New Venue Forum to Launch in December

The inaugural Sports Venue Forum is slated to take place December 8–10 in Charlotte Harbor, Florida. Billed as a collaborative conference for individuals within sports tourism venue development and operations, Sports Planning Guide (SPG) spoke with William Knox, founder of the new event and former director of Grand Park Sports Campus.

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SPG: What was your inspiration for creating the facilities summit?

William Knox: I had an amazing experience working with Sports ETA, and they still are producing a phenomenal show. There was a moment in time where I was not exactly sure where things were going with ETA and what they were looking to produce from a venue side of things. I have a lot of passion around this space, and I wanted to continue the work that was being done.

I had a conversation with Lou Mengsol about what he was doing with his U.S. Sports Congress and he said, “William, I’m looking to expand some of the things that we’re doing, why don’t you work with me to produce your show.” After some consideration, I said, “Absolutely, 100 percent—let’s figure out how to make that work.”

After a few more conversations, we put a framework together where the Venue Forum and U.S. Sports Congress will be held in conjunction moving forward.

What we are looking to do marries up well. I can focus on the venue side and Lou focuses on the destination side.

SPG: Who is your primary audience for this event?

WK: We have two separate tracks. We have an operator track which is designed for individuals who are currently operating facilities or who soon will be what I call the “boots on the ground staff.” That includes facility operators, marketing teams and business development teams.

Then we also have what we call our development track where we are focusing on communities looking to design a sports tourism facility. Whether it’s the mayor’s office, economic development departments, a private developer or a group of individuals who are looking to develop a facility, we are bringing them to the table.

Along with those communities, we are bringing along support systems that are needed, like the architectural and engineering firms, as well as some of the housing companies, which have become a big piece of this. We are inviting those individuals to attend so that we can build the entire ecosystem of individuals who are looking to develop a sports campus.

Those two tracks will have different educational components. We will visit facilities, bring in presenters, host workshops and panel discussions.

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SPG: Will you have a trade show element of this show?

WK: We are doing what we call a vendor reception, not a full-on trade show. We wanted to get our framework in place first. Moving forward, since the U.S. Sports Congress has a trade show, we are likely to combine that in the future.

SPG: Are there any trends or innovations you are seeing with sports facility development that may be highlighted at this event?

WK: I think the procurement process and how these buildings are now being delivered is key. Back in the day, it was a municipality deciding that they wanted to build something, or a private developer that was doing their own thing. Now those two groups have come together to figure out how to make this work. It makes sense because, most of the time, it takes both sides of the coin to make it work.

Another trend we are starting to see is playing surfaces and how technology goes into these facilities to make them not only user-friendly but efficient as well. There are challenges to find large parcels of land to build a 400-acre sports campus. Technology and playing surfaces are more critical than ever, where if you can’t build 80 fields then how can you build 40 that are optimized?

SPG: What benefits should a facility operator derive if they send a team to this event?

WK: On the operational side, we are looking at best practices and networking with individuals who are doing it at a high level—talking through some of those nuances and meeting with vendors about new products and services that they could implement within their facility.

On the development side, it’s more around getting those individuals to understand what steps need to be taken to develop a facility. Then, once it’s built, how to operate it, manage it and understand what the best practices are in the industry.

The Sports Venue Forum takes place December 8–10 in Charlotte Harbor, Florida. For more information or to register, visit www.sportsvenueforum.com