08/04/2011

School will start in two weeks. After having the busiest summer, I’m ready for an even busier school semester. I will probably have three classes for the fall semester -- PAF 508, organizational behavior, PAF 523 the city and county manager, and PAF 534 urban infrastructure. A friend of mine will take PAF 523 as well … it’s good to have someone I know on the class. I’m going to Vegas next Friday, enjoying the last two weeks of summer and waiting for school starts.

08/03/2011

The Phoenix Convention Center is hosting the General Council 2011 of Assemblies of God this week. The Assemblies of God USA and Assemblies of God is largest Pentecostal denomination.  The Assemblies of God was founded in 1914. Today the organization has nearly 3 million member in 12, 300 churches in U.S. and has more than 63 million members worldwide. The General Council, the biennial business meeting, is responsible for church business, electing officials and convening ministries and activities of the church. 

07/23/2011

I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last Saturday. The ending of the movie is the ending of my childhood memory. I grew up with Harry Potter, starting to read Horry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone when I was 13-year-old. After that, seven books and eight movies were released in the next ten years. The first Harry Potter movie I watched is on a bad quality tape. The kind of tape that people shot the movie in the theater with camera, burned it on the CD and sold it on the market…very common in China back then. I didn’t quite clearly see what Harry Porter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger looked like in the movie, because the quality was too bad. But I was still so excited when I watched it. Last week, when I was watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in IMAX 3D, which claims the movie is crystal clear, I was as excited as ten years when I watch Horry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.  What it matters is the story, not the effects of the movie.

08/02/2011

A quick-response code (QR code) is a matrix barcode that can be read by QR barcode reader and mobile camera. It’s very user-friendly, because users don’t need to type into the complicate website. Mobile users first scan the QR code on their phone and then are directed to the website that the code stands for. For instance, there is a Youtube video about the Phoenix Executive Conference Center. Mobile users will be directed to the video by just simply scanning the QR code. A QR code of the video is generated by the free QR code generator.

Arts in PCC

 Some pictures of arts in the phoenic convention center.

A New Social Networking

Google Inc launched an invite-only trial version of Good Plus, or G+, on June 28, 2011. Google Plus is a upgraded social networking, which includes its current social services, such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces the new Circles, Hangouts, Instant Uploads, Sparks, and Huddles.
Circles allow users to put different people in different social “circles” – put family in a family circle and friends in a friend circle. People in the family circle are not able to see what you post in the friend circle.
With Hangouts, users chat with multiple friends face-to-face at the same time. Any friends in the same circle can drop by the conversation at anytime and anywhere.
Instant Uploads enable pictures and video upload automatically. Users don’t need to do the uploading by themselves.
Save your interests in the Sparks. It will find interesting things for you based on your interests.
Huddles is group chatting services, on which group conversation is simple and easy.
Google Plus will be available on both desktop and mobile applications. The trial version of Good Plus was stopped because of the crazy demand. Google Inc doesn’t have a clear date on when the actual Google Plus will be released. I’m very excited about this new social networking. Hopefully, it will soon be available for everyone.

International Association of Venue Managers Conference, Part 3

I went to to the concurrent education session, which is about whether venue should provide free wi-fi or not. Probably eveyone thinks that there should be free wi-fi at the venues, but some interesting data showed that it's not true. Only 44% of the conference attendees think free Wi-Fi for all areas at the venue is necessary. Event organizers and facility managers at the venues have different expectations on free Wi-Fi. 90% of event organizers think attendees should have free Wi-Fi; compared to 48% of facility managers who has the same expectations.
Free wi-fi is a big attraction to the bussiness. Wi-Fi drives up sales in the small businesses. Attendees are more willing to shop in the businesses with free Wi-Fi, such as Starbucks and McDonald.

International Association of Venues Managers Conference, part 2

I went to the concurrent education session which was part of the international associalion of venues manager conference. The session is about the social media which was held on 27th, July, at the convention center.The Social Media Panel mainly focuses on the use of Facebook and Twitter for venues. Google Plus is recommended on the panel as a new interactive tour. Google Plus is an amalgamation of the Circle, Hangouts and Sparks. Google plus is new concept for me, since it came out just three weeks.

The social media is the most active customer service channel for the venues. Ticketing on the social media enables the venues to track direct sales. The feedback and complaints that customers leave on the social media (Facebook and the Twitter) help venues to provide better customer services.

7/29/2011

I was looking for the size of the original phoenix town and the size of the downtown core in the last two days. A small colony, which was given the name, Phoenix, by Darrell Duppa, was built about four miles away from the present city in 1868. The town site of the Phoenix was selected in a meeting on October 20, 1870. The town site is the original phoenix town. It was bounded on the north by Van Buren Street, on the south by Jackson Street, on the east by Seventh Street and on the west by Seventh Avenue.

The City of phoenix planned to build the downtown core around twenty years ago. It is a business district located in the downtown Phoenix, where has shops, restaurants, retail areas and offices. It also is a pedestrian friendly environment, having wide sidewalks and shaded walkways. Above the commercial spaces, the historic architectures are planned to be covered in the downtown core, such as Patriots Park, Renaissance Square, the Solar Oasis, Arizona Center, Heritage Square and Arena Plaza, and more. The downtown core is bounded on the north by the Fillmore Street, on the south by the Jefferson Street, on the west by the 3^rd Avenue and on the east by the 7^th Street.

Washington St in 1870

7/27/2011

The Phoenix Convention Center is hosting the IAVM Annual Conference & Trade Show this week. The IAVM stands for the International Association of Venue Managers, which is the World’s largest professional organization for the operations of sporting and entertainment facilities, such as amphitheaters, arenas, auditoriums, convention centers, and more. Exhibitors in the event planning industry gather on the show and display their latest technology and products. The exhibitors cover all kinds of fields, including architecture design, parking management, crowd management, carpets, event booking and management software, ticketing, and more. There are some amazing technologies coming out on the on-line tickets booking. For example, when someone is booking the ticket on the ticketmaster.com, he/she can use the seat view to choose his/her ticket. Through the seat view, customers are able to know what kind of view they will watch with their seats. And they can also share their ticket information with their friends via social net works, such as facebook and twitter.

7/26/2011

I was looking for the size of the original phoenix town and the size of the downtown core in the last two days. A small colony, which was given the name, Phoenix, by Darrell Duppa, was built about four miles away from the present city in 1868. The town site of the Phoenix was selected in a meeting on October 20, 1870. The town site is the original phoenix town. It was bounded on the north by Van Buren Street, on the south by Jackson Street, on the east by Seventh Street and on the west by Seventh Avenue.

The City of phoenix planned to build the downtown core around twenty years ago. It is a business district located in the downtown Phoenix, where has shops, restaurants, retail areas and offices. It also is a pedestrian friendly environment, having wide sidewalks and shaded walkways. Above the commercial spaces, the historic architectures are planned to be covered in the downtown core, such as Patriots Park, Renaissance Square, the Solar Oasis, Arizona Center, Heritage Square and Arena Plaza, and more. The downtown core is bounded on the north by the Fillmore Street, on the south by the Jefferson Street, on the west by the 3^rd Avenue and on the east by the 7^th Street.

7/25/2011

The Maricopa County Assessor is a good place to look for information regarding to property. It has GIS mapping, data on tax of personal property, property values on both residential and commercial properties. The “territory “of the Phoenix Convention Center is clearly shown on the Maricopa County Assessor – east by the north 2^nd street, west by the north 5^th street, north by the Monroe street and south by the Washington street. If any protesters appear in this area during the event, like MLB Fanfest, the convention center has the right to ask them to leave.

Quaterly Reward Meeting

The Phoenix Convention Center had the meeting of quarterly reward on last Thursday, recognizing outstanding staff and team for the last quarter.  Three teams and one individual received the reward. There is one team redesigned the Phoenix Convention Center Intranet, on which has better format and more information. Another team was rewarded because they repaired the benches in front of the west building. The third team fixed the pipe leak in one of the buildings. The teams and individuals indicate well what the good customer services are.What these teams have done seems really small, but it is what the convention center needs to provide good services to customers.  

Window signs

It is the third week of my internship in the Phoenix Convention Center. My supervisor is planning to put some interactive ad on the window of the west building and the north building in the future, so he asked me to skim through the city council report on the issue of signs and  find out which the description could fall into the interactive signs. What I found it’s interesting that the window sign can only cover maximum 30% of the entire window area, which makes me think how do they come up this number? Why 30%? Is it for the purpose of zoning or something else?

Miss Phoenix Chinese 2011

The final competition of Miss Phoenix Chinese 2011 was held in 4^th of July for selecting the Beauty Queen and for celebrating the Independence Day.  Seven girls are chosen for the final competition, among which I’m one of the seven. I won the First Princess (the second place), Miss Popularity and Miss Congeniality.

 I performed the Chinese traditional dance, “Grandpa Carries Granddaughter”, for the talent show. I was playing two characters – obviously grandfather and granddaughter.  I had a dummy grandpa in the front of me, looking like he was carrying me.  I was wearing a red top, which represents granddaughter’s body and a pair of white pants, which are grandfather’s legs. It took me a week to make the entire consume. It was a quite entertaining dance. Everyone was laughing while I was performing the dance. 

We also had question and answer section, in which every girl with evening gown picked up a question from a bowl, gave it to the last year’s beauty queen and she read it. My question was what I would do with one million dollars. I said I would leave some money for my parents and myself. I would also set up a foundation to help those who are in dire needs, which is the standard answer for the beauty pageant question. The creative part of my answer is that at the last I said I would reward 10,000 dollars to tonight’s audience, who gave me the loudest applause. I heard that I got the high score in this section. The last part of my answer probably helped me a lot.

The Last Blog

It’s the last blog on my internship experience. The blog is done, but my internship will be continued till August, possibly till next April.  In the next two month, I will work on the commitment to excellence celebration; look forward to the MLB all-star fan festival, which is in July 8^th to July 12^th; find out which digital-out-of-home signage network best fits to the Convention Center, brings more events and increases revenues. I have learned a lot from the student internship in Phoenix Convention Center, even though it’s only the second week to work there. (I only work two day a week so, totally, I have worked for four days). I learned how to write the city council report, how to use the office software; how convention center does its advertising and marketing, and many more.

Research on Digital-out-of-home Signage

My supervisor gave me four more companies that provides digital-out-of-home signage network and asked me to do research on them. I looked through their websites and tried to find out information on their products and services, network coverage and service rates. So far, I have done researches on eleven companies, which all provides the digital-out-of-home signage networks, but slightly different in their services and products. I think the best company among these is the one allows its clients to view pricing rates, locations, product descriptions, pictures and company contact information. Through the company’s online marketplace, media providers create media profiles for their properties. In turn, advertisers and agencies can use the database of media properties to find the out-of-home campaign. The database has planning information from over 475 out-of-home media sellers.

MLB All-Star Fan Festival

The all-star baseball fan festival, which is the biggest event the Phoenix Convention Center holds this year, is coming in two weeks. A lot of banners will be hanged on the windows, walls and open spaces in the Phoenix Convention Center. Tonight, the 3^rd street will be blocked so that a huge banner can be hanged on the entrance of the north building of phoenix convention center.

There will be a lot of events going on in the festival. For example, fans will have opportunities to receive free autographs from MLB players. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has a exhibition on baseball’s past and history.

June 29th, 2011

Good writing skill is very important for someone who wants to work or is currently working for local government. I have been asked to write a report on a workshop. The writing style of these reports is totally different from the literature, which has beautiful descriptions on things but sometimes redundant.  The city report must be accurate on information, figures, data and facts; because it’s possible that everyone can read it. The city report also needs to be concise, using least language to state most information. No one has the time and patience to read through a report that is redundant. Besides, the city of Phoenix has certain format on the report. Each time I finished writing a report, I needed to put it in the format so that it looks nice and formal.

Culture of Recognition

The Phoenix Convention Center has staff meeting in every Monday and Thursday Morning. All the administrative employees gather in a conference room, chatting a little bit. Employees’ names are announced if someone did a good job in the last week. Stories on good customer service are shared. The Phoenix Convention Center also uses the “High-five award” to recognize employees’ god work. If someone thinks his/her coworker does a good job, he/she give that person a “high-five award” flyer. The meeting and the “High-five award” are good ways to motivate employees because their work is recognized by their co-workers and supervisors.

Art is a Guaranty of Sanity

Louise Bourgeois designed a sculpture for the Phoenix Convention Center. The sculpture, standing at the entrance between the Convention Center West Building and Symphony Hall, has a mirror face on the top. The sculpture is made of steel, aluminum and glass with a height of 40 feet. The words “Art is a Guaranty of Sanity” is on the surface of the mirror.

June 27th, 2011

For unknown reasons, I couldn’t post comments on either my blog or other people’s blog. Someone asked me how many people show up each time the Phoenix Convention Center holds a weekend event and what event attracts the most people. I would say at least one thousand people attend the volleyball festival, but I'm not sure about the exact number of how many people show up on each event. The all-star baseball is the one attract the most people this summer.

I have noticed that writing skill is essential to the duties in the local government, or in all works. So far, I wrote a report on a workshop and will need to submit a project on digital signage software on Wednesday. My supervisor gave me a sample of city council report, showing me how the administrative memo looks like. I will have a lot of things to learn and writing is the very first thing that I need to conquer.

Smartphone Apps for Local Government Workshop

My supervisor and I attended a workshop on smart phone apps for local government. On the workshop, the App-Order demonstrated “mydistrictd”, an Android application for the District D in the Clark County of Nevada. After log into the application, citizens may choose an issue that they would like to report among the five main items (graffiti removal, illegal dumping, swimming poll, vacant properties). They then upload a picture, a text or audio note describing the issue. The phone’s GPS allows citizens to set location so that the city can quickly and accurately identify the problem area and solve the issue. Citizens may enter their information to enable the district to contact them on reported issue if needed.

The company App-order develops smart phone (mainly iPhone and Android) applications for local government for the purpose of not only increasing employee’s efficiency and responsiveness to issues identified but also measuring and managing employee’s performance. The App-order provides apps in the fields of public works, asset collection, permits and inspection, general services, surveys and PAM 1.0 mobile code enforcement software system.

Volleyball Festival

Phoenix Convention Center is holding a volleyball festival from June 23rd to June 27th. Hundreds of teenagers and their families coming from all over the country gather together in the center for this event. The center uses the exhibition halls, one of its largest spaces, to build about 30 volleyball play fields for the games. My supervisor and I went down to the exhibition hall this morning to take some pictures for the festival. The pictures will be used to make the film for the commitment to excellence celebration. There were several kiosks, selling food and beverage, around the hall. The convention center discourages visitors to bring outside food into the hall, because it takes money away from the kiosks. One thing exciting about working in Phoenix Convention Center is that there are many events going on.  I can meet interesting people, perform different duties and learn valuable skills, for instance, customer services and team work.

Digital Signage

The project that I’m working on is to do research on the digital signage software that the Phoenix Convention Center can use for marketing purpose. The digital signage soft ware, also called digital-out-of-home, is a network for advertising. We will put information of our electronic monitors, upcoming events on the network so that companies could see and maybe use our monitors; display their company information on the event. I will summarize the products from seven companies, report them to my supervisor, so that he could have some ideas on which digital signage we should choose.  We have been using the Cisco Amplified Program as the digital signage for few months, but no company has contacted us. If other companies has better product, we may switch to another one.

First day of internship

Today it’s my first day of internship. I got my own little spot, where I will do most of my business during my internship. My supervisor gave me a tutor on how to log into the computer and how to use the Lotus Notes. The Lotus Notes is kind of like the Microsoft Outlook, which is a social networking among the Phoenix Convention Center employees, including email, calendar, address books, and database. I will receive emails from my supervisors and co-works via the Lotus Notes. Later on this morning, I sat on a staff meeting on preparing the commitment to excellence celebration on August 17 and 18. It’s a ceremony of promoting employees’ work excellence, interpersonal relationship, team work problem solving skills, capability, leadership and professionalism.

One thing that City of Phoenix has, which I think is really amazing, is the seamless service directory. It’s a search engine for contact information of city employees and divisions. It’s especially useful when a resident calls to a division or a person, inquiring for information on another division or another person. I will just need to type into the name of the division or the person, and then the contact information of that division or that person will come out.

CPT

Today I got my CPT from the international student office, which means that I am eligible to do my internship starting from today. Curricular practical training (CPT) is an employment authorization for international students to do the off-campus internship. I cannot do off-campus internship without a CPT in my hands. The CPT requires a lot of documents (passport, employer’s letter, advisor’s letter, SSN) and time (about two weeks) to apply for. That is why I start my internship a little bit late. Other students usually begin doing their internships at the end of May or at the beginning of the June, while I have to wait for my “magic” keys before I can engage in the internship. I will start to do my internship tomorrow, looking forward to it. I will post more on my internship experience!!!

The Expansion of Phoenix Convention Center

Phoenix Convention Center came from the Phoenix Civic Plaza which was completed 1972 at the cost of $28 million. Phoenix Symphony Hall was part of the project. The Phoenix Civic Plaza was expanded in 1978 due to the increasing demands for spaces, and changed the name to Phoenix Convention Center. In the mid-1990, $32 million was used to renovate the buildings and to update the facilities. In 2006, Phoenix Convention Center had its largest renovation project at the cost of $600 million, which made the new center three times larger than the old one. The entirely new convention center now has three buildings with over 900,000 square feet, including the south building, the north building and the west building. The south building has two exhibition halls, the 28,000 square feet south ballroom, divisible meeting rooms (it is my favorable room, because it’s very flexible that the big room can be divided into six small rooms by walls). The west building offers over 60,000 square-foot spaces including two exhibition hall and six meeting rooms.

Father's Day

The Father's day is coming. I will call my dad and wish him happiness one day earlier than the actual father’s day, because it is the father’s day on Chinese time. Sounds confusing. The Father’s Day is on the June19^th, 2011, so I will have to call my dad on June 18^th, when it is the Father’s day on the Chinese time

I left my hometown for college five years ago, since then I haven't spent any father's day with my dad. I ignored the Father’s day when I lived with my parents on my hometown. I had plenty of time and chances to tell my dad that I love him, but I never did, because I was very reserved and didn’t know how to show my dad that I care about him. After I came to U.S., I started to realize how important family means to me. I made phone calls to my parents at least twice a week. This year, I mailed a card to my dad from U.S., telling him that he is the best dad in the world. Hopefully, he will receive it before the Father’s day. Even though the physical distance is far between us, we are remaining close. If you are reading my blog, please don’t forget to call your dad on the Father’s day.

looking forward to start my internship

I always believe that the amazing personnel make the City of Phoenix the best-managed local government, so working as an internship in the City of Phoenix has been my dream since I got enrolled into the MPA program. I want to work with those professionals and to learn from them. Finally, the Phoenix Convention Center offered me a student internship. It’s going to be a great opportunity for me to learn some practical skills, such as communication skills, interpersonal skills, skills of writing memos, etc. My job duties include assisting in the documentation of summer events at the Phoenix Convention Center and in data input of Cisco Amplify program. The program provides companies information on advertisement opportunities, which will help the companies to promote themselves to the public and will also bring revenues to the Phoenix Convention Center. I will start my internship on Jun 23^rd. I am very very excited about it.