Data. It’s critical for organizations to gather it, assess it, and use it to guide business decisions. As a marketer, tracking metrics for us is imperative to defining what’s working and what could be working better. Each year, I hear GSCA members clamoring for more information on audiences, and the industry. However, the most basic of details—overall theater attendance—is reported by less than half of member theaters. What keeps giant screen theaters from reporting attendance?

This winter posed a bigger challenge for institutions in Boston than they had faced in many years. With record-breaking snowfall, schools, restaurants, museums, and other attractions were unable to open doors on many days between January and February. While this winter was especially difficult in Boston, the problem of how to respond to dangerous and uncontrollable weather is not unique to Boston. In other parts of the world, this same issue can arise in the form of extreme heat or flooding. Corinna Graham from the Museum of Science in Boston writes that we all need to be aware that extreme weather can hurt our businesses and attendance figures at attractions and asks, "So how do we respond?"