Great entry, Doug - NPAC is definitely something I would have been interested in reading more about, but there just wasn't enough accessible (internet) coverage of discussion for a launching off point. I read the blog briefly but admittedly, only for Kristin Sloan's post. I also see an interesting trend in that there is an audience (including myself) that's clamoring for more transparency in the arts, which would help make it more accessible.

Your last paragraph really resonates with me. I also feel that the arts world is still trying to adjust to the growing internet presence and is in its growing pains right now, with an equal number of people who believe in its growing importance as those who don't. But it's hard to ignore that with arts criticism disappearing from newspapers, the internet is going to be a much stronger force in promoting the arts than ever before.

On the flip side, I'm really looking forward to reading more about the Dance Critics Association Conference.

Jolene,

To follow-up on your point:

"I also see an interesting trend in that there is an audience (including myself) that's clamoring for more transparency in the arts, which would help make it more accessible."

This is another reason why I'm surprised by the paltry online coverage of what actually happened at the NPAC. In this instance, just about everything that happened at the conference seemed very positive, but none of the participating associations seems interested in sharing what happened and their perspectives about this event. I thought the entire idea behind the conference was to build momentum for the performing arts and I can't really understand why the Internet would be undervalued and under-appreciated when it has such a massive reach. Plus, there are so many fun and effective ways for the performing arts community, especially through collective action, to embrace the digital world and spread their message.

As one of the on-line bloggers for NPAC, I would have to agree with you. One of the problems that stood in the way of doing a decent job was that there didn't seem to be wireless available in the conference sites. By the second day of the conference, the blogging coordinator had made arrangements for the bloggers to use the press room computers, but it would have been much better to have had wireless available and truly live blogged from the sessions.

The Town Meeting should have been video'd and posted -- perhaps not the individual table discussions, which were too numerous to cover, but the part of the discussion where the tables reported out.

I enjoyed my time there, but also had a sense that there was a conservative flavor to the proceedings, by which I don't mean conservative politically, but rather conservative as far as ideas were concerned. There seemed to be a sense that the arts needed to be celebrated, and any focus on problems should be swept under the rug. An example of this was at the discussion the morning after Mike Daisey's "How Theatre Failed America," where the moderator relentlessly moved the discussion away from the problems Daisey raised in order to focus on what theatres were doing that seemed to make things better. While this has a certain value, I also think there is value to expressing in full voice the anger and frustration that policies are causing. (Of course, part of the problem is that the people who would be the most frustrated and angry -- actors -- largely weren't in the room because they can't afford to attend such conferences even if they recognized the value of doing so.)

Your points are well-taken.

Scott,

Thanks for comment.

It's surprising that hotels and convention centers are still playing games with WiFi and making it so difficult and/or expensive for conferences to make wireless internet access easily available to all delegates.

Yes, it definitely would have been nice to see videos of the reporting from the different tables and other parts of the program. That would have given people like me who were not there a much better sense of what the conversations were about.

That's too bad that there was feeling that a positive take had to be give to all discussions. That's the beauty of the Internet and blogging - more of an open opinionated environment for different ideas and perspectives to be batted around.

What's interesting is that people outside the blogosphere are often critical of bloggers and believe that people just toss out ideas (and anger) with no connection to reality or concerns about what others think or believe. But that's really not the case. I've linked to and commented on a number of posts dealing with the NPAC conference. And while there are criticisms, they are all made, I think, in a very productive worthwhile way.

Scott, getting back to your comment and your blog - it's good to hear from a theater person and I was just reading your Theatre Ideas blog. One of good parts of the NPAC conference was the cross-pollination of ideas from people in different spheres of the performing arts. We tend to end-up in the same silos on the Internet as well - dance bloggers talking to dance bloggers, theater bloggers talking to theater bloggers and music bloggers speaking only amongst themselves as well.

So maybe one way we can help each other is to expand our blogrolls and to find other ways to write about and promote what others outside our specific field are doing?

I think Scott brings up a good point in mentioning the "conservative flavor" (i.e. an internet-less world) at the NPAC, but I think it also extends to the rest of the performing arts world as well. This blog, as well as a few others, are one of the few exceptions that are taking the reins to adapt to modern times and to make the arts accessible to a much wider audience. Someone else brought up the good point that while Doug makes great points on how NPAC can change their conference to make it more internet-friendly and more accessible for everyone to find out what was going on, but these ideas can also apply on a smaller scale to every arts organization.

While I didn't attend NPAC, I was very interested in the result since I work for a statewide arts advocacy and service organization. Many of the good ideas that came out of the town hall meetings are already happening, at least in my state.

On opening up NPAC and the arts in general VIA social media, the first step is to figure out where the audience is. There's been a lot of talk of blogs, but I think it's a mistake to focus on any particular tool first. If NPAC wants to devise a smart online communications strategy, it will survey all attendees of the convention to figure out their online habits and behaviors. Not only would it be good information for NPAC to start an online communications strategy, it would be incredibly useful to arts organizations across the country that are also looking at social media tools. Two birds, one stone.

It would have been nifty for the demographic questions asked at the beginning to include something on online habits and behavior.

After NPAC figured out where arts folks are online, then it should just spend some time listening in on the conversation.

I recommend everyone check out Beth's Blog on this topic: http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/

Jolene,

You write in your comment "but these ideas can also apply on a smaller scale to every arts organization."

I, of course, agree with this idea. It seems to me that industries and disciplines outside of the performing arts often do a more effective job of embracing the Internet. If this is correct, I wonder why? Is it the normal culprits of too little time, too little money and too many responsibilities? Or are there issues that are directly related to how dancers go about making their art and how they feel about the marketing process?

Scarlett,

Thanks for your comment. I've been following Beth's blog for quite awhile - lot of good ideas and resources.

One of the reasons that the voted on strategies felt a bit unrealistic to me is because of what you point out - many of these recommendations have been tried, experimented with and implemented. So maybe they needed to re-think this element of the town meeting and add a section for a discussion of what's worked and not worked in the past before they generated their recommended strategies.

I agree that it would be helpful if NPAC learned more about how their audience uses the Internet. And then designed their Internet campaign to accommodate their audience. At the same time, I think that there are some forms of Internet marketing such as blogs, Facebook and related services that are simply too important as forms of communication that the conference might want to use them whether actual delegates use these tools a little or a lot.

One of the things that I hope comes out of these multiple conversations about the NPAC conference and its Internet and blogging strategy is, as you recommend, the creation of an online strategy for how arts organizations can best take advantage of the Internet. Maybe there are ways that we can jump-start and formalize this process?

Doug,

Thanks for the response. It sounds like we're very much on the same page.

The Illinois Arts Alliance is in the midst of a rebranding initiative that involves the development of a new Web site and online communications strategy. I'm happy to share our experience and research with any arts organization or artist.

Right now, our staff is getting ready to experiment with different social media tools. I've created a Wiki to guide this experiment. It's only 33% complete, but you can check it out at http://socialmediaiaa.wikispaces.com

I have a hypothesis about which social media tools we will end up using, and I've been trying to do some proofs of concepts. For instance, I found 15% of our e-list subscribers have Facebook accounts. That's huge IMO, so I feel Facebook is one arena we will have to break into, as you suggest.

I would love to strategize about ways we can take our experience developing an online communications strategy and package it in such a way so that it's useful for others in the arts field. Please feel free to email me. I'm going to look for you on Facebook : )

Scarlett

Scarlett,

Thanks for sharing link to your wiki for The Illinois Arts Alliance - it's helpful resource you've put together both for your organization and other arts organizations as well.

I've been thinking about this topic a lot -- what types of online resource and tools can we create online that will benefit all arts organizations in their marketing, communications, education and outreach.

Maybe the arts world ought to consider creating organization similar to Net Squared:
http://www.netsquared.org/

I was at NPAC, and as a blogger myself I was shocked at how 20th-century the "21st-Century Town Meeting" was. At the first caucus session I happened to have a facilitator at my table who had a laptop. I figured AmericaSpeaks had it all set up through the internet - imagine my surprise when she said she intended to handwrite out her notes afterwards to turn in. They seemed very efficient in compiling and analyzing the results, but... seriously? Maybe it was the wireless issue.

I also was disappointed that the NPAC website was unchanged after the convention. I was looking for the voting results since I had to miss the last day, and I found hardly any information from the "bloggers" that were supposed to be reporting on the conference. As has been pointed out, this information should have been put up immediately to allow participation from the many performing arts folks who couldn't physically make it to the convention.

I guess it is unsurprising, then, that at all three of my tables I found myself the lone voice for technology in the group. My tablemates didn't really seem to relate to my opinion that technology was the single biggest "opportunity/challenge" the performing arts community faces for the future. Perhaps I'm being radical, but I think that all three of the primary challenges identified at NPAC could be addressed in a big way using the web. This seemed completely off everybody's radar, although it did barely make the list at #7 ("New technologies are available to create new art, reach new audiences, and communicate our value").

It's hard to believe that WiFi is an issue. I mean, at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco where the SF Symphony performs, they even have WiFi in their Green Room. It was put to good use when they had blogger night a year ago, and they had about 20+ bloggers even webcamming from inside that room, minutes before the concert, and even during intermission!

I think it's important for arts organizations to be able to utilize these techniques to really expand their audience. My feeling is though, the arts that we speak about are often very conservative (the classical music world, even more so than dance, I think) and people are just beginning to pick up on the fact that the internet can be used as a powerful marketing tool. I know of at least a few big dance companies that have not yet accepted blogging as an 'acceptable' press medium. I think time will change that soon enough though, esp with the decline of arts criticism in newspapers.

Rachel,

Thanks for your comment.

There does seem to be a divide between people who are sort of in the know about the Internet and those who are not. I'm often surprised, along the lines of what you share above, that more people in the performing arts don't have a deeper understanding of the importance of the Internet on many fronts, especially when it comes to marketing.

It seems that much more Internet education is needed but it does not seem that most of the Internet-focused panel discussions that I've seen at different conferences really provide much values.

So I think new types of technology education are really needed. Plus, much more thought has to be given to how to connect face-to-face events with how people use the Internet to gather information. As you point out, the conference website does not direct users to the results from the Town Meeting.

Nice, comprehensive blogging about ClarinetFest 2008.