Two of our 2017 Generation Next winners are also second-generation venue management pros. In 2002, Venues Today published an article titled Boomerang Babies, featuring sons and daughters of fathers and mothers who decided to follow in their parent’s footsteps and enter the venue industry.
But that was a different day. There were a lot fewer of us and venue managers tended to look at the big picture. Venue management was entrepreneurial and individual in spirit and practice.
To Jordan Silberman, Verizon Center, Washington, D.C., who is the son of Barry Silberman, who used to run the Cap Centre, Landover, Md., predecessor to Verizon Center, it’s not the same as in his dad’s day.
“It’s a lot more corporate now, it’s big business. My dad was on the frontier of this world. There are a lot more opportunities for me than there were for him when he was starting. I don’t take that lightly. But definitely, it’s more corporate, there’s more at play, there’s a job for everything,” Silberman said.
But in some ways it’s the same. If you’re in this business for the long term, you love it. Every venue professional ever interviewed (or so it seems) loves this job because of the diversity, that every day is different. And that the job is about making memories, hosting people at a special time in their lives.
As GenNexter Lucy Albers, Denny Sanford Premier Center, Sioux Falls, S.D., put it: “I love what I do, and I love being here. Everyday I get to come here and work on something different and something new.”
Congratulations to all five of our 2017 Generation Next winners. Here are their stories.
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GENERATION NEXT 2017 AWARDS
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