FROM THE EDITOR

Certain personalities rise to the top as I review 15 years of publishing Venues Today. Covering live sports and entertainment is a people business.
Paciolan’s Jane Kleinberger is one of those personalities. What’s lovely about Jane is she is almost always promoting others, which is an admirable use of the limelight. As we talked about all the changes in her life because she is the recipient of IAVM’s Joe J. Anzivino Distinguished Allied Member Award (and Joe was certainly of the same ilk as Jane), she homed in on promoting Patty Philips, executive director of Women Leaders in College Sports.
Patty totally rebranded and refocused the organization, formerly known as the National Association of Collegiate Women in Athletics Administration. Jane and a lot of Paciolan staff (men included) will attend the high-energy rally that is WLCS in Dallas Oct. 8-10. It’s a wonderful opportunity to network and grow.
Change came to that association when Patty began focusing on the business of sports rather than mainly the athleticism and administration. Jane’s mantra to women in the sports and entertainment business is the same as it would be for men — employers want revenue generators. If you can grow business, you can grow in business. The secret sauce is in not disenfranchising the past while looking to the future.
We just concluded VenuesNow in Beverly Hills, Calif., what will be an annual event produced by Oak View Group and looking to the future of the venue industry. This year was invitation only, but going forward you can register to come. I highly recommend it.
The quality of speakers and level of discussion was top line. The reality of what is and the vision of what will be were both embraced for the betterment of all. We were highly entertained by Shelli Azoff, co-owner of the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and husband to super-entrepreneur Irving Azoff, and Jeanie Buss of the Los Angeles Lakers. Jeanie will be at IAVM in Nashville for Women in Leadership and I suggest you make it a point to be there, because I can’t report on what they said at VenuesNow, other than to say it was riveting.
Both women are about the fan experience and improving it despite what can often be resistance to change among fanatics. For example, when they moved to Staples Center, Los Angeles, the Lakers instituted a dramatic flair to player introductions, darkening the house and bringing them out to the spotlight. Some fans were offended, saying you never did that at the Forum. “We couldn’t. It would take 20 minutes to get the lights back on,” Jeanie said.
Sometimes you have to make decisions to change and roll with the punches when traditionalists balk. Both women have done plenty of that, as does everyone in this industry.
God grant you many years to embrace change and grow the business.