It is a privilege and an honor to serve this association in my new capacity as interim president and CEO. Please know I admire and greatly respect the passion IAVM members have for this industry. My promise to you is that I, and your talented staff team, will meet this latest challenge and continue to move the association forward.

Our primary area of focus will be to make our existing programs the best they can be. Our initial goal is to have IAVM reach two “Best Ever” milestones in the coming months. The first milestone target is that AVSS, our safety and security academy, will generate the highest total revenue in the 10-year history of the program. Secondly, PAMC is on track to reach its highest total revenue in the 24-year history of the program. These accomplishments are vitally important to us, as success has a way of building confidence, creativity, and morale, which are all qualities that enable us to better serve you.

Two additional areas of focus will be the exciting new efforts we have with the branding and conference strategy initiatives. The results of these initiatives will be presented at VenueConnect 2016 in Minneapolis. The entire staff team is excited about sharing these initiatives and the potential they have in driving IAVM’s future.

I appreciate the vote of confidence and support our team has received from the IAVM Board of Directors. We also want you, the members of IAVM, to know that we are committed to serving you and to continue to move this association forward.

The IAVM Foundation is proud to announce the Joseph A. Floreano Scholarship + Internship Program recipients for the 2016 Academy for Venue Safety & Security (AVSS) school. The awards recognize two deserving individuals who demonstrate leadership, character, community involvement, and the potential to be future leaders in the venue management industry. Kevin Henry is also returning as the Year 2 scholarship recipient.

AVSS Year 1 + 2 Scholarship Recipient

Mike Santa, general manager at Indiana University Event Services

Favorite team? The Green Bay Packers.

Favorite sports or entertainment memory? Before I was a venue manager, I worked for the IU Basketball team. While I have some incredible memories from that experience, my all-time favorite was being part of the 2013 Big Ten Championship!

If you could be any animal, what would you be and why? I think I would be a lion. I like the idea of being king of the jungle but also having a pack to rely on as well.

If you could be any superhero, who would you be and why? Batman for sure. He is the ultimate superhero, yet still just a man. Plus he gets to play with cool gadgets and cars.

What is your ultimate dream job in the industry? I would love to be the GM of a building someday. My ultimate dream job is to be the tournament director of the Mau Invitational and spend all my time in Hawaii preparing.

Favorite quote? “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.” – Vince Lombardi.

Do you currently volunteer with IAVM? What do you enjoy most about it? I am currently on the Young Professionals Committee. It’s been fun working with other YPs on projects to help bring IAVM to a younger generation of venue managers.

Favorite childhood snack? Any kind of candy but Mike & Ike’s are the best!

@Twitter handle? @mwsanta

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-santa-8305226a

AVSS Student Intern

Johnny Roe, Missouri State University – Entertainment Management

Anticipated Graduation? Fall 2016.

 Favorite team? Die-hard Kansas City sports fan.

Favorite sports or entertainment memory? The Kansas City Royals winning the 2015 World Series.

If you could be any animal, what would you be and why? A wolf. They know when to lead and when to follow. They have a small circle and know how to survive when they are by themselves.

If you could be any superhero, what would you be and why? Batman. He made himself a hero, didn’t have to have some crazy mutation to be great. (Helped that he had billions of dollars to inherit, though.)

What is your ultimate dream job in the industry? General Manager of a Major League Baseball team. There are only 30 of them so the odds are not in my favor, but someone has to be one of 30 so why not me?

Favorite Quote? “Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the ability to act in the presence of fear.” – Bruce Lee.

Favorite childhood snack? Anything my mom cooks! She is the Michael Jordan of the kitchen.

@Twitter handle? @roeboat11 — I know, puns are incredible.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnny-roe-9aaa43b9

Sympathy is often considered a weakness in business, but new research by Laura Kray, a professor in the Haas Management of Organizations Group at University of California, Berkeley, proves otherwise.

“Sympathy is an emotion that corresponds with good will,” Kray said. “In negotiations, it can translate into a willingness to problem solve in ways that might not otherwise occur.”

Along with co-authors Aiwa Shirako (Berkeley-Haas PhD 11 and people analyst at Google) and Gavin Kilduff (Berkeley-Haas PhD 10 and an assistant professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business), Kray’s study found that being transparent about one’s misfortune is more effective when a “low power” or someone in a weaker negotiation position initiates the sympathy.

“Relative to low power negotiators, we find that high power negotiators’ sympathy appeals are seen as more inappropriate and manipulative, and may damage the negotiators’ relationship going forward,” the researchers wrote in the study’s abstract.

Across five studies, though, Kray’s results showed that genuine vulnerability can be advantageous.

“Our findings reveal an optimistic message,” Kray said. “Even when people are in powerful positions, situations in which cold-hearted, rational actors might be expected to behave opportunistically, we are finding instead that their feelings of sympathy motivate them to help the disadvantaged.”

(photo credit: The Open University (OU) via photopin cc)

You want people to walk the right way toward an exit. New research, though, shows that anxious people will steer toward the left.

“Behavioural approach and inhibition are two fundamental motivational systems manifested in affective, cognitive, and behavioural traits,” the researchers wrote in the study. “The aim of the present research was to examine the individual and joint associations of these systems with lateral spatial bias. Blindfolded participants traversed a room aiming for a straight line. Locomotion data obtained from motion tracking revealed systematic lateral biases in participants’ walking trajectories.”

Previous studies showed that threatening conditions trigger high activity in the brain’s right hemisphere, which causes people to head left.

“This anxiety/arousal function is consistent with a right-sided orienting network for attention, which responds to novel and unexpected events and acts as a ‘circuit breaker’ for focal processing,” the researchers wrote.

This current research showed for the first time that there are two different motivation systems across the brain’s two hemispheres—the approach motivation system resides in the left hemisphere, and the anxious and inhibition systems reside in the right.

The research should be considered when it comes to crowd management and egress strategies. How do your plans change knowing anxious guests subconsciously move toward the left when threatened? Please let us know in the comments.

(Image: Kate Crabtree/Creative Commons)

Have you ever wondered why stadium designs frequently change? Tim Newcomb with Sports Illustrated recently dove right into that question with an emphasis on the constant change in designs of new soccer-specific stadiums.

Key factors include building excitement and engagement, architects bidding on the job, feedback from teams and ownership groups, budgets, developing a vision, in-venue programming, site or zoning constraints, and even a project’s age.

“Technology can change. Design or aesthetic trends can change,” said Jon Knight, a senior principal and architect at Populous, design firm developing soccer stadiums in Washington, D.C.; Minnesota; and Orlando, Florida. “Over the lifespan of a project, the rendering or the conceptual design that a firm used to do a study in 2005 is barely relevant in 2016, even though the project in technically the same project.”

As previously mentioned, characteristics for the new wave of soccer specific stadiums has changed quite a bit since the first was built in 1999 in Columbus, Ohio.

Don’t be surprised to see quite a few different renderings from cities looking to build a soccer-specific stadium in pursuit of an MLS expansion franchise such as Indianapolis, Louisville, Miami, Sacramento, San Antonio, and St. Louis. Keep an eye out; one might just be your next workplace.