Business View Magazine | August 2022

113 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 8 RA I S ING CANE ’ S R I VER CENTER Galleria and that’s lined with 13 meeting rooms.” A full theater in a separate building on the property has been recently renovated, adding to its value as an asset to the community. Wayne Hodes, Raising Cane’s River Center General Manager, shares, “Our theater for the performing arts just underwent an entire renovation to the tune of over $18 million. We’ve seen much more interest in the national musical and comedic landscape, as well as locally from the performing arts community to perform there.” Part of the theater renovation included upgrades to the audio-visual capabilities, making the facility more competitive as a venue option. With that project completed, there are plans to bring the arena up to date – a necessary investment. As Guin explains, “The arena is the oldest part of our building. Originally, the property was just the arena and the theater, and then in the early 2000s they added the exhibition hall and the ballroom. Now that the theater project is done, we are working on the arena to make all the upgrades that are needed in order for us to be competitive in that area as well.” On the technology side, Raising Cane’s River Center is working with IT solutions company Transformyx to update the facility’s infrastructure. “We’re going through a huge upgrade. Our wiring to all of our routers and Wi- Fi probably hasn’t been updated since the late 1990s or early 2000s. They are helping us make all of those urgent upgrades so that we can be more secure in our network and have better performance all around, making everybody’s lives a little bit easier in the office and on event day,” says Guin. With between 30 and 50 full time administration staff, the center has a very close-knit employee group, which Guin acknowledges is inevitable. “In a job like ours, we spend a lot of late nights, and a lot of weekends together. We all are there to constantly support each other, because we all recognize that the event industry is a very demanding thing. There is always a lot of support there to make each event better.” Part- time staff are brought in for events and many of them have been working for Raising Cane’s River Center for several years. This includes event staff, food and beverage staff, and security. For larger groups, the center will hire additional people Wayne Hodes, General Manager Alysia Guin, Sales and Marketing Manager