July 29, 2025 • 37 mins
For nearly 12 years, Amanda has served as the Sales & Marketing Manager at the Bismarck Event Center, where she gets to do what she loves most: connect with people, support our community, work in the entertainment business and help bring unforgettable events to life. Before this role, she got her start at Agency MABU as a college intern, then joined the team full-time. From there, she took on a management role at AAA Travel and Insurance and later worked with Rasmussen College as a Professional Development Coordinator — each experience helping her to learn how to lead, collaborate, and grow.
Amanda earned her bachelor’s degrees in Business Communications and Business Administration from the University of Mary, and went on to complete her Master’s in Management and Organizational Behavior from Benedictine University in Chicago. Along the way, she also became a proud graduate of the Bismarck-Mandan Leadership Academy and was honored to be named the Bismarck-Mandan Business & Professional Women’s Foundation “Woman of the Year” in 2016. Amanda was also the Sakakawea Award winner for the Young Professionals Network and most recently was recognized by the Dakotas-Manitoba Minnesota Optimist District in 2018 as the Optimist of the Year and then the Bismarck Optimist Club 2022 Outstanding Optimist of the Year.
Outside of work, she loves giving back. Amanda has served on many different boards and volunteered in different capacities in the community, but some of her most favorite include coaching Basketball, Volleyball and Soccer for Bismarck Special Olympics, volunteering her time with the Bismarck Optimist Club on many different projects including the annual Easter Egg Hunt and Bowling Tournament and her previous involvement with the Young Professionals Network. In her free time, she enjoys camping, traveling and spending time with her husband, two kids and mini-labradoodle.
Amanda earned her bachelor’s degrees in Business Communications and Business Administration from the University of Mary, and went on to complete her Master’s in Management and Organizational Behavior from Benedictine University in Chicago. Along the way, she also became a proud graduate of the Bismarck-Mandan Leadership Academy and was honored to be named the Bismarck-Mandan Business & Professional Women’s Foundation “Woman of the Year” in 2016. Amanda was also the Sakakawea Award winner for the Young Professionals Network and most recently was recognized by the Dakotas-Manitoba Minnesota Optimist District in 2018 as the Optimist of the Year and then the Bismarck Optimist Club 2022 Outstanding Optimist of the Year.
Outside of work, she loves giving back. Amanda has served on many different boards and volunteered in different capacities in the community, but some of her most favorite include coaching Basketball, Volleyball and Soccer for Bismarck Special Olympics, volunteering her time with the Bismarck Optimist Club on many different projects including the annual Easter Egg Hunt and Bowling Tournament and her previous involvement with the Young Professionals Network. In her free time, she enjoys camping, traveling and spending time with her husband, two kids and mini-labradoodle.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to These Are Your Neighbors, a podcast hosted by
the City of Bismarck's Human Relations Committee and produced by
Dakota Media Access. The purpose of the podcast is to
celebrate change makers in Bismarck whose contributions break barriers, build connections,
and redefine what is possible for our community.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome to These Are Your Neighbors, a podcast hosted by
Tia Jorgensen and Sargeana Whitsky, both members of the City
of Bismarck's Human Relations Committee. Thank you for joining us
as we highlight the individuals driving positive change and making
a lasting impact on our community. Their stories inspire progress
and shape the future of our city.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Our guest today is Amanda Yellow. For nearly twelve years,
Amanda has served as the sales and Marketing manager at
the Bismarck Events Center, where she gets to do what
she loves the most, connect with people, support our community
working in the entertainment business, and help bring unforgettable events
to life. Before this role, she got her start at
Agency Mabu as a college intern, then joined the team
(01:05):
full time. From there, she took a job as a
management role at TRIPLEA Travel and Insurance and later worked
with RASPUS in college as a professional development coordinator, each
experience helping her to learn how to lead, collaborate, and grow.
Amanda earned her bachel's degree in Business Communication and Business
Administration from the University Mary and went on to complete
(01:26):
her master's in Management Organizational Behavior from Benedictine University in Chicago.
Along the way, she also became a proud graduate of
the Bismarck Mandan Leadership Academy and was honored to be
named the Bismarck Mandan Business and Professional Women's Foundations Woman
of the Year in twenty sixteen. Amanda was also the
Sakakawia Award winner for the Young Professionals Network, and most
(01:48):
recently was recognized by the Dakota's Manitoba Minnesota Optimist District
in twenty eighteen as the Optimist of the Year and
then the Bismarck Optimist Club twenty twenty two outstaniam and
to Miss of the Year. Outside of work, she loves
giving back. Amandas serve on many different boards and volunteered
in different capacities in the community, but some of her
(02:09):
favorite include coaching basketball, volleyball, and soccer for Bismarck special Olympics, volunteering,
her time with the Bismarck Optimist Club on many different projects,
including the annual Easter egg hunt and bowling tournament, and
her previous involvement with a Young Professionals network. In her
free time, she enjoys camping, traveling, and spending time with
her husband, two kids, and a mini labradoodle. Welcome, Amanda,
(02:33):
thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I am going to kick this off by derailing and
starting with a random question. But when your bio said
professional development coordinator, what was like? What was that specifically
that profession?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Sure, it was kind of a unique position for the college,
but really something I enjoyed. So what I did is
I went around to different career fairs, organizations that paid
for education for their employees and encourage them to go
back to school. And so it was a matter of
(03:09):
sometimes just having a booth at.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
A career fair or a college fair.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Or setting up a booth in a lunch room at
maybe I think sometimes we had gone to like an
NISC or different places where they actually have education assistants
for their employees and just being there as a resource
in case that there's an opportunity for them to go
back to school. Or maybe it's just not even to
go back to school, it's just to get a couple
of classes under their belt, if they're just wanting to
(03:35):
get a little bit more expertise in a certain subject.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So now why is Bismarck home?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Oh my gosh, you know what, It's kind of funny.
I chose Bismarck with the intent of kind of splitting
the difference between my families I have. I grew up
in Montana, my mom is from Montana. I have a
lot of relatives in Montana. My parents still live in Montana,
but my dad's side of the family is all in Minnesota,
(04:05):
and so we would only go out there maybe once
a year to see my dad's side of the family.
And so when I was looking around at colleges, I
of course checked out Montana and then decided, you know,
I'm going to go a little bit further from home,
you know, cross that border and really make that big leap.
And then I just put the difference between Bismarck and
or excues me between Montana and Minnesota. So I was
(04:27):
kind of in between all family, and then I just stayed.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
I love the community.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I mean I love my job that I have right now,
and just kept finding different opportunities from my internship that
I started with at MABU progressing up into other occupations
and then I have a great friend foundation here that
kind of keeps me grounded.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
So was your master's degree then online?
Speaker 5 (04:53):
It was? Okay, yep.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
So it was a program actually through Rasmus in college.
They had additional master opportunities that their students could go
on and utilize, and while I worked there as an employee,
we also had that opportunity to go on for our masters.
So yes, I did it online. I did have to
go to the college one time for like a practicum
(05:17):
weekend and we just had to be a part of
a kind of a speech engagement and then do a
paper in project off of that, but of course work
was online.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So can you talk to us about your role as
the sales and marketing manager for the event center?
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Yeah, it's very diverse right now.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
So sales and marketing, I mean is kind of a large,
all encompassing term for so many different things, but more
specifically in the event industry, what I do is anything
from helping to manage the calendar. So when an agent
or a promoter or a booking agency calls in and
(05:58):
they say, you know, we're routing ex artists through the area,
do you have availability. I have access to the calendar
to mark down some dates and start with them from
kind of the very very beginning stages, all the way
through doing the contracting process and getting that underway, and
then securing the acts, and now you know, from pre
(06:22):
sale on sale announcements, and now comes more of the
marketing side, getting the graphics ready. You know, I have
a marketing specialist that works under me as well, and
she is fantastic with taking the graphics and making them,
you know, size ready for whatever medium we're putting them
out to. So if it's a billboard or if it's
(06:44):
a digital ad, you know, a Facebook or social or
something like that, she resizes all that, gets it all ready,
and then we put together our marketing plan for how
we're going to spend the dollars. Sometimes that's a combination
of us putting together the information and kind of having
free reign, or sometimes they just come to us, like
(07:05):
with large tour announcements, that they'll come to us and say, okay,
here's your dollar amount. These are the places that we
were going to have you place, and I'm just kind
of the in between person placing the information for them.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
So this is not only for the event centers, also
for the belt Mayhoos.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Yeah, yep. We also manage the bell Mayhouse.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
So so it's the arena side, We got our exhibit
hall side, and then the bells are kind of the
three different arms of the of the event center.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So you're talking about booking things. How far in advance
do you know that your book something before you announce it?
Like how long you are to keep that a secret?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That is a secret?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Yeah, that's a secret right there.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You know. Gosh, it varies depending on kind of the
the tour or the sometimes the level of the artist.
You know, if it's a national tour and it's something
that we've been working on for a very long time,
I'll usually have one day where every venue on that
tour will announce. So we've got to wait until everybody
(08:06):
is ready with all of their ducks in a road
contracting and negotiations and marketing, and everybody is on the
same page. So we announced at the same time. When
it's a little bit smaller of a tour, I mean
we can turn it around pretty quickly. I mean sometimes
we've had events call in on a Monday and say
I want to announce this by a Friday, the event
isn't till later on. Of course, usually we like at
(08:28):
least three months or so down the road and then
we can get going on their stuff. But to give
an example of one that's taken a really long time,
we just announced and went on sale and sold out
Zach Top and so that was a country artist. I
was going back in my emails and I found my
very very first email I wrote to the it was
(08:50):
the agent at this time, just saying, hey, we're interested
in this this guy. Is he in the market? I mean,
is he even traveling through Bismarck? And that was June
twenty first of twenty twenty four, So that one was
almost a full year that it took for us to
kind of work through. And it wasn't necessarily.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Our venue.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
It was he was just climbing so fast, and he
was on tour. He was touring with Alan Jackson and
Dirk Spentley and they didn't have him headline his own
tour yet, so he was still kind of finishing up
other tours. Plus he was going to then go on
and do his own tour. So they hadn't had all
the details in place, so we had contacted them again
in November. January they reached out to us and said,
(09:33):
all right, he could be in the area. You know,
here's some dates that we're looking at. We found out
in I think it was April that we got the date.
We couldn't announce it until June, and then we went
announced pre sale on sale all in June and announced
July one. And he doesn't come down November fourth, So
(09:56):
sometimes it takes a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
My favorite band is Hanson. Oh they will announce today
that their pre sale starts tomorrow and that their concert
is in four weeks.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Oh wow, They're just click.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's just so frustrating. So it's awesome. How kind of far.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Ahead you want started a plan for something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, we're crazy fans, so we made at work. She
was real crazy, but I am actually mid level. But
so we've talked a lot about concerts. What other types
of events does the event center have?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, I'm glad to ask because we do a variety
of things. And I actually brought some stats too that
we could just kind of share.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Just that kind of.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Speaks to it out a little bit more so. The
arena is what a lot of people know the event
center as, but truly we have so many additional spaces
and events that take place in our exhibit halls and
then our bell as well, which is more ticketed things
in the bell and more community events, but over in
the exhibit hall. I mean, I brought for twenty twenty
(11:00):
four stats just to give you kind of an idea.
We had seventeen trade shows last year with around sixty
nine thousand people in attendance. We had thirty five different
conferences or about forty seven seven sixty nine in attendance.
We had thirty meetings, twenty six receptions, seventy one miscellaneous events,
and that's all taking place over in our exhibit halls,
(11:22):
and a lot of those are taking place, you know,
during the same time. So that's the nice flexibility of
the exhibit hall space is it's one hundred thousand square
feet of exhibit hall space and we can have multiple
events taking place, maybe one in haul, a, one in
c something up in the meeting rooms, you know, all
during the same time, and sometimes stuff in the bell
(11:45):
and arena as well. So a wide variety of things,
and I would say the exhibit hall side is definitely
more of our economic impact driver of people coming and
staying in Bismarck, because it's it's your conferences where they're
they're here for at least maybe a two three nights
stay trade shows. You know, we've got the vendors and
(12:05):
stuff coming in and spending the nights in the hotels.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
It also can be like our.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Pride Dakota, the big one, Aren't Craft Fair, you know,
things like that, where people are coming in as vendors
and staying multiple days, but maybe the attendants are only there.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
For one day meetings.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
A lot of meetings take place in our Prairie Rose Rooms.
That's our set of conference rooms on the second level
of the exhibit hall. And receptions. We've started to get
into wedding receptions and things, I want to say starting
I should say this is probably about five years in now,
we've been doing a lot more wedding receptions just because
of kind of the nice flexibility with our space where
(12:47):
you really make it your own with what you want
and it can look nice and intimate, and sometimes it's
hard for people to visualize. They come in and they think, well,
I've only been in here for a basketball tournament, or
I've been in here for Pride Dakota. How does this
possibly turn into a nice wedding reception venue? But our
haulay is carpeted, you know, we can dim the lights.
(13:07):
They've got all kinds of things we can do with
lighting and portable walls and can make it into a
nice space.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
It's amazing to me how you can do all those
events in the exhibit hall, because I've been to a
kid's choir concerts there, I've been to my daughter said
dance competitions there. So it's just amazing how you take
all the space and transform into so many different things. Yeah,
how many staff do you have that work on that
do that?
Speaker 4 (13:33):
You know, we have a small but mighty staff, I
will say so currently we have twenty one full time employees,
and that is every department. So that is administration, that's operations,
that's our food and beverage, that's our box office, marketing, sales,
that's that's twenty one right there. And then part time
(13:56):
is really where we rely on key staff to help.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Us with the events.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And so we've got about one hundred, one hundred and
fifty part time depending on the time of the year employees,
and that is where we are ushers and door guards
and security, concessions workers, catering staff, additional maintenance staff, merch
workers runners. They come in and help supplement whatever the
need is for the events. So twenty one full time
(14:24):
is what we run on right now. Fully staff is
twenty five, but we're at twenty one right now.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So you really kind of already talked about the process
of booking a concert.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Is it typically.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I guess what is more common, you guys reaching out
to the artists or their agents reaching out to you,
or is it pretty even?
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, gosh uh, I'd say it's a good mix.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
The larger tours is more than reaching out to us
because they're planning a nationwide tour, so we're more of
a routing stop for them, you know, if they're trying
to go from Seattle to Minneapolis.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
I mean, we're conveniently.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
On their route, so they'll reach out to us because
we are right in that nice mix for them to
have a stop and not have their artist or their
staff travel too far between shows. So those ones they'll
reach out to us. The ones that we reach out
to a little bit more are sometimes if we've heard
of different artists that are doing well in other markets,
(15:35):
like Gosh.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
In twenty twenty four, we had a great year for comedy.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
We did a lot of great comedians and things, not
only at the Bell but also in the arena with
like Nate Bragatzi and a lot of good names Charlie
Barrons and.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
I keep going.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
But so those ones we did a little bit more
reach out because comedy was so hot and doing so
well for us at that time that we just wanted
to kind of keep that train going and find more comedy.
And so we work with different promoters that are in
the area and we would reach out to them and say, hey,
you know, comedy's doing well. Here's some of our statistics
(16:09):
that we've pulled recently. What do you have traveling or
who are you representing that you could possibly bring to us,
And so worked that way or for example, going back
to the zach top I mean that was kind of
us starting at but definitely them making that initial move
of committing to Bismarck because they only went to one
(16:30):
spot in North Dakota. They are coming from Montana to
North Dakota, then they're going down to Rapid City.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So another question that I have and maybe you don't
have the answer, but I've been able as a National
Guard member to take advantage of tickets, is that the
artists that typically donate them or is it the event
center that's providing those tickets that are maybe not sold
to the National Guard.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Yeah, so those are up to the promoter, which usually
falls back on if if the artist or the promoter,
the their agency or something is wanting to help do
vet tics and you know, different ways to donate tickets
to typically National Guard or first responders please fire that
sort of thing. That's on them to make those decisions,
(17:19):
especially if it's a show where we're just a rental
for them, like they're just renting the venue for us.
We don't get the ticket income or the ticket revenue.
So that's a financial decision that they make to say
that they want to donate those tickets. We only make
our money more off of like the facility fee on
a ticket, which is super minimal compared to the price
(17:41):
of the ticket, because they're setting the prices on the tickets.
So that's a decision they make. But I love when
they do that because it's it's fun to be able
to make those those calls and reach outs to.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
You know, offer up those kind of opportunities for people.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I've taken advantage good a couple of times. So then
you just said something that also you said the rental fee,
is that typically how the artists is they coming and
they rent the space or does the event center also
in certain circumstances get paid based on tickets.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Yeah, there's there's kind of three answers to that question.
So they can come in and just yeah, do a
straight rental where they say, we're bringing X artists to you,
and how much is it going to cost for you know,
labor and rental and all of that kind of stuff.
Then we just give them an estimate and then we
(18:36):
make our money off of the ancillary items like parking, merchandise,
cut concessions, catering, beer sales. We had a percentage of
beer sales. That's and then a ticket fee that we
do get our facility fee on the tickets. So that's
where we make our money off of those shows. Otherwise
(19:00):
we really don't make money half of those shows. I mean,
it's just more so we want that artist in our venue,
or we know it's a great community event and we
want to have them here, So that's when we do
a straight rental. Sometimes we do what's called a copro,
the co promotion of an artist. So we might know
an artist is coming in for one hundred thousand dollars,
so we're taking a fifty thousand dollars risk, and then
(19:21):
whatever company we're working with is going to take a
fifty thousand dollars risk. And then we put kind of
all of our expenses into the pot. And then at
the very end, you know, we take all expenses out,
so all of our labor and all of our hardline
items are covered, and then the profit is split evenly
with the two of us. And then the third option
sometimes is we will just go after a show and
(19:43):
just straight by the artists. So to go off my
previous example, if it's one hundred thousand dollars artists, we
take that full risk of that artist, and then of
course after the expenses are taken out, then that profit
stays with the event center.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
So I have a couple different ways.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
So, as you're talking a little bit about artists, do
artists really have the crazy retainers that are on talks about.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Oh, gosh, that's funny. Like the riders and the things
that they ask.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Only can have certain color skibbles or something.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Water.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Yeah, they they do get brand specific, So I for
sure will say that over the course of twelve years,
I will say I've noticed them shift to a lot
more brand specific on items than when I kind of
first started in this industry. And sometimes we don't have
(20:38):
those brands, right, Like we don't have a lot of
the very niche foods and things like that. So I mean,
we'll exhaust our resources here locally and try to find
what we can possibly find or order in if it's
something we can get in time, you know, for the
event to have on site. But if it's not something
we have, you know, we'll usually ask, like we don't
(21:00):
have this brand of sparkling water, can we do this
brand of sparkling water, and then give them a substitute.
But you know your question about like the green m
and ms or stuff. Sometimes they do that, And my
opinion on that is I think they put it in
there just to see if we're fully reading the rider
that we catch, like all those little things. Another very
(21:21):
specific thing that they'll have now is room temperatures, So
they want their dressing room that is maintained at a
certain room temperature the entire time that they're in the building.
Even though they're not in their dressing room the entire time,
they want it at sixty seven or whatever when they
get into the room and it's got to be at
sixty seven. Those are a little bit harder to sometimes maintain,
(21:43):
but we we do our best and that sort of thing.
But yeah, there's there's interesting requests like that. Laundry, lots
of like dry cleaning, laundry, chiropractors, doctors, dentists, things that
they'll need because if they're on the road and they
you know, choop a tooth or something and they need
(22:04):
to get to a dentist. Sometimes we'll just have to
try to find a dentist, you know, really quick that
can fix a tooth, or we got to find somebody
that can do something sometimes. So on also entertainment options
outside of the venue. If they're going to be here
for the full day or if they're going to be
here for a couple of days, so we'll try to
find some different things for them to do that aren't
(22:24):
super public, you know, So they're getting caught up in
that and they can have a little bit more of
an experience. But yeah, they do. They do put some
of those creative little things in there sometimes that you've
got to kind of weed through.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
And we go.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Through there's a few of us on the staff, you know,
Catering and concessions goes through their part more intensely, Operations
goes through their sales and marketing goes through theirs, and
then we kind of all look at it together just
to make sure that we're buttoning it up. So by
the time they get here and they're on site, they've
got this food in their dressing room, they've got this
food ready for their Bust'll have like a bus order
(23:01):
as well, So we've got to have food ready to
load onto their bus when they leave, and food when
they're on site dressing rooms.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
And sometimes they don't touch half the stuff, but they
got to pay for it.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
So but some of that actually, like in my brain
makes sense because I prefer a certain brand of water,
and I suppose temperature could impact vocal hortals possible, Yahi, Well,
cold water for sure is not a thing.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
They like their more room temperature, their beverages and stuff
more room temperature unless it's like a soda or something
that they want. But yeah, they definitely do a couple
of them. Over the years, they have traveled with their
own chefs, so they'll bring in their own chef for
the day, and so we've just had to go out
and get all the materials for the chef, and then
their chef comes on site and actually prepares their meals
(23:48):
and does all that. Luke Brian actually had a semi
with a kitchen inside, so when he showed up, they
literally opened up the back of the semi and it
was a full blown kitchen back there, and their chef
just prepared their meals and made their stuff for the day,
and it was very hands off for our staff to
have to worry about all their needs on that one.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
But if I've a ready half of the money, that's
one thing I would hire would be a chef.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
Yeah right, yep, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
So since you've been at the event center, what's been
your personal favorite event, whether it was something you were
a part of creating or were a participant in.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Oh Man, I really enjoy live music, so I would
say concerts are probably my favorite. You know, it's a
crazy day, you start your day super early in the morning.
Sometimes our operation staff, I should say, starts even earlier
than all of us to get their staff in the
building and start getting set up. And then I'm usually
(24:46):
there more on the tail end of the night, so
sometimes it's led into the next day. It's one, two,
three in the morning, just doing merchandise or that sort
of thing. So I enjoyed concerts. Some of my favorites,
I guess have been. Keith was a great one. He
did a fantastic VIP experience for his guests. He did
a really nice job with that. Derek Spentley, we did
(25:08):
a really neat gift for him because he owns his
own plane and he so we actually went and got
a model airplane and we got his call numbers and
put it on the side of his model airplane and
so he was flying that all around in the arena
and stuff. So that was kind of a fun one.
I would say, live music and then over on the
exhibit hall side. I mean, we've just our staff has
(25:29):
done a phenomenal job turning over events really fast, and
that's kind of the other enjoyment I like to see
is when we've gone from like a conference to a
basketball tournament to another show, trade show, or something being
set up. I mean you come in on Thursday it's
a conference, Friday it's a trade show, and Saturday it's
something completely different. So I mean seeing the turnover and
(25:51):
the change in the places has been really kind of
fun to see.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Do a lot of people buy tickets at the event
center still or almost all online?
Speaker 4 (26:03):
It depends, you know, if it's more of our Broadway
shows a little bit more of a local audience, then
there'll be more box office sales that sort of thing.
If it's a large concert announcement, definitely it's on sale
online typically more sales I should say you're done online,
so you know, you avoid some of the convenience fees
(26:23):
by buying at the box office. So there's definitely a
plus to purchase at the box office, and you can
get a little bit more time if you're specific about
a certain seat that you really want to choose. There's
that opportunity to tag to our staff that way. But
I would say majority of tickets are online, definitely, but
box office sales are still a necessity for people that
(26:47):
just want that opportunity to have a little bit more
time to choose a seat or avoid the fees.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Remember he used to wait in line to buy tickets
and I got schooled and didn't get Luke Bryan tickets.
Actually because it already sold out before is my chance
to be in line?
Speaker 4 (27:01):
So?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Or in line? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, So you've never camped out for twelve hours waiting
to get tickets or not a venue?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Not that crazy to you.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
I feel like you have expearing.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Ever, it's just done it in numerous times. Not just
had lawn.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Chairs instacarted or door dash to your location while you're
sitting there in December.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Oh no, I want to hear stories this out.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
She's lot many many.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I don't spend the night over though, see mid level, midlevel.
I guess another question I have is what would someone
find surprising about the Events Center?
Speaker 5 (27:39):
You know, I think it's.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Just the number of events and the variety events that
we do. You know, I said earlier, I brought in
like some of our stats. So just from twenty twenty four,
we pulled our stats. We had three hundred and eighty four,
three hundred and six people come through our building. And
that's the arena, Exhibit, Hall, and Bell the three combined
and seven hundred and eight event days, and I think
(28:02):
that's the number that's probably a little bit harder to
grasp because you think of three hundred and sixty five
days in a year and you think, oh, my gosh,
seven hundred and eight event days, how's that happen? Well,
clearly we have multiple events, you know, taking place on
the same day, and so I think it's just the
variety of events that we do that the public doesn't
always realize. And sometimes people will drive by the event
(28:24):
center and we'll get a phone call and they'll say,
what's going on. There's people in the parking lot. I
didn't know anything was happening, And honestly, the response is sometimes, well,
it's a conference, and it's a private conference. You're you're
just not invited. That's why it's not on our website.
You know, it's not an open conference for anybody to attend.
There's meetings that are taking place almost every single day,
(28:46):
so there's a lot of smaller events and things happening
that a lot of that stuff never makes it to
our website because it's a closed attendance, you know, they
just don't open it up. So to really just kind
of key in on that seven hundred and eight number. Again,
I think that's probably one of the neatest things about
our spaces, and you had said earlier just really how
versatile it is, of how you can turn it around
(29:08):
and have so many different things in there. One of
my favorite time laps videos that we have is converting
our arena and going from If I remember the order
of this correctly, I think it was a Deaf le
No excuse me. It started with a rodeo and that
ended on Saturday evening about ten o'clock, and so they
had to get all the steel out, all the dirt out,
everything because we had Deaf Leopard moving in at six
(29:29):
am the next morning, so we had to clear out
the entire arena. How we had between like ten pm
six am. Deaf Leopard was moving in that next day,
which was on a Sunday. We had that concert. On Monday,
we rolled into a basketball tournament. We had a tournament
in the arena on Monday, and then on Tuesday we
had a Broadway set theater which is with our carpet
(29:51):
and our tall floor to ceiling curtains in our arena.
So for completely different events four separate days, you know,
four different groups people probably attending all four of those events,
but our staff worked, you know, two overnights, three overnights
to get that to happen. And it's just the versatility
of a building like this that's pretty impressive that you
(30:13):
can enjoy many different types of events in the same space.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
So you also do some volunteering, and I know you're
very involved in the Optimist Club. Can you talk to
us about what the Optimist I can't say that word today,
It's okay. Optimist Club does for our community.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Yeah, our mission is friend of youth, and so our
main focus is impacting youth in different ways that we
can find beneficial in the community. Are two of our
biggest events and things that I really enjoy are our
Easter in Hunt that we do free on the Capitol
grounds every year. That's a really fun event that's grown
(30:49):
over the years. We do a bowling tournament fundraiser every year,
and that's just to get more funds to put back
into some of our programming and our services that we do.
We have an Optimist in Pack grant where a nonprofit
can apply for that grant and we donate out money
to a nonprofit to put towards some type of youth activity,
(31:11):
or we've done playground equipment, we've done books, we've done
things out it to our for Heart and soul, any
kind of opportunity for youth there. And then we have
our flags. That's one of our things that we also do.
If you kind of notice along State Street seven times
a year we put those flags up. That is a
(31:32):
nice kind of community thing. Not necessarily just for the
youth on that, but that's one of our community things
that we do.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
So really our focus is youth, but.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
We also do other things for the community too, just
for volunteering. And it's a great service club. I'm been
a part of it for many years now. I made
a lot of great friends in there and good connections
in the community.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
So one other thing you've been involved in was the
Bizmarck mand And Leadership Academy. Can you just quickly talk
about what that was.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yeah, that was a really neat program that I took
advantage of through At the time, it was just the
bus Mark Mandan Chamber and you apply for the program,
you get chosen to be a part of it, and
then you go through a series of different weeks where
you learn so much information about the community. There's like
(32:25):
an agriculture day, there's like a oh man, it was
like kind of safety security, the prison system, judicial system,
things like that in the courts, and you learn so
many different pockets of the community that you don't always
take the time to get to learn, kind of like
the citizen Academy you do with like the city more specifically,
(32:45):
this is more with just the community, and you also
do a project at the very end. And there's been
a lot of great projects I've seen done over the years.
So it's just kind of a short term experience to
just dive in a little bit deep around the community
and learn about what are all the different types of
services that are offered here, what are the different types
of organizations that make it happen, And you get a
(33:09):
really good kind of like well rounded idea of what
Bismark Mandan has.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
So in regards to leadership, what traits do you think
make a good leader and how do you leverage those
traits in varying leadership roles such as in business setting
or in a nonprofit setting.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
That's a great question I would start with. You know,
I guess one thing in leadership is I like to
enable the people under me to be able to.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
Be the best at their jobs.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
I don't want to be right there hovering and I'm
I'm a manager that wants to learn and like walk
alongside them. So if I'm asking them to do something,
I want to understand, really how does that work. So
if I'm asking them to do it, I should be
able to have an idea of how it works. I
might not necessarily always be doing it, but have an
understand for how it works. So I like to make
(34:02):
sure that the staff has the tools that make them
successful to be able to do the jobs that they.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Can do to the best of their ability.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
And then I mean, I think workplace atmosphere is huge
for a job. I mean, I just think of and
maybe this is me getting older in life. I don't know,
but like life is so short and there's just so
many things that are outside of life that take place.
But when you're spending as much time as you do
(34:30):
with your workplace and your coworkers, it can become a family,
it can become a close knit group. You just really
want to make sure that you have a good atmosphere
that's pleasing to be at, or if it's not, you
try to find a way to change that up yourself
and if it still doesn't work, then you leave. You know,
(34:51):
life's too short to not stay in a place where
you're not happy. But I think workplace atmosphere is huge,
and so that's something that I think is very important
for a leader to kind of set that precedence and
then hopefully a lot of those characteristics and traits are
then passed along to everybody trying to have that same
goal in mind.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Of keeping that top of mind.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
When you finally find a job with like a great atmosphere,
it's very hard to want to leave, even if it's
a progression, because it's so hard to find that I
have found personally, absolutely, But we are already out of time,
and so this is a question that we ask everyone
that we have as a guest, how would you encourage
(35:34):
others to be a good neighbor.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
I would just say, you know, lend a hand when
you can. It's something that I think Bismarck Mandan living
here now, you know, as a college student and then
post college and now with kind of a career and
a mom and having a family and things here. My
life has definitely changed here over the years, but there's
(36:00):
always opportunities to lend a hand and give back. And
that's one thing I've always tried to do since I've
lived here, is find a way to always give back
to the community that gives to me. So if that's
opportunities with you know, the Optimist Club or other civic organizations,
or if it's just walking by a piece of litter
and picking it up and putting it in the garbage,
because that's all the time that you can give. That
(36:23):
makes a difference too, you know. I just think that
there's ways to lend a hand and give back to
the community that we are proud to live in. And
there's so many ways that that you can do it,
and there's no scale of what you have to do,
is just what you can what you can do, right well.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Thank you Amanda for joining us, and thanks to everyone
for tuning in to These your Neighbors. Thank you for
wanting to get to know your neighbors as we hold
these important and necessary conversations. If you've found this conversation
as important as we do, please make sure to share
it with your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Thank you for tuning in to These Are Your Neighbors,
a podcast hosted by the City of Bismarcks Human Relations
Committee and produced by Dakota Media Access. We hope you
were inspired by the stories of citizens driving meaningful change
in Bismarck. For more info on the HRC, visit BISMARCKND
dot gov.
Welcome to These Are Your Neighbors, a podcast hosted by
the City of Bismarck's Human Relations Committee and produced by
Dakota Media Access. The purpose of the podcast is to
celebrate change makers in Bismarck whose contributions break barriers, build connections,
and redefine what is possible for our community.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome to These Are Your Neighbors, a podcast hosted by
Tia Jorgensen and Sargeana Whitsky, both members of the City
of Bismarck's Human Relations Committee. Thank you for joining us
as we highlight the individuals driving positive change and making
a lasting impact on our community. Their stories inspire progress
and shape the future of our city.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Our guest today is Amanda Yellow. For nearly twelve years,
Amanda has served as the sales and Marketing manager at
the Bismarck Events Center, where she gets to do what
she loves the most, connect with people, support our community
working in the entertainment business, and help bring unforgettable events
to life. Before this role, she got her start at
Agency Mabu as a college intern, then joined the team
(01:05):
full time. From there, she took a job as a
management role at TRIPLEA Travel and Insurance and later worked
with RASPUS in college as a professional development coordinator, each
experience helping her to learn how to lead, collaborate, and grow.
Amanda earned her bachel's degree in Business Communication and Business
Administration from the University Mary and went on to complete
(01:26):
her master's in Management Organizational Behavior from Benedictine University in Chicago.
Along the way, she also became a proud graduate of
the Bismarck Mandan Leadership Academy and was honored to be
named the Bismarck Mandan Business and Professional Women's Foundations Woman
of the Year in twenty sixteen. Amanda was also the
Sakakawia Award winner for the Young Professionals Network, and most
(01:48):
recently was recognized by the Dakota's Manitoba Minnesota Optimist District
in twenty eighteen as the Optimist of the Year and
then the Bismarck Optimist Club twenty twenty two outstaniam and
to Miss of the Year. Outside of work, she loves
giving back. Amandas serve on many different boards and volunteered
in different capacities in the community, but some of her
(02:09):
favorite include coaching basketball, volleyball, and soccer for Bismarck special Olympics, volunteering,
her time with the Bismarck Optimist Club on many different projects,
including the annual Easter egg hunt and bowling tournament, and
her previous involvement with a Young Professionals network. In her
free time, she enjoys camping, traveling, and spending time with
her husband, two kids, and a mini labradoodle. Welcome, Amanda,
(02:33):
thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I am going to kick this off by derailing and
starting with a random question. But when your bio said
professional development coordinator, what was like? What was that specifically
that profession?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Sure, it was kind of a unique position for the college,
but really something I enjoyed. So what I did is
I went around to different career fairs, organizations that paid
for education for their employees and encourage them to go
back to school. And so it was a matter of
(03:09):
sometimes just having a booth at.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
A career fair or a college fair.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Or setting up a booth in a lunch room at
maybe I think sometimes we had gone to like an
NISC or different places where they actually have education assistants
for their employees and just being there as a resource
in case that there's an opportunity for them to go
back to school. Or maybe it's just not even to
go back to school, it's just to get a couple
of classes under their belt, if they're just wanting to
(03:35):
get a little bit more expertise in a certain subject.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So now why is Bismarck home?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Oh my gosh, you know what, It's kind of funny.
I chose Bismarck with the intent of kind of splitting
the difference between my families I have. I grew up
in Montana, my mom is from Montana. I have a
lot of relatives in Montana. My parents still live in Montana,
but my dad's side of the family is all in Minnesota,
(04:05):
and so we would only go out there maybe once
a year to see my dad's side of the family.
And so when I was looking around at colleges, I
of course checked out Montana and then decided, you know,
I'm going to go a little bit further from home,
you know, cross that border and really make that big leap.
And then I just put the difference between Bismarck and
or excues me between Montana and Minnesota. So I was
(04:27):
kind of in between all family, and then I just stayed.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
I love the community.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I mean I love my job that I have right now,
and just kept finding different opportunities from my internship that
I started with at MABU progressing up into other occupations
and then I have a great friend foundation here that
kind of keeps me grounded.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
So was your master's degree then online?
Speaker 5 (04:53):
It was? Okay, yep.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
So it was a program actually through Rasmus in college.
They had additional master opportunities that their students could go
on and utilize, and while I worked there as an employee,
we also had that opportunity to go on for our masters.
So yes, I did it online. I did have to
go to the college one time for like a practicum
(05:17):
weekend and we just had to be a part of
a kind of a speech engagement and then do a
paper in project off of that, but of course work
was online.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So can you talk to us about your role as
the sales and marketing manager for the event center?
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Yeah, it's very diverse right now.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
So sales and marketing, I mean is kind of a large,
all encompassing term for so many different things, but more
specifically in the event industry, what I do is anything
from helping to manage the calendar. So when an agent
or a promoter or a booking agency calls in and
(05:58):
they say, you know, we're routing ex artists through the area,
do you have availability. I have access to the calendar
to mark down some dates and start with them from
kind of the very very beginning stages, all the way
through doing the contracting process and getting that underway, and
then securing the acts, and now you know, from pre
(06:22):
sale on sale announcements, and now comes more of the
marketing side, getting the graphics ready. You know, I have
a marketing specialist that works under me as well, and
she is fantastic with taking the graphics and making them,
you know, size ready for whatever medium we're putting them
out to. So if it's a billboard or if it's
(06:44):
a digital ad, you know, a Facebook or social or
something like that, she resizes all that, gets it all ready,
and then we put together our marketing plan for how
we're going to spend the dollars. Sometimes that's a combination
of us putting together the information and kind of having
free reign, or sometimes they just come to us, like
(07:05):
with large tour announcements, that they'll come to us and say, okay,
here's your dollar amount. These are the places that we
were going to have you place, and I'm just kind
of the in between person placing the information for them.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
So this is not only for the event centers, also
for the belt Mayhoos.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Yeah, yep. We also manage the bell Mayhouse.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
So so it's the arena side, We got our exhibit
hall side, and then the bells are kind of the
three different arms of the of the event center.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So you're talking about booking things. How far in advance
do you know that your book something before you announce it?
Like how long you are to keep that a secret?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That is a secret?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Yeah, that's a secret right there.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You know. Gosh, it varies depending on kind of the
the tour or the sometimes the level of the artist.
You know, if it's a national tour and it's something
that we've been working on for a very long time,
I'll usually have one day where every venue on that
tour will announce. So we've got to wait until everybody
(08:06):
is ready with all of their ducks in a road
contracting and negotiations and marketing, and everybody is on the
same page. So we announced at the same time. When
it's a little bit smaller of a tour, I mean
we can turn it around pretty quickly. I mean sometimes
we've had events call in on a Monday and say
I want to announce this by a Friday, the event
isn't till later on. Of course, usually we like at
(08:28):
least three months or so down the road and then
we can get going on their stuff. But to give
an example of one that's taken a really long time,
we just announced and went on sale and sold out
Zach Top and so that was a country artist. I
was going back in my emails and I found my
very very first email I wrote to the it was
(08:50):
the agent at this time, just saying, hey, we're interested
in this this guy. Is he in the market? I mean,
is he even traveling through Bismarck? And that was June
twenty first of twenty twenty four, So that one was
almost a full year that it took for us to
kind of work through. And it wasn't necessarily.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Our venue.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
It was he was just climbing so fast, and he
was on tour. He was touring with Alan Jackson and
Dirk Spentley and they didn't have him headline his own
tour yet, so he was still kind of finishing up
other tours. Plus he was going to then go on
and do his own tour. So they hadn't had all
the details in place, so we had contacted them again
in November. January they reached out to us and said,
(09:33):
all right, he could be in the area. You know,
here's some dates that we're looking at. We found out
in I think it was April that we got the date.
We couldn't announce it until June, and then we went
announced pre sale on sale all in June and announced
July one. And he doesn't come down November fourth, So
(09:56):
sometimes it takes a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
My favorite band is Hanson. Oh they will announce today
that their pre sale starts tomorrow and that their concert
is in four weeks.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Oh wow, They're just click.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's just so frustrating. So it's awesome. How kind of far.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Ahead you want started a plan for something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, we're crazy fans, so we made at work. She
was real crazy, but I am actually mid level. But
so we've talked a lot about concerts. What other types
of events does the event center have?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, I'm glad to ask because we do a variety
of things. And I actually brought some stats too that
we could just kind of share.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Just that kind of.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Speaks to it out a little bit more so. The
arena is what a lot of people know the event
center as, but truly we have so many additional spaces
and events that take place in our exhibit halls and
then our bell as well, which is more ticketed things
in the bell and more community events, but over in
the exhibit hall. I mean, I brought for twenty twenty
(11:00):
four stats just to give you kind of an idea.
We had seventeen trade shows last year with around sixty
nine thousand people in attendance. We had thirty five different
conferences or about forty seven seven sixty nine in attendance.
We had thirty meetings, twenty six receptions, seventy one miscellaneous events,
and that's all taking place over in our exhibit halls,
(11:22):
and a lot of those are taking place, you know,
during the same time. So that's the nice flexibility of
the exhibit hall space is it's one hundred thousand square
feet of exhibit hall space and we can have multiple
events taking place, maybe one in haul, a, one in
c something up in the meeting rooms, you know, all
during the same time, and sometimes stuff in the bell
(11:45):
and arena as well. So a wide variety of things,
and I would say the exhibit hall side is definitely
more of our economic impact driver of people coming and
staying in Bismarck, because it's it's your conferences where they're
they're here for at least maybe a two three nights
stay trade shows. You know, we've got the vendors and
(12:05):
stuff coming in and spending the nights in the hotels.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
It also can be like our.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Pride Dakota, the big one, Aren't Craft Fair, you know,
things like that, where people are coming in as vendors
and staying multiple days, but maybe the attendants are only there.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
For one day meetings.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
A lot of meetings take place in our Prairie Rose Rooms.
That's our set of conference rooms on the second level
of the exhibit hall. And receptions. We've started to get
into wedding receptions and things, I want to say starting
I should say this is probably about five years in now,
we've been doing a lot more wedding receptions just because
of kind of the nice flexibility with our space where
(12:47):
you really make it your own with what you want
and it can look nice and intimate, and sometimes it's
hard for people to visualize. They come in and they think, well,
I've only been in here for a basketball tournament, or
I've been in here for Pride Dakota. How does this
possibly turn into a nice wedding reception venue? But our
haulay is carpeted, you know, we can dim the lights.
(13:07):
They've got all kinds of things we can do with
lighting and portable walls and can make it into a
nice space.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
It's amazing to me how you can do all those
events in the exhibit hall, because I've been to a
kid's choir concerts there, I've been to my daughter said
dance competitions there. So it's just amazing how you take
all the space and transform into so many different things. Yeah,
how many staff do you have that work on that
do that?
Speaker 4 (13:33):
You know, we have a small but mighty staff, I
will say so currently we have twenty one full time employees,
and that is every department. So that is administration, that's operations,
that's our food and beverage, that's our box office, marketing, sales,
that's that's twenty one right there. And then part time
(13:56):
is really where we rely on key staff to help.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Us with the events.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And so we've got about one hundred, one hundred and
fifty part time depending on the time of the year employees,
and that is where we are ushers and door guards
and security, concessions workers, catering staff, additional maintenance staff, merch
workers runners. They come in and help supplement whatever the
need is for the events. So twenty one full time
(14:24):
is what we run on right now. Fully staff is
twenty five, but we're at twenty one right now.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
So you really kind of already talked about the process
of booking a concert.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Is it typically.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I guess what is more common, you guys reaching out
to the artists or their agents reaching out to you,
or is it pretty even?
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, gosh uh, I'd say it's a good mix.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
The larger tours is more than reaching out to us
because they're planning a nationwide tour, so we're more of
a routing stop for them, you know, if they're trying
to go from Seattle to Minneapolis.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
I mean, we're conveniently.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
On their route, so they'll reach out to us because
we are right in that nice mix for them to
have a stop and not have their artist or their
staff travel too far between shows. So those ones they'll
reach out to us. The ones that we reach out
to a little bit more are sometimes if we've heard
of different artists that are doing well in other markets,
(15:35):
like Gosh.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
In twenty twenty four, we had a great year for comedy.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
We did a lot of great comedians and things, not
only at the Bell but also in the arena with
like Nate Bragatzi and a lot of good names Charlie
Barrons and.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
I keep going.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
But so those ones we did a little bit more
reach out because comedy was so hot and doing so
well for us at that time that we just wanted
to kind of keep that train going and find more comedy.
And so we work with different promoters that are in
the area and we would reach out to them and say, hey,
you know, comedy's doing well. Here's some of our statistics
(16:09):
that we've pulled recently. What do you have traveling or
who are you representing that you could possibly bring to us,
And so worked that way or for example, going back
to the zach top I mean that was kind of
us starting at but definitely them making that initial move
of committing to Bismarck because they only went to one
(16:30):
spot in North Dakota. They are coming from Montana to
North Dakota, then they're going down to Rapid City.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So another question that I have and maybe you don't
have the answer, but I've been able as a National
Guard member to take advantage of tickets, is that the
artists that typically donate them or is it the event
center that's providing those tickets that are maybe not sold
to the National Guard.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Yeah, so those are up to the promoter, which usually
falls back on if if the artist or the promoter,
the their agency or something is wanting to help do
vet tics and you know, different ways to donate tickets
to typically National Guard or first responders please fire that
sort of thing. That's on them to make those decisions,
(17:19):
especially if it's a show where we're just a rental
for them, like they're just renting the venue for us.
We don't get the ticket income or the ticket revenue.
So that's a financial decision that they make to say
that they want to donate those tickets. We only make
our money more off of like the facility fee on
a ticket, which is super minimal compared to the price
(17:41):
of the ticket, because they're setting the prices on the tickets.
So that's a decision they make. But I love when
they do that because it's it's fun to be able
to make those those calls and reach outs to.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
You know, offer up those kind of opportunities for people.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I've taken advantage good a couple of times. So then
you just said something that also you said the rental fee,
is that typically how the artists is they coming and
they rent the space or does the event center also
in certain circumstances get paid based on tickets.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Yeah, there's there's kind of three answers to that question.
So they can come in and just yeah, do a
straight rental where they say, we're bringing X artists to you,
and how much is it going to cost for you know,
labor and rental and all of that kind of stuff.
Then we just give them an estimate and then we
(18:36):
make our money off of the ancillary items like parking, merchandise,
cut concessions, catering, beer sales. We had a percentage of
beer sales. That's and then a ticket fee that we
do get our facility fee on the tickets. So that's
where we make our money off of those shows. Otherwise
(19:00):
we really don't make money half of those shows. I mean,
it's just more so we want that artist in our venue,
or we know it's a great community event and we
want to have them here, So that's when we do
a straight rental. Sometimes we do what's called a copro,
the co promotion of an artist. So we might know
an artist is coming in for one hundred thousand dollars,
so we're taking a fifty thousand dollars risk, and then
(19:21):
whatever company we're working with is going to take a
fifty thousand dollars risk. And then we put kind of
all of our expenses into the pot. And then at
the very end, you know, we take all expenses out,
so all of our labor and all of our hardline
items are covered, and then the profit is split evenly
with the two of us. And then the third option
sometimes is we will just go after a show and
(19:43):
just straight by the artists. So to go off my
previous example, if it's one hundred thousand dollars artists, we
take that full risk of that artist, and then of
course after the expenses are taken out, then that profit
stays with the event center.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
So I have a couple different ways.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
So, as you're talking a little bit about artists, do
artists really have the crazy retainers that are on talks about.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Oh, gosh, that's funny. Like the riders and the things
that they ask.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Only can have certain color skibbles or something.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Water.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Yeah, they they do get brand specific, So I for
sure will say that over the course of twelve years,
I will say I've noticed them shift to a lot
more brand specific on items than when I kind of
first started in this industry. And sometimes we don't have
(20:38):
those brands, right, Like we don't have a lot of
the very niche foods and things like that. So I mean,
we'll exhaust our resources here locally and try to find
what we can possibly find or order in if it's
something we can get in time, you know, for the
event to have on site. But if it's not something
we have, you know, we'll usually ask, like we don't
(21:00):
have this brand of sparkling water, can we do this
brand of sparkling water, and then give them a substitute.
But you know your question about like the green m
and ms or stuff. Sometimes they do that, And my
opinion on that is I think they put it in
there just to see if we're fully reading the rider
that we catch, like all those little things. Another very
(21:21):
specific thing that they'll have now is room temperatures, So
they want their dressing room that is maintained at a
certain room temperature the entire time that they're in the building.
Even though they're not in their dressing room the entire time,
they want it at sixty seven or whatever when they
get into the room and it's got to be at
sixty seven. Those are a little bit harder to sometimes maintain,
(21:43):
but we we do our best and that sort of thing.
But yeah, there's there's interesting requests like that. Laundry, lots
of like dry cleaning, laundry, chiropractors, doctors, dentists, things that
they'll need because if they're on the road and they
you know, choop a tooth or something and they need
(22:04):
to get to a dentist. Sometimes we'll just have to
try to find a dentist, you know, really quick that
can fix a tooth, or we got to find somebody
that can do something sometimes. So on also entertainment options
outside of the venue. If they're going to be here
for the full day or if they're going to be
here for a couple of days, so we'll try to
find some different things for them to do that aren't
(22:24):
super public, you know, So they're getting caught up in
that and they can have a little bit more of
an experience. But yeah, they do. They do put some
of those creative little things in there sometimes that you've
got to kind of weed through.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
And we go.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Through there's a few of us on the staff, you know,
Catering and concessions goes through their part more intensely, Operations
goes through their sales and marketing goes through theirs, and
then we kind of all look at it together just
to make sure that we're buttoning it up. So by
the time they get here and they're on site, they've
got this food in their dressing room, they've got this
food ready for their Bust'll have like a bus order
(23:01):
as well, So we've got to have food ready to
load onto their bus when they leave, and food when
they're on site dressing rooms.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
And sometimes they don't touch half the stuff, but they
got to pay for it.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
So but some of that actually, like in my brain
makes sense because I prefer a certain brand of water,
and I suppose temperature could impact vocal hortals possible, Yahi, Well,
cold water for sure is not a thing.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
They like their more room temperature, their beverages and stuff
more room temperature unless it's like a soda or something
that they want. But yeah, they definitely do a couple
of them. Over the years, they have traveled with their
own chefs, so they'll bring in their own chef for
the day, and so we've just had to go out
and get all the materials for the chef, and then
their chef comes on site and actually prepares their meals
(23:48):
and does all that. Luke Brian actually had a semi
with a kitchen inside, so when he showed up, they
literally opened up the back of the semi and it
was a full blown kitchen back there, and their chef
just prepared their meals and made their stuff for the day,
and it was very hands off for our staff to
have to worry about all their needs on that one.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
But if I've a ready half of the money, that's
one thing I would hire would be a chef.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
Yeah right, yep, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
So since you've been at the event center, what's been
your personal favorite event, whether it was something you were
a part of creating or were a participant in.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Oh Man, I really enjoy live music, so I would
say concerts are probably my favorite. You know, it's a
crazy day, you start your day super early in the morning.
Sometimes our operation staff, I should say, starts even earlier
than all of us to get their staff in the
building and start getting set up. And then I'm usually
(24:46):
there more on the tail end of the night, so
sometimes it's led into the next day. It's one, two,
three in the morning, just doing merchandise or that sort
of thing. So I enjoyed concerts. Some of my favorites,
I guess have been. Keith was a great one. He
did a fantastic VIP experience for his guests. He did
a really nice job with that. Derek Spentley, we did
(25:08):
a really neat gift for him because he owns his
own plane and he so we actually went and got
a model airplane and we got his call numbers and
put it on the side of his model airplane and
so he was flying that all around in the arena
and stuff. So that was kind of a fun one.
I would say, live music and then over on the
exhibit hall side. I mean, we've just our staff has
(25:29):
done a phenomenal job turning over events really fast, and
that's kind of the other enjoyment I like to see
is when we've gone from like a conference to a
basketball tournament to another show, trade show, or something being
set up. I mean you come in on Thursday it's
a conference, Friday it's a trade show, and Saturday it's
something completely different. So I mean seeing the turnover and
(25:51):
the change in the places has been really kind of
fun to see.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Do a lot of people buy tickets at the event
center still or almost all online?
Speaker 4 (26:03):
It depends, you know, if it's more of our Broadway
shows a little bit more of a local audience, then
there'll be more box office sales that sort of thing.
If it's a large concert announcement, definitely it's on sale
online typically more sales I should say you're done online,
so you know, you avoid some of the convenience fees
(26:23):
by buying at the box office. So there's definitely a
plus to purchase at the box office, and you can
get a little bit more time if you're specific about
a certain seat that you really want to choose. There's
that opportunity to tag to our staff that way. But
I would say majority of tickets are online, definitely, but
box office sales are still a necessity for people that
(26:47):
just want that opportunity to have a little bit more
time to choose a seat or avoid the fees.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Remember he used to wait in line to buy tickets
and I got schooled and didn't get Luke Bryan tickets.
Actually because it already sold out before is my chance
to be in line?
Speaker 4 (27:01):
So?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Or in line? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, So you've never camped out for twelve hours waiting
to get tickets or not a venue?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Not that crazy to you.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
I feel like you have expearing.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Ever, it's just done it in numerous times. Not just
had lawn.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Chairs instacarted or door dash to your location while you're
sitting there in December.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Oh no, I want to hear stories this out.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
She's lot many many.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I don't spend the night over though, see mid level, midlevel.
I guess another question I have is what would someone
find surprising about the Events Center?
Speaker 5 (27:39):
You know, I think it's.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Just the number of events and the variety events that
we do. You know, I said earlier, I brought in
like some of our stats. So just from twenty twenty four,
we pulled our stats. We had three hundred and eighty four,
three hundred and six people come through our building. And
that's the arena, Exhibit, Hall, and Bell the three combined
and seven hundred and eight event days, and I think
(28:02):
that's the number that's probably a little bit harder to
grasp because you think of three hundred and sixty five
days in a year and you think, oh, my gosh,
seven hundred and eight event days, how's that happen? Well,
clearly we have multiple events, you know, taking place on
the same day, and so I think it's just the
variety of events that we do that the public doesn't
always realize. And sometimes people will drive by the event
(28:24):
center and we'll get a phone call and they'll say,
what's going on. There's people in the parking lot. I
didn't know anything was happening, And honestly, the response is sometimes, well,
it's a conference, and it's a private conference. You're you're
just not invited. That's why it's not on our website.
You know, it's not an open conference for anybody to attend.
There's meetings that are taking place almost every single day,
(28:46):
so there's a lot of smaller events and things happening
that a lot of that stuff never makes it to
our website because it's a closed attendance, you know, they
just don't open it up. So to really just kind
of key in on that seven hundred and eight number. Again,
I think that's probably one of the neatest things about
our spaces, and you had said earlier just really how
versatile it is, of how you can turn it around
(29:08):
and have so many different things in there. One of
my favorite time laps videos that we have is converting
our arena and going from If I remember the order
of this correctly, I think it was a Deaf le
No excuse me. It started with a rodeo and that
ended on Saturday evening about ten o'clock, and so they
had to get all the steel out, all the dirt out,
everything because we had Deaf Leopard moving in at six
(29:29):
am the next morning, so we had to clear out
the entire arena. How we had between like ten pm
six am. Deaf Leopard was moving in that next day,
which was on a Sunday. We had that concert. On Monday,
we rolled into a basketball tournament. We had a tournament
in the arena on Monday, and then on Tuesday we
had a Broadway set theater which is with our carpet
(29:51):
and our tall floor to ceiling curtains in our arena.
So for completely different events four separate days, you know,
four different groups people probably attending all four of those events,
but our staff worked, you know, two overnights, three overnights
to get that to happen. And it's just the versatility
of a building like this that's pretty impressive that you
(30:13):
can enjoy many different types of events in the same space.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
So you also do some volunteering, and I know you're
very involved in the Optimist Club. Can you talk to
us about what the Optimist I can't say that word today,
It's okay. Optimist Club does for our community.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Yeah, our mission is friend of youth, and so our
main focus is impacting youth in different ways that we
can find beneficial in the community. Are two of our
biggest events and things that I really enjoy are our
Easter in Hunt that we do free on the Capitol
grounds every year. That's a really fun event that's grown
(30:49):
over the years. We do a bowling tournament fundraiser every year,
and that's just to get more funds to put back
into some of our programming and our services that we do.
We have an Optimist in Pack grant where a nonprofit
can apply for that grant and we donate out money
to a nonprofit to put towards some type of youth activity,
(31:11):
or we've done playground equipment, we've done books, we've done
things out it to our for Heart and soul, any
kind of opportunity for youth there. And then we have
our flags. That's one of our things that we also do.
If you kind of notice along State Street seven times
a year we put those flags up. That is a
(31:32):
nice kind of community thing. Not necessarily just for the
youth on that, but that's one of our community things
that we do.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
So really our focus is youth, but.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
We also do other things for the community too, just
for volunteering. And it's a great service club. I'm been
a part of it for many years now. I made
a lot of great friends in there and good connections
in the community.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
So one other thing you've been involved in was the
Bizmarck mand And Leadership Academy. Can you just quickly talk
about what that was.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yeah, that was a really neat program that I took
advantage of through At the time, it was just the
bus Mark Mandan Chamber and you apply for the program,
you get chosen to be a part of it, and
then you go through a series of different weeks where
you learn so much information about the community. There's like
(32:25):
an agriculture day, there's like a oh man, it was
like kind of safety security, the prison system, judicial system,
things like that in the courts, and you learn so
many different pockets of the community that you don't always
take the time to get to learn, kind of like
the citizen Academy you do with like the city more specifically,
(32:45):
this is more with just the community, and you also
do a project at the very end. And there's been
a lot of great projects I've seen done over the years.
So it's just kind of a short term experience to
just dive in a little bit deep around the community
and learn about what are all the different types of
services that are offered here, what are the different types
of organizations that make it happen, And you get a
(33:09):
really good kind of like well rounded idea of what
Bismark Mandan has.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
So in regards to leadership, what traits do you think
make a good leader and how do you leverage those
traits in varying leadership roles such as in business setting
or in a nonprofit setting.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
That's a great question I would start with. You know,
I guess one thing in leadership is I like to
enable the people under me to be able to.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
Be the best at their jobs.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
I don't want to be right there hovering and I'm
I'm a manager that wants to learn and like walk
alongside them. So if I'm asking them to do something,
I want to understand, really how does that work. So
if I'm asking them to do it, I should be
able to have an idea of how it works. I
might not necessarily always be doing it, but have an
understand for how it works. So I like to make
(34:02):
sure that the staff has the tools that make them
successful to be able to do the jobs that they.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Can do to the best of their ability.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
And then I mean, I think workplace atmosphere is huge
for a job. I mean, I just think of and
maybe this is me getting older in life. I don't know,
but like life is so short and there's just so
many things that are outside of life that take place.
But when you're spending as much time as you do
(34:30):
with your workplace and your coworkers, it can become a family,
it can become a close knit group. You just really
want to make sure that you have a good atmosphere
that's pleasing to be at, or if it's not, you
try to find a way to change that up yourself
and if it still doesn't work, then you leave. You know,
(34:51):
life's too short to not stay in a place where
you're not happy. But I think workplace atmosphere is huge,
and so that's something that I think is very important
for a leader to kind of set that precedence and
then hopefully a lot of those characteristics and traits are
then passed along to everybody trying to have that same
goal in mind.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Of keeping that top of mind.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
When you finally find a job with like a great atmosphere,
it's very hard to want to leave, even if it's
a progression, because it's so hard to find that I
have found personally, absolutely, But we are already out of time,
and so this is a question that we ask everyone
that we have as a guest, how would you encourage
(35:34):
others to be a good neighbor.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
I would just say, you know, lend a hand when
you can. It's something that I think Bismarck Mandan living
here now, you know, as a college student and then
post college and now with kind of a career and
a mom and having a family and things here. My
life has definitely changed here over the years, but there's
(36:00):
always opportunities to lend a hand and give back. And
that's one thing I've always tried to do since I've
lived here, is find a way to always give back
to the community that gives to me. So if that's
opportunities with you know, the Optimist Club or other civic organizations,
or if it's just walking by a piece of litter
and picking it up and putting it in the garbage,
because that's all the time that you can give. That
(36:23):
makes a difference too, you know. I just think that
there's ways to lend a hand and give back to
the community that we are proud to live in. And
there's so many ways that that you can do it,
and there's no scale of what you have to do,
is just what you can what you can do, right well.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Thank you Amanda for joining us, and thanks to everyone
for tuning in to These your Neighbors. Thank you for
wanting to get to know your neighbors as we hold
these important and necessary conversations. If you've found this conversation
as important as we do, please make sure to share
it with your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Thank you for tuning in to These Are Your Neighbors,
a podcast hosted by the City of Bismarcks Human Relations
Committee and produced by Dakota Media Access. We hope you
were inspired by the stories of citizens driving meaningful change
in Bismarck. For more info on the HRC, visit BISMARCKND
dot gov.
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