Technology

TECH NOTES by Mike Hunter

Tech Enables Video Control by Eye Movement

Cox recently unveiled new technology in Phoenix and Tucson that empowers people with disabilities to control their TV with their eyes. The Accessible Web Remote for Contour gives those who have lost fine motor skills — whether from degenerative conditions or paralysis — the ability to browse the video guide with a glance.

Specifically, a free web-based tool is navigable using various assistive technologies already owned by customers, including eye gaze hardware and software, switch controls, and sip-and-puff systems that the user controls by gently blowing into a tube.

Eye-tracking technology gives people living with conditions like paraplegia, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) the same access to their TVs as customers with the latest edition of Contour.

“Innovative technology like this gives people with disabilities an added level of independence,” says Steve Gleason, founder of Team Gleason and former New Orleans Saints football player who has been living with ALS since 2011. “We appreciate that companies like Cox continue to empower their users by adopting products like the Accessible Web Remote, which allows every customer to do something most people take for granted, like controlling their TV.”

According to the Bureau of Internet Accessibility, approximately 16% of people in the United States have difficulties with their physical functioning, making things like using a traditional TV remote either a challenge or impossible, depending on the condition. Throughout the last three years, Cox has partnered with organizations like Team Gleason to ensure accessible design and development of its products, increase awareness and education, and improve processes and procedures focusing on disability inclusion. cox.com/accessibility

Meeting the Call for Digital Transformation

The past year has seen an incredible increase in the interest in and demand for home-based work. Companies saw that many traditional office-bound jobs could be performed remotely with similar productivity — if not more. Additionally, removing geographic requirements allowed them to fill positions faster with incredibly qualified candidates.

At Liveops, we’ve known and believed in these truths for some time, building a company of more than 25,000 virtual agents across the country who provide customer support for Fortune 500 companies, large enterprises and government entities. Before the pandemic started, we began digging into the agent experience to identify what support and systems would make our independent contractor agents excel at serving customers.

As almost every company is now having to adapt to a hybrid workforce of in-person and remote employees, it is critical they take a similar approach, looking at the tools being used in-office and remotely to ensure they are not only meeting business and employee needs today but into the future. Doing so requires thoughtful research and collaboration across the company.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS CROSS-FUNCTIONAL

Digital transformation is not just IT’s responsibility. It is a cross-functional effort that requires the input and collaboration of many departments. These departments must agree to a common objective. For us, it was improving the agent’s experience, resulting in higher retention, more referrals for new agents and better service to our customers.

In order to truly improve agent experience, we needed to walk in their shoes. Through a series of surveys, one-on-one interviews, focus groups and user experience testing, we learned where the friction points were in our agents’ days. We wanted to offer our virtual agents an opportunity to communicate, collaborate and learn within the context of their own entrepreneurial journey.

MATCHING TECHNOLOGY TO THE JOURNEY

We are rolling out three new technologyenabled platforms this year to meet the needs we discovered through our research. These innovations further enhance the platforms already in place. • Recruiting: Between March and December 2020, Liveops created opportunities for 20,000 virtual agents, and we needed a system that could handle the volume and speed at which we recruited. Our selected applicant tracking system, Fountain (get.fountain.com) does just that. Additionally, we heard from our agents that most of their job searching happened on mobile devices, so any recruiting platform needed to be mobile friendly in its design and function. • Learning: As experts in adult distance learning, we provide engaging learning content in a “flipped” classroom environment, using a combination of self-paced and virtual classroom learning with real-life practice modules and stage gating. Critical to this success is getting agents up to speed on our customers’ business quickly so they can start answering calls within days of starting. A platform had to support the varied styles of engaging online learning, better help agents track and manage their progress, test knowledge transfer through gamification, handle increased volume as we continue to grow, and integrate more seamlessly into multiple systems. • Community: A drawback of at-home work is it can get lonely and agents can feel isolated and unsupported in their work. We work hard to create a community among all agents, across all our customer teams. With the rapid growth of our agent community, we needed a new “digital water cooler” to allow them to talk to one another and share challenges, tips and tricks, frustrations, and successes. We needed a way to constantly reach out with new content around their work and how to find balance when working from home.

With collaboration across our operational groups and coordination with our agents, we homed in on the right solutions that will not only get implemented but get adopted. Digital technology cannot transform organizations unless it meets the needs of its users. Digital transformation is a whole-organization undertaking and, as such, can have tremendous impact on bottom lines if done thoughtfully and strategically. —Greg Hanover, CEO of Liveops (www.liveops.com)

10 companies tell what it took to survive in a year that's been anything but fun!

by RaeAnne Marsh

Over the past year — more than a year! — we’ve learned how much we owe to the “essential workers” who ensure we have the goods and services to keep ourselves alive. With light beginning to shine at the end of a long and lonely tunnel, we can begin to feed our souls with another component that has had to take second seat: fun.

Going to the movies, to the ballgame, to a fine restaurant; adventuring in a hot air balloon, a raceway, a challenging escape room or water park; being out on the links or reveling in our arts and culture — these fun activities are provided by businesses. And most businesses have had a year that’s been anything but fun.

What were the business moves that enabled companies whose business is “fun” to endure and succeed? In Business Magazine goes in-depth with several valued businesses in our community.

Keeping Moviegoing Magic

Harkins Theatres

Harkins Theatres president and CEO Mike Powers divides the recent challenges into two distinct phases, noting that each presented its own challenges. First was the mandated closure period, and then there was the period of reopening during a continuing pandemic. “When the closure occurred, my attention was focused on our team,” he says. Initially, Harkins continued to pay everyone at full compensation. Then, Powers says, “Once the CARES Act was passed, with the pandemic unemployment benefits, we were able to strategically furlough members of our team knowing that they would be eligible for unemployment benefits. In addition, we continued to cover 100% of their medical benefits, including the employee premiums, to provide a further level of security. Once this was complete, we were laser focused on reducing expenses across the board, from occupancy cost to office supplies; we scrutinized everything.”

At the same time, the company started working on new revenuegenerating ideas. “During times of crisis, our communities have always looked to us to be a sanctuary and escape from the challenges and stresses of daily life,” Powers notes. “But this time, we were not able to welcome them in. So instead, we innovated and looked for ways to stay connected to our guests and provide flavors of that entertainment experience that they could still enjoy.”

The first innovation was Harkins’ rapid pivot to curbside popcorn and treats. “We have been selling a large take-home popcorn called Harkins Big Party Popcorn to our guests for over a decade, so we had an advantage over our competitors in this area,” Powers says. “The reaction to bringing this offering curbside was tremendous. We could not pop popcorn fast enough in some locations to satisfy demand, with guests lined up in their cars for almost a mile in some instances to take home some hot fresh Harkins popcorn or nachos for movie nights at home.” Harkins also launched a pop-up drivein movie experience at the Chandler Fashion Mall, which, despite selling out each show, was not profitable for the company. “But the goal was really to stay connected to our guests and try to provide an entertaining break to the monotony of staying home,” says Powers.

Permission to reopen brought a new set of challenges, Powers relates, the first of which was to evaluate whether it even made sense to reopen, with movie studios barely releasing movies — if at all. “Then, we had to determine how to deliver the Harkins Ultimate Moviegoing® experience that our guests expect in a way that we were certain was safe for our team and our guests.” This required new equipment, new hospital-grade filtration, PPE, communication to guests and, most of all, detailed and thorough training and procedures for all employees. “With this done, but still lacking many new movies, we put our energies into finding new and creative ways to entice moviegoers back to the theatres,” Powers relates. These included discounted pricing, classic films and film series and what turned out to be a great success — Harkins Private Movie Parties. “With Private Movie Parties,” Powers explains, “we offered private auditorium screenings for as low as $99 for up to 20 guests. This was very well received and led to the launch of Private Gaming Parties where guests could use our giant screens for an epic console gaming experience with their friends.” The party offers had been available prior to the pandemic, but Powers notes the packaging, promotion and “really attractive price point” were new. “Through a combination of these efforts and the subsequent slow but steady release of some new films, we secured our future through the pandemic.”

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

Along with the extensive expense reduction efforts mentioned above, Harkins paused on new expansion and shifted its focus to reinforcing its core theaters by completing three full theater remodels that included upgrades to Ultimate Lounger seating, expanded food and beverage offerings, in-lobby bars, adding Harkins Cine1 (Harkins’ premium large-format screens) and upgraded finishes throughout.

Another big focus was outward, says Powers. “How could we best support our community and employees during the pandemic?” The Harkins Emergency Assistance Relief Trust (HEART) Fund was initiated to provide grants to help employees facing financial hardship immediately after a natural disaster or an unforeseen personal hardship. “And, with the hope of bringing some relief to the communities in which we operate, we donated excess PPE, surprised some healthcare heroes with popcorn and delivered nearly 60,000 bottles of water to local food banks, family shelters and emergency assistance organizations across the Valley.”

Noting that Harkins has been entertaining guests for more than 87 years, Powers says 2020 was undeniably one of the most challenging years; the company lost more than 90% of its revenues. In fact, Powers characterizes the impacts of the pandemic on the industry generally and Harkins specifically as “extraordinarily painful.” However, he says, “Harkins entered this crisis in a stronger position than our competitors and, though wounded, will continue to be in a strong financial position for the future.” But that’s a far cry from being recovered. “We are now only slightly improved at this point from a revenue perspective,” he says, “but with the success of some big (Godzilla big) movies this spring, an amazing slate of films for the second half of the year, and the success in the last few months of the vaccine rollout, we are very optimistic that we will start to build back to normal business in the near future.”

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

“I am extraordinarily bullish on our company and our industry going forward,” Powers says, observing that the pandemic time at home has made it crystal clear that streaming movies at home is no substitute for the full, immersive moviegoing experience. “Our guests are desperate to come back to the movies and have told us and shown us this at every opportunity. With a slate of great blockbusters that have been ready and waiting to come to our giant screens, we are stacked for the rest of this year,” he shares. Following the kickoff with Cruella and A Quiet Place II on May 28, are huge films like Marvel’s Black Widow and In the Heights; Disney’s Jungle Cruise, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Suicide Squad 2, Dune, The Matrix 4 and Free Guy; Marvel’s Eternals, West Side Story, The King’s Man, Snake Eyes, Paw Patrol: The Movie, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, Hotel Transylvania 4, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and Spider-Man: No Way Home; not to mention Top Gun: Maverick and one Powers shares is his personal favorite: the Bond series with No Time to Die coming to Harkins Theatres in October. “That,” he says, “is an almost unparalleled list of huge blockbuster movies.”

Harkins will also be launching a new website and mobile app this year that Powers describes as a quantum leap in technology and guest service, while continuing to be “laser focused” on enhancing the value of Harkins’ loyalty program (My Harkins Awards) for its guests, continuing to offer a variety of programming that includes art and independent movies, enhancing its state-of-the-art amenities, offering unique and elevated food and beverage in theatres, and diversifying its e-commerce product portfolio.

Says Powers, “There is nothing like the magical moviegoing experience on the big screen. There is no comparison to streaming movies at home, any more than watching a game on TV is the same as going to the arena or watching a band on YouTube is the same as going to the concert.” And he shares, “Some of my favorite memories as a kid were on the occasion that I skipped school and spent the entire day watching movies in a cinema (paying for each ticket of course!), and I can still remember each movie I watched that day. That love of cinema and how it can impact people is what drives me today and what will always excite guests back into our theaters.”

Harkins Theatres harkins.com

There is nothing like the magical moviegoing experience on the big screen. There is no comparison to streaming movies at home, any more than watching a game on TV is the same as going to the arena or watching a band on YouTube is the same as going to the concert.” —Mike Powers, CEO of Harkins Theatres

Take Us Out to the Ball Game

Arizona Diamondbacks

“We have really had to reinvent ourselves, both with and without fans,” says Derrick Hall, president and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks. For the 2020 season, as we all remember, fans were not allowed in stadiums, so the challenge was to manufacture the look and feel of a real game for both players on the field and viewers at home. Piping in crowd noise helped simulate some sense of normalcy, Hall says, although he admits it was nowhere near the real thing. “We also decided to bring fans to Chase Field from their homes, as we conducted virtual first pitches and anthem performances.”

This season, the Diamondbacks have focused on the return of fans in a safe and comfortable manner. “We converted all purchases and transactions to cashless, and have made the entire experience contactless,” Hall says. And while the early homestands have required stronger protocols — with masks, distancing and zip-tied and prohibited seats — Hall expects there will be a loosening of restrictions, reallocation of locations and additional seating that will continue as the season progresses.

Pointing out that the ball club is the business of performing in front of crowds yet was either prohibited from allowing them in or limited in their capacity, Hall reports the organization lost millions of

“Baseball has always been a huge part of that recovery historically, be it after world wars or 911 or COVID-19. It has always been the great escape for families and is shaping up to act as such again.” —Derrick Hall, president and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks

dollars in 2020 and will again this season. “In 2020 alone, some of our most valuable areas of profit such as tickets sold, concessions, merchandise and parking resulted in zero earnings,” he says. “But all categories were impacted, as we had to get creative in make-goods for all of our corporate partners, while rolling over as many season ticket holder and suite accounts into the next season as possible.”

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

“We were entering 2020 debt free for the first time in our franchise’s history,” Hall relates. But no crowds or revenue sources meant needing to look internally to find ways to reduce expenses. “This part hurt the most,” Hall shares, “because although we attempted to do so by dramatically reducing departmental budgets, we knew we could not ignore the need to address staffing and overhead.

“We are proud of our recognized and celebrated culture, but with so much uncertainty in the air, we had no choice but to likely negatively impact that. We were forced to furlough, eliminate positions, or assist with early retirement in several cases.” This did, in fact, provide significant savings, Hall says, but combined with so many months of remote work, “it has given us a prioritized need to recreate those strong feelings of family and value we have for our talented employees.”

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

Hall believes sports — and baseball in particular — is beginning to feel some pandemic and economic recovery. “Baseball has always been a huge part of that recovery historically, be it after world wars or 911 or COVID-19. It has always been the great escape for families and is shaping up to act as such again,” says Hall. As they are able to loosen restrictions, allow season ticket holders to return to their original seats and expand capacity, Hall anticipates fans will enthusiastically go through the turnstiles. “It helps to have a winning product, and we are working on that long-term and sustainable model,” he says. “But regardless of win or lose, our fans have grown accustomed to receiving the greatest fan experience in sports at our games, and I am very bullish on our future and the ability to again consistently draw more than two million a year in attendance.”

Arizona Diamondbacks mlb.com/dbacks

Let the Children Play

Children’s Museum of Phoenix

“On March 13, 2020, we made the hard decision to close our doors to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic,” says Kate Wells, president and CEO of one of the most loved and visited arts and cultural institutions in Arizona. That same day, she and her team began the thought process of how they could continue to fulfill the museum’s mission of engaging the minds, muscles and imaginations of children and the grown-ups who care about them. “We’ve successfully accomplished not one but four big pivots since then,” she says, “each assuring that we continue to serve our mission while finding ways to maximize any revenue we could muster to get us through the very unpredictable future.”

A big change was moving from “hands-on” to “online.” But the museums young visitors — “Really, all the young children of our community,” Wells observes - were going to need extra support during such uncertain times. “Just four days after closing, we posted the first of 180 daily activities on our social media platforms in both English and Spanish, featuring our own staff presenting new and fun activities for kids to do each day of the week,” Wells says. And those videos garnered more than 250,000 viewers.

Two other very pressing needs were creating new revenue opportunities and keeping key staff employed, the first because earned revenue had accounted for 80% of the museum’s revenue prior to the pandemic, and the second to make sure the museum would be ready to re-open when the time came, Wells explains. One answer was to re-tool the museum’s highly successful summer camps to serve children who were at home all summer. Camp-In-A-Box was created, providing week-long activities for kids to do in the comfort and safety of their homes, including live, virtual content where camp counselors led campers in different activities throughout the day.

“As the summer dragged on and it became clear that schools would not be back to business as usual, we built on the success of our Camp-in-a-Box and launched our ‘Thinker Player Creator’ (TPC) boxes, which were hands-on, creative, educational supplements for school-age kids returning to school via all-day or partial-day online learning,” Wells says. “We were proud to partner with Arizona Milk Producers and Dairy Council of Arizona in bringing the TPC Boxes to Valley families.” Something very special that came out of this was a groundbreaking partnership between Children’s Museum and the Cartwright Unified School District, a Title One district that was having significant challenges keeping children engaged in online learning, Wells reports. Children’s Museum provided more than 1,500

kindergarten students with eight weeks of bilingual, hands-on activities in math, literacy, numeracy, art and movement that gave them a much-needed break from academic screen time.

“As the pandemic wore on, and with the beautiful Arizona fall, winter and spring weather ahead of us, we made our biggest pivot of all,” Wells relates. “Based on the scientific evidence that masks worked, that it was safer to have activities outdoor vs. indoors, and that sunlight and social distancing made play possible, we started to think about how we could bring people to the Museum for outdoor fun.” Adventure Play —100% Outside, 100% Fun, opened in late October 2020 and ran through early May 2021. The attraction spanned more than 35,000 square feet, spilling over the museum’s permanent front yard and taking over its entire north parking lot. “While Adventure Play has only allowed us to operate at about 20% of our pre-COVID numbers,” Wells says, it “has been enormously popular and received many positive reviews from our visitors who were missing our unique play spaces and were desperate for their children to have safe, fun experiences with other children.”

Crediting the museum staff’s dedication and flexibility, Wells says, “All in all, this precarious time in our history has made us realize that we are resilient no matter what challenges are placed before us. Our commitment to provide fun, interactive play experiences, which will foster a joy of learning in the children of our community, will always be our goal whatever form it takes.”

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

By end of March 2020 Children’s Museum of Phoenix had to furlough 75% of its full-time staff and laid off 95% of its parttime staff. “In real numbers,” Wells says, “we went from about 95 employees to 13.” Making her singular focus the survival of the Museum and ensuring there would be enough cash to reopen when the time came, she says, “As a safety net, not knowing what the future held for us, we drew on our line of credit.”

The first turn-around came in April, Wells recalls, when the Museum was able to secure PPP funding, followed by a loan from SBA in early June, and then a generous, unrestricted grant from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust gave us. Due to the very “mission focused” work the Museum continued to do — bi-lingual videos, Camp-in-a-Box and TPC Boxes — other foundations, the Gila River Indian Community, individual donors and a handful of corporations continued supporting its work, Wells says, noting that “because we were able to bring back and retain key staff, opening up Adventure Play — and the corresponding revenue — was possible.” A second round of PPP came in time to rehire staff and prepare for reopening the indoor, regular Museum space Memorial Day weekend. But she notes, “Even with PPP and grants, we are operating at 30% of fiscal year 2019.”

Early last summer, not knowing how the pandemic would affect the Museum for its next fiscal year, the management team created a “Museum closed with zero activities” budget — the worst-case scenario built around the intention to slash expenses and keep an eye on cash. “As information was gathered, we developed ways to meet the Museum’s mission and bring in revenue.,” Wells explains. “For each new program we developed, like the TPC Boxes and Adventure Play, we would present a new ‘add-on’ budget to our Board’s Finance Committee, and these individual budgets comprise our Comprehensive Organizational Budget.” Sharing that “we affectionately call our pandemic budget ‘the onion’ because we keep layering additional budgets onto it as conditions change,” Wells says, this method “enabled the Museum to survive, rebuild, manage revenue and expenses while being innovative and keeping an eye on cash.” “All in all, this precarious time in our history has made us realize that we are resilient no matter what challenges are placed before us.” —Kate Wells, president and CEO of the Children's Museum of Phoenix

In the unprecedented, even desperate, situation created by the pandemic, Wells says they weren’t sure they were making the right move. “But we worked really hard, made sure our eyes were looking forward 12 months ahead for obstacles and opportunities, and always knew what our cash position would be 12 months out given the best- and worst-case scenarios.” And now, with the Museum opening its indoor spaces on May 29, Wells shares, “I would say that yes, it definitely worked. Aside from knowing that we would re-open someday, we had very few expectations. Prior to COVID, as an organization we were doing a lot of work around ‘change’ and ‘resiliency’ — we were exercising our ‘change’ muscle for a couple of years and I feel we were really ready to respond. And, while it was painful, I was confident our team could manage through anything.”

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

The Museum has now finished its budget for next fiscal year, Wells reports it will go into the new year having enough operating cash in the bank to get it through more than a few months if things take a bad turn again. “Our former board member Mark Hillard would tell me pretty much every time I saw him, ‘Cash is king,’ and I think I have repeated this to myself every morning since last March. It really helps me keep my eye on that ball.”

Staffing is another key metric the Museum tracks, and Wells says, “Because we were able to retain most of our key, A-Team staff, rebuilding our team is going well — even in these tough hiring times! I honestly think our reputation as a diverse, empowering, equitable and fun place to work is really helping us find great talent while a lot of other businesses are struggling.

“However, even as hopeful as we are for the future, we are opening with limited capacity, and we expect to have a loss again next year.” In fact, the Museum is budgeting for earned revenue to come in 21% less than its last full year open.

“Coming out of our closure, we felt it was the optimal time to look at how and what we would like to change moving forward. As a result, we re-organized to focus on growing earned revenue, streamlining operations, and focusing on exceptional customer service,” Wells explains.

Wells believes the Museum’s work is more important than ever, given the pandemic’s impact on young children and families, an expected gap in school-based achievement, significant income inequity between families in our community, and a generation of children who’s social and emotional development will likely be impacted. “With an increased focus on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) our ‘Every Child’ program will endeavor to serve over 50,000 at-risk children next year, and we will be launching a new IDEA Fellowship program for students who are traditionally left out of traditional college internship programs,” says Wells. “As an organization, we look forward to getting back to a place of profitability so we can replenish our cash reserves and turn our profits into more good work.”

Children’s Museum of Phoenix childrensmuseumofphoenix.org

Will Eating Out Be In Again?

Common Ground Culinary

“Throughout the last year, many hospitality groups have been forced to adapt to a constantly changing environment,” notes Christopher Collins, chef-owner at Common Ground Culinary, sharing that at his restaurants, “we quickly realized our operations were going to have to be flexible and creative to ensure we were following the laws, keeping our staff and guests safe, and being conscious of our social responsibility in our community.”

The first step to accomplish this was the unprecedented shut down of all in-service dining — which forced the restaurants to quickly develop new operating procedures for take-out-only business. Since then, as the situation continued to change, Common Ground Culinary adapted several times in response to guidance from the CDC and local/state government. The restaurants expanded their to-go program by offering curbside service, contactless payment and pick-up, alcoholic beverages to-go, and family packs to our neighbors. “Perhaps our biggest challenge has been keeping our team and guests safe throughout the pandemic,” Collins says. “To do this, we chose to put our social responsibility ahead of our profitability and provided masks for employees and guests, brought in an outside cleaning company to routinely sanitize the restaurants, made changes to all our dining rooms to ensure proper social distancing, conducted employee health checks on a shift-by-shift basis, and created a continual disinfecting program for all guest touch points.”

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

“To be brutally honest, it was so bad during the shut-down that there were several times I did not “If we made thoughtful know if our company was going to and compassionate survive it,” Collins candidly shares, choices to protect our noting, “As we began to come out of that, we were hopeful. But it seemed that every time we started business and those who worked for us, it would to gain momentum, something give us the best chance happened — new guidelines, possible to rebuild.” surges in cases, difficulty hiring, —Christopher Collins, etc. — that brought us back to chef-owner at Common uncertainty.” Just in the second quarter of 2020 alone, sales were Ground Culinary down more than 56%, obviously not a sustainable business model. “Several government relief programs allowed us to continue operating and breathe a momentary sigh of relief as we waited to see how the pandemic would continue to unfold.”

Changes in operations started with restructuring Common Ground Culinary’s staffing proforma to reflect the new business model: Managers functioned as curbside servers, kitchen managers worked the line, and ownership ran the day-to day-management. “From there, we continuously monitored all state and federal relief programs and used our relationship with our local bank to quickly and efficiently apply for aid and loans,” Collins relates.

“Every day, we tried to make the best decision possible for the company and our employees,” Collins says. “There was no way to know if those decisions were the correct ones at the time, but we sincerely believed that, if we made thoughtful and compassionate choices to protect our business and those who worked for us, it would give us the best chance possible to rebuild.”

Since being given the opportunity to gradually increase the restaurants’ dine-in operations, Collins has found that guests from out of state have been eager to visit Arizona “and enjoy our restaurant scene and in-person dining.”

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

“We are very fortunate that our neighbors recognized our efforts and rallied around us,” Collins says, sharing, “Many times I’ve heard, ‘Common Ground did it right.’” And he feels Common Ground Culinary is coming out of this with even stronger support than it had before, and a larger presence in our community. For his company, he says, “We are excited and optimistic about Common Ground Culinary’s future as we plan to open two new concepts in 2021.” And for the industry as a whole, he says, “We believe in Arizona as we watch new residents flocking in from all over the country, and welcome new culinary talent and restaurateurs to help take the state’s hospitality scene to the next level.”

Common Ground Culinary is the restaurant development company behind the brands Grassroots Kitchen & Tap, The Collins Small Batch Kitchen, The Macintosh, Twisted Grove Parlor & Bar, Wally’s Gastropub and Sweet Provisions.

Shaking Up the Escape Game Scene

The Nemesis Club and Soda Jerk

“Our concept consists of two complementary experiences: The Nemesis Club, offering epic escape game adventures, and Soda Jerk Co. Milkshake Bar,” says Dustin Smith, who co-owns the business with his wife, Kylee. They originally conceived of The Nemesis Club as the primary attraction, with guests “sneaking through” Soda Jerk Co. on their way to play an escape game and then, at the end of their 60-minute adventure, guests would sit in a “secret lounge” to celebrate or commiserate over a delicious dessert made in the Soda Jerk Co. kitchen. “For Soda Jerk Co. to fully contribute as both a really fun entrance and a truly desirable dessert option, we completely developed the Soda Jerk Co. brand, interior design, menu — the whole restaurant concept,” Smith says. “But even though we were completely in love with what we were creating, we really thought that Soda Jerk Co. would see very little counter traffic aside from guests to The Nemesis Club.” In fact, he shares, their initial financial projections included exactly zero dollars in revenue from the Soda Jerk Co. counter.

The game rooms is where the Smiths expected to draw the revenue. Their grand opening had been planned for spring of last year, and they expected to have three of the attraction’s five escape games ready for the grand opening of our first location in Desert Ridge, which is the number of games they had projected would be required to hit a breakeven revenue target.

“But then COVID threw us some major curveballs,” says Smith. Citing labor and materials shortages as the biggest challenges, he relates they started swinging hammers on their tenant improvements mere days before COVID lockdowns began. “We felt the COVID squeeze very early,” he recalls, noting that not only did building supplies not arrive and but subcontractors called out with COVID symptoms. And on down the supply chain, as the scenic artists and technology suppliers notified the Smiths of delays and rising costs due to their own labor and materials supply issues. “Despite our best efforts to keep the project on track, the expenses grew and the timeline slipped by days ... then weeks ... then months, quickly eating into our build budget and operating capital reserves.”

By mid-summer, Smith says, they knew they’d need to pivot to survive — which became not just a jog in direction but actually a complete reversal of plans. Their first change was to scale back the escape game build plan by completely cutting one of the three initial games. A month later, they realized the second game would have to open sometime after the first rather than concurrently. “And then,” he says, “in September 2020, recognizing that the first escape game was still months from completion, we set a grand opening date for Soda Jerk Co. in October. We turned all of our attention to the business that was meant to be a secondary source of revenue and that would deliver tighter margins — the less desirable business model in many regards.” With that reversal, Smith says they hoped their unique, carefully crafted dessert concept would be interesting enough to get customers venturing out enough to sustain the business until they could get games open.

“Despite the enormous effort we invested in the pivot, we couldn’t have predicted how positively the community would respond to the opening of Soda Jerk Co.,” Smith relates. “Guests raved about our milkshakes in reviews and on social media. Our line wrapped around the building. We suddenly had a list of new problems — good problems, like how to house so much inventory, how to increase production speed, where to seat all the guests, and how to quickly triple the size of our team. In fact, all work on the escape games halted for a number of weeks while we learned to run a high-volume shake bar!”

The first escape game — EVIL Robots — opened this past February, and Smith says it has had a very positive public response and is meeting their revenue goal for one game. The second game is anticipated to open in a few weeks. “But Soda Jerk Co. will continue to be our primary revenue driver this year,” Smith says. “Not bad for a secondary concept that didn’t even make it into our initial projections!”

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

Since The Nemesis Club and Soda Jerk opened while COVID restrictions were in place and public anxiety was still relatively high, Smith says they have no experience to judge exactly what the COVID impact has been. But their revenue has been more a steady climb than a peaks-and-trough roller coaster. Says Smith, “We’ve seen traffic steadily rise as immunity increases and consumer confidence grows. But,” he adds, “it’s difficult to say what the biggest contributing factor is — growing consumer confidence, better brand awareness or the tourism season.”

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

“Despite Soda Jerk Co.’s success, the scope changes COVID forced restricted our revenue potential,” says Smith. They considered the High Street location to be their prototype and had ambitious plans for growth. But, in addition to the pivot described above, they have had to keep operating costs as low as possible “while still delivering a premium product and experience.” One of the areas that has impacted is staffing. Instead of hiring a manager and other people into supervisory roles so they could continue developing processes and start scouting new locations, the Smiths have continued to manage the day-to-day operations themselves — while their tiny game development team has carried more of the production load than originally planned. “We knew those decisions weren’t optimal for long-term growth, but it was a matter of survival,” Smith explains.

Although noting he and his wife have been working 18-hour days, six days a week, for more than a year, Smith says, “We wouldn’t dare

complain about it, because we’re thrilled to be living our dream of running our own business.” But, he says, their family has paid a price. “We bring our kids to the shop as often as possible, but they definitely need more Mom and Dad time.”

All their exploration around growth screeched to a halt, too, in the short term. Long-term seems to be a different story, as Smith says they are constantly getting requests from consumers and developers all over the state and even across the country to bring both Soda Jerk Co. and The Nemesis Club to their neighborhoods. Expansion is certainly in their sights, but Smith says COVID has made that economically impossible to contemplate for a while.

“While things haven’t gone perfectly, we’re thrilled to have one thriving business model, with another growing steadily,” Smith says, expressing optimism about the future of their business and noting that people love both experiences. “We haven’t started advertising for The Nemesis Club yet, but the secret is out. We’re fully booked most weekends. We’ll open the second game in a couple of weeks. Then we’ll start working on our expanded lounge space and another game. By this time next year, we should have five games open and at least one new location under construction. Then the next location, and then another. The next few years are going to be really fun!”

“Despite the enormous effort we invested in the pivot, we couldn’t have predicted how positively the community would respond to the opening of Soda Jerk Co.” —Dustin and Kylee Smith, co-owners of The Nemesis Club and Soda Jerk

The Nemesis Club and Soda Jerk thenemesisclub.com

High Adventure

Hot Air Expeditions

Prior to the pandemic, in early 2019, business was booming for sisters Amanda and Stephanie Long, co-owners of Hot Air Expeditions. “It was busier than we had seen in years,” Amanda recalls. Then, COVID-19 hit and they experienced the opposite: Reopening after being forced to shut down for two months, business was slower than they had ever seen. So, along with increasing their sanitation efforts and reducing their tour capacities, they made some strategic pivots in their business operations. They shifted their marketing and promotions from shared hot air balloon rides to private hot air balloon rides. “We also adjusted operations to account for last-minute bookings, which became more prevalent,” Amanda relates, “as well as adjusted our cancellation policy to account for last-minute cancellations due to the pandemic.” Additionally, as travel came to a standstill but they saw an increase in staycations and road trips, they shifted their focus from visitors to Arizona, which had been their primary customer base, to those who live locally and those within driving distance of Arizona. “We are fortunate to be an outdoor activity, which has made guests feel more comfortable with enjoying the hot air ballooning experiences we have to offer,” Amanda says.

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

Furloughing their employees and closing for two months with no incoming revenue, the Longs still had bills coming in. “We worked diligently to apply for any assistance that was available due to the pandemic,” Amanda says. This included applying for the Paycheck Protection Program, disaster loans made available by the Small Business Administration, and any grants that were available. “We were successful in many of these efforts,” she says, adding, “We

are forever grateful for these programs that kept our small business open, and allowed us to provide some enjoyment during these tough times.”

Thanks to a PPP loan, the Longs were able to keep their core staff members employed during this time. Says Amanda, “Though we are typically open year-round, our high season is October to May and we had no idea what to expect in terms of demand with the pandemic.” They were excited when business began to pick up after Labor Day, but also overwhelmed. “There was no way to forecast this demand, and we were running on a skeleton crew,” she explains. “But because of this demand, we were able to bring our remaining staff members back to work, and interest in our hot air balloon tours has continued to soar.”

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

Hot Air Expeditions is still recovering from the height of the pandemic and is currently down 20% from where business was in 2019, Amanda shares. “But things continue to improve week to week, which is promising.”

Explaining that their goal has never been to be everywhere but rather to make their hot air balloon rides and experiences memorable from start to finish, Amanda says, “Instead of just a balloon ride, we aim to elevate our tours to make them unique and truly one of a kind, with additions like post-flight catered fare in the desert, combination tours with other local activities and attractions, and exceptional customer service.

“Moving forward, we will continue to enhance our hot air balloon tours, and also cater to the local/road trip market. We look forward to taking the lessons learned from the pandemic and using them as a source of strength to propel us to new heights!”

Hot Air Expeditions hotairexpeditions.com

“Instead of just a balloon ride, we aim to elevate our tours to make them unique and truly one of a kind." —Amanda and Stephanie Long, co-owners of Hot Air Expeditions

Missing the Links?

Quintero Golf Club

“Normally, our clientele consists of a lot of people from out of state or even international travelers. We’re a destination or ‘bucket list’ golf course, so a lot of people who travel to Arizona, do so to play here,” says Quintero general manager Mike Poe. When the country shut down in March, the only people who could golf here were Arizonans, so Quintero had to adjust its operations to accommodate the change in customer base. One of the initial changes was reducing rates to bring locals to the course. “We took a stab at the rate we thought would best entice people in the area to drive out here and play, and we hit that amount right on the nose,” Poe says. “We got lucky.”

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

Between mid-March and mid-May of 2020, Quintero Golf Club lost 65% of its annual revenue, with people cancelling their trips and tee times in the middle of prime golf season. People were even cancelling the trips they booked for the fall and winter. “We saw all our tee times dropping off the books. It was a nightmare,” Poe relates. Although Quintero responded by adjusting its rates to serve the local clientele, it took a while for people to notice those reduced rates and start securing tee times. “We lost a lot of high-value bookings in prime season. It was tough.”

Things began to turnaround for Quintero toward the end of May, when Arizona allowed golf courses to operate while surrounding states like California and Nevada were totally shut down. Noting that people began leaving those nearby states and travelling to Arizona where things were more open and they could golf, Poe says, “This created a big surge in the Arizona golf industry — something we weren’t really expecting.”

In fact, Quintero started to experience an increase in volume over the summer that it had never experienced before. Summer golfers had traditionally been local as very few people travel here to golf in Phoenix’s blazingly hot summers. “We paid close attention to our clientele and where they were coming from, and, because we had so much business coming in, we decided to try and get back some of the revenue we lost in the spring months,” Poe shares. “We increased rates to match demand thinking it would slow things down a bit, but people kept coming. We actually had to increase rates three more times over the summer to keep up with demand. People just wanted to get out of the house to do something and they were willing to pay the higher rates to do so.”

Poe found one of the most challenging aspects of operating through a pandemic was keeping up with guidelines. Rakes were removed from sand pits, guests were told to not touch the flags, golf carts were sanitized, and the patio area was closed. The constantly changing rules forced us to adapt quickly while business was still going on. “We had

to stay on our toes to make sure the guests knew we were doing our best to follow the CDC guidelines as they came in,” Poe says, noting it seemed like daily there was some new adjustment to make.

A-HA!

One innovative change Poe made to survive the economic challenges of the pandemic was to turn the entire golf course into a restaurant.

Although attendance on the golf course surged, the club’s onsite restaurant couldn’t serve food, which, obviously, was really hurting the food and beverage revenue numbers. “Then we realized if other restaurants were allowed to deliver, there was no reason we couldn’t turn our whole golf course into a dining experience,” Poe says. “We put our full menu on our golf carts’ GPS system and began delivering food on course, remaining within CDC safety guidelines. That was huge for the drinking and dining aspect of our club.”

The question was how receptive people would be to ordering electronically. But not only was that successful, Poe says it worked out even better than expected. “We had to add two additional team members to service our guests and deliver food, so we were actually employing more people during the pandemic because of that move,” he says. Guests ordered through the GPS system on the golf carts; since the carts were already equipped with those capabilities, all that was needed was to expand the menu so people had more options. “Now that people could eat on the course, our customers could leave fed and happy. At this point, it’s almost an expectation that our course will serve them food while they’re out,” Poe says, adding, “There’s a demand for it, and we love it.”

There was a learning curve in rolling out the food service. One already mentioned was adding staff so as to be able to deliver over all 485 acres of the course. Poe also changed what foods could be ordered. “At first, I thought people would only want clean, easy-toeat food while golfing, but learned that people still want the greasy, messy food on the course.” He added those messier options after a short time, and reports food and beverage numbers are way up because of it.

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

“We evaluate our results with a simple year over year comparison. Like any business, we want each year to be better than the last,” says Poe. So how did Quintero do last year? Poe reports the club took a hit at the beginning of “We put our full menu 2020 but the year finished as its most on our golf carts’ GPS profitable year on record: Quintero’s system and began 2020 numbers were up roughly 34% across the year over 2019, and food and beverage revenue alone was up 27% in 2020. delivering food on course." —Mike Poe, general manager of

“The pandemic increased our Quintero Golf Club overall customer based with other states migrating to AZ. Additionally, a lot of people took up golf that hadn’t played before or some people even revisited golf after not playing for a while because it was the only activity left. All of which is helping our future business,” says Poe.

Poe maintains Quintero in great shape even in the hot summer months, so the club was ready to go when the influx of out-of-state and new golfers began arriving — and has already welcome many of them back as returning guests. “Those repeat customers alone is enough to increase market share,” he says.

The past year has also brought in more business travelers — people conducting business on the course, doing things virtually and playing a round. “During the pandemic, that’s the only place they could go to do business,” Poe notes, observing that now they love it and don’t want to go back. Poe says there is also an increase in the number of female golfers as well as an influx in kids coming out with their families.

“We also recently added ‘stay & play’ options to our course, which we hope will drive even more traffic to the club,” Poe says. “We offer six luxury condominiums right on the course that are perfect for families, groups of friends or even just a romantic vacation/ staycation. We can provide meals, grocery shopping, entertainment, our chef can cook in the fully equipped kitchen, whatever you want we can make happen. We can also arrange fun activities nearby like a boat ride at Lake Peasant, horseback riding, ATV-ing, shooting at the nearby range, all that fun stuff. It’s a full desert experience with the bonus of an amazing golf course right outside your door.”

Notwithstanding successfully operating through a pandemic, Poe notes that this phase of returning to normalcy is just as difficult to predict as the beginning of the pandemic. “We don’t know how people will react as the rest of the country and other countries open,” he says. For instance, will Quintero lose clients as people travel internationally? Would people rather travel to play golf in nearby Canada or Mexico instead of staying in the states? Staying on top of the unknowns will require keeping an eye on data and paying attention to what’s going on with clients and future bookings, but Poe says, “We’ll keep working hard and serving our customers to the best of our ability because we know now is not the time to put it on cruise control.”

Quintero Golf Club quinterogolf.com

Ballet Arizona dancers in "Topia"; photo by Rosalie O'Connor

For the Joy of Dance

Ballet Arizona

As a business, Ballet Arizona is comprised of three aspects: performances, school and community engagement. So, there were different responses to the COVID-19 restrictions. Performances moved to a hybrid that combined limited-seating, socially distanced in-person performances with virtual presentations. The ballet company’s school, similarly, adopted a hybrid of reduced-sized, inperson classes and virtual classes.

There was dramatic change in all the ballet company’s community engagement programs as they moved exclusively to online delivery, explains Samantha Turner, Ballet Arizona’s executive director. “We expanded to provide patrons and the community at large ways to stay connected with the ballet and one another.”

For instance, Ballet Arizona launched a new Ballet Arizona book club that met exclusively online four times over the past season. “It garnered excellent participation as well as insightful conversation and camaraderie among participants,” Turner reports, adding that, based on feedback from participants, it will continue into next season. Another new launch, out of the Education and Community Engagement team, was Read, Dance, Play!, a monthly interactive workshop series for young children that combines literary exploration with creative movement. Yet another from Ballet Arizona was the Movement Moments series, five-minute movement breaks led by Ballet Arizona dancers, and a collaborative effort with Arizona Opera called Music Movement Breaks was created to combine operatic music with dance to give students a chance to learn and move.

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

Turner says she expects the next few years to continue to be a challenge, but adds, “We are bolstered by the enthusiasm we see for our upcoming world premiere production of Ib Andersen’s The Four Seasons at Desert Botanical Garden.”

In fact, she notes Ballet Arizona welcomed a number of first-time patrons who participated during the ballet company’s hybrid season. “And we are hopeful that trend will continue as everything opens up,” she says.

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

The financial hit was severe, says Turner, sharing that about $4 million in revenue evaporated, beginning with the first cancellations in March of last year.

Ballet Arizona was able to launch a fundraising campaign to help keep itself going. The campaign was spearheaded by Jacquie and Bennett Dorrance, and, describing its success, Turner says it was “enthusiastically supported by existing and new donors.”

The Virginia G. Piper Trust and The Flinn Foundation also stepped in with financial support. PPP loans and reserves provided additional funding.

Combining the funding from all those sources with making dramatic reductions in expenses, Turner says Ballet Arizona was able “to keep nearly everyone at the organization employed.”

After the long hiatus, Ballet Arizona’s first large scale performance since the pandemic began is running May 18th through June 5th at the Desert Botanical Garden, and, with its opening still a week off at the time of this writing, was nearly sold out. “The School of Ballet Arizona and Phoenix Youth Symphony Orchestras are also collaborating for the first time to present Swan Lake, also at Desert Botanical Garden, and that also is nearly sold out,” Turner says. “We are hopeful that this is a sign of the enthusiasm we will see in the 2021-2022 season.”

Ballet Arizona balletaz.org

“We expanded to provide patrons and the community at large ways to stay connected with the ballet and one another.” —Samantha Turner, executive director of Ballet Arizona

Letting the Good Times Roll

Octane Entertainment (Octane Raceway and Mavrix)

Octane Entertainment, which operates Octane Raceway, opened its second entertainment venue, Mavrix, on March 7, 2020, only to find itself mandated to close Mavrix a mere 10 days later. “Our management team immediately went to work to predict (as best as was possible) and prepare for what we would need to re-open when the time came,” says Scott Sanders, founder and CEO of the Scottsdale-based company. “Our goal has always been to provide memorable entertainment experiences for our guests and now we were going to have to figure out how to do that in a new environment with smiling faces hidden behind masks.” The first step was to evaluate all customer contact points.

Octane Raceway worked with a company that had been using UV-C lights to sanitize materials in hospitals to adapt a large, refrigeratorsized cabinet to sanitize all helmets after a race. And the company purchased sanitizing fogging machines to disinfect the karts between races. At Mavrix, Plexiglass dividers were installed between each set of bowling lanes and all booths in the sports grill, where a fewer number of tables, chairs and barstools were spaced out “to better accommodate a term we were quickly becoming more and more aware of: ‘social distancing,’” Sanders relates.

Along with developing detailed sanitization wipe-down procedures for all touchpoints throughout both venues, Octane Entertainment implemented QR code food and drink menus and created signs to place on tables once they had been sanitized by a team member after each use. And, in efforts mirrored throughout business and home settings alike, Sanders says, “We sourced hundreds of reusable masks for our team members as well as thousands of disposable masks for guests. We purchased as much hand sanitizer as we could from our local vendors and then scoured the internet for more.” Additionally, Octane Entertainment purchased touchless temperature thermometers and created check-in logs for each shift, to help ensure employees were safe for guests as well as each other.

“Once we had the needed safety infrastructure in place,” says Sanders, “it all came down to training our team on how to work effectively in this new environment while still ensuring our guests had a great time.” Crediting them for going above and beyond in very uncertain and challenging times, he says, “It was, and still is to lesser extent, a crazy and challenging time to operate a customer-facing business where your guests are looking for a fun escape from their own daily challenges.

“We ultimately did not pivot our business away from our core competency, memorable fun, but transformed each and every customer contact point to be as safe as possible while still providing a temporary escape from the challenges of COVID.”

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

Mavrix’s opening coincided with Spring Training, and its secondweek soft opening was a huge success; Sanders recalls Mavrix had a nearly packed house all weekend. And then, all of a sudden — COVID-19, and the venue was closed. “We went from a $75,000-plus weekend to zero revenue for the next two and half months,” Sanders relates. Noting that Mavrix was a high-seven-figure project that was funded through of combination of personal investment and bank financing, Sanders says he began reaching out to the bank, the landlord and all key suppliers to talk through what could or could not be done as soon as the company came to understand that COVID was not going away in a matter of days or weeks. “I am thankful for the relationships that have been built over the years,” he says, “and there was a lot of compassion and understanding that we ‘were in this together and would get through it the same way.’”

But dealing with the potential disastrous financial meltdown that was narrowly avoided was not his most challenging decision, Sanders shares. “The truly most challenging task I had was to lay off (temporarily, but we did not know for how long) approximately 85% of our team. It weighed extremely heavily on me as I consider Octane Entertainment to be an extended family that I take both pride and responsibility for employing more than 200 people.”

According to Sanders, Octane wrapped up 2019 as the best revenue — and profit — year in its 16-year history, and 2020 was poised for a repeat performance. “The first 10 weeks of 2020 brought in more than a million dollars of sales. After closing on March 17, it would take another 26 weeks to repeat the same milestone,” he says. When the business reopened over Memorial Day weekend, it was to minimal traffic; and, while business slowly improved, it seemed to be at the mercy of the national news cycle: When COVID spiked, business would quickly drop; as numbers declined, business would slowly build. By October, Octane’s public business had returned to approximately 90% of 2019 levels, but, critically, the corporate events that have historically been the core strength of business — 30 to 40% of Octane’s total revenue — remained nearly non-existent. “We started to see some positive momentum beginning in December for holiday events, only to see half of them cancel or postpone when another surge occurred in November,” Sanders relates.

“For both Octane and Mavrix, January marked the start of what feels like a real recovery. Both companies have regained profitability, which has been a major relief, although we are now struggling heavily with staffing shortages along with the entirety of the restaurant and hospitality sector,” says Sanders.

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

The “anything and everything” mindset included working with vendors and banks, securing a “just in case” line of credit to backstop potential losses beyond existing cash reserves, and applying for EIDL loans and PPP loans. Sanders describes the divide and conquer effort he shared with Octane’s COO JP Mullan to try and cover all of bases. “His focus was to ensure we had all of the policies, procedures, equipment and training needed to ensure guest and employee safety and mine was to ensure we had sufficient cash to continue to cover ongoing operating losses and whatever additional COVID-related expenses that continuously popped up,” Sanders says. “As to whose job was harder, it depended upon the day. Neither were fun but both were necessary.”

Focused on making guests and employees feel safe and putting their team back to work as soon as possible, “to help them earn money and put food on the table for their families,” Sanders says, “We were in a constant cycle of flux from week to week.” The challenge was how to staff to meet unknown and quickly changing demand. “If we over-staffed, we lost even more money, and if we were caught short staffed, we suffered through service challenges below our standards,” Sanders explains. The two companies together lost more than a million dollars in 2020. “We were extremely lucky and thankful to be able to have the PPP program help recoup a portion of those losses.”

Appreciative of Arizona’s business climate and the support of the many customers who have come out to support a locally owned business, Sanders says he believes Octane has made it thought the most challenging part of the storm and will continue to recover. “Octane Raceway and Mavrix are expecting very strong second halves of the year as consumer confidence continues to build and companies begin to reward and bring together their employees who have worked remotely and in front-line essential businesses,” Sanders says. “We are looking forward to an even stronger 2022 and expanding both Octane Raceway and Mavrix to new locations in the Valley.”

Octane Raceway octaneraceway.com Mavrix mavrix.com

"There was a lot of compassion and understanding that we ‘were in this together and would get through it the same way.” —Scott Sanders, founder and CEO of Octane Entertainment

Making Waves in Mesa

Cannon Beach

“The key to getting where we are today was having outright stubbornness in not pivoting from the goal of Cannon Beach,” says its developer, Cole S. Cannon, Esq. When COVID hit, not only were there many unknowns but he was getting strong advice to give up on retail/restaurant or even anything that involved crowds. “We stood firm, and resolved to create an experiential park,” he says, “and now, with a building permit, are ready to start delivering on those promises. Had we given in to ‘market forces’ we’d be 18 months behind schedule. We had faith in peoples’ innate need to associate and be active as a force strong enough to overcome any adversity caused by COVID.”

Still under construction and with the first attraction slated to open in Mesa next year, Cannon Beach has yet to turn any profit, and Cannon notes that fundraising, in light of COVID, was nearly impossible in the retail/restaurant/entertainment space. “So, we were resigned to look into our own pockets to fund the heart of the project — the Surf Lagoon,” he says, adding, “We are operating from the premise of Field of Dreams: ‘If you build it, they will come.’” He reports their optimism has been justified, as every step of forward progress on the surf lagoon has been met with some positive market reaction, be it a tenant who wants to operate by the beach or a hotel group coming out of the woodwork.

Despite those roadblocks, Cannon is adamant that he and his team did the right thing by not slowing down their entitlements. “The market rewards risk takers, and we were often the only project on the development agenda for various city and county meetings.” The process involved appearing remotely at planning commission meetings, which was a first for Cannon, who says he is “used to more hand-to-hand combat in public meetings.”

Observing that things have worked out better than he’d expected, with the City of Mesa “a big cheerleader of the project,” he notes, “We can celebrate only that we have a building permit. Our success heretofore can be measured by that fact. Truth is, though, we have a lot to prove at Cannon Beach in the coming months.”

THE ECONOMIC ROLLER COASTER

Scheduling has been highly impacted by supply chain reductions, most notably aluminum and steel, which Cannon reports are backlogged by three to four months, and he notes these are critical components for storm drain and wave tech construction. “The best we can do is try and move short-supplied materials off the critical path list and spend our time on other aspects of the projects while we play the waiting game,” Cannon says.

STAYING STRONG AND MOVING FORWARD

“We expect the Summer of 2022 to be a big year for Cannon Beach,” Cannon says, referring to the Surf Lagoon at that point, and not yet the surrounding buildings. He expects the attraction will, by its nature, create a whole new class of surfers in Arizona and also provide a local “wave” for the transplants from California who miss the surf.

Cannon Beach cannonbeachaz.com "We had faith in peoples’ innate need to associate and be active as a force strong enough to overcome any adversity caused by COVID.” —Cole S. Cannon, developer of Cannon Beach

Jen Butler, CEO of JB Partners, is the creator of Get SMaRT – Stress Management and Resilience Training for the workplace. Her SMaRT Club learning platform is the leading self-guided tool for all companies looking to reduce stress and increase profits. Butler also travels throughout the United States to provide business leaders with one-onone, onsite guidance in managing stress; turning around their business; and achieving real, longlasting results. jbpartners.com

Workplace Stress: Facts and Fictions

The first of a six-part series on reducing workplace stress

by Jen Butler

Heavy workloads, team conflicts, miscommunications, struggles to balance work and home, and job insecurity — it’s no wonder we’ve come to believe that workplace stress is inevitable. That first fiction, that workplace stress is inevitable, leads us to a second: Stress is something we simply have to live with. In fact, if we want to succeed in our jobs, we have to learn how to handle stress. Finally, if we are looking for ways to alleviate the stress in our lives, we are bombarded by countless enthusiasts who insist they have the one true cure for stress — and if we don’t like that cure, we’re doomed.

THE TRUTH ABOUT STRESS

With so many myths circulating about stress, it’s more than time to look at a few hard facts:

• Stress is not inevitable, but it is increasing.

COVID-19 plunged us into fears around a new disease, unemployment and food insecurity. A study by the CDC compared similar populations from June 2019 and June 2020 for symptoms of anxiety, depression and strain.

Anxiety disorders rose from 8.1% in 2019 to 25.5% in 2020; depressive disorders tripled (from 6.5% to 24.3%; and mental strain rose from 30.9% to 40.9%.

• Workplace stress is life-altering at all levels of

an organization. According to a recent Yale School of Management study, high exposure to very stressful situations reduced a CEO’s lifespan by at least 10 years.

Moreover, 80% of second-level executives identify themselves as burned out. Finally, a 2018 survey by Wrike found that in both small and large companies, the major contributor to employee stress was poor communication. • Workplace stress is too costly to ignore. According to the American Psychological Association, stress causes U.S. businesses, at a minimum, $300 billion a year, a figure that would certainly be revised upward during crises like the Boeing 737 Max airplane failure or the pandemic. A Gallup poll found that 51% of stressed employees are disengaged, and a Colonial Life poll found that 41% are less productive. Stress compromises customer service, causes distractions that lead to costly errors, increases absenteeism and hurts the company image among future employees and customers.

THE INDIVIDUALITY OF STRESS

One size does not fit all. We are each susceptible to different triggers for stress. One person may shrug off a friend’s insensitive joke or the failure of a pet project or even a “happy” event like a promotion; another finds it intolerable. Our go-to responses to stress also vary wildly, through every stage from total withdrawal to anger and even violence.

Stress itself has three components. It may be psychological, the stress we put on ourselves by our way of thinking; physiological, those things we do to our body that are unhealthy (such as sitting at a desk for hours without a break); and situational, brought on by events, activities, and situations in our daily life (such as interpersonal conflict). It may be triggered by any one or any combination of those components or all three together.

THE OPTIONS AVAILABLE

The same stress-reduction techniques may make perfect sense for some of us but only add to the stress of the rest. Many so-called team-building events have that effect — not everyone bonds happily over bungee jumping. Moreover, we each learn at a different pace and need time to absorb, practice and embrace new ways of responding to stress.