Guest Speaker: Beth Paul, General Manager, Bon Secours Wellness Arena

    View meeting recording here.

    The Well is excited to be scheduling many events for the Upstate community. During the shutdown, they re-engineered the facility for safety and developed processes and policies for reopening.

    With CARES funding from Greenville County, they created contactless ticketing, purchased PPE, increased the air quality, reimagined the live event experience, and redeveloped their business plan.

    They served the community through graduations and hosted the first professional sports team (The Swamp Rabbits hockey team) to restart.

    The future holds a diverse line-up of music, comedy, sports, family events, wrestling with a focus on the Latin and Black events. They forecast 120 events this year with a $60M impact on the region, not including Bassmasters and the NCAA tournament.

    Regional partners are intrinsic to their success with many conversations and mutual decisions made in conjunction with The Greenville Drive, the Triumph, and the Peace Center.

    There are many challenges in workforce development and the close nature of touring, gas prices, and supply chain issues.

    Q: What is the current capacity?

    A: From 25% in November, they have gradually increased to 100% today with the first potential full house in December with Eric Church.

    Q: What are some air quality adjustments that were made?

    A: Ionization through air handlers, pushing more fresh air, and developing zones for different areas.

    Q: Are acts considering coming here or not, due to the pandemic?

    A: Possibly, they are excited about new acts like Banda MS from Mexico on August 6. They have run out of dates already due to spreading out genres, for example, they plan 25 days between country acts.

    Start-Grow Upstate Presentation

    Please contact Erin Ouzts, Director of the Upstate Entrepreneur Ecosystem with questions or to schedule a demonstration for your organization.

    Resource Update

    Aileen Gallagher, Phoenix Center and The Family Effect

    Greenville Country Center on Drug Abuse

    In patient detox

    Medical detox

    Outpatient detox

    They have psychiatrists from Prisma Health

    Serenity Village – residential center for mothers

    Over 60% of their clients are uninsured, no one is ever turned away even if they cannot afford to pay.

    The Family Effect – They handle all the financial donations and volunteers.

    Next month they will announce scholarship for outpatients who cannot afford treatment, it is a public fund.

    Mobile prevention unit – mobile unit that can travel to educate people.