Happy Friday Event and Venue Professionals!
I hope y’all had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday and got a little time away from work to enjoy friends and family.
Our week has been very busy as we put 9 event venues under contract for events in 2019 in the days before and after Thanksgiving. Despite my remote location, we are still doing a lot of work in San Diego and Southern California. More and more though, we are working with sport event venues and event promoters around the country.
Stylehawk was built to be a virtual venue management company and that vision is realized. Our client base is rapidly expanding, our services and being referred and most importantly… of our event clients who produce multiple events, we have a 100% repeat rate!
As a new business with a somewhat unknown model, it is great to see that our “early adopter” clients are finding real value in working with us. We will continue to tinker with the model to further streamline the venue booking process for event promoters and to drive more new revenues to our venue partners. I understood this to be true when I started my entrepreneurial path, but now I know that successful entrepreneurism is about embracing the journey, being curious and remaining open to change.
And now… for the suggested reading.
Shameless Self Promotion:
New E-Book by Stylehawk Founder Highlights What Makes Our San Diego Event Services Company Different
First… rather than shoehorn this into one of our regular topic headings, I would like to take the opportunity to shamelessly self- promote (it’s my blog dangit!). Last month, I released my first e-book, Borrowed Experience: How Working as a Loan Officer Made Me a Better Event Services Professional. I initially created this content to be a blog post, but when I reviewed it with my publisher, we both agreed that it could be expanded into a more significant piece. It is autobiographical and talks about my experience getting into sports and event management, but it is more than just my story. I think it would be interesting for people wanting to learn more about:
- Service sales and relationship- based businesses
- How to get started in the sports and event industries
- Building a startup business and entrepreneurial life
- Concepts in business ethics
- What Stylehawk Event Services does, how we work and how we bring value to our clients
It’s a little longer that the other readings here, but check it out. I’m sure you will find it interesting!
Safety:
Counterfeiting Leads Ohio State to Nix Printable Tickets
Whether in the sports event industry or not, we’ve probably all thought about the legitimacy of print- at- home (pdf) tickets when purchased on the secondary market. They are inherently susceptible to fraud and manipulation. This came to light at last week’s Ohio State vs Michigan football game when 300 guests arrived at the turnstiles with illegitimate tickets.
In some ways, the print- at- home pdf ticket reminds me of a laser disk. Good idea and represents a technological upgrade from the old way of doing things, but its usefulness is constrained to that specific period of time. As a sign of the times, Ohio State will no longer use print- at- home tickets as a form of admittance. Rather, attendees will be required to bring a traditional ticket printed on ticket stock from the Ohio State Box Office or from Ticketmaster or they will accept digital tickets presented on a mobile phone.
Hard tickets are tried and true, and work very well for most events. Digital ticketing solutions are now commonplace though and have been widely accepted by consumers. This is great for small and mid- sized events. Independent solutions like SaffireTix exist to give event promoters a powerful ticket selling platform to increase ticket sales revenues and the guest experience.
Courtesy:
Business Etiquette: 5 Rules That Matter Now
This blog post is so old, it still contains a BlackBerry reference (published waaayyy back in 2012). Despite its age, the basic premise is as relevant as ever. Largely… because the message is simple. “Etiquette is really about making people feel good. It’s not about rules or telling people what to do, or not to do, it’s about ensuring some basic social comforts.” This concept rings true for everybody. Sports event venues create super complicated guest services programs with reward and discipline systems, decision making matrices and developed hierarchical management systems, all built with the intention of training our staff to do what they learned in kindergarten… follow the golden rule. Treat others the way you wish to be treated.
Efficiency:
Event Venue Managers are Generally Good at Everything
Venue management is a collection of skills and trades that require event professionals to have a wide diversity of interests. This means that every day is different and that venue operators manage a frequently changing list of priorities. Event and venue professionals are “generalists” who know a lot about a lot. More importantly though, they operate as project managers who understand how to delegate and know who to enlist for specific expertise. Event professionals are comfortable managing “people, services, venues and equipment in order to accomplish a specific task on a hard timeline.”
Venue management jobs are highly desirable and require candidates to come in with real experience. During my time on a college campus, I had the opportunity to provide hundreds of students with tangible work experience through part- time employment and highly structured internship programs. Beyond training for the events industry, event venues are incredible classrooms for young professionals to learn valuable life skills as well as gain exposure to a broad range job skills and career interests. This means, people who gain experience in the events industry will be well- positioned for many different kinds of jobs in different industries.
Entrepreneurship:
I Did Something Totally Irresponsible… Almost Reckless!
I write a lot. I enjoy it and appreciate that content marketing provides some real value to my readers and clients while also benefiting my business. One of my writing outlets is a personal blog. I write here every few weeks to document my journey as a small business owner. It is a useful tool for me to hold myself accountable and to keep my personal and professional goals in order.
Recently, I made a seemingly irresponsible decision. I purchased a 1996 “OJ Style” Ford Bronco. It is a 22 year old truck that I paid too much for and bought sight- unseen from an out- of- state dealer. This is something I wanted. I rarely pursue material wants, but I thought it was time to take a risk! I am getting more comfortable with decisions like this. This purchase was symbolic in many ways and represents a greater commitment to my business.
Featured Venue:
Town & Country Conference Center
This weekend, our friends at Fight 2 Win Promotions will be holding F2W Pro 95 (aka “The Biggest party in Grappling”) in the Grand Hall at the Town & Country Conference Center. This is a great room located in the heart of San Diego. There is over 200,000 square feet of flexible space surrounded by tropical gardens. The Town & Country is uniquely San Diego and reminds guests of the vacation paradise that makes San Diego, “America’s Finest City.”
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