Team Henderson’s venue sector hit the conference trail this summer to connect with industry leaders, share best practices, and discuss what’s next in venue design. Brian Alessi, sustainability director, Russ Murdock, venue sector technical director and convention center practice director, and Megan Oberg, venue sector marketing manager, represented Henderson Engineers at the International Association of Venue Managers’ (IAVM) VenueConnect 2023 conference in Pittsburgh, PA. The annual event hosted professionals from a variety of venue types including arenas, convention centers, amphitheaters, fairgrounds, performing arts centers, stadiums, universities, and more.

Murdock also attended the Convention, Sports, and Entertainment Facilities Conference (CSEF) in San Diego, CA. CSEF’s 2023 event explored innovative approaches to expansions, renovations, and new developments with a specific emphasis on procurement, financing, planning, design, construction, and operations. The trio gathered several key takeaways and insights from these events:

The Rise of Sports Tourism

Sports tourism is a rapidly growing sector of the global tourism industry due in large part to the increasing popularity of sporting events, as well as the desire of fans to travel to experience these events in-person. Large sports and entertainment venues are increasingly becoming anchors in larger mixed-use and entertainment districts. Event attendees are now looking for more than just a place to watch a game or event. They want to have an experience that is memorable and unique. This raises the question of how a building or complex’s design and layout can enhance those experiences.

Historically, standalone convention centers have filled a gap in the venue industry and have been quite successful in booking, planning for, and executing large-scale indoor sporting events and tournaments, predominantly focused on volleyball and basketball. While the need was met, the actual connection that could be created between meetings, events, and both indoor and outdoor sports was inherently limited by the typical constraints that exist at a legacy convention center. What if a hybrid facility could be developed that spilled from outdoors in, or vice versa?

Cary, NC, is capitalizing on this growing industry by creating a sports tourism destination. The city is currently developing a multi-million-dollar complex with the ability to host a variety of youth, collegiate, and amateur athletic events including basketball, volleyball, and e-sports tournaments. The facility will also include spaces for restaurants, training, fitness, and exhibits. Moving forward, expect to see more of these destinations being developed across the country.

Impact of Operational Carbon Commitments

While sustainable and regenerative design practices are becoming the norm in all building types, many venues are now making commitments to reduce their operational carbon emissions. Operational carbon is the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the operation of a building. This includes emissions from energy use, transportation, and waste.

A question has been raised as to whether operational carbon commitments from some organizations are holding back a certain contingent of patrons from attending events. The answer depends on their execution. If operational carbon commitments align with ongoing capital expenditure plans and operations and maintenance cycles, reducing operational carbon can yield significant operational cost savings. If treated as a separate effort, operational carbon commitments can lead to higher prices for tickets and other expenses. Embodied carbon commitments can be difficult to both monitor and measure, but the task of quantifying embodied carbon is getting easier as more and more information emerges from manufacturers and material producers. It is important and necessary to include impacts of these commitments on the prioritization and sequencing of a desired capital expenditure execution plan.

Convention Center Insights

IAVM’s convention center keynote address made a point to walk through economic indicators that would seem to suggest some amount of post-pandemic stability for the industry looking forward. Those indicators showed strong booking and occupancy rates for centers and event spaces across most segments of the market and highlighted continued strength in regionalized meetings and local bookings. The takeaway, for the design community at least, is that the building must be able to seamlessly host multiple events concurrently. Gone are the days of a single event booking all exhibit and meeting space. Here to stay are nimble configurations that can link together for larger events, but can also stand alone and create a sense of intimacy and belonging for several disparate events that are occupying different areas of the broader building.

As part of VenueConnect, attendees were given the opportunity to tour Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center (DLCC), where the conference was hosted. Opened 20 years ago, the DLCC facility is a shining example of the successful implementation of holistic sustainability strategies that positively impact environmental, visitor, and employee health while meeting the bottom line. The DLCC is one of several convention centers that has made a commitment to reduce its operational carbon emissions with a goal of achieving net zero operational carbon emissions by 2030. Highlights of the tour included:

• A building automation system that makes real-time adjustments to maintain temperature set points and optimizes the natural ventilation system in the exhibit halls.
• A lighting design that optimizes daylighting by providing natural daylighting for 85% of the regularly occupied spaces.
• Multiple outdoor spaces and rooftop terraces that combine usable space, landscaping, a rooftop hops garden that gets turned into a local IPA – Rooftop Hops – American Style IPA.
• The 50,000-gallon on-site wastewater treatment plant that treats wastewater for use in toilet flushing.
• A look into the DLCC sustainable purchasing policy that is a model for how to proactively avoid waste and resources that go to the landfill.

These are just a few of the sustainable and regenerative practices the DLCC has implemented to reduce their carbon emissions. The facility has published a sustainability report further detailing their efforts to fight the climate crisis.

To wrap the conference and to build upon the excitement generated during the facility tour, Murdock helped to facilitate a design charette (attended by designers/operators/managers of convention centers across the country) that explored using the iconic sail structure roof of the DLCC to capture rainfall and re-purpose through the facility. The brainstorming and possible use cases were exciting, unexpected, and certain to trickle into innovative ideas and initiatives for attendees to implement at their home venues.

Henderson Knows Venues

When it comes to arenas, convention centers, stadia, airports, and multi-purpose venues, we know what it takes to design a space that’s performance and experience ready for every athlete, entertainer, fan, attendee, or facility operator. Our Venue Sector experts are always focused on the end-user, blending functionality with technical expertise, and exploring innovative solutions to highlight the competition, enhance the aesthetic and amenities, and ensure patron and fan comfort.