Notes From VenueConnect

That may sound like the first sentences to a high school paper, but it’s unusual to be near such a focused event.  Pollstar Live! is a unique experience, having the daunting task of gathering together diverse and sometimes warring factions.  There, not all panels apply to all delegates – casinos, promoters, production staff, club buyers, agents, venue managers, marketing managers all want and get their own experiences. There, main sessions look for commonality among diversity.  Here, with the singularity of IAVM, the panels have one purpose – to educate arena managers – and the panels can be hard to choose from. 

For instance, yesterday’s conference forced the choice of “The Impact of New Gun Laws on Public Venues” versus a presentation on customer service from Jennifer Blackmon, corporate director, culture transformation, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.  Even without the political firestorm of gun control, venue managers need to address the concerns of open carry, and to at least understand the difference between open carry and concealed carry. Meanwhile, with customer service, arena managers also need to know how to train staff so that patrons have an experience superior to their daily lives.  Some advice: have your employees talk professionally to each other even in a relaxed setting and to look each other in the eyes when talking because it’s just good practice

Powerpoint wins the day here, and panels tend to be organized into presentations, followed by group discussions, followed by audience presentations of those discussions. There is definitely a workshop vibe here. The massive trade show includes smaller discussions in the back including the awkward dialog about unisex bathrooms and sharing advice on how to handle them. (One takeaway: many venues have been handling this for years, from EDM events to the “Bronie Festival,” and have “created” unisex bathrooms when necessary.)

The keynote by Daymond John, founder of Fubu, was so inspiring it makes one want to actually check out that cheeseball show “Shark Tank.” His presentation is just good practice: make yourself the product and be forward thinking.

Meanwhile, the IAVM is proud of its new logo and showed it with a T-shirt gun.

Yesterday was also the first day of open house for U.S. Bank Stadium, which was packed with visitors despite a sudden and dangerous thunderstorm.  Even on one of its first days, the staff of the $1.1 billion facility was well-prepared for the dangerous situation, ushering people inside as lightning came near, and keeping them safe until the storm passed.  Meanwhile, the front office of the SMG-managed building was not only excited about the facility (even the Vikings mascot has his own dressing room) but is really looking forward to the Luke Bryan concert, along with the Super Bowl and the Final Four. It does not, by the way, have a retractible roof, which is something they’re proud of.  That’s because it still provides an outdoor feel because it has the only ETFE roof in the U.S.  Nobody wants to actually spell it out (polyethene-co-tetrafluoroethene) but NFL cameramen have praised the building because they’re not necessarily fans of weather.