A couple of arts consultants...

I attended an arts consultant round table at the National Performing Arts Convention last month, and I wanted to provide contact information for a couple of my fellow attendees:

• Lisa Mount - Lisa led the session, and her firm's Web site is www.ArtisticLogistics.org. Lisa offers a broad array of strategic management services.
• Jane Hill (artSMART) - Jane brings more than thirty years experience as a professional arts manager to provide practical and successful approaches to the challenges faced by small and mid-sized arts organizations today. Contact Jane at hill.jane1913@sbcglobal.net.

A reminder... the Center for Arts Management and Technology provides technology consulting for nonprofit arts organizations. Read more about our services.

Note: CAMT does not endorse either of these consultants. All consultants in the session were given the opportunity to be listed here.

Victory is... Not mine?

Pop Arts Marketing held their own iPod giveaway last week for the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver. But their contest required a bit more skill than ours, as they set up an online game called Harpsichord Hero, which riffed on the popular Guitar Hero. For most of the Convention, I held the high score, but someone finally bested me on the last day of the event. On Friday, I got what I thought was a perfect score and celebrated a bit more than any reasonable adult should. Then when I looked at the leaderboard, I realized that my adversary was still slightly higher than me in the rankings.

This is a photo of me in mid-celebration, before I was crushed by the realization of defeat:

I look more terrified than happy, really.

You can still play Harpsichord Hero and see my 2nd, 3rd and 4th place scores on the Pop Web site.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to the four winners of the Institue for the Management of Creative Enterprises iPod Nano giveaway. We collected business cards during the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, CO, last week, and our winners were picked on Friday. The lucky quartet:

• Jodi Schoenbrun Carter, Managing Director, Westport Country Playhouse
• Julie Hawkins, Vice President of Public Policy, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
• Conrad Kehn, Composer/Vocalist
• Trevor Hunter, Technical Producer, Counterstream Radio

To all of those who entered but did not win, please remember this quote from William Shakespeare: "Having nothing, nothing can he lose."

Rocky Mountain High, Chorus America

We were fortunate enough to catch an impromptu performance of Rocky Mountain High by members of Chorus America, the national non-profit service organization for choral music. Rocky Mountain High.

We are also featuring the group's performance in our most recent podcast, Technology in the Arts #44, which is dedicated to interviews from this week's 2008 National Performing Arts Convention.

Asleep on the Job...

One of the big problems with having comfy couches in your exhibit hall booth space:

The Colorado Convention Center really needs to do a better job keeping hobos from accessing the exhibit hall.

Trade Show Booth Setup Blues

Though tomorrow is the first official day of the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, CO, I had to arrive last night so I'd be ready this morning to set up our booth in the exhibit hall. Ain't she purty? Yes, that's a leather sofa.

Fortunately, everything arrived as scheduled, so there was no need for my late night cold sweats from anxiety about a crucial booth component getting lost in transit. But when I say "everything," I mean four large 100-pound crates, two large 50-pound boxes, a cylindrical container and a large flat box.

Why so much packaging? Well, this booth is a monster. For this particular show, we're exhibiting as the Institute for the Management of Creative Enterprises, which is the parent entity of our research center (CAMT.Artsnet.org), and two master's programs (MAM.Artsnet.org and MEIM.Artsnet.org).

During a particularly hairy moment this afternoon, one of the booth's walls toppled, nearly killing the guy at the neighboring exhibit space. If I had knocked him unconscious, my plan would have been to drag his body into a restroom, pack everything back up, and fly home to Pittsburgh. Surely he would have been hit hard enough to forget who or what had struck him, right?

Anyway, the booth is all set up, and I'm looking forward to the convention. I'm especially excited to tour the exhibit hall, as on display will be hundreds of amazing performing arts groups, technology providers, arts management companies, etc.

As you can see from the image at the top of this entry, our booth features a seating area with a leather couch and chair. I'll feel a little like Dick Cavett when I sit and chat with passersby.