Two years have passed since I had the opportunity to participate as a student volunteer at the Venue Management School in Oglebay and VenueConnect 2012 through the IAVM Foundation. As I reflect on these two experiences, I’m flooded with only positive memories. I find it incredible that the Foundation could bring along people from different parts of the country with different interests, personalities, and lifestyles representing various universities while expecting them to work together for a week. Even with all of these contrasts, great things always come to pass.

I believe “Without a vision, the people perish.” The opportunities through the IAVM Foundation will help any aspiring venue manager fulfill his or her vision. Through networking and seminars within various conferences, friendships are built, knowledge is gained, and a sense of community is felt among those in our industry.

Those friendships built not only stay within that week but progress as we develop in our careers. The encouragement and camaraderie from these friendships are still felt to this day and becomes infectious. The knowledge gained becomes a useful tool in broadening our growth within the industry and gives us the opportunity to make a positive impact within our venues. There’s a sense of community in our industry where you can put strangers together with the same goals and see success. It’s that same sense of community, where members are willing to assist other members selflessly. If it be for another member’s expertise on a certain subject or to brainstorm an outcome of a situation, our members are there. Try it out yourself, and see the floodgates of benefits and success open.

Hence, I feel a connection to all IAVM Foundation student volunteers. Now as a Young Professional, I admire those students who have a vision of where they want to go in their careers. The ambition of others is what fuels me even more to take steps to fulfill my own vision. Taking action and initiative, such as participating in the IAVM Foundation, is enlightening. As a student volunteer, I loved hearing where other students wanted to go in their lives, and based off of working with them, I could see each person attaining his or her vision.

I believe any person who has any interest in the venue management industry must take advantage of the opportunities the Foundation has to offer. There is no other opportunity within our industry where you could meet some of the most talented and respected venue managers from throughout the world. This includes the most talented and respected allied members. Their experiences and knowledge is beneficial to anyone’s growth within the industry and in your own personal life. As I look forward to the many new opportunities the Foundation is going to present in the upcoming months, I do look forward to meeting with the student volunteers. I know what it was like to be in their situation. Most importantly, I know what the Foundation has done for me, and I would like to help them take those steps so they could fulfill their visions, as well.

I would like to invite all students to start researching and applying to the various internships the IAVM Foundation provides. I have much gratitude to our members who encouraged me to these internships. You are the next generation, and the IAVM Foundation will prepare you for continual success in your careers.

From David Leon Moore’s “Las Vegas makes plays to lure pro sports teams” in USA Today:

The most pressing prospect is a potential Major League Soccer franchise, but the deal will probably only happen if the Las Vegas city council agrees in December to include public funding in the construction of a $200 million soccer-only stadium in the downtown area.

“We’re the perfect place for people to come and enjoy all the amenities we have, and we’re certainly ready for major league sports. We’ve made so many advances in the medical community and in cultural offerings. Pro sports is the one little piece we haven’t quite gotten the hook around.”

– Carolyn Goodman, mayor, Las Vegas

(Image: Justin Brown)

Congratulations to our member venues that were named as finalists for the 2014 Billboard Touring Awards. Focusing on just the venue categories, here are the contenders, courtesy of Billboard magazine.

TOP ARENA
Allphones Arena, Sydney, Australia
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
O2 Arena, London, England

TOP VENUE – UNDER 10,000 SEATS
Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico
The Axis at Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, NV
Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY

TOP VENUE – UNDER 5,000 SEATS
The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV
Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham, NC
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA

TOP CLUB
9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
House of Blues, Boston, MA
House of Blues, Orlando, FL

TOP AMPHITHEATER
Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto, Canada
Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY
Xfinity Center, Mansfield, MA

Visit Billboard to get the full list of finalists. Winners will be announced November 20 during the 11th annual Billboard Touring Conference in New York City.

(Image: Allphones Arena Facebook page)

Your intelligence will only get you so far. If you really want to be considered for a leadership position, start looking healthy.

In a recent study, “A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health,” researchers discovered that people looking at faces prefer a healthy complexion for most leadership positions.

“Overall, health was a significantly stronger predictor of leader selection than intelligence, except for in the cooperation context, where intelligence and health were predictors of similar strength,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Our results indicate a stronger general preference for health vs. intelligence when selecting leaders across context.”

Study participants included 148 women and men who were told to imagine they were selecting a new CEO for a company. They had to pick between two photos of male faces, and they were given a job description that specified the candidate’s main challenge (drive aggressive competition, renegotiate a key partnership, lead the company into a new market, or oversee the stable exploitation of non-renewable energy). And to add another element into the mix—both photos were of the same person. However, the face was digitally transformed to look more or less intelligent, and his complexion was altered to look more or less healthy.

“In leader selection, cues of intelligence, as expected, were preferred more often in cooperation vs. competition whereas perceived health was significantly favored across all four coordination problems,” the researchers wrote. “Overall, our findings suggest that although intelligence may be important for leadership in certain circumstances, health appears to dominate decision making in all contexts of leadership.”

Brian Spisak, an assistant professor at the Department of Management and Organization of VU University Amsterdam and lead author of the study, suggests that it’s beneficial for would-be leaders to pay attention to their health.

“Here we show that it always pays for aspiring leaders to look healthy, which explains why politicians and executives often put great effort, time, and money in their appearance,” Spisak said. “If you want to be chosen for a leadership position, looking intelligent is an optional extra under context-specific situations, whereas the appearance of health appears to be important in a more context-general way across a variety of situations.”

(photo credit: JayPitsby via photopin cc)

Whether it’s a tenor, alto, or bass, a saxophone adds sultriness to any song. For this, you can thank Adolphe Sax, who was born 200 years ago today. The instrument named after him was created in 1841, and it’s been tearing through songs ever since.

In honor of his birth, we took a staff poll here at IAVM headquarters of songs with the best sax solos. These are our picks. Please let us know your choices in the comments below, and we’ll add them to the post.

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