26 BCBUSINESS DECEMBER/JANUARY 2019
He then sits in on a pre-shift meeting with club seat serv-
ers where it's revealed that last game, when a customer in
another section was choking on his meal, one sta member
leapt to action and performed
CPR on the man.
Not two minutes after the meeting ends, Stipec has tra-
versed the arena and found the server in question. He tells
her he's very proud of what she did before slapping two tick-
ets to a Justin Timberlake show on the table.
M O M E N T O U S O C C A S I O N
Stipec introduced executive vice-president of hockey
administration and arena operations TC Carling to a book
called The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have
Extraordinary Impact, by Chip and Dan Heath, at last sum-
mer's National Hockey League draft in Dallas. The two sub-
sequently came up with a challenge to their event sta: create
40,000 moments for customers over the course of the year.
"The book talks about how there's only a certain number
of times in your life where a moment happens, and we've all
had them, good or bad," says Carling, who started with the
Canucks in media relations 19 years ago. "We have about
400 fan-facing employees each night. It varies based on the
size of the show, but that's a generalized number. And if each
one of them did one thing per night to make your night bet-
ter or anybody's night better, you'd get to 400 a night, and
we've got about 100 nights left in the year."
It's moments like the one in the club section that Carling
and Stipec are talking about, and they get another example
when a member of the security team hands Carling an enve-
lope with a letter for Canucks centre Bo Horvat, thanking
the forward for creating a moment for her own family after
last night's game. "It was a way to motivate sta and get
them to feel like they're pulling in the same direction, and
it's resonated really well so far," Carling says.
A R E Y O U N O T E N T E R T A I N E D ?
This season represents a big change for the Canucks when
it comes to in-game programming, as the franchise tries to
echo the eorts to engage hockey bus in places like Nash-
ville and Las Vegas. That means things like the Viking Clap,
in which supporters are guided to clap faster and faster in
unison while bellowing, and, in lieu of paid advertising,
Jumbotron features where Canucks players engage in star-
ing contests and Pictionary-style games with younger fans.
At an earlier meeting, Stipec urged the leaders of dier-
ent departments to make sure they were engaging with cus-
tomers and getting feedback on the new additions.
Back in the arena, game preparations are starting, with
the entertainment crew trying out the introductions and
content displays on the ice and scoreboard.
The overhead lights go dark while shots of Canucks scor-
ing and making plays roll on the Jumbotron. The video and
Play Invest Live Work
