About | VenuesNow Conference 2019

ABOUT

VenuesNow Conference was developed to provide industry leaders of live entertainment facilities with a forum to discuss some of the most comprehensive topics appearing in the pages of the VenuesNow magazine. The event includes a variety of discussions and networking events focused on the current and future vision of the industry, cutting- edge initiatives and trends in the world of Venues. With two full days of programming, the conference covers all aspects of the business to include Technology, Operations, Security, Tenants & Teams, Branding & Sponsorships, Ticketing, Concessions, Design, Financing, Bookings & Content.

VenuesNow Conference presents the most important and relevant conversations within these areas and brings together the thought leaders, influencers, and visionaries that help us create a positive disruption in the industry.

VENUE

Conrad New York, 102 North End Avenue, New York NY 10282

Carly James is an agent at Paradigm Talent Agency based in New York City. She began as an assistant at The Agency Group in 2012, working alongside agent Dave Kaplan, moving over to Paradigm in 2015. She represents a diverse roster of exciting artists which includes IDLES, Fontaines D.C., Julia Jacklin and girl in red.

Robert Cordova currently serves as Chief Technology & Strategy Officer for the Milwaukee Bucks. In his role, Robert is responsible for all technology infrastructure, business analytics, and information systems enabling the Milwaukee Bucks and its ancillary businesses, including Fiserv Forum, Wisconsin Herd G-League team, Bucks Gaming eSports, and Deer District real estate.

Robert has taken a unique approach in forming separate but collaborative Operation Technology and Information Technology teams and best practices in order to serve the distinct natures of the venue businesses and the professional sports businesses. Robert has been responsible for implementing scalable and extensible technologies to accommodate innovations and advancements in area such as business intelligence, performance analytics, wireless communications, video broadcast, and digital marketing. Fiserv Forum, opened in the summer of 2018 showcases many of these making it one of the most technologically advanced arenas in the world. Robert joined the Milwaukee Bucks in April 2018.

Robert is an innovative technology leader with more than 30 years of IT enterprise experience. Prior to his current role, Robert was the Principal Architect and Regional Chief Technology Officer for AT&T, where he was responsible for aligning the business goals of AT&T’s enterprise customers with AT&T solutions. Throughout his 30-plus-year career, Robert has held high-level technology positions at Sara Lee Corporation, CenturyLink and Northrop Grumman.

Robert has been a keynote speaker and panel member at several industry conferences, including the CGT Sales and Marketing Forum, Venues Now Conference, and the Future Guest Experiences conference. Robert received a 2019 Chief Information Officer of the Year award from the Milwaukee Business Journal for his work at the Bucks and in the community.

He graduated from Yale College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and was a member of the Yale Lightweight Rowing team. He is married with three children and enjoys hiking and biking.

Sean Striegelhas been a professional concert promoter for over 2 decades and is currently Senior Vice President of the Club and Theatre Division at Live Nation. Sean’s responsibilities are overseeing the Club and Theatre business for the New York and New Jersey markets. Beginning his career in Southern California working with such venues as the Coach House and the Galaxy Concert Theater and in 2001 moving to the House of Blues Anaheim. In 2005 Sean received Pollstar’s Nightclub Talent Buyer of the Year award. 2007 Sean moved to New York as VP of Talent on the New York Booking Team. Sean’sprofessional interests focus on the NY/NJ venues as well as promoting National Tours with artists he is personally passionate about.

As Executive Vice President of Entertainment at Prudential Center, Sean Saadeh oversees the direction and strategy of growing the entertainment and events business. Saadeh has been working in the arena and entertainment business for 23 years and has been a senior executive at Harris Blizter Sports and Entertainment for over four years.

Under Saadeh’s direction, Prudential Center has risen to a top ten arena worldwide. With more than 175 events annually, Saadeh’s focus has been to partner with strong content providers to grow Prudential Center’s business. In 2018, Prudential Center produced 50 concerts, which has doubled since 2015, when Saadeh took over Entertainment operations.

Prudential Center concerts consistently are some of the most diverse programming in the tri-state area. KPOP, Latin, Urban and Indian concerts have seen amazing growth over the last four years, under Saadeh’s strategic plan. In the last three months, Prudential Center hosted their first eSports event, the 2019 Rocket League World Championships, and the 2019 MTV VMAs.

Saadeh began his career in entertainment at San Diego Sports Arena in booking and marketing, where he held various during his nine-year tenure. He spent five years booking the Gila River Arena (formerly Glendale Arena), the home of the Phoenix Coyotes (now Arizona Coyotes) and doubled their concert business during his time there. In 2011, Saadeh was hired to open the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY and develop their brand-new entertainment and booking strategy. During his time in Brooklyn, Saadeh produced over 500 events including, JayZ, Barbra Streisand and over 60 concerts annually, while also growing the boxing and college basketball programs.

During his free time, Saadeh enjoys golfing, traveling, reading, watching movies, playing his guitar and walking his dog, Goose. He currently resides in Westfield, NJ with his wife, Kenna and his twin daughters Quincy and Taylor.

Rick Giles founded the Gazelle Group in 1994 after spending eight years at International Management Group. Giles is a graduate of Princeton University and the Stern School of Business at New York University.

The Gazelle Group creates, represents, and consults across sports and entertainment events. Since its inception, Gazelle has formed relationships with corporate sponsors, teams, venues, and television networks to produce and stage successful events throughout the country in a variety of sports. Gazelle also represents college basketball coaches – facilitating career movement and negotiating their contracts.

Gazelle has many areas of expertise and experience. However, Gazelle’s core business has evolved around the sport of college basketball.

Mary Haskett is the CEO and co-founder of Blink Identity, a venture backed company based in Austin, Texas that has developed face recognition products that can identify people at a full walking speed and in any lighting condition. Haskett drives the business strategy and marketing direction, as well as manages the day-to-day operations of the company.

Her first startup was a skydiving school she got involved with when she was a college student. The skydiving school was bootstrapped into a profitable business that owned multiple airplanes, taught thousands of students how to skydive and hosted skydiving competitions broadcast on ESPN.

Haskett next founded a training company that built dozens of online courses for Fortune 500 companies. After that company was acquired by a defense contractor, she stayed on as a VP to lead biometric systems development in the US and overseas. She deployed frequently to Iraq and Afghanistan, and was responsible for deploying the Afghanistan National biometric database. Haskett holds a M.Ed. in Educational Technology from Texas A&M University and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics awarded by the University of Texas at Dallas.

FiveEleven Productions was founded in 2006 by David Weil to provide expert production and technical management solutions to corporate clients worldwide. A degree in Audio Engineering from Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music began a career that has spanned the globe. With over 30 years’ experience in both recording and live events, David has in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the event industry.

James L. Dolan is Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG), a leading live entertainment company renowned for its world-famous arena complex, professional sports teams, entertainment properties and historic showplaces. Mr. Dolan also serves as Executive Chairman of MSG Networks Inc., which includes two award-winning regional sports and entertainment networks.

In his role at MSG, Mr. Dolan is responsible for the Company’s overall growth strategy and oversight of its operations. He also serves as governor to the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League on behalf of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers.

Throughout his tenure, Mr. Dolan has spearheaded an ambitious vision to ensure the Company continues to set the standard for live sports and entertainment. This includes the Company’s plans to build state-of-the-art venues in Las Vegas and London, called MSG Sphere, that will pioneer the next generation of immersive experiences. Mr. Dolan first introduced his strategy for a large-scale music and entertainment focused venue in January 2014 with the successful re-opening of the legendary Forum arena in Inglewood, California. Mr. Dolan was also the catalyst for the restoration of the Company’s cherished national landmark, Radio City Music Hall, in 1999, as well as the famed Beacon Theatre in early 2009. This was followed by the three-year, top-to-bottom transformation of the Madison Square Garden Arena, which was completed in October 2013. MSG’s venues also include The Chicago Theatre, which was built in 1921 as one of the country’s most opulent motion picture houses.

In addition to its portfolio of landmark venues, MSG owns and operates professional sports teams, the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, as well as entertainment properties, including the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes. MSG has expanded its live offerings through investments in Boston Calling Events, which produces the Boston Calling Music Festival; TAO Group, a hospitality group with globally-recognized entertainment dining and nightlife brands; and Counter Logic Gaming, a leading North American esports organization.

Mr. Dolan has led MSG’s response to local and national tragedies. He played a principal role in organizing several extraordinary benefit concerts, including “12-12-12,” which raised more than $50 million for the victims of Hurricane Sandy; “The Concert For New York City,” which generated more than $35 million in aid for 9/11 victims and heroes; and “From The Big Apple to The Big Easy,” which raised nearly $9 million for Hurricane Katrina relief. Mr. Dolan also supports both MSG’s and MSG Networks Inc.’s ongoing commitment to the community, particularly through the Garden of Dreams Foundation, the non-profit charity that works with both companies to help children throughout the New York metropolitan area.

In addition to his oversight of MSG, Mr. Dolan also serves as Executive Chairman of MSG Networks Inc., which became a standalone media company following the 2015 spin-off of The Madison Square Garden Company. MSG Networks Inc. is comprised of MSG Network and MSG+, which together annually telecast more than 450 live professional games, along with a comprehensive lineup of other sporting events, as well as critically-acclaimed original programming.

Mr. Dolan served as Chief Executive Officer of Cablevision Systems Corporation from 1995 until June 2016, when the leading media and telecommunications company, which served as MSG’s parent company until 2010, was sold to Altice. Prior to his role as Cablevision CEO, Mr. Dolan was Chief Executive Officer of Rainbow Media Holdings, the former Cablevision programming subsidiary now known as AMC Networks Inc. Mr. Dolan began his career with Cablevision in the 1970s and held a variety of executive positions before overseeing Rainbow Media.

Mr. Dolan serves on the board of directors for MSG, MSG Networks Inc., and AMC Networks Inc. He is also on the board of The Lustgarten Foundation, an organization he helped found in 1998, which today is the nation’s largest private supporter of pancreatic cancer research. Since its inception, the Foundation has directed more than $165 million to research and assembled the best scientific minds to help find a cure.

As executive vice president of MSG Live, Darren Pfeffer oversees The Madison Square Garden Company’s (MSG) live entertainment events and sets the strategic direction for MSG’s bookings, which includes exploring opportunities to develop new signature events, artist relationships and unique experiences for MSG’s customers. MSG’s entertainment portfolio includes an array of concerts, family shows, performing arts and special events that are presented or hosted in the Company’s diverse collection of venues. Those venues are: Madison Square Garden, Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre, the Forum and The Chicago Theatre. MSG also produces outdoor festivals through Boston Calling Events, the entertainment production company responsible for New England’s premier music festival – Boston Calling. Since joining MSG in 2017, Mr. Pfeffer has overseen a period of growth within MSG’s live business – including a record-setting number of events across the Company’s venues. With a focus on multi-night and multi-market engagements, notable recent bookings have included: the continuation of Billy Joel’s historic residency at The Garden; Jerry Seinfeld’s residency at the Beacon Theatre; Tedeschi Trucks Band’s multi-year, dual-city residency at the Beacon Theatre and The Chicago Theatre; and Sebastian Maniscalco’s four sold-out shows at MSG. Mr. Pfeffer also focuses on developing relationships with artists and their teams, driving an “artist first” approach that attracts the industry’s top talent across all MSG venues.

Prior to joining MSG, Mr. Pfeffer spent more than two decades at iHeartMedia, a leading media and entertainment company, in roles of increasing responsibility. Before joining MSG, he served as senior vice president of Music and Entertainment Marketing, where he was responsible for overseeing all strategic, operational and promotional aspects of more than 160 iHeartMedia events, including high-profile properties such as the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas, the iHeartCountry Festival and the iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina. Starting in 2006, Mr. Pfeffer served as executive producer of Z100’s Jingle Ball, turning the annual holiday concert into an iconic New York City event that is nationally televised on The CW Network. He also oversaw the multi-market iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour, which included stops in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Miami. His experience at iHeartMedia also included spearheading the Company’s B2B event strategy and creating exceptional live experiences at key industry events around the world for leading brands. Mr. Pfeffer began his career at iHeartMedia in 1995 as an intern.

Mr. Pfeffer serves on the board of directors of TAO Group, Boston Calling Events and Musicians On Call, which brings live and recorded music to the bedsides of patients in healthcare facilities.

Michael Martin — a recovering Wall Street Investment Banker — is the Founder and CEO of Effect Partners and r.Cup. He has been an innovator in sustainability and social change marketing almost 30 years, starting with the non-profit, Concerts for the Environment.

Michael developed the first-ever, national global warming campaign and produced multiple Earth Day events on the National Mall. He introduced many of the greening practices currently being used in the music industry today. He has worked with over 200 of the music industry’s leading artists including Jack Johnson, U2, Dave Matthews Band, and Mumford & Sons. He has developed sustainability & marketing strategies for brands including Apple, Toyota, UPS, Target, Clif Bar and Live Nation.

Effect Partners is a social change enterprise, inspiring impactful business solutions powered by music, art and culture. His latest venture, r.Cup, disrupts the wasteful single-use plastic cup at live events. r.Cup reduces the environmental impact of live events with a reusable, recyclable, rental cup program.