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Editor's corner

It's great to be as busy as we are. You can read about three of our many current projects in this eNewsletter. The rendering to the right is another project we aren't free to write about yet.

I recently returned from a trip to London where I toured the London FEC and leisure venue scene with Kevin Williams, one of our colleagues who works in the digital entertainment space. You might know Kevin as the publisher of his widely respected and read The Stinger Report. If you aren't getting his informative weekly enewsletter, you can subscribe by sending an email with Subscribe in the subject line to kwp@thestingerreport.com.

It was surprising how few entertainment-leisure venues there are in a city the size of London. However, a number we visited were clearly focused on the social aspect of bar-dining-entertainment venues, which is obviously a major factor in their success, as they were very busy on a weeknight.

While in London, I had the opportunity to attend the Squaremeal Venue+Events Live 2017 show for event organizers of meetings and events at venues of all types from Top Golf to castles.

Being busy with projects doesn't seem to allow us to publish every month. However, this 2-month issue ended up with two month's worth of articles, so you aren't missing out due to our publishing frequency.

Just like most of our previous issues, we have articles reporting on the evolution of the community leisure venue (CLV) industry and the disruption of the traditional FEC models. I continue to be amazed at how much of the industry continues to be like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand, not wanting to acknowledge the rapidly growing competition and how the customer is changing, including their expectations for what a compelling out-of-home leisure experience needs to offer today. And this isn't something you will find other industry publications writing about, as they don't want to write about anything negative that might impact their advertisers. We do not accept any advertising, so we have no problem telling it straight like we are seeing it based on all our research and trend analysis. We apply our research and trend analysis, including a lot we don't write about, to the design and production of all our clients' projects.

Hope you enjoy this issue and find something of value you can use and apply to your CLV business.

Wishing you a happy pumpkin season.

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