| |
By Randall Vogel
It’s the turn of the 21st century, the city
of Mesa embarks on building its biggest capital project to date: the Mesa
Arts Center. In June 2002, I start helping to open the venue that will
change the skyline of downtown Mesa forever.
Fast forward to Jan. 22, 2005, when staff — based on the construction
timeline — are to move in and take over campus operations.
It’s March 2005. The staff has partially moved in to the campus, the museum
gallery opens in April and our community art programs are preparing to start
classes in May — but something is missing. Where are the technicians who are
to be prepping the theaters? Where are the volunteer ushers and theater
dress rehearsals that were planned years earlier? Where’s the ticketing
office that’s supposed to be selling tickets? Oh yeah, the theater buildings
aren’t ready — and they won’t be ready for several more months.
It’s July 2005, and a gala is planned. The ticket office, front of house
staff and the theater technicians are now in charge.
For those who have never opened a building, you might be under the
perception that all is calm — but don’t be deceived my friends, because
nothing could be further from the truth. You have just entered “opening
season.” It only happens once, so don’t forget about keeping your
perspective, laughing at yourself whenever necessary and enjoying the ride.
Below are short anecdotes, in no particular order of importance, of things
that my staff and I experienced as we traveled through opening season.
Making Your Venue Look New
Budget sufficient dollars and staff time into making your venue look new.
One might think that when you build a multimillion-dollar venue, they’re
move-in ready. No, this isn’t like buying a new house.
 Unless specified as part of your construction contract, don’t assume that
you’ll get the building all clean and shiny. Purchase floor polishing
equipment, rent dumpsters and have lots of bodies. My venue supervisor
deserves a medal. When we moved into the campus, the floors were a mess and
dust was everywhere.
Phone Issues
Not having to sell tickets for three years made me soft in the brain.
However, there’s nothing like an ACD (automated call distribution) system
that provides customer service information and statistics that you could
never imagine, such as dropped and call wait time. When we opened, the
average phone call wait time was close to 10 minutes, and the call time
averaged 10 minutes in length. Our phones rang so much that we couldn’t
handle all of the daily calls.
Because our ticket office wasn’t able to open in the spring of 2005 and
wasn’t installed in its permanent location, we weren’t able to address
customer service issues. Additionally, we weren’t able to sufficiently hire
and train staff in the time allotted, input data or prepare our rental
organizations. A year makes a big difference. We sold 600 more tickets on
our single ticket release this year, and all the calls were handled with no
wait time.
Understand that your ticket manager and staff are very stressed and that
everyone expects them to be perfect when they open the first day. It takes
time. Today, phone calls average three to five minutes, and staff and
patrons are better trained.
Warranty Issues and Punch List
When you get your building, be prepared for the punch list — a list of all
the issues that the contractor has to fix by the time the warranty period
ends. But beware: If your venue staff fixes something that was under
warranty — no matter how bad it was — you might have voided any
responsibility of your construction company under the contract. This is when
you truly understand the concept of patience.
Value Engineering and Change Orders
Value engineering requires a full understanding of the
implications of the change of scope, redesign or deletion from the project
to bring the project back into budget. How does this change affect
operations, revenues or the organization’s mission? The reality is that
things sometimes need to be cut from our projects to build them within the
prescribed construction budget. However, my experiences say that sooner or
later, the item that was value engineered out of the project either has the
potential to have a significant operational impact, or costs more later to
install than it did under the original construction budget.
Maybe the most dreaded two words of all construction projects is “change
order.” This is a license for your contractor to charge you the highest
possible rate for a simple fix (my definition; not to be taken literally).
Try to avoid change orders. However, sometimes they’re an absolute
necessity, especially when they create revenue opportunities or reduce venue
operation costs.
When Do I Hire Staff?
The most important thing I can say about this topic is that the theater
director shouldn’t start on the day you break ground. If this happens,
please refer to “Value Engineering and Change Orders,” above. This person
really should be a part of the design team and help match the vision of the
project to the actual programming. The next issue is the hiring and staffing
process.
Remember, you’re building a team, and personalities matter. Also, understand
your hiring process. For example, if you work for a city, it’s important to
know the time frame to create a position, the level of justification needed
and the length of the interview process.
Best Decision I Ever Made (After I Heard It)
Early in the winter of 2003, I met with our theater consultant, Jack Hagler,
and asked him if the campus would be ready in January 2005. He said to open
in September. We rescheduled the theaters to have a public opening in
September 2005.
If Mesa had stuck to the plan of opening in January, we would’ve been
challenged on so many levels that it would’ve been a nightmare. The venue
wasn’t ready, the ticket system wasn’t installed, staff wasn’t hired, artist
contracts would’ve been rescheduled or canceled — and, most importantly, the
public would’ve lost confidence in this project. This one decision might
have been the tipping point to ensure our successful opening.
The Architect Already Designed the Opening
Celebrations
Planning the opening celebrations was a major undertaking. We discussed all
kinds of fancy plans and concepts. After a period of time meeting to create
an elaborate gala performance and opening weekend, festival staff began to
realize that our design team and architects already conceived the event. My
job was to show off what the campus could do. After we had this epiphany,
developing the events became far less complicated.
The final thought to share is this: Meetings, meetings and more meetings. I
think you get the picture.
Prior to Mesa, my career seemed to be to manage a building six months after
it opened. Mesa was a chance to shape a new venue and an opportunity that I
couldn’t pass up. There’s quite a bit of learning when you open a venue, and
nothing is as simple as it seems. But if you keep an open mind, focus on
your goal and keep your sense of humor, it’s time well spent. If all else
fails, remember you do have something to look forward to: next season.
Randall Vogel
is assistant director, theaters and operations for the Mesa Arts Center in
Mesa, Ariz. |
|
Back to Facility Manager
Contents
