00:00:13,530	Welcome to Bismarck Insights with Mayor Mike Schmitz, a transparent and engaging conversational dive into meaningful topics impacting local government in Bismarck, North Dakota. Bismarck Insights is dedicated to removing barriers between the City of Bismarck and the citizens we serve every day.

00:00:34,530	Good morning and welcome to Bismarck insights on Bismarck Mayor Mike Schmitz. Today we're focusing on the event Center and with me as our new general manager, Brad Murphy, who is with Oakview Group.

00:00:55,800	It's an exciting time because we've already seen some things happening recently with acts coming in that has been spurred by the announcement and obviously moving forward with the contracted operator for the event center. But Brad, why don't you give a little bit of background about yourself to our audience so you know who you are and and you know that you come from a local community? Yeah. Thanks, Mayor Schmitz. It's just great to be here today. We're excited.

00:01:13,700	Oakview Group is excited. I think the community of Bismarck is excited as well. I've been in this business for for a long time, up to upwards of 30 years. And ironically, I began my career in Langdon, North Dakota.

00:01:37,230	So I've been in tertiary markets for all of my career stops in Bozeman and Missoula, and then last ten years, Casper as the GM there at the Ford Wyoming Center and then working for on the road as a transition manager. So I'm originally from central Montana. I raised in a rural environment on a on a cattle and sheep ranch. So I understand eastern Montana and western North Dakota very well.

00:02:00,070	It feels like I'm at home here in Bismarck, which I am, and super excited just to be here. And as we've talked, I mean, obviously the group is the contracted management company, but it's really the Bismarck Event Center. Absolutely. That's what we're marketing. We're not marketing anything else. Absolutely.

00:02:19,630	I mean, we're about the community and, you know, just it will always be first and foremost, the Bismarck Event Center. And we went through a process to ultimately select your firm to manage it. And part of that process is we want to know who the general manager is going to be. So, you know, you guys brought you in.

00:02:37,270	Yeah, I mean, my boss called me in December and said, Brad, do you want to get off the road and and take over Bismarck? And that really wasn't a hard decision. You know, I'm from this area. I understand what it's like to work in a tertiary market.

00:02:53,800	And, you know, I think we were excited about the selection process. You know, this is the right size of market for buildings, believe it or not. I mean, the majority of our buildings are in markets. We also manage the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. So that transition and and that collaboration are right there.

00:03:11,970	So that process made sense for us to to come to Bismarck. Sure. And so one of the things that has a big, been a big part of why we went through the process and vetted various entities for for serving in the capacity of managing the building and bringing the general manager here was key performance indicators.

00:03:32,230	And some of the things that we feel as a community are important. And certainly leadership has felt as important. So but from your perspective, what do you find are going to be key performance indicators that you know that we're being successful at the event center and the Bell major's. Yeah, absolutely.

00:03:48,900	And that's a really great point that we have three fabulous buildings to manage your the arena, the exhibit hall and the bell. Really, at the end of the day, I mean, we're going to get out in the community. We're going to be visible. You know, all of those things that that help us with our KPIs.

00:04:10,100	The bottom line will be the bottom line, and that's what we will strive for. I mean, that is that is how we are really measured. And we're here to increase the revenue, maintain the expenses where they're at, and really drive content to our facilities.

00:04:30,700	And I think when we do that, that will align with all the KPIs that we have in place and really solidify where we're at. Sure. And you mentioned one of those KPIs is Bottom Line. So we want to improvement in bottom line, which has been a struggling point for for the facilities. And I'm excited about the the plan and path forward.

00:04:47,900	But it's also that we're going to bring people to town that will then eat in our restaurants and shop in our malls and stay in our hotels, which drives economic activity and makes life better for everybody, as well as providing that amenity to our local residents of that entertainment content. And so I think those are all very important pieces.

00:05:06,330	And honestly, the way I think the KPIs are designed, they're all going to work together. If one's not successful, probably none of them are going to be successful. You're absolutely. And I mean, it's about driving that content, making sure that we increase the event load, that we are reducing the number of dark days that we have in our buildings.

00:05:22,970	And then that's local event creation, but also state national levels as well. And then starting to bring more of those concerts and big time events to Bismarck. In the last three weeks, we've been able to announce seven new shows coming into our arena on the concert level.

00:05:43,900	So that's where we want to make a difference expanding, not eliminating anything that we already have because we have great bass with our state tournaments and, you know, our large conferences and conventions. But we want to add more to to that place. Sure.

00:06:04,800	So from the community standpoint, not reach in the initiatives, what is it that we can expect to see coming from the team that's not the event center and and obviously management. Yeah, I mean it's getting out in the community and making the presence. You know, we have our sales and marketing people coming in next week.

00:06:22,070	And the first thing that we're going to do is meet with our local CVB with Sheri Grossman and her staff, and really establish what we can do to start marketing the event center in a collaborative, collaborative way with the CVB. We're both marketing entities. When we look at it, and we're here to drive events and sell Bismarck.

00:06:47,330	So really getting that outreach out there from a social media, from a television, from a radio perspective, and really trumpeting what we have going on at the Bismarck Center, but also, you know, trumpeting our successes. All right. We announced at Red Clay strays a couple of weeks ago, and that's a big concert for us. And and our numbers right now are tracking better than Grand Forks and Billings in Missoula. So that's something to be said about Bismarck.

00:07:06,800	And we want to get that out there. Sure. And then you also will have the ability to partner with other organizations within the community. So let's talk about what happens in other communities.

00:07:24,370	And what do you see we can do here? Yeah, I mean, one area is, is working with those nonprofits to to come and be a part of our organization, you know, reaching out to the universities, to the colleges, to the to the soccer groups, to anyone who's looking for a fundraising effort. We have opportunities, whether it's working in our concessions to make some extra money or helping out with events or helping out with cleanup.

00:07:46,730	We have opportunities for local nonprofits and organizations to come and make good money through through the Bismarck Event Center. Well, that's great because I think that's one of the things we were very concerned about is making sure we're engaged with the community, especially those local nonprofits, because some of those are actually also users of our facilities.

00:08:06,800	The Bell is a great, great facility for our our local arts people to utilize and be having them engaged with other components of the, I guess, the behind the scenes production of something and giving them an opportunity to to raise some money is vital.

00:08:27,730	Yeah, it needs to be a collaborative effort, and we want to give and as much as we receive. So again, it's about getting out in the community and making sure that they understand the resources that we have available to help them be successful as well. Sure. And you mentioned some other markets.

00:08:44,800	So let's I think that was one of the things that we were attracted to as, as we went through the vetting process because they kind of aligned potentially as maybe the path of some entertainment acts. So let's talk about those that are more regional based. That may help us. Well, I think will help us bring some talent in. Yeah, absolutely.

00:09:02,100	Being on the I-94 corridor very much does help us as far as routing between Minneapolis and headed west or east. Obviously, I mentioned Grand Forks, so we have that routing partner already established, but we do the booking in Billings as well. We have great relationships in Bozeman and Missoula on that I for I-90 corridor.

00:09:25,630	So we're able to to work with them, but also looking north and south. We we managed several buildings south of here, Ralston, Nebraska, Sioux City, Iowa, Brookings, South Dakota, all aligned with us coming up to I-29 and then headed over on I-94. So we have all of those buildings regionally as well. Sure.

00:09:48,370	So let's talk a little bit about some things that maybe people are concerned about is what's the impact on local staff and on contracts that are local. What's been the plan for transition. So people understand that this is not a blind leading the blind. And we certainly are honoring all of those things.

00:10:04,900	And we have we offered 18 contracts to full time employees, and we had two employees that decided to stay with the city. But all of the full time employees were offered contracts and they all accepted. So I think that just goes to to show that we are committed to to this community and to those employees.

00:10:26,630	So there was nobody that lost a job. Everyone has a job at moving forward, and that includes all of our part time staff. They were all offered positions as well. So really good, you know, analytics and feedback on that.

00:10:49,000	And so yeah, I mean, that engagement and getting them involved was really critically important because they do have the knowledge, they do have the base of what's been going on in this building and the history. So we wanted to maintain that. And further, we honored all the contracts for performances or conventions in the building moving forward as well. That was also part of the process.

00:11:09,370	But how is that when you look at that and honoring those booked events and then the transition to bring more events in, how are we going to manage all of that? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, again, yes, those those base events that are here, we are keeping them. We are not going to kick anybody out.

00:11:24,530	I mean, that's not what we do. We honored the agreed upon terms. You know, we we may change those terms in the future when those those agreements come due. But no, we are honoring everything that's in place. Then we look at our calendar, we look at those open dates, and we start to plug in events.

00:11:40,730	One thing that we will do is create events as well. All right. If we have open weekends all right. And we can see that we can throw a new type of event into it, we're going to do that.

00:11:58,900	Some ideas that that have come up already is, you know, like an annual booze and bacon festival that's very popular in our buildings across the country. Another thing is Kids Fest. We don't have a big kids type of event here in Bismarck that we can see. So trying to create some of those events to fill the voids, you know, along with keeping or bringing concerts and other events in as well.

00:12:17,800	But yeah, those stable events are not going anywhere where we're keeping them. And the events are going to be mostly in the arena and the depending on size. Correct? Yeah. And we are going to try to grow into the exhibit hall as much as we can. I mean, we have 100,000ft█ of usable space.

00:12:34,430	So we have a lot of area I mean, great for weddings, great for conventions, great for conferences, great for banquets. But let's look outside that box and start putting other different types of events in there as well. Anything that needs space, we want to create.

00:12:53,370	And again, going back to creating events and putting things in those areas as well. Which also likely attract some people that come to town if we have some new events. That's. The whole purpose. In addition to the local individuals, we certainly want to take care of that. Yeah. And I mean, you look at economic impact and, you know, I haven't seen the numbers.

00:13:09,700	And that's why we are really going to collaborate with Sherri and her group over at the CVB, because they have the tools and the resources for us to track that economic impact. So really trying to hone in on those events and what they are bringing to our city.

00:13:27,230	I would guess something like the state basketball tournament that we had in March, probably a 3 or $4 million impact to our city. I don't know the specifics, but I know it's it's significant and that has a multiplying effect because of a dollar spent by somebody from outside the community. It's got a two or 3 or 4 times or multiple effect of that.

00:13:43,700	So that $1 becomes 4 or 5 maybe. And so that's very important. So one of the things that attracted the your group to the, to us for the event center was what you could bring for our staff that's there in the way of training and development and opportunities for advancement. Let's talk about that a little bit. Yeah.

00:14:05,530	Operates in over 300 buildings across the United States, Canada and the world. So we are always looking to to train and mentor and move our people up into positions. And every single employee here will have that opportunity as well. We have, you know, a really strong, robust staff training program that will take them through steps.

00:14:28,630	We have leadership and mentorship programs that they can be involved in to really, you know, move up the level we are always looking to promote within that is that is our ideal situation. And when you have 300 buildings across this world, there's always opportunities that are available. So I mean we will get get these trainings in place.

00:14:49,730	We've already started. We're bringing our people in from the corporate level to to do these trainings. We also work with local trainers as well in certain areas, like if we need to have active shooter training, right, we're going to get somebody that does that and helps us train our people in that.

00:15:08,670	You know, we're getting all of our emergency procedures put together with an emergency action plan. So we're really honing in on just those basics to make sure that our people are trained to the level of industry standards. And that's really we need to get there right away. Sure. And then again, I mentioned the opportunity.

00:15:25,870	There's an opportunity for people to advance. And even as you've looked at the current staff, I think we've seen some movement there, given them some new and enhanced roles that they didn't have an opportunity for before. Right. And we've really tried to divide it into our best practices, into industry standards. So we created an immense division.

00:15:45,100	So now we have a director of events and an event manager. And those positions were filled internally. All right. We've elevated our sales person into a director of sales. We've elevated our marketing people into a director of marketing.

00:16:06,470	So giving them more responsibility but more robust and more ability to lead because our directors have to be our leaders. They are the pulse. They are the ones who get out there and really push the event center. And then we have our managers and our workers that that do those day to day operations. Sure. So as you look at the facility that you've taken over, now let's talk.

00:16:25,100	One of the things that was very important to to those of us in the selection committee was what you bringing to the table for us and enhancing that facility and specifically a kitchen. Yes.

00:16:41,170	So obviously food Group is partnering with the city of Bismarck on that and in a major way, and certainly appreciative of that, because it will kick start it, because we've got other projects we got to take care of in the building, too. But, you know, what do we see that bringing to the building? Well, you know, we have 400,000ft█ between our three facilities. That's a lot of room, and that's a lot of need for a food and beverage operation.

00:16:58,800	When you have 100,000ft█ of exhibit space that requires banquets and catering needs and, you know, a 7, 8000 seat arena with with large events going on. So that kitchen will give us the ability to serve, you know, internally and take care of those larger type of events, banquets with 700 to 1000 people.

00:17:22,370	You know, having a full scale kitchen will allow us to to prepare that food on site to to serve it on site to, to elevate that experience as well, you know, and we can bring in an executive chef and we can have that high level experience. And that's really where we need to get to.

00:17:42,070	Our hospitality division has the resources available to really make that a high end experience, you know, with the chefs and with the with the regional managers and with all of the tools that it takes to have a high level food and catering division. So excited about that.

00:18:00,330	But we have to have a kitchen first. And I will take time. But at the same time, while we're bringing some food and beverage in-house, we're not excluding the opportunity for some caterers as well. Not at all. We know that's a very important part of the community and and certainly to their businesses.

00:18:16,870	They want to still have that opportunity. And we have a lot of space. So probably can't even service the whole space if we internalized everything without without the caterers being there. Yeah, I mean, very much a collaborative effort. It'll be a hybrid model. I mean, that we include the caterers.

00:18:34,800	And again, right now they are the sole focus of what we have. And and we're going to work with them moving forward by having a lot more events. It really probably will not cut down on their business significantly at all.

00:18:51,530	I mean, I see this as, you know, if we're doing 100 event days now and we bump it up to 200 or 250, that's going to put more load on all of us. So that'll be in more, more business for them as well. And having that kitchen on site may even give them some opportunities to. Yes, to prepare them. For service as well. Yes.

00:19:07,900	And so I think that's the important part, is that that's a an amenity inside the facility for operations that has not existed. And we are very excited about that and certainly appreciate the investment that's coming in from you.

00:19:27,700	So as we look towards the future long term benefits and impacts, what is it that you feel now that you've been on the ground? Well, you've been here longer than really the seven days or so that since since you took over officially. But what do you see? You've indicated to me some, some very valuable assets that maybe people don't even understand. We have really.

00:19:47,200	I mean, I think the first thing starts with an arena with a capacity of 8000 in the round can even go up to 10,000. So we have to be at that level to get those, those B plus those a minus type of acts. So we have that. I think that's a really driving force for us.

00:20:05,100	The 100,000 feet of of exhibit space is adequate. You know. Now we need to start filling it. We need to fill those exhibit halls. We need to fill those those breakout rooms so we have the capacity.

00:20:24,000	And then we have a historic theater, which those are those are diamonds in the rough, right? I mean, they just don't exist across the country. So we have a lot of sales in our facilities are our route. As far as being on the 94 corridor helps us immensely. Are, you know, being rural and remote helps us because there's not a lot of places to play between here and Spokane or Seattle.

00:20:45,600	So that that that is definitely a positive. Our buildings are in good shape now. We just need to take them to that next level and polish them up, make them look real, inviting. Make them look like, hey, this is a really cool place. We have the bones, we have the structure.

00:21:01,730	Now we're just going to elevate that experience some more. Sure. Let's talk also about kind of the impact of having an organization like Oakview Group that were tied to or connected to when it comes to attracting that talent, because you have more contacts to various promoters that they're not easy to get into.

00:21:21,270	So how what have you already seen for impacts. For that? Oh yeah. I mean, that's been instantaneous. When we tell our promoters that this is now an Oak View group building, that changes the conversation. All right. Again, remember 300 buildings across the country in the world.

00:21:40,800	So routing opportunities for those promoters, for those agents, for those acts just is magnified. Right. They will put together tours that hit Sioux City, that hit Brookings, that hit Grand Forks, that hit Bismarck, that hit Billings. Those are all of buildings. So, I mean, that relationship is there. There's cookie cutter deals. It's the same in Brookings as it is the same in Bismarck.

00:22:02,430	And promoters like that, they know what they're getting. They know what their expectations are, and they know that Oakview Group has the resources to provide to them so that they can be successful. And really, it's about, you know, the three hours routing revenue and relationships.

00:22:20,500	And that's what Oakview Group brings to the table is the relationships and the revenue. And now the routing falls on us here. Sure. The other thing I think we've already seen and experiences, you mentioned the backbone of having a group outside of just local Bismarck.

00:22:41,000	But like if we have an event that needs some special needs or maybe even some emergency, like we need staff because this is one time thing, we don't necessarily need to hire staff for this, but you probably some resources to bring the people to us to, to deal with that an item or event or that's in our building. Yeah.

00:22:59,170	And if we've already seen that, I mean, we've had our tech production specialists from Grand Forks here for the last two weeks just helping us figure out sound and lighting and all the things that's going on in the building. We had a huge transition of our network off of the city to rectitude, who is now the network provider for us in the building. All right.

00:23:17,000	Well, we had to have our staff here to to help with all of that process. So, you know, when you change a network that's not just Wi-Fi, that's that sound, that's lights, that's all the control systems, that's emergency doors, that security cameras. So, you know, we had our people here helping with that as well.

00:23:35,430	And did we have a few hiccups? Yes. But for the most part because our staff that was knowledgeable was here, really helped us get through that process to. Sure.

00:23:51,630	So as we look to the future further, what do you see are some of the biggest challenges maybe, which I hope turn into opportunities for the event center and your your organization one, two, three years down the road and obviously maybe decades.

00:24:12,700	Yeah, I mean, challenges for, for, for a tertiary rural market are always going to be that I mean, we're out here kind of, you know, in the middle of, of of big expanses, I wouldn't say the middle of nowhere, but of big expanses. So, you know, getting people to buy into that, it can be a challenge at times, but it's something that we can flip and make a positive too, because there's no competition for us because we draw from all of North Dakota.

00:24:31,330	I mean, so as far as being a destination, we have that kind of lined out for our state. So, I mean, we get past some of that. I think some of the other challenges are just getting out in the community and rebuilding our reputation and really working with the community and letting them understand that this is a Bismarck event center.

00:24:49,430	It hasn't changed. All right. What we're going to do is move it forward. Right. This is not about Oakview Group. This is not about the city of Bismarck. This is about the Bismarck Event Center and the community of Bismarck, really into relating and driving that revenue, driving those events so that we can all be successful. Sure.

00:25:06,900	And something I probably didn't focus on, but I think it's important for our people to know is you actually are. If you aren't here yet, you will be permanently living in Bismarck, North Dakota. Yes, this is not a client. Fly out as needed. You're here on the ground daily. This is my home.

00:25:25,000	So yeah, I think that's important for people to understand is that this is this is that's part of why we selected Oakview Group is we knew there was going to be someone in the building on a daily basis. Yeah. I mean, we we have one remote position that's our finance person.

00:25:42,100	And that's really because of the skill set and the understanding of the systems and processes. But other than that, all of our employees live here, you know, are part of this community. They they pay their taxes, they shop with their their groceries. Everything is done here. And yes, I live here permanently.

00:26:01,430	And we're recruiting to have some more people to fill a few positions and certainly some of our part time needs. And those are all local residents for the. Most 100%. Yeah. So, I mean, part time staff, we're going to have a job fair on Tuesday. If you're interested, please stop by. And they may not see that by Tuesday.

00:26:19,970	But we're always going to be on the lookout for for part time assistance, because a lot of the positions that we need to fill, they just by their nature, are part time because they're event driven. They are. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we'll we'll have a staff of probably 300 part time employees.

00:26:37,530	And, you know, that comes with opportunities to move into full time positions as well. Sure. So is there anything else you'd like to share that we haven't covered? I think we're just really excited to be in Bismarck. I know I am. I know that this is a good place. There's a lot of opportunities.

00:26:54,700	There are a lot of great amenities in Bismarck. You know, I like to run, and I've been able to go along the river and and spend some time on those paths, and it's fantastic. And we're just super excited to be here. This is a really good account. This is a really good location.

00:27:13,330	We're going to have success in Bismarck. And I'm appreciative because we're we're making a change for the betterment of the facility and the community. And to start bringing some, some activity back into the facility is very important. I mean, we can't just have a building that has a lot of dark days. That's not good for the community.

00:27:33,470	It's not good for the building. Absolutely. Dark days don't pay the bills. So thank you for being with me, Brad, and we look forward to what we're going to see in the coming weeks, because I think we'll see some more announcements coming. Thank you.

00:27:57,100	Thank you for watching Bismarck Insights with Mayor Mike Schmitz. If you have specific topics or questions you'd like addressed in future episodes, email mschmitz@bismarcknd.gov.

00:28:10,730	Or call the City of Bismarck at (701) 355-1300. To learn more about the City of Bismarck, visit BismarckND.gov or follow us on a variety of social media channels by searching BismarckNDGov. Bismarck Insights is a collaboration between Dakota Media Access and the City of Bismarck.

00:28:31,630	You may find Bismarck Insights episodes on Government Access channels two and 602, as well as on Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV devices on Radio Access 102.5 FM and on demand at FreeTV.org.