Speaker Preview: Jack Ho’s Five-Point Guide to Opening A Venue

The opening of The Star Performing Arts Centre (The Star PAC) situated at one-north was a significant milestone for the arts fraternity in Singapore.

The Star Theatre, the first of its kind in this region, is the showpiece of The Star PAC and the 5,000-seat purpose-built concert venue has been designed to cater equally to the needs of artists, technical crews and audience.

Four years in the making, Jack Ho (Chief Operation Officer) will be joining us at The LEVEL Summit (26-27 November, London) to report back on his experiences of starting up a new venue and the lessons learnt and, with the benefit of hindsight, what he would have done differently.

Lessons Learnt

Jack Ho spoke exclusively to The LEVEL Summit and touched on five lessons learnt by his experience in Singapore:

• Don’t leave everything to your architect and theatre design consultant – above everything else, study the sight lines for every section of seats. You’ll be living with this for the next hundred years;
• Nothing is too small – from toilet door locking mechanisms to which side of the lift call buttons to place your card-access reader;
• Study the plans, even if you don’t like to do it. In an ideal world, the location of F&B counters, toilets, elevators, escalators will all be in the right place;
• Look out for long-term recurring issues such as cleaning and maintenance, ledges that accumulate dust can be hard to reach and ask yourself ‘How easy is it to replace lamps?’;
• Look at practical issues – choice of materials, design of handrails and lighting are all factors to consider.

Biography of Jack Ho

Jack Ho is the Chief Operating Officer of The Star PAC.

Prior to this appointment, Jack was the General Manager of Rock Productions since its incorporation in 1998. His diverse portfolio include managing the 1,400-seat Rock Auditorium in Suntec City, a choice venue of many conferences, seminars and smaller-scaled concerts.

Jack has over 20 years of experience in the gospel music industry as a musician and music director. He has also produced several gospel albums in the past two decades.

Join in the discussion with Jack Ho at The LEVEL Summit 2013. Click here to find out more.