey. The one thing that we all have in common is that hard work, dedication, jumping at opportunities (near or far!), and a strong network will be your lifeline in this industry.

(Image: Events DC Facebook)

Managing public assembly venues is a complicated business. Venue professionals are coordinating detailed logistics in order to ensure smooth event execution and working to safeguard the lives of everyone in the building, all while delivering a memorable event experience. From the client’s perspective, one of the most important things we can do is enable the client to focus on its event production. That is accomplished when venues are proactive and have an effective event planning process that allows them to be responsive to client needs.

IAVM’s new reference series, The IAVM Blueprint, provides an in-depth exploration of topics fundamental to successful venue operations and is written for industry professionals. It is the first in the series explores the topic of event management within all types of public assembly venues and is designed to assist new event managers and serve as a resource for current professionals.

If you have a new event coordinator, an intern eager to learn, or another employee seeking opportunities for professional development, the blueprint is a perfect place for him or her to start. It provides the foundation for successful event management within public assembly venues. We discuss the overall event planning process, the foundations of effective event planning, a typical planning sequence, and address event planning tools and resources. We examine the event management process from both the front-of-house and back-of-house perspectives and address issues related to parking, transportation, event personnel, crowd management, safety and security, as well as a variety of miscellaneous potential event responsibilities. After completing The IAVM Blueprint: Event Management, your staff is in a better position to then learn how to implement these strategies and processes within a particular venue.

In addition, we compiled sample industry documents from a variety of venue types across the United States and internationally. Samples include event resumes, event staff information sheets, incident reports, pre-event checklists, post-event reports, staffing estimates, event contracts, and others. Samples were graciously provided from IAVM member arenas, convention centers, stadiums, and theaters. These samples are an incredible resource for those venues creating new processes and procedures or those simply looking for ideas to update existing documents.

Effective event management requires a cooperative effort and productive communication between all units of the organization. This new publication serves as a practical tool to assist new event managers with those important responsibilities and as an ongoing resource for industry professionals.

The IAVM Blueprint: Event Management may be ordered online at www.iavm.org/iavmblueprint.

A warm welcome to our newest members who joined IAVM in July and August 2016—a total of 239 new members. Thank you for being a part of the association!

Also, let us get to know you better by participating in the I Am Venue Management series. Please visit http://www.iavm.org/i-am-venue-management-share-your-story to share your story and photo.

Continue Reading →