Venue Operations eXperience (VOX)

We believe we can provide comprehensive training to current and future independent venue workforces if that training is faster and more accessible. Training in the live entertainment industry is labor intensive, and among independent venues, often disjointed and inconsistent, dependent on individual small businesses that are operating on thin margins. The solution from the National Independent Venue Foundation is to leverage game-based mobile training that is venue- and job-specific to participants across the country through the Venue Operations eXperience (VOX) Program, and build that program to scale to support the industry as a whole. 

The VOX pilot program includes an eight-week virtual gamification program, a two-month paid internship in a local host venue, and a two-month mentorship with an assigned industry expert. Participants and host venues are selected through a competitive application process, which prioritizes candidates from marginalized or underserved groups. The utilization of the 1Huddle platform, which turns workplace training into a game, will get VOX participants work-ready, faster. We focused the first cohort on digital marketing, and are planning to expand to other areas.

At scale, our solution will create career pathways for diverse individuals; drive diversification of independent venue workforces nationwide, and quickly and effectively deploy a centralized knowledge-base and established industry best-practices across the live entertainment sector. The intended impact is to support a transparent, competitive marketplace serving a diverse and inclusive community of entrepreneurs, artists, fans, and industry workers.

For the National Independent Venue Foundation, we have a young workforce in the industry, and one that has many demands on their time, and so we know that we needed a technology partner who could deliver flexible trainings. The ability to develop curricula and training sessions based on industry expertise, and then provide them across business is also key to the Venue Operations eXperience, making 1Huddle an ideal technology partner. 1Huddle is a coaching and development platform that uses quick-burst mobile games to more quickly and effectively educate, elevate, and energize your workforce — from frontline to full-time. 

With a mobile-first approach to preparing the modern worker, a mobile library of 3,000+ quick-burst employee skill games, an on-demand game marketplace that covers 16 unique workforce skill areas, and the option for personalized content, 1Huddle is changing the way organizations think about their training – from a one-time boring onboarding experience to a continuous motivational tool. 1Huddle’s innovative platform leverages predictive learning AI to more quickly and effectively create content and identify skill gaps and insights in real-time. Managers get insights on what their employees are struggling with so they can easily identify what topics/skills to train on. As a result, users are more likely to see games tailored to their specific needs. 1Huddle’s proprietary game builder provides the ability to develop curricula and training sessions based on industry expertise, and deploy them to small businesses around the country, which is key to the VOX Program’s short- and long- term strategies. 

At scale, 1Huddle can empower automated year-round deployment of workforce training and development programming across the live entertainment industry, increasing access to career pathways, elevating the core competencies of venue workforce nationwide, and driving efficiency across the sector for the benefit of these critical small businesses and the communities they serve. Key 1Huddle clients include Loews Hotels, Novartis, Madison Square Garden, PIMCO, TAO Group, and the United States Air Force, and the National Independent Venue Foundation is excited to bring this platform to the independent live entertainment community.

Our solution seeks to serve prospective, current and future venue workers, with an imperative to prioritize the inclusion of people from marginalized groups who often face barriers to career paths in independent venues. The existing industry environment - which has historically been and largely continues to be predominantly white-, cis-, het-, and male-dominated - is not always accessible and welcoming to individuals who are BIPOC; women and those of marginalized genders and sexual orientations; people with disabilities; and young people. With late hours surrounded by alcohol, venues must have high safety standards. A trained workforce - including DEI, accessibility, and violence prevention training - means safer, more inclusive spaces for all.

Of the over 1,700 individuals from 329 venues who participated in the National Independent Venue Foundation’s 13 Workforce Development Virtual Training Sessions in 2022 - 2023, 66% of attendees self-identified as female, genderfluid, or nonbinary and 16% self-identified as BIPOC. In its second year, 2023 - 2024, the VOX program will: place 24 diverse individuals in paid internships and connect them with industry mentors to support their entry into the industry; provide DEI and other training to VOX host venues and mentors to help ensure successful engagement. Feedback from participants is captured through pre- and post- surveys, interviews, and testimonials. Additionally, NIVF intentionally recruits diverse individuals representative of the communities we seek to serve to our board of directors, so that organizational and program oversight will always include diverse perspectives. Our board is 57% women, 43% BIPOC, and 29% LGBTQIA.

The Inspire Awards were launched in response to the unprecedented challenges imposed by COVID-19 on small businesses in the United States, especially for entrepreneurs from undercapitalized communities. In this crisis there was no industry that was as uniquely challenged as the independent live entertainment industry. Venues where people gathered for concerts, comedy shows, dance performances were the first to close and the last to re-open, with continuing aftershocks of cancellations, illnesses, and market pressures. Independent venues are often small businesses, community hubs and local institutions, without the capital backing of multinational corporations.

But out of this crisis came an opportunity to be connected, and to share resources, and advocate for a better future for the industry. Before the crisis there was little reason for a venue in Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine, to be connected, but now the value of that community and network is apparent. The National Independent Venue Foundation is charged with empowering more inclusive and sustainable independent live entertainment communities, and finding new and innovative ways to support the people who make the industry work and create the audience experience is key to that success.

Through the Venue Operations eXperience pilot, partnership with 1Huddle and the broader Workforce Development work of the Foundation we are supporting employee career pathways through upskilling and reskilling employees, creating faster pathways to entry and reducing the burden on individual venues by creating a shared knowledge base that comes from the industry itself. 

Venues, promoters, and festivals have typically been left on their own to train staff and bring people into the workforce – there has been no shared body of knowledge or centralized system. This has meant that each organization has had to create their own systems, and devote precious time and resources to that process. 

This challenge is compounded by the fact that 1Huddle’s research shows that most training doesn’t work. Employees forget 70% of what they learn within just 3 days when using traditional methods like learning management systems, manuals, and video modules. And that is when training is available - research shows that 80% of frontline workers have not received training in the past 5 years of employment. The majority of training is related to compliance and safety, not professional development or upskilling. In the United States, 83 cents of every training dollar goes to those in the C-Suite. We are not doing enough.

Our theory of change is that by creating effective training systems that build on the practical industry knowledge, and by working to make it available to venues and through National Independent Venue Foundation programming, we can encourage more pathways to entry into the industry, support and upskill the existing workforce, and lessen the burden on individual venues. This change will not only help the independent venues, but also independent musicians as a result, thus creating support and stability for the arts that we have not seen in this country.

1Huddle is scientifically proven to onboard, upskill, and fire up workers 45% faster than traditional learning methods (Source: USF). With 1Huddle, all workers from frontline to full-time have access to training at the palm of their hands to level up and skill anytime, anywhere. The National Independent Venue Foundation is utilizing this technology and partnering it with venue placement and industry mentorship in our Venue Operations eXperience pilot. This allows us 1) to deliver better training to active participants, and 2) seek further investment to continue to build out training modules and make it available to more businesses, expanding the reach and impact of this collaboration.

The National Independent Venue Foundation was created in 2020 to administer an Emergency Relief Fund supporting independent venues, festivals, and promoters in the face of the global pandemic. In that initial period, we served 185 venues with $3.5M of relief funding.

As we move from crisis to longevity, we have focused on establishing Workforce Development programming to support the independent live entertainment community. This has consisted of regular Virtual Training sessions, and the Venue Operations eXperience pilot cohort. Through our 15 Virtual Training sessions from June 2022 to June 2023, we have supported over 1700 registrants from 329 venues, and 6 VOX participants at 3 venues

In the coming year, we hope to grow in both those regards. We currently plan for two new VOX cohorts, supporting an additional 36 participants at 18 venues, while we continue to refine the program and curriculum. We intend to expand the frequency of our virtual training sessions, and want to reach 2300 participants at 500 venues, including expanding our archive of trainings for use after the fact. As we look 5 years into the future, we want to have a robust archive of materials for regular use in the industry, and be running multiple VOX cohorts across relevant job areas – marketing, production, and front of house. With these ambitions, we want to be reaching 1500 venues a year, supporting multiple staff in different job functions, and supporting pathways to entry in the industry.

We define our community of independent venues, festivals, and promoters to emphasize locally owned and supported small businesses. We look to support a broad range of for profit and nonprofit constituents, across disciplines, including music venues, comedy clubs, performing arts centers, and theaters. 

Independent business owners and their staff are our direct stakeholders in this work, and then the music, arts, and cultural industry, artists, and affiliates follow, and we work to find opportunities to collaborate and cross-pollinate ideas. Additionally with Workforce Development and Emergency Relief work, local, state, and Federal government agencies are stakeholders and partners, offering programming and opportunities. Our work with our stakeholders empowers more inclusive and sustainable independent live entertainment communities, and supports the audiences who are critical to the industry.

We have direct contact with independent venues, promoters, and festivals on a regular basis. We have regular newsletters, online events to gather feedback and share information, outreach via social media, and we travel to communities to meet with stakeholders. We work to be responsive and offer both formal feedback mechanisms through surveys around our training and programming, and informal mechanisms through word of mouth and conversation. We have a unique set of relationships because our organization came out of a moment of crisis, with shared experiences, challenges, and successes. We also build trust through accountability to our equity principles and intentional partnership and representation – we work to lift up presenters and partners who know the industry and can speak to its successes and challenges.

In the current year, our impact goals for our Workforce Development program will include: expanding VOX cohorts, supporting an additional 36 participants at 18 venues through our ongoing 1Huddle partnership; ongoing development and refinement of curriculum; expansion of Virtual Training Program to reach 2300 participants at 500 venues, with archived trainings being added to the curriculum. We do this work through partnerships such as with 1Huddle, and through expanding our network of participating venues. Additionally in this year we will continue to offer Emergency Relief Fund support to venues impacted by unexpected disasters, expand business resource listings, and pilot Education & Community Engagement programming through support for venues connecting to their communities.

Our year five impacts will include: scaling the Workforce Development program to serve at least 1500 venues a year through VOX and Virtual Trainings, supporting staff at different job functions across the sector, and supporting quicker, more inclusive pathways to entry in the industry. We will build our technology base to create access to this content, and partner with industry and educational institutions to scale our impact. Our overall programming will include robust, funded cohorts for Education & Community Engagement, financial support in the sector, and comprehensive Emergency Relief Fund resources to encourage planning and resilience. This supports all the associated communities where these small businesses work – increasing opportunities for artists to develop their talents, creating spaces for social cohesion, and best serving audiences to have safe, accessible entertainment options and opportunities to connect.

We are applying to Truist Foundation Inspire Awards because we share your vision of innovative, technology-based solutions as a proven pathway to resiliency and sustainability for small businesses. Our solution has the power to streamline training and upskilling operations for independent venue small businesses around the country, enact sector-wide efficiencies, deploy best-practice industry knowledge quickly and effectively to existing and emerging workforces, and advance increased DEI across the sector, making venues safer places for all people, and making venues more economically resilient.

If awarded, funds would help take our vision to scale, nationwide. Financial support from the Inspire Awards will help us remove barriers to participation by both venues and those looking to enter the industry, and allow us to scale more quickly. We also know the value in awards as validators for an idea, and as resource, partnership, and visibility attractors. We believe that our partnership with 1Huddle and content we are building through this pilot have transformational capacity for the sector, and we are already seeing that demand for participation in the program is outstripping our current capacity to deliver – we need partners to help us scale.

We are deploying technology to enable our solution, and also maintaining a high level of human oversight and contact as we develop our program, so that we can ensure quality experience, equitable access, and learning outcomes. We welcome expertise and partnership in evaluating these processes and outcomes so that we can scale more effectively and learn from other organizations that are operating in this capacity. Continuing to promote this partnership and solution is critical to its ongoing success and development, and future funding, and so we welcome the opportunity to build on our marketing and public relations strategy to bring in additional corporate partners and share the impact of this work.