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THE ROAD TOV Stoies fo


John Platillero, founder & CEO of EventBooking, tells the story of the “Road


to VenueConnect,” a series of round-table discussions he and two other Event-   IAVM VenueConnect conference in Nashville.


Were you in Nashville at the annual IAVM VenueConnect? This


year’s conference, held in the legendary Music City, was one for the books. EventBooking is based in Knoxville, which is only 172 miles away from Nashville—or about a three hour drive. But you could say our team took “the long way” to get there. In the three weeks lead- ing up to the VenueConnect conference, I jumped into an RV with two  trip. Logging 6,578 miles across the nation, we had one goal in mind: to visit nearly 20 cities to listen to as many venue professionals as pos- sible.


As a venue software company, we were curious: What issues do peo-


ple have day-to-day as they run their venue? What is working well, and what isn’t? How does technology currently help them in their job? How could technology make their job easier? Eighteen “host venues” served as a meeting place for venue professionals in each respective city we stopped in, so we could facilitate a round-table discussion about all of the above. The idea for this trip—a sort of “listening tour”—rolled around in


my head for years, but two factors kicked it into motion. First of all, at 55 years old, I knew I wasn’t getting any younger. Secondly, a friend of mine opportunely happened to have an RV he was willing to let me use. As fellow IAVM allied-member company, Ticketmaster, caught wind of the journey, they too were in support. With their backing and a blessing from IAVM, we put a cool decal on the RV and hit the  - versation at several of our round-table discussions, and IAVM made arrangements for us to participate in a podcast and Venue Chat about the journey in Nashville (after all, the trip was dubbed The Road to VenueConnect!). Kalyn Sisco and Charlie Lewis were my co-pilots and fellow travel-


20 Facility Manager Magazine


ers on this adventure, who might not have understood what they were getting themselves into, but did it anyway! Kalyn, armed with Word- press and a camera, documented the journey while Charlie served as the go-to person for travel logistics and planning. One of the interesting unknowns in all of this was whether or not


we would actually make it to Nashville, because the RV I borrowed   journey, we pulled some incredible MacGyver moves—complete with three small nails, duct tape, and some prayerful pleas. There was also a span of time which convinced us that the air conditioning and elec-   Despite these setbacks, the three of us ran a tight ship—sometimes stopping in two cities in one day to host our meetings. Usually though, most days consisted of one round-table discussion at a venue in the morning and plenty of driving in the afternoons. We would arrive to our host venue the night before to park near their loading dock, ready to wake up the next day to set up for a 9 am session of discussion and listening. I was surprised by the magnitude of the loading docks some of these venues housed underground. It felt eerie but exciting to drive our 34-foot RV down into these hidden and behind-the-scene spaces. Every host venue we visited was graciously hospitable—providing a morning spread of fresh fruit or pastries. Needless to say, it was a great way to start the day!  


 made for some very lively conversation and interaction. One import- ant observation we noted was that while each venue may have been   provide an incredible and safe experience for their attendees. For sake of example, we gathered that hosting an event is like cook-


ing a great meal. It’s not one single ingredient that makes it great, but the combination of ingredients that come together at the right time. With this in mind, we guided the conversation of our meetings to focus on three primary departments that an event cycles through: Sales/Booking, Marketing, and Operations. We were fortunate to have


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