The History of Venue Professional Magazine

Venue Professional, IAVM’s bi-monthly magazine publication, began its life as Facility Manager in the spring of 1985 as a quarterly magazine and a companion communications forum to the then-Auditorium News newsletter, which was mailed to members bi-weekly and widely known for its many job ads.

Facility Manager was born under the chairmanship (then-presidency) of Cliff Wallace, CVE, who believed that the Association needed another publication that would focus more on the industry and its many moving parts, as opposed to the Association-specific newsletter.

The first issue of the magazine featured Madonna on the cover, which itself stirred quite a controversy among the board members.

“It was immediately accepted as something that was meaningful,” Wallace recalled in a cover story interview in Venue Professional in September/October 2020.

“It was meaty and a great improvement which led us into not only being able to get better with information, but it provided the potential for advertising revenue, which developed quicker than we thought it would.”

The magazine’s name came about in a group discussion along with directions from the management firm Phyllis Hager & Associates, which managed multiple associations including IAVM.

The magazine evolved into a bi-monthly publication and through the years even spawned some secondary magazines, most notably Venue Safety & Security magazine which came about following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and had approximately a three-year run. In 2009, the magazine even appeared once fully printed in Mandarin with Rick Haycock, CVE, on the cover, at a time when IAVM China existed.

After a 35-year run as Facility Manager, the magazine changed its name to Venue Professional in 2020. The IAVM President/CEO at the time, Brad Mayne, CVE, was instrumental in the name change, choosing to include the word ‘venue’ to better reflect the industry’s growing educational offerings — including the many schools and conferences IAVM conducts — that help bring more professionals from college into the field.

Through the years hundreds of individuals have graced the cover of the magazine. Their selection to be recognized on the cover comes because of their leadership within their organization and in IAVM.

Another section of the magazine that has remained steadfast through the years are sector columns, which as the name indicates give the author a forum to write about his or her sector or even a general article of interest to the membership. The first sector column appeared in 1990, when Rip Rippetoe, CVE, contacted then-editor R.V. Baugus with an idea for an article regarding performing arts. Soon, the expansion was made to accommodate the other industry sectors including arenas, stadiums, convention centers, and fairgrounds/amphitheaters.

After Hager & Associates stopped overseeing editorial content of the magazine, the magazine’s editors included Darrell Day, R.V. Baugus, Julie Herrick, Jason Hensel, Linda Deckard, and Lindsey Paxton Jansen.

As for the initial Madonna cover, Wallace said that Hager & Associates provided input and came up with a photograph of the performer singing. “Madonna was even more controversial at that point,” Wallace said. “I would say even very controversial at that point, but the board ultimately approved it. If there is anything that cover did, it got enormous attention. With that attention came notice that we had recognized change and were in the process of changing.”

Venue Professional continues evolving and changing today to meet the needs and expectations of IAVM members. Its humble beginnings are now rooted in must-read stories from cover to cover.

Highlights