Melbourne, Australia’s Rod Laver Arena is set to undergo a redevelopment that will include four “pods” (also known as annexes) and upgrades to food and beverage stations and restrooms. The facade will be re-skinned, and disability access will be increased. All of this will happen as the venue stays open.

“It’s a bit like performing heart surgery while the patient’s still awake,” Patrick Ness, a principal director at Cox Architecture, who designed the redevelopment, told ArchitectureAU.com. “We’ve got this venue working and we have to do all this work around it.”

Ness said that each pod was designed depending on available space.

“What we’ve done, in a way, is create a series of mini town squares in each of those locations,” Ness said. “Then above that is the new architecture, which is in keeping with the original building but also unashamedly forward looking. [There are] new skins on the building, there’s lots of glass, very open structures, but they don’t compete with the original building.”

The redevelopment is set for completion by the end of 2019. Check out some images below of the design and visit ArchitectureAU.com for more on the story.

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Disgraced performed at the Guthrie Theater.

Ah, the last quarter of the year. A time for reflection and list making, and one of my favorite lists is American Theatre‘s 10 most produced plays of the season. I suspect a few employees at performing art centers may be interested in this list, too.

“This year, we received a total of 411 season submissions from member theatres of Theatre Communications Group,” wrote Diep Tran, the magazine’s associate editor. “From there, we gathered all of the full-length productions scheduled between Sept. 1, 2016, and Aug. 31, 2017, running for at least a week’s worth of performances. Those productions numbered 1,946. To calculate our most-produced lists, it is our policy to exclude plays by Shakespeare and two perennial holiday shows (A Christmas Carol and The Santaland Diaries).”

The list actually includes 12 plays due to ties. Here’s the list, along with the number of productions scheduled:

Hand to God by Robert Askins (13)
Constellations by Nick Payne (10)
Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar (10)
Million Dollar Quartet by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott (10)
The Christians by Lucas Hnath (8)
Peter and the Starcatcher, adapted by Rick Elice from Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (8)
The Legend of Georgia McBride by Matthew Lopez (7)
Sex With Strangers by Laura Eason (7)
Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage (6)
King Charles III by Mike Bartlett (6)
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (6)
Sister Act, with book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner, music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Glenn Slater (6)

Speaking from experience, the production of Disgraced that I saw at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during VenueConnect was excellent. It’s a powerful play that warrants a lengthy post-production discussion with friends. Try to see it if you can.

Registration for the 2017 Performing Arts Managers Conference will open soon. It takes place February 27 to March 1 in Chicago, a city renowned for its great theatre scene.

(Image: Dan Norman)

Like Google Glass, Snapchat’s Spectacles records videos from the wearer’s point of view. And like Google Glass (and phones and cameras and other recording devices), it’ll be another item that venue managers may have to police or ban.

The camera in the glasses uses a 115-degree-angle lens, and the recorded video is circular. A light turns on to let people know you’re recording. The glasses will cost $129.99 and will be available on a limited basis this fall. Considering how popular Snapchat is—users send more than one billion Snaps and watch more than 10 billion videos a day—I expect “limited” to be “wide” in a matter of weeks.

The company’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, thinks of the device as a fun toy for the moment.

“We’re going to take a slow approach to rolling them out,” Spiegel to the Wall Street Journal. “It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it.”

As I mentioned, this is another item to police in your venues. However, this is just the beginning. What happens when people can wear recordable contacts (not too far off, in fact)?

(Image: Snap Inc.)

Here’s where we spotlight some of our favorite Instagram photos we’ve seen from the past week. The photos are from members and venues worldwide and lean more artistic than marketing. If you haven’t followed us on Instagram yet, now is a good time. We may just include your photos in a future post (please make sure your account allows us to embed your images, and you also might consider not making your profile private…just saying).

By following us, you’re also entered into our monthly drawing where you can win such prizes as conference registrations, full-page ads in FM magazine, and textbooks. Congratulations to Bridgestone Arena, who is our recent winner. The next drawing will be in October.

Behold, this week’s top five!

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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.