Have you ever met someone at a party who talked endlessly about how wonderful he was and never asked about you? You know the type - someone who's so caught up in his own superior exploits that he assumes anyone who's in earshot will be fascinated by what he has to say?

Have you ever noticed how the language of arts marketing dwells almost exclusively on how wonderful we are and almost never talks about the audience? You know this language - an endless barrage of self-congratulatory words and images that seldom tells people why they should care or what's in it for them?

If you'd rather be an engaging conversationalist than a narcissistic bore, this session will teach you how to stop speaking at audiences, and how to begin speaking to them - or better yet with them - for dramatically improved results. Join Trevor O'Donnell, author of the book Marketing the Arts to Death: How Lazy Language is Killing Culture for a fun, interactive discussion that'll give you practical tools for developing marketing messages that sell.

Large gifts — whether outright major gifts of deferred (planned) major gifts — require the same rules for engagement of donors. The success of Center Theatre Group in engaging and retaining its long term investors, with renewed outright gifts and estate plans, has lessons for organizations large and small. Engaging people in long term investment in the arts relies on the excellence of messages, methods and methodical donor development no matter what your arts focus may be. Enjoy hearing first hand how this still growing theatre company has built a solid base of significant investors.

More and more of today's patrons want choice about the channels used to reach them. Some want the traditional printed season brochure and will not buy without it. Some prefer a season announcement sent to their e-mail or mobile device with web links, promotions and rich content. For others, it's a flier, postcard, Youtube video or banner ad that will make them hit the Buy Now button. You, quite rightly, want it all to fit within your budget and time frame without driving you insane. Job one is to make your marketing efforts support and reinforce each other by writing and designing memorable and consistent messages that adapt easily from channel to channel -- which is both the secret to sales success and the best way to keep the workload from killing you. Come learn successful techniques and pitfalls to avoid when creating a multi-channel brand for your season.