It appears the secret to living a long life is to just enjoy it.  In a study of 3,199 men and women aged 60 years or older over an eight year period, those who had a positive outlook on life had fewer physical impairments than those whose dispositions were darker.

“The study shows that older people who are happier and enjoy life more show slower declines in physical function as they age,” said Dr. Andrew Steptoe at the University College London. “They are less likely to develop impairments in activities of daily living such as dressing or getting in or out of bed, and their walking speed declines at a slower rate than those who enjoy life less.”

Researches found that those with low well-being were more than three times as likely than those with a positive outlook to develop physical problems such as heart disease, arthritis, and strokes.

“This is not because the happier people are in better health, or younger, or richer, or have more healthy lifestyles at the outset, since even when we take these factors into account, the relationship persists,” Steptoe said. “Our previous work has shown that older people with greater enjoyment of life are more likely to survive over the next eight years; what this study shows is that they also keep up better physical function.

“Our results provide further evidence that enjoyment of life is relevant to the future disability and mobility of older people,” Steptoe continued. “Efforts to enhance well-being at older ages may have benefits to society and health care systems.”

It looks like the old adage to “turn that frown upside down” is more than a fun rhyme. It could be a life saver.

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I wrote about festival last week that takes advantage of a performing arts center’s outside space for events. The festival is surely one of the more successful ones and a good role model for future, community-based functions. But getting people off the lawn and into the venue itself can be a challenge.

“In our community, we find that sometimes people are afraid to go to an arts event—maybe because it is a new type of event, or maybe they are not sure what to wear,” said Wendy Riggs, director of the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater in Alabama. “We have found that holding an event out in our lawn really breaks the ice for the newcomer to our events, so people get used to the building and to the staff. We market our events inside and have seen a great increase in attendance.”

Riggs, an IAVM member, will facilitate a session titled “Pigeons, Tornadoes, and Technology…Oh My!” at the upcoming Performing Arts Managers Conference (PAMC) in Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 22-25. The session will focus on challenges faced with outdoor events and how you can use them to help patrons “break the wall” and enter a venue. The discussion will center on building new audiences, making good decisions when faced with obstacles, and sharing helpful tools.

One way to encourage patrons to move from outside to inside it to combine events.

“This year, at our seasonal ice rink we decided to combine our event with a ticket that got then skating and sliding outside and to visit our museum exhibit inside,” Riggs said. “We also added our Story Time with Santa inside the museum. The results were that hundreds of people who had never entered the museum crossed our doors this season. We feel we earned a lot of new patrons who will join us for future exhibits and events.”

Riggs’ session is just one of many great educational offerings at this year’s PAMC. Please visit the website for more information and to register.

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It’s been about 10 minutes since we last spoke about the weather at the Super Bowl, so I figured this video would help satisfy any weather worries you harbor.

In less than two minutes, statistician Nate Silver shows us the percentage of what may happen, such as snow or high winds. All his predictions are based on climatology, the study of weather conditions averaged over a period of time. If Silver is as good at weather prediction as he is at political picks, then be prepared for some high winds at the Super Bowl this year.

There was a lot of industry news this past week you may have missed. Here are some headlines that caught our eyes.

Stadium Tech Report: DAS, Wi-Fi puts end to no-signal problem at Denver’s Sports Authority Field
—Mobile Sports Report
“When Sports Authority Field is at its listed capacity of 76,125 on game days, it becomes the 14th-largest city in Colorado…”

Australian Open Halted Because of Extreme Heat
—The Weather Channel
“The Extreme Heat Policy was enacted at Melbourne Park just before 2 p.m. Thursday, suspending all matches on outer courts until the early evening and requiring the closure of the retractable roofs at Rod Laver and Hisense arenas before play could continue on the show courts.”

For Senior Leaders, Fit Matters More than Skill
—Harvard Business Review
“A recent CEB survey of C-suite executives indicates that organizations will require significantly higher performance—23% improvement, on average, in performance ratings— from their executive-level direct reports in the new year.”

Sounds of Silence: NYC’s Historic Music Venues Are Becoming History
—New York Observer
“Many New Yorkers will tell you that music spaces have been closing down in the city for decades—the Palladium, Fillmore East and Hippodrome all perished before the turn of the millennium—but never before, it seems, have we seen this kind of widespread, unchecked growth at the expense of so many hallowed venues.”

Two’s Company: Competitive Venues Should be Communicative, Complementary
—The Enid News and Eagle
“How do the two taxpayer-financed venues coexist, and where do they overlap?”

(Image: Mobile Sports Report)

Some interesting stats came out of The Broadway League‘s 16th annual demographics report, “The Demographics of the Broadway Audience 2012-2013,” and I thought I’d pass them along to you. The findings pertain to New York, so they may not exactly match your findings in another city, but I think they’re good indicators to keep an eye on.

“The 2012 – 2013 season attracted the largest number of admissions by visitors from other countries since this study has begun, with international tourists accounting for 23 percent of all admissions to Broadway shows in New York City,” said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League. “We also saw a notable increase in the diversity of our audiences. In particular, we have seen a growth in the Hispanic audience to nearly 8 percent of our theater-going audience. We will continue our efforts to diversify the audience with programs like Viva Broadway, which was initiated two years ago. This season also attracted the largest number of theater-goers age 18-24, and we are hopeful that this trend will continue and these young adults will continue to attend theatre as they age and introduce the theatre-going tradition to their own families.”

The findings include

• 66 percent of tickets purchased were by tourists
• Average theatre attendee age was 42.5 years old
• 78 percent of theatre attendees were Caucasian
• 68 percent of guests were female
• 41 percent purchased their tickets online

The Internet and technology was a topic that came out when we asked members for their 2014 industry predictions for the Dec/Jan issue of FM magazine.

“More social media technology will be permitted at traditional (e.g., symphonies, ballets, operas, Broadway) performing arts events to increase immediate personal interaction, response, and recommendation of the live experience, which helps to promote ticket sales to a ‘non-traditional,’ younger ticket buyer,” said Michael S. Taormina, CFE, managing director of the Cobby Energy Performing Arts Centre. “Also, more venue managers will (should) increase their social media presence as it becomes an important function of their job duties, as well as, develop innovative smart phone applications that promote the convenience, ownership and fun of attending PAC events.”

Speaking of performing arts centers, there’s still time to register for the Performing Arts Mangers Conference, Feb. 22-25, in Kansas City, Mo.

Are you seeing an increase in online ticket sales? How are you using social media to market your venue? Please let us know in the comments section.

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