Blogs

Hurricane Preparedness-News Brief

By Mark Herrera posted 08-26-2020
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The International Association of Venue Managers having significant influence globally has a civic responsibility to provide information to assure all Public Assembly Facilities have valid and reliable information immediately in particularly during crisis. We wish to express our sincere prayers that all in the path of CATIV Hurricane Laura are able to remain safe. The past several hurricane seasons have been particularly destructive and 2020 is expected to bring yet another high-activity hurricane season according to the National Weather Service. The strain of a major hurricane on its own is difficult, but hurricane season during a pandemic will test organizations’ ...
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Food service model once arenas and stadiums open again

By Greg Flakus posted 06-10-2020
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I have visited with about five venue food service managers to ask them what they think food service may look like as football season starts and some will be able to have a reduced capacity number of fans in attendance. Three of the five brought up the model of when an organization called Promise keepers was packing stadiums for their gatherings. In this case, each attendee would be able to pre order a box lunch for each day and pick it up at locations on the concourse, or if they wanted to could pay for alunch at a few designated locations.. the choices were very limited, three kinds of meat on a sandwich, chips and a canned soft drink.. The cost for the meal ...
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How event venues will be changing to help keep attendees and staff safe at events going forward

By Mark Herrera posted 05-14-2020
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The International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM), having significant influence in a global industry, has a civic duty to assure we provide safe , secure, and healthy environments within all Public Assemblies in particularly Convention Centers. We are working collectively with all venue types inclusive of their respective leadership, the Federal Government and working groups tasked to gather data and conduct research as the industry moves toward recovery and identifying what the new “norm” will look like. Public Facility Assemblies will follow medical and governmental guidance and not circumvent the science of any pandemic. The Convention Centers ...
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Event Venue Managers Are Generally Good at Everything

By Cameron Ungar posted 04-10-2019
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Event Venue Managers Are Generally Good at Everything The event and venue management business is an alluring line of work. There are always lots of questions when I tell people what I do for a living , which is fun at parties. We get to be around some really cool things, and once in a while, we might even get to see some of those cool things (Very rarely do we get to watch an event—remember, we are working!). I consider myself very lucky to have been able to forge a career in this industry. I had some great mentors along the way who taught me the skills to operate a facility, expanded my capacity for ...
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A thought about thinking - latest article in the FM Magazine

By Guy Hedderwick posted 02-04-2019
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I am often asked in my position as CEO of Arena Stadium Management what I do with my day. I go into the ramble about driving the strategic direction of our business and ensuring every staff member is supported to be able to achieve their goals and creating a culture and an environment where people can prosper. I do, do all that, but in reality I also do a lot of thinking. I study the data, the budget, and trends in the business to create a clear and compelling vision which will excite the “employee family” to follow. Much of my job is about thinking. In order to be successful one needs to be able to challenge the norm, be creative and find your point of difference, ...
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Does Your Frontline Staff Know How to Make a Decision?

By Cameron Ungar posted 09-24-2018
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Guest services is simple. Like everything important in life… we learned it in kindergarten… Treat others the way you wish to be treated. The Golden Rule is in full effect. Human interaction is dynamic though and service experiences are subjective. We all may wish to be treated a little differently which influences our service expectations. Therefore, the trick to creating an effective guest services program for sport event venue operators is to make sure everybody representing the event venue is calibrated to the same level. This requires deliberate and explicit communication between management and front- of- house staff. In the first discussion ...
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How To Get The Best From Your Services Team

By Cameron Ungar posted 08-24-2018
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Creating a robust guest services program for your sport event venue requires buy in and support from the very top levels of the organization and is executed by the front- of- house staff on the ground. Creating an effective guest services program for a sports complex or event venue is done by clearly defining the service promise and then specifying the individual contributions each team member is responsible for to deliver on that promise. As discussed in the previous post, the Statement of Common Purposes is a powerful tool for defining expectations across the organization and to the clients. The next step to developing an exceptional guest services program ...
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Is Your Events Venue Providing World Class Guest Services? The 1st Step To Exceptional Service.

By Cameron Ungar posted 08-08-2018
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In my sport event venues career, I have had the opportunity to create three different guest services programs for three different event venues. Each venue was unique in terms of venue operations, guest expectations and staff culture. Despite their differences, I used a similar approach to create best- in- class guest services programs in each venue. The aim of a guest services program is to deliver service in the most effective and efficient manner possible while also accepting the responsibility to ensure the safety and security of each guest . The first step in creating an amazing guest services program is to establish a clear vision and specify the service ...
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6 Dimensions of an Ideal Sports Event Venue

By Cameron Ungar posted 06-16-2018
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Selecting the ideal venue for your athletic event is not an easy task. It is impossible not to visualize the event space when initially conceptualizing the event. Though easy to imagine, finding the events venue that actually exists in your mind’s eye is more difficult. The challenge is breaking down the components and amenities of your ideal venue and then prioritizing them. Ideal is “subjective” and will vary from event to event. With that, your program will have absolute needs required of the events venue. Elements that fall under the “needs” column are binary. The venue either works or it doesn’t. Once you identify needs, you can start considering ...
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90% of Your Event Audience Won’t Know What To Do in an Emergency. Are You Prepared to Keep Them Safe?

By Cameron Ungar posted 05-30-2018
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Event managers and event venue operators have an explicit responsibility to create safe environments for guests in their buildings and at their programs. In the years since 9/11, Americans have grown used to elevated security protocol. These steps have become a way of life. It is expected and routine. Still, when terror attacks or mass shootings are in the news, people get scared. It is a reminder that security protocol exists for a reason and we find comfort in these rituals. Event attendees now think about their safety at events when they are in public assembly facilities. This is a scary but necessary reality- people need to be situationally ...
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2 Concepts from The 4- Hour Workweek that Event Managers Can Apply to Their Trade

By Cameron Ungar posted 05-15-2018
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I read… err listen to a lot of books. For the last few years, my Southern California lifestyle has blessed me with three hours of “silent, sustained reading time” while I sludge through the Interstate 5/ 805 merge on my daily commute. That routine drudgery turned my car into a classroom, an incubator and a therapist office. I’ve gone from Zero to One and from Good to Great . I have learned How to Win Friends and Influence People while mastering The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck . But perhaps the most impactful lessons learned from my driver’s seat education came from Tim Ferriss in The 4- Hour Workweek . The teachings here ...
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Boom Boom Boomlets

By Guy Hedderwick posted 01-04-2018
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“The night is dark and full of terrors”, or so I learned watching Game of Thrones. It is true, venues are overwhelmed with new security issues, patron safety is a topic at every conference and ‘security’ is the first word on everyone’s lips. We underwent a huge transformation with the Millennial (Gen-Y) and their need for an experience over and above ‘just’ an event, by providing a variety of catering choices and creating different gathering areas to suit diverse patrons in our venues and at our events. This disruption took venues from places where events took place to an experience-based business where our focus was on meeting the needs of the fan or customer ...
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Retired But Not tired! Congratulations Frank Ingoglia!

By Mark Herrera posted 11-15-2017
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The International Association of Venue Managers is proud to announce the retirement of one of our most valued employees and strong contributor to the entire industry-Frank Ingoglia. Frank is a skilled survey researcher with extensive experience conducting research projects such as; cost estimation and proposal preparation, methodological and survey design, analysis and reporting/presentation. Thank you for taking Venue Data to another level! "VenueDataSource is the industry standard for comprehensive research, informative reports and growth-inspiring data for venue professionals" Frank will be missed but never forgotten. Thank you for your leadership, ...
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Praying for Las Vegas & Raising Levels of Awareness for All Venues

By Mark Herrera posted 10-02-2017
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On behalf of The International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) our thoughts and prayers go out to the Victims, Families, Emergency Responders and all those affected by this senseless act of violence in Las Vegas. IAVM and all associated members are completely aware of the risks and will continue to enhance emergency procedures and protocols to assure that those attending events have a sense of comfort in their safety and well-being. Although we, including the Department of Homeland Security have no information to indicate a specific credible threat involving any other public venues or events in the country, Increased security in and around public ...
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Code Red: What You Don't Learn in a Textbook

By Sam Dores posted 12-04-2016
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Code Red: What You Don’t Learn in a Text Book October 20, 2016 by Tamlyn Horne Earlier this year, I was given the opportunity to transition from sales into an operational role, as the newest event coordinator at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA. My first task was to inform all of my inherited clients of our new security policy. I understood why we were tightening our security policies, but I didn’t fully understand why we would enforce such strict polices on all events happening in the facility. At the time, my events varied in size and type, but typically stayed in the sub 20,000 attendees- all day band or high school football type event. This ...
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Journey Into Sports

By Sam Dores posted 12-04-2016
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Journey into Sports September 20, 2016 by Nathaniel Stahlecker 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 ...
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Your No. 1 Assets

By Sam Dores posted 12-04-2016
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YOUR NO. 1 ASSETS SAM DORES, CVP / SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 It’s a simple concept, really—the happier your employees are, the more productive they tend to be. According to a 2015 study by economists at the University of Warwick, “happy” people tended to be 12 percent more productive (and unhappy workers were 10 percent less productive)! Increased productivity can lead to greater efficiency, higher profits, cleaner and safer venues and help provide a better overall guest experience. However, 26 percent of employees are indifferent to their jobs, somewhat unhappy or extremely unhappy according to the 2016 Industry & Productivity Report ...
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Life Lessons on Leadership

By Sam Dores posted 12-04-2016
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LIFE LESSONS ON LEADERSHIP GUY HEDDERWICK / AUGUST 22, 2016 I don’t think many of us start out by saying, “I am going to be a leader of people.” We just end up there through circumstance. I would love to believe that we are born to be leaders but in reality, I think sometimes life just molds us until we are. If you asked my mom what she thought I would grow up to be, she would likely have answered, “He won’t get to adulthood if he keeps behaving the way he does.” If pushed, she probably would have said a clown. I think my nature was to amuse and overcome my inadequacies through humor. Nothing has changed, except I have learned a bit ...
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Managing Up

By Sam Dores posted 12-04-2016
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MANAGING UP EMILY HERR / MAY 19, 2016 Almost everyone who works in the entertainment industry can be considered a middle-level manager. We all have a boss that we report to on a regular basis, and most of us have a team that reports directly to us. Even those that hold entry-level positions probably have interns or event staff that report to them. As a result, middle-level managers have spent countless hours and a great deal of focus on ways to better manage our event staff while attempting to create the best ways to motivate, encourage, and empower our staff to help our buildings run smoothly and ultimately create a fan experience ...
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VenueDataSource Aids the Department of Homeland Security

By Frank Ingoglia posted 10-21-2016
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The following question from a member of the Department of Homeland Security was directed to the attention of Steve Schwartz, a prior chairman of the IAVM Research Committee, who asked if the data collected from VenueDataSource could provide some insight. The Question: A co-worker in my division asked me a question regarding the ownership of public assembly facilities at large. I don’t have a good metric that I can reference and was wondering if any of you could point me to where I might find this type of data. As you can see from the response given below, data collected from VenueDataSource surveys enabled us to provide DHS would usable information that ...
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