The International Association of Assembly Managers (IAAM) is the world's largest professional association dedicated to issues relevant to the management of public assembly facilities. The association's members manage amphitheaters, arenas, auditoriums, convention centers/exhibit halls, performing arts venues, stadiums and university complexes; or provide products, services or attractions to support the industry.

For the past many years, IAAM has been working to develop a comprehensive research strategy to inform its membership and advance its industry. In the creation of its new Venue Research Institute (VRI), the association turned to AMS Planning & Research Corp.

"Working with AMS, who understand how to collect information and apply data to strategic decision-making is an important opportunity for IAAM," said VRI Chair Steve Peters. "The VRI identified AMS because they have already successfully deployed PAC Stats(sm) which provides benchmarking data for more than two dozen of North America's largest performing arts centers. Building on their proven tools, we can make more operating insight available to our members; which is one of our key strategic directions."

The goal of the VRI initiative is to create an on-line resource that will serve three purposes:

1. To provide IAAM members and stakeholders with an on-going perspective of the breadth and depth of the public assembly facility sector;
2. to monitor trends in each sector of the assembly business and share key observations with IAAM membership and the field; and,
   
3. to offer useful benchmarking tools to IAAM members to enhance continuous improvement efforts and support best practices