Leadership / 03.20.24
Wednesday Wisdom Celebrates 4 Years of Community, Connection and Compassion
Christine Payne
Community, gathering place, support, friendship, connection, camaraderie, compassion, trust, idea exchange, virtual hugs.
These and so many other words are now synonymous with the Wednesday Wisdom calls that began on Zoom four years ago, on March 18, 2020. The weekly meetup was the brainchild of Maureen Andersen, President and CEO of INTIX, as the world was shutting down. She has been supported over the years by many others from our community, including Tiffany Kelham, Member Services and Executive Associate for INTIX. Kelham has joined every single Wednesday Wisdom since they began.
As the call's fourth anniversary approached, we reached out to ticketing professionals far and wide. In their own words, here is what Wednesday Wisdom meant and continues to mean, how the calls have helped, their fondest memories, and what they look forward to most.
“God bless, Maureen,” David Winn, Box Office Manager for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, says. “Maureen, I believe, single-handedly pulled many of us through those first few years.”
Winn adds, “We all know that it was the saving grace for so many people during the first years. It kept up hopes and made more of us feel as though we still belonged to something, even though our jobs were either on hold or taken away from us. It was a lifeblood for me.”
“When it started, I only saw the first one. I didn’t think much about what it was or going to be,” Andersen says. “I remember that first conversation with 30 folks and talking about just closing down and starting to do refunds. Within a month, it had grown to 300+ people on the call. Even then, I just kept thinking ‘one week at a time.’ We didn’t have the infrastructure or the technology to do this, but we made it work and we added the tech as we needed to make sure we could accommodate it.”
“March 2020 was a scary time for everyone on the planet,” Linda Forlini, who is now retired and living her best life traveling the world, says. “Our industry was shutting down for a week, possibly two, for a virus. What does that mean? How do we navigate this? Maureen and everyone on those calls were a lifeline to figuring out what the ‘new’ normal was going to be.”
Forlini says, “[Wednesday Wisdom] was a great sounding board — what are you doing? How are you doing it? What are you hearing about opening? Are we going to open? How are you doing pod seating? Where are you getting masks? [These are] questions we are not asking ourselves today, thank God, but they were serious, and we were asking.”
“For the first year or so, I was the hidden moderator of the calls,” Peter I’anson, COO of JMM Group Holdings, says. “I liked looking through the list of people stacking up and waiting for the call to start, [and] it helped me learn a lot of INTIX members’ names. For those I wasn’t sure of, I would have a quick LinkedIn search to ensure they were part of the community before they were let in.”
“During the pandemic, these calls were literally breath to know that we lived. People with bright faces and those in pajamas lit up my world,” Ebony Hattix, Director of Guest Relations for the Memphis Grizzlies/FedEx Forum, says. “It was so hard to be isolated and inside all the time, but on Wednesdays, I could depend on someone to help me laugh! Someone to remind me that I was human and had a connection to the outside world. My favorite friends [were] in one place to help each other through.”
Hattix continues, “Not to mention, we all talked about ticketing, cotton candy grapes and, my personal favorite, bacon!”
“In the beginning, the calls were a way to still feel connected to everyone and to check in to make sure everyone was OK,” Kelham recalls. “It was where we would learn about what was really happening in the industry straight from each other. It was a temperature check on who was closed, who got the grants, how to apply, who was finding a new way to still have events and who just needed a group to lean on. I loved that we got to be the place where people felt safe and knew they were not alone going through the pandemic, at least in their professional lives.”
“Folks started to reach out with topics to discuss; vendor partners asked what they could do; and by April, Mike Lorenc — then of Google — was on my phone,” Andersen recalls. “I will always be grateful to Mike for stepping up and in for us, to bring concrete data to us, which was very helpful and grounding. He did webinars for us every quarter for over three years.”
“Early on, the shared Google presentations about industry trends were a lifeline that helped give a sense of scope, scale and direction to the work ahead,” Joe Carter, Senior Director of Sales and Customer Experience for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, says.
“When [the Wednesday Wisdom calls] started, they were a source of information in the desert,” Matt Cooper, Vice President of Audience Services for Ensemble Arts Philly, says. “There was so much anxiety about what was happening and what was going to happen. These weekly calls enabled me to serve our organizations as they sought to plan, plan again and then plan some more.
“Some of my favorite moments are about champagne grapes and champagne; fried chicken; traveling the world with the Forlinis and asking, ‘Where is Linda today?’; creating social distancing in a theater; inventing and re-inventing pod seating; and watching venue teams sell cardboard cutouts for games,” Andersen says. “We went with Tiffany and DeeDee Naff each to Garth Brooks drive-in concerts. We celebrated babies being born, gave pause and tribute to colleagues who had passed, joyfully applauded successes, licked our wounds and found courage and hope in each other. Someone in the ‘room’ always has an answer for the conundrums of ticketing and audiences. And we laughed. We [still] laugh a lot.”
“[My fondest memories from the Wednesday Wisdom calls over the past four years] are the Zoom parties for the holidays that occurred during lockdown [and watching] the Dolly Parton ‘We Are The Champions’ Olympic video,” Lenore Schwartz Heller, Director of Patron Services at The Palace Theatre, says.
“Back when the Wednesday calls first started, Norm Major [with Segerstrom Center for the Arts] would attend every week,” Kelham recalls. “Throughout the calls, he and I would send each other horrible knock-knock jokes in the chat. During a time when it was scary, things were unsure, and the world was turned upside-down both personally and professionally, it was nice to laugh every week. Norm has since taken a new role and can't join the call, but there will be random times when we send each other silly jokes to remember and keep in touch.”
“Definitely the ceiling fan spinning literally on top of Shawn Robertson’s head in his work-from-home office!” Anthony Esposito, SVP of Ticket Operations for the Atlanta Braves, says.
“Learning how to zip-tie a baseball venue seat!” Forlini says.
Beyond these favorite memories, there are many things that our global community continues to look forward to on the weekly calls.
“[I look forward to] seeing all those lovely faces in the little boxes,” I’anson says. “It is like Hollywood/Celebrity Squares with all the stars of ticketing.”
“I look forward to the laughter every week,” Aren Murray, U.S. Operations Manager for Tixly, says. “The videos [that Maureen shows] are always fun, but they are no match for the smiles on the faces of those who attend. As a ‘virtual’ worker [now], this is my watercooler moment; this is my social hour and my touch of humanity that lifts me up each week.”
Murray adds, “I love hearing about Linda Forlini's travels and Frankie's retirement bar and grandchild Nico. These moments of real people behind the ideas and careers lift me up and keep me coming back.”
“I really enjoy two things,” Esposito says. “One, the email the night before, which is basically Maureen’s stream of consciousness about the last seven days in our world of ticketing. Two, Maureen’s opening dialogue on the calls and her rundown of what is happening in the live events world.”
“I started to troll the news for anything I could find about live entertainment and ticketing and the weekly newscast was born,” Andersen says. “Around the same time, I found a video of Allegiant Stadium that was then in construction and decided to show it. Now we have the video and the news, and I just keep doing them every week. Hopefully, if they get tired of them, someone will tell me when it’s time to stop. Ha!”
Esposito adds, “Similar to the annual conference, [the calls] are a chance to see ‘The Tribe’ on a weekly basis and see who is where and doing what, particularly Linda Forlini! They help keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening around you in the world of ticket ops. Whether it is a concert hitting multiple venues or a touring Broadway show, these calls help get information out, which may help the next venue where that show is going.”
“I love checking in, and I have done it from all over the globe, sometimes early, early morning and late at night,” Forlini says. “If I have a connection, I am on the call.”
“[Wednesday Wisdom is] an hour to shut the door, put up the ‘in a meeting’ sign, and join our group therapy session,” Christy Grantham, Director of Ticketing for the Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College, says. “It is a way to check in with the state of ticketing across multiple verticals and how our organization compares, [including] sales numbers, fraud and chargebacks, drop counts and attendance rates, etc. I have also found colleagues across the industry in similar venues and have reached out to them with questions or to talk about things that are happening in our spaces.”
“I have just started to attend [Wednesday Wisdom calls] this year,” JaeTi Randall-Valdes, Assistant Director of Ticketing Services for San Diego Theatres, says. “As a recently promoted Assistant Director, I was looking to network and grow myself into the role. I love listening to the conversations and candor.”
Randall-Valdes says, “[I look forward to] laughing about something patrons or promoters are doing that is just WTH?! [The calls] are a place of camaraderie, connection and community. It’s a place where all ticketers can come together and create/innovate, regardless of what type of venue we work in.”
“The ticketing world is my world, [and] these calls are about seeing people,” Kelham says. “I previously only saw our INTIX community at the conference once a year. That is never enough, and these calls let me see a big group of them every week. Some of my favorite people are on those calls and I get to message them to see how they are doing and check in on their lives and families. There are also those who have had to fall off the calls because their professional lives picked back up, but they always check in because they remember on Wednesday, we gather.”
“The ability to bring a topic into the call and get immediate feedback is greatly helpful,” Carter says. “I have made connections with others I had never met before on these calls, and then we were able to continue conversations separately. Also, this helps me bring industry news back to my organization to help them understand that challenges we are experiencing are not necessarily unique and that we as professionals are making the effort to improve the experience for our companies and our customers.”
“The calls are a great way for me to remain connected to the INTIX community year-round and the many friends I have made in the U.S.,” I'anson says. Most weeks, while we are having the main chat, I also have a couple of private chats going [in the] Zoom chat box at the same time! I get to stay in touch with lovey people like Lenore Heller, who I would only see at the conference otherwise.”
He adds, “If you haven’t ever joined a call or have not been on one for a while, pop in the Zoom room on a Wednesday. You don’t have to join every week. I can’t as I travel so much now, and you don’t even have to stay for the whole hour. Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea for us Brits, come along and listen in or bring a story, question or comment. You can participate as much or as little as you feel comfortable with [doing].”
“I encourage everyone in the industry to be a part of these calls as they are the glue that binds us year-round,” Murray says. “They give an outlet for questions and encouragement. They let us know that there are others like us out there. No question is too small, and no problem is too big for discussion. The answers are not siloed to just your standard work circle. There is a large mix of all ticketing areas, from sports to museums to festivals and arts. With this broad mix of ticketing genres sharing their ideas and needs, all groups learn a little more about the future of ticketing.”
“When we first started the calls, I felt I had nothing to add,” Heller recalls. “With time, I feel I have become part of this extraordinary community [and] family.”
“In a world of growing inconsistencies and fading traditions, knowing that the Wednesday Wisdom call is always there on the calendar each week is a nice reminder that ‘The Tribe’ will never let you down,” Esposito says.
“I started it to help others so I could help myself. It was such a fearful time. Out of the chaos and darkness of the shutdown and pandemic, this weekly hour has grown and maintained itself. I always said that we would continue to do it as long as folks wanted to show up,” Andersen says. “INTIX always was confounded on how to be of value between conferences, and this hour has proven to be the right answer at the right time. Hell of a reason, but the universe gives us what we need when we need it. I have said it before and will always say it because it is true — this hour is my favorite hour of any week. It’s a joyful and vital community in service to each other. Gratitude is the only word I have.”
And at the end of every Wednesday Wisdom call, Andersen gives someone “the last word.” Similarly, in many INTIX interviews I have done over the years, I have included a “famous last question,” offering interviewees the opportunity to share anything we may have missed. The last word in this story goes to Joe Carter…
“If only there was a bacon delivery service that accompanied the calls, we would have a full circle service structure 😉.”
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Tags: Leadership , Wednesday Wisdom