Hot Off he Presses
Great Performances, New York City’s esteemed catering and events company, took up residence in its new 51,000 sq. ft. headquarters in the South Bronx’s Bruckner Building at 2417 Third Avenue yesterday. The company’s move into the space occupying two-and-a-half full floors of the former factory building, which was built out at a cost of $7.7 million, comes more than a year after Great Performances (GP) vacated its much smaller Hudson Square campus in July 2019. Since then, GP has been operating out of alternate office space in the Bruckner Building and a temporary kitchen the company built in a warehouse nearby on Park Ave.
Ticketsauce, a robust and private label event management software company, announced a merger with NIGHTOUT, a premier booking platform for live entertainment. The combined organization marries Ticketsauce’s extensive product features, robust platform and private label capabilities with NIGHTOUT’s vast consumer marketplace and powerful marketing tools. The combined company will double its customer base to more than 700 businesses worldwide and continue to operate as Ticketsauce for event producers and NIGHTOUT, powered by Ticketsauce, for event discovery. Travis Fisher will serve as CEO and Dusty Stutsman as President of the combined entity.
PRA, a leader in the Business Events industry, is proud to announce its partnership with SafeAccess, a secure, cloud-based health and safety screening platform designed to help event organizers easily create, maintain, and communicate health and safety policies and procedures. The partnership enables PRA to provide best-in-class solutions to its clients for approaching events of today and in the future.
Coupled with a comprehensive risk-mitigation solution suite, the SafeAccess health and safety platform helps provide safe in-person experiences while effectively addressing risk, liabilities, and compliance needs. Event attendees, staff and vendors can quickly review event policies with the ability to leverage a digital health passport option when requested. It also allows event managers to download secure data reports to aid with compliance across internal and federal/state/local requirements, while ensuring all HIPAA privacy laws are deployed. In addition, SafeAccess provides risk management experts to augment planning and onsite execution needs, as well as a wide range of health and safety services including, PCR and Antigen test kids, contact tracing solutions, digital AI testing through a non-medical cough signature analysis, disinfecting solutions, as well as walk-in bio-scanners to detect temperature and other health measures for a more complete analysis.
Arena Events Group plc (AIM: ARE) is pleased to announce, that together with its Bidding Partners, has completed the acquisition of event industry icon Aztec Shaffer Sports based in Houston, TX.
Aztec Shaffer comprises two businesses, Aztec Events & Tents and Shaffer Sports & Events. Aztec Events is a full-service party rental business that supplies its diversified customer base a full array of linens, table top items, lounge furniture, dance floors, décor and tenting solutions. Aztec is a very similar business to Arena Stuart Rental Company, Arena’s California-based operation.
People on the Move
Award-winning UK events software provider, VenuIQ, has expanded into the United States following an increase in demand for its virtual and hybrid event platform. As part of its expansion, the business has appointed a new head of US sales, John D’Adamo, who will be responsible for establishing VenuIQ’s American entity. Based in Florida, John boasts more than 10 years of experience within the events industry and has built long standing relationships with some of the world’s most respected brands. His appointment marks a pivotal moment in VenuIQ’s growth, with plans to hire further representatives across the USA in the next 12 months.
Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort & Golf Club has hired a new sales and marketing team led by Jennifer Sack, director of sales and marketing, along with Brooke Kull, marketing manager, and Noelle Perra, senior sales executive (leisure travel). Together, the refreshed team is responsible for the luxury resort’s public-facing brand and image, while driving sales and executing a skillful communications strategy and robust marketing initiatives.
Association Updates
The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and Event Safety Alliance (ESA), in partnership with Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), Coalition of Performing Arts Centers, and National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) have joined together to research, create and present “Safe In Sound,” a free reopening checklist for the live entertainment industry. This toolkit was developed after consultation with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and based on the most up-to-date guidance and resources available at Guidance for COVID-19 | CDC. It serves as the framework for venues and promoters to reopen fully as safely as possible.
