Brad Mayne, President and CEO of International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM)
Hometown: Coppell, TX
University of Education: University of Utah
How long have you served on the CEIR Research Council?
Four years
Why did you volunteer to work with CEIR on the Research Council?
I learned in venue management that if I didn’t know or understand something, I could not manage it. I believe it’s really important to be able to research and know as much as you can about the industry you are in, in order to be successful. You are much better off predicting when you have hard data to review.
What have you learned through your work with CEIR?
It’s a great organization. I am impressed with the CEIR Predict conference – the people that CEIR taps into both on volunteer basis and the professionals who do the research. CEIR brings them all to the table for a wide variety of experts vs. one source. The volunteers live in the industry and they are passionate and knowledgeable about what are the right questions to ask and what information we need.
How has CEIR research helped your organization?
CEIR research gives us knowledge about what show organizers and meeting planners are doing – how successful they are, the economics involved, the reasons they make decisions. It keeps us up to speed, especially in the past year to learn what they are thinking with the pandemic, what steps they are taking. It is a large universe when you get into the data mining side of our industry. It’s fascinating that we work in the hospitality industry with servant leaders who are willing to share their information so that we can all become stronger and benefit from that information.
How can CEIR research help our industry?
When surveys go out, please take the time and energy to complete the survey with empirical data. The more surveys that are completed, the stronger an instrument we will have. Then we can extrapolate the proper vision as to what is actually happening.
Is there specific CEIR research/report that has helped you?
A couple of years ago, we did a phone survey with venues. We reached out to convention centers with specific questions. I learned that convention centers have their own niche depending on the location (some cater to manufacturing, some to health, some to associations). Information that CEIR can gather within sectors of who meeting planners and show organizers are, is beneficial for our venues. That research really helped our venues.
How do you plan to use CEIR research in the future?
We use it to disseminate information to our venues. We make that a benefit to our members. As an association, we do live events. The workshop at CEIR Predict was very helpful because associations were sharing their data. That was beneficial to my staff and my meetings team. We continue to use all of the research that comes in to help our marketing staff and our meetings team so they are up to date.
