Archive for the ‘Arts administration’ Category

We thought this was far too valuable an event not to be pounced upon. A conference about the web for community, non-profit and voluntary organisations.

In or around Wellington? Mark your calendars now - 4 September 2008, Wellington at Massey University: Engage Your Community - a web conference for community organisations.

If you’ve ever wondered how the web could be better used by your organisation; or know what a blog is, but not how it could be useful; or are a little nervous about opening a Facebook account, then this is a conference for you.

If you think the internet is for geeks, or young people, or those with nothing better to do with their time, then this is a conference for you.

And if you want to move beyond using email and having a simple website, then this is a conference for you.

It’s also a conference aimed squarely and unapologetically at the community sector. At those voluntary and non-profit organisations working at the grass-roots level.

We know that you’re stretched and busy and over-worked. We know that you may even be thinking, “There’s no way I can spare a day going to a conference! I’ve got too much going on right now.”

But we also know that it’s vitally important for organisations like yours to engage with the web and to engage with those members of the community growing up online.

The Engage Your Community conference will give you an introduction and lead you to the next step. If you can use email and navigate your way around a website, then you’ve got all the technical knowledge you’ll need to get something from the conference.

Register now for early-bird pricing.

Calling all artists! Entries are now open for 17th Annual Wallace Art Awards 2008 and you’ve got until 5pm on 7 August 2008 to get your entries in. These prestigious awards, run by The James Wallace Arts Trust, are now in their 17th year. This year the judges are Linda Tyler, Dick Frizzell and the 2007 winner James Robinson (see image).

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Entries are open for the 11th annual NBR Awards for Sponsorship of the Arts. Art sponsors have until 29 May to enter. Now in their eleventh year, the Awards acknowledge those partnerships between business and the arts that demonstrate a high level of creativity, commitment and vision, as well as important business benefits.

To be eligible, companies must have sponsored an arts event or organisation in the year to June 2008.

The winners will be announced by the Prime Minister at the black tie Awards Gala dinner at the Auckland Town Hall, Wednesday 30 July 2008. You can get your entry form at www.bulletpr.co.nz

‘It is one of the largest free community events in the world. In recent years it has become a highlight on the Auckland events calendar, regularly attracting crowds in excess of 200,000 and hundreds of performers from all over the Auckland region, New Zealand and the Pacific.’

Read the newest NZLive.com featured article.

Check out this graph from an article on eMarketer about ‘The rising roar of word-of-mouth’. More and more, people are influenced by friends, family and also strangers over other promotional channels when they make decisions about what to buy and where to go. Click on the image to see a larger version of the graph. It means we can’t underestimate the value of promoting our services and activities using testimonials, reviews and commentary from our audiences.

Rules can be handy. Here’s a quick read from the BBC - their fifteen web principles. I like the fact that they remind us that it’s not just all about me and my website, but about taking and giving, linking and feeding, across the web.

Finally, a link to Alan Brown’s article on Fuel4Arts outlining his framework for the value of the arts. It’s a great piece of work - I won’t attempt to summarise it here - read the article instead, or cast your eye over the short summary on Creative New Zealand’s website (where you can also listen to a webcast with Alan). At a seminar in Wellington last month, Alan directed his arguments to both marketers and arts managers, arguing that his framework provides a common language for explaining the benefits and values of our programmes to our audiences and to our sponsors. He strikes a great balance between reminding us that the number one reason people attend arts events is to relax and have fun (and that we should design our programmes to be more relevant to these people’s needs and this social context) with his obvious belief in the value of the art itself:

Being completely absorbed in an arts activity is at the root of everything and without it, you can’t reap the other benefits.