For those who do not get my newsletter or who aren’t fans on my facebook page, it occurs to me you may be unaware of the awesomest experience I had this last month, courtesy the Utah Arts Counsel (esp. Jason Bowcutt, or “J-Dawg,” as I now call him. You probably shouldn’t call him that… just saying.)
Anyhoo, I received a grant to attend a national music/performers booking conference in Seattle, called Arts Northwest. Artists, musicians, entertainers come from all over, as do agencies, arts counsels rep’s, and all those who would book entertainment.

I confess I’m on my way out for a coffee so I’ll make this the short version. : )

I showed up. I didn’t know ANYTHING about who was there, what was going on, what to do, or who I was. That last one is a whole different blog! I didn’t do any of the workshops that I was supposed to do because, having been around the proverbial block a few times, I knew that relationships would be far more fruitful for me. I hit the jackpot with the amazing people I met. For example, the very kind and spunky Debbie Peters from Magnum Opus Management (magnumom.ca), powerhouse wonder woman, Joanna Maratta of the British Columbia Touring Counsil (www.bctouring.org) who gave me very valuable advice about my presentation and invited me to HER booking conference in BC in the spring!!!! I also had a couple of great talks and walks on the beach (there were no walks and certainly no beach) with artist manager/strategic business developer, Stephen Garvan, who helped me figure out if my dream of being a professional dancing monkey could be realized! (all true, except the dancing monkey thing. I think normally they’ve retired by my age.)

In short, it was an incredible and EXTREMELY educational experience for me and if you have a chance to go to a booking conference I think you should go, too.

Later,
Bronwen