Lynn Carlotto welcomes President Barack Obama.
Lynn Carlotto believes in the importance of leading by example. The general manager of the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario does her best to set the tone for her staff members, even if that means overcoming some of her biggest fears.
During an event called the Science Rendezvous, put on by Queens University at K-Rock, Carlotto joined the local tactical squad of the Kingston Police as they rappelled down a 54-foot ledge to open the event.
“That was partially to prove to myself that I could do it because I grew up being terribly afraid of heights,” she said. “But, also I think it’s kind of cool for your staff to see you doing it.”
Thankfully she hit her mark with a tactical landing — her staff certainly was impressed.
“The feeling was awesome,” she said, adding that she’s now seeking out more thrills. It’s because of her fearless nature and kind-hearted tenacity that Carlotto was named one of five Venues Today Women of Influence for 2014.
“I think it’s really important to be able to have an eye-to-eye relationship with the people you work with,” she said. “I’m not a guy but I work with a lot of guys and we all are on the same team.”
She said she goes a bit out of her way to demonstrate that she can hang with the guys, whether that means climbing the ladder to the top of the roof to manually turn off the air handler or go on the catwalk to troubleshoot an issue. It’s part confidence-builder and part self-reliance.
A native of New Haven, Conn., Carlotto said her first concert was Bruce Springsteen at the Waterbury (Conn.) Palace Theatre. Besides her time at Boston College and her current job in Kingston (which started in early 2013), Carlotto spent her entire life in Connecticut.
Her passion for sports developed early and she played softball and did cheerleading in high school. She was a tennis player until her 30s when an injury sidelined her career. Being an arena person, it seemed obvious that an ice sport might become her next obsession and she now practices figure skating.
“I’ve always been a great believer in having a sport to practice,” she said. “When everything else in your life is upside down, you knew that you could go do that thing and be in your Zen place.”
After high school Carlotto attended Boston College. She dabbled in advertising and was eventually recruited to manage the eight-day Molson Summertime Street Festival in New Haven.
“The police estimated we had 300,000 people down there,” Carlotto recalled. “I looked at it from a high vantage point and it was a river of people, moving shoulder to shoulder. It was awesome.”
It was at the event that she ran into her old high school guidance counselor — he had moved to eventually manage the New Haven Coliseum and needed a new marketing director.
“When I was the cheerleading captain, he was not only a guidance counselor but also the boy’s basketball coach,” she said. “He was always giving me the stink eye to get the cheerleaders off the court during the timeouts and now here I am working for the guy.”
Bill and Lynn Carlotto.
Eventually she went over to the Hartford Civic Center, managed by Ogden Entertainment. It was one of the biggest buildings in Connecticut at 16,500 capacity and played host to Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Men’s and Women’s UConn Basketball. From there, she wrote up a business plan for a marketing department within Ogden Entertainment and essentially created a new job for herself as the Events and Marketing director.
At the time, Ogden had 62 facilities under management and Carlotto helped with naming rights deals, including the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, R.I. She created new marketing departments for clients, as well as developing the new Ogden Entertainment logo. When Aramark eventually bought the company, she knew there probably wasn’t going to be a job left behind for her and began to look for a new career.
She would land again in Connecticut, this time in Bridgeport, and a new arena. She said transitioning from the corporate world back into arenas looked like a step backward, but as the third person hired to open Bridgeport Arena, she would have a chance to leave her mark. Eventually she would be offered the GM position and, reluctantly, she accepted.
“I thought if I didn’t take the job, they were going to hire somebody who knew nothing about the building. And I was going to have to report to them,” she said. “And the thought of that was so incredibly distasteful to me, that I thought, ‘Oh I’m going to do this.’”
It would prove to be a challenging gig. Unlike the Hartford Arena, the renamed Arena at Harbor Yard was not the must-play in the market. The Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., had opened a few years earlier and had big casino money to throw at every show that came to the market. Carlotto started losing shows to them — first a few, and then more and more. When Bruce Springsteen starting looking for dates, she became obsessed with landing the gig.
“We weren’t on his radar screen at all,” she said. To get his attention, she went on the Apple website, ordered an iPod and had it engraved “Arena Harbor Yard, Connecticut stage for Springsteen.”
“I think the thing cost me like $500,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘They’ll reimburse me, right? I packaged it with an offer, sent it to the booking agent and within a day, I got a response reading ‘Neat toy. I’ll need to figure out how to use it. By the way, our deals are 95/5.”
She had finally cracked the door and continued to work her angle.
“I finally got the call from Jimmy Koplik who was trying to get the show, too. He said to me, ‘You won. You got Springsteen.’ And I remember saying to him ‘Say it again! I want to hear you say it again!’”
Brad Mayne with MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. first met Carlotto at Ogden Entertainment, and years later worked with her to set up ArenaNetwork.
“She was always capable and reliable,” he said. “The work she was doing on the executive committee to put the original 17 buildings together was critical to ArenaNetwork’s founding.”
Carlotto now manages the K-Rock Centre, an SMG-managed facility in Kingston, Ontario. She helped install an outdoor video display, transitioned ticketing to Ticketmaster and built out a new lounge.
“Kingston is a beautiful historic city on the lake,” she said. “As soon as I interviewed and met the staff, I knew it was time to move to Canada.”
Her husband of 18 years, Bill Block, stayed behind in Connecticut and the two have a commuter relationship. According to Carlotto, her schoolteacher husband is “undeniably supportive” and allows “me to chase my dream.”
It’s a chance for each person to pursue his or her passions and Carlotto said she’s continuing to pursue her passion for leadership.
“Leadership is not management,” Carlotto explained and “once you get your head into the mind space of leadership, it’s important to identify the type of leader you are.”
While she had an independent streak in the past, experience has made her more willing to help others, especially those looking to get their starts in the business.
“I was looking for someone to give me a break so that I could prove myself. I never had that break — I slogged myself there, step by step.”