PROGRAM

CANADIAN ARTS MARKETING, DEVELOPMENT & TICKETING CONFERENCE, TORONTO

05.30.23 - 05.31.23

PLENARY

Embracing Diversity: A Refreshed Approach to Audience Engagement

The performing arts are in a time of flux. The traditional patron base is eroding, consumer trends and expectations are shifting and Canadian demographics are ever evolving. How do performing arts organizations adapt their offering, and approach, to ensure new audiences not only feel welcomed, but feel embraced? In this session, Kondwani and Shannon will share the NAC’s approach to expanding and diversifying the NAC’s visitors, often in the context of limited resources. They will also share a few specific examples of how the NAC has embraced the Black and Indigenous communities over the past few years.

Kondwani Mwase
Executive Director of Audience Engagement National Arts Centre

Shannon Urie
Marketing Director National Arts Centre

BREAKOUTS AND PANELS

Smart Ways to Fill Seats After a Pandemic

If weathering a pandemic weren’t difficult enough, now we have to fill all those seats again after large swaths of our audiences have seemingly dispersed and moved on.

Bringing those audiences back -- and finding new ones – will require reimagining pricing, packaging, programming and more. Hear from these experts how they’re doing it, and how you can too!

Moderator: Karen Turner
Senior Manager of Patron & Operations Services Young Centre for the Performing Arts

Nathan Schwartzberg
Audience Relations Manager Soulpepper Theatre Co.

Anastassia Lavrinenko
Manager of Ticketing Operations Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Barry Higgins
Assistant Manager, Special Projects Royal Ontario Museum

How To Secure Corporate Partners And Where To Find Your Best Prospects

This session, using case studies, will demonstrate how active the business of corporate sponsorship and naming rights has been over the past 24 months and how you can tap into it now for significantly increased revenue. Highly interactive, Judy Haber will describe the process she goes through with clients to attract corporate partners in the new environment. She will share her extensive experience selling naming rights and corporate sponsorships. Judy is considered to be a sales expert by her peers in the industry; please bring your questions for Judy!

Judy Haber
Senior Partner Performance Sponsorship Group

The Essence of Arts Facilities: Life on the Front Lines

Arts facilities are facing tough choices as society becomes increasingly politicized and polarized. Facility managers and producers are having to deal with a range of difficult challenges, including artists sharing political views from the stage, free-speech rights and the basic question of whether arts facilities should be neutral sites welcoming all in the community or activist organizations pursuing justice and other progressive viewpoints for their communities. Please join us for a lively panel discussion with facility managers and other experts as we dig into these questions and hear from top leaders having to navigate these issues on a daily basis.

Duncan Webb
President Webb Management Services, Inc.

Sam Varteniuk
Executive Director The Registry Theatre

Sheree Spencer
Producer Volcano Theatre

Extreme Engagement: Smart Ways to Include Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back for More

During the pandemic, Mirvish Productions in Toronto stayed deeply connected with their vast audience thanks to their secret sauce for creating and sharing exceptionally compelling content. Contests, stories, trivia and even contributions from their own theatre lovers were just a few of the many strategies that they used.

John Karastamatis, Director of Marketing and Communications for Mirvish Productions, will reveal how they did it, how it's working now, and how you and your organization can get into the act!

John Karastamatis
Director of Communications and Programming Mirvish Productions

Arts Marketing Research Part A: Defining the Wicked Question

Figuring out your research problem is the first -- and most important -- step before you dive into asking your customers for their insights. This hands-on workshop will show you a quick and easy way to define your research problem. Interactive handouts will be available before the session and your takeaway will be a research plan you can execute! Stay for Part B to create a survey for your research plan.

Julie Fossitt
Manager, Marketing and Revenue Development City of Kingston

Arts Marketing Research Part B: Creating a Survey to Test Your Wicked Question

If you attend the Part A of this workshop, you will have defined your research problem and now is the time to test it! Surveys are a great research tool and are inexpensive, but can be tricky to create without errors and biases.

This hands-on workshop will go over questionnaire design basics and show you how to test your survey to ensure it gets you the answers you need! Laptops are recommended (but not required) so your survey draft can be created in an online tool. This workshop is recommended to be preceded by Part A: Defining the Wicked Question, but can be attended on its own as well.

Julie Fossitt
Manager, Marketing and Revenue Development City of Kingston

Video Content for Arts and Culture

Every organization has a story to share, and with more and more social platforms pushing video content it is time you start thinking about how to share that story with video content. Creating engaging video content doesn't have to be overly difficult or complicated. You likely have all the tools you need right in your pocket. Sometimes it just takes the right approach and some helpful tips to push your content to the next level. In this session, we will discuss tactics to create compelling content and also provide some technical advice to get you started without breaking the bank.

Your Digital Presence: Let’s Improve It!

SEO, findability, discoverability, ranking. Are you getting lost in the technical terminology and wondering what you could actually do to improve your digital presence? Look no further, this session is for you.

In this session, you will learn the essentials of building a strong digital presence in 2023. With a few simple, yet effective, steps, you’ll be on your way to achieving more control over how people can find you – and what they can find about you – online. The session will include a demonstration of Wikidata, an open knowledge base associated with Wikipedia.

Dessa Hayes
Digital Discoverability Consultant CAPACOA

The Donor Treasure Hunt: Acquisition and Retention in Challenging Times

The acquisition of a donor is the most expensive part of a fund development strategy; that's why retention protocols are vital to build investor loyalty!

Join seasoned governance and fundraising expert Cynthia Armour, (CFRE since 1995) in this highly interactive session as we explore your challenges and insights together. Cynthia has worked with organizations ranging in size from local grassroots theatres to national institutions based in urban, rural and remote locales across Canada.

We'll discuss proven systems and techniques to find and build lasting relationships with your organization's donors. In this workshop, you won't leave with all of the answers but you will be better prepared to ask your team the right questions and make the right moves to strengthen donor relations in the post-pandemic era.

Cynthia J. Armour, CFRE
Principal Strategist Elderstone Resource Development

Post Like a Pro

In this session, you will learn how to take your social channels from flat to fabulous. Together, we will explore the different elements of social posting on Facebook and Instagram to help you understand why some posts pop and some fizzle. We will cover the latest trends and engagement tactics that won’t just get you likes but sell tickets!

Jordana Armstrong
Founder Jordana Armstrong Marketing

A Hands-On Introduction to Wikidata

Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base linked to Wikipedia. Like Wikipedia, Wikidata is also a source of information crawled and trusted by search engines. Having a Wikidata entry is an important first step in making information about the performing arts sector findable, readable and reusable by search engines, by industry associations and by arts goers. In a way, using Wikidata is like creating an IMDb for the performing arts.

Make sure to bring your laptop for this hands-on workshop. You will learn how to create Wikidata entries describing your organization and/or the venues you manage or use. Participants can expect hands-on learning and guided practice in a relaxed and informal environment. By the end of the workshop, you will have achieved greater control over how people can find your organization – and what they can find about it – online.

Since 2020, CAPACOA has been delivering Wikidata, as well as facilitating uploads of data from associations to Wikidata. Thanks to these activities, more than 13,000 Canadian performing arts entities are now described in the form of linked data, and Wikidata has become one of the most comprehensive performing arts databases.

Dessa Hayes
Digital Discoverability Consultant CAPACOA

A Day in the Life of a Remote Box Office

The Covid era opened the door for box offices to create remote operations. Lighthouse Immersive has maintained a remote team, selling to markets in Toronto and across the US. Heather Rowland, Manager of Customer Service and April Moon, part-time Customer Service Representative, will take you through A Day in the Life of a Remote Box Office. They will share staff onboarding and training ideas, outline supervisor-to-staff shift management, and showcase the tools available to staff to stay up-to-date with the vast amount of changes including promo codes, dynamic price changes and extended run dates. This box office team has fine-tuned and standardized the delivery of exceptional customer service care.

Heather Rowland
Manager of Customer Service - Ticketing & Customer Service Lighthouse Immersive

April Moon
Box Office Representative Lighthouse Immersive

(program and speakers subject to change)

Our Sponsors

Dream Warrior Group provides graceful yet technologically savvy solutions for Arts organizations. The goal-driven services focus on audience and action. As your technology advocate, we will be your ally and can manage and fully implement your online presence. Our services (à la carte or contracted) include: Web site design and development, e-marketing, e-promotion, social media management and optimization. We implement your message in a digital environment.
More Info
InstantEncore powers over one million patron experiences every year. helps arts and culture organizations thrive. Our two innovative mobile services – Appscension and InsideGuide - breakdown barriers to attendance, increase convenience for patrons, and drive ROI for you.
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BroadwayWorld is the largest theatre site on the internet, covering Broadway, the West End and beyond to 100 US cities, 45 countries and in 12 languages worldwide. With over six million monthly visitors, BroadwayWorld delivers complete up-to-the-minute Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theatre news, in-depth interviews, extraordinary photo coverage, entertaining video features, lively message boards, ticket discounts, reviews, and more.
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Spektrix is a ticketing, marketing and fundraising solution made specifically for the performing arts. With cloud-based technology and world-class support, Spektrix helps 400+ organizations across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. grow their revenue and deepen patron relationships. We do this through providing a system with frequent and seamless upgrades, sophisticated reporting, and free strategic consultation from experienced arts professionals.
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Schedule

May 30, 2023:
Opening Plenary (Program starts at 8:45 a.m.)
Keynote
Breakouts
Lunch on Your Own
Breakouts
Opening Reception with one-on-ones

May 31, 2023:
Breakouts
Networking Reception with one-on-ones
Lunch with the Experts
Closing Plenary
Conference ends at 3:45 p.m.
Program and speakers subject to change.

Among other benefits, Arts Reach Members receive significant discounts on conference registration. Join NOW!