http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=198&types=I&site=D&author=Chris+Grady

I will continue to create blogs for CGO – but I thought I’d put a marker down here so you can see other stuff if you wish.  I’d welcome suggestions for ongoing CGO or whatsonstage blogs

Cheers

Chris

At the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds we have a Marketing Officer (2 years in the job) a Press Officer (1^st job, 1 year in) and me (30years in and most definitely learning !). We have this week been joined by three new members of the TRAIN crew. These are “voluntary workers”(to use the correct legal term) who join us for 6 months, work 3 days a week with us, and the rest of the week in a bar/shop/office to survive. We pay expenses – so they can dedicate 6 months to gaining experience and cv filling skills at no cost, whilst surviving doing the things they don’t want to do the rest of their lives. TRAIN started 2 years ago and it is enormously well regarded by those who have come through it – some of whom now work for us flat out with pay !!

So 6 of us gathered some blank sheet of paper (back of old posters / no waste) and a challenge: How do we check in on what we have done in 2011/12, and create a marketing strategy for 2012/13 which increases audience and revenue for a similar mix of programming.

We are a producing theatre doing 3-4 of our own shows plus panto,  a creative learning hub offering around 1000 classes/projects for young and community companies per year, a research and script development gathering for Georgian and new plays, a business training unit for employers in Suffolk, a National Trust tourist destination, and a receiving theatre for everything from stand-up to new drama, musicals to ballet.  We are a multi-programme organisation befitting a multi-plex building…but we only have one unique Georgian theatre on the edge of town in which to play.

So – how to create an inspiring strategy.  I would claim that we start as equal brains and a blank canvas. You start with some simple questions – what are the tools we use at the moment ? Who do we reach at the moment ?  Who do we know about on our database ?  Then you start playing games… Who do we not reach at the moment ?  Why are we not reaching them – or is it that they are not hearing ?  Who is coming through our doors once and then may/maynot come back ?  Who comes to Panto (say) and then waits for the next Panto info ?  Who are like the people who already come ?  Who are very different from those traditional audiences, and how do we reach them?  Where do the “like” people live ? Why are they not coming ?

Question after question after question – and bit by bit we filled our sheets of paper.  Amazingly there seemed to be a pattern forming.  We had tools, we had communication pathways, we had recipients/audiences for the message, and we had areas we were missing.

We realised some people who came once were not followed up. Some people who contacted the theatre to get on the mailing list missed a whole 6 months of brochure. We wrote to people to remind them of future shows presuming they clearly wanted to return to see the same thing again – when maybe they had eclectic tastes.  And we realised there were many reasons why audiences felt unable to come (price, transport, alone-ness etc) which we had, or could develop, tools to tackle – but how would they know if they didn’t ask ?

By the end of 2hrs of freeform idea storming 6 of us had some very clear ideas for the way forward. We hadn’t yet started using Ansoff or SWOT or mapping matrices or marketing management tools or database analysis. We had started by checking in with what we knew about ourselves, our habits, our friends, our work practice. We know far more than we give ourselves credence for. We just don’t take enough time to share ideas.

Rather than commission a major data or market analysis project to review our business – and wait for revelation, we had settled down and dug into our experience of being theatregoers, selling to theatregoers, missing shows we wanted to see, being put off by price/place, or being just plain lazy. In two hours we had a framework for investigation and challenge. NOW we can start the review and analysis.

It is brilliant having a mix of age and experience at the Theatre Royal. TRAIN crew who are 2 days into being a marketing person, through people who have studied and run their own theatre companies, to old guard like me who keep asking the same questions, starting with the same blank sheet of paper, and being delighted when (out of blankness) comes the start of a rather exciting strategy for 2012/13

We meet again in a week and we will see where we go from here – by which time the TRAIN crew will have been in their jobs 3 times as long !!! and be even wiser and more determined.

Marketing is about knowing ourselves, our tastes, our expectations. Then knowing our friends and their tastes, and expectations, and lives, and resistances. Then speculating about the people we don’t know. Then it is about “doing the maths” – analysing, testing, and writing reports. But start with the simple things first. Talk.

Have fun

Chris

I hear far too often the wailing of individuals … “I don’t know anyone”, “my agent isn’t getting me a job”, “Mrs Big won’t be interested in me”.  Instead the individual sits at home, goes to the pub, goes to the movies, and waits for the phone to call.  I challenge you to Make Connections…Just Do It.

Yesterday I spent £8 to have the privilege of meeting the Chief Associate Director of the RSC, and the senior Voice Coach of the RSC.  Not a bad investment to make to meet two of the most important people in classical theatre today (*)  How did I get an audience so cheaply?  Who do I know?  What’s my method?  I will tell you the secret.  I heard a rumour that they were together on a panel talking about language and the bible. I was in Stratford seeing the extraordinarily sexy “Song of Songs” created by Struan Leslie . I walked to the box office and said “I gather Greg Doran is doing a talk about something, somewhere in Stratford, tonight…can I get a ticket”.  They sold me a ticket. I was making connections.

The talk was fascinating, they were both stunningly eloquent,  and I learned loads. And at the end of the talk I went up to the platform (as did a number of the audience) and said “thank you, you were inspiring, you were great” etc.  I had made a connection that no amount of cold letter writing, or waiting for your agent to sort a meeting, or emailing could achieve. I was standing face to face with two major talents of the RSC and chatting on equal terms.

Another example from 30 years ago.  ABSA (Now Arts and Business) were doing a roadshow around the UK talking about raising sponsorship and linking to the business community. I was a student at Bristol, trying to raise money for our theatre company, the British Universities Shakespeare Company, to produce a tour of Romeo and Juliet. I went to the talk (free).  There were around 75 people there from all walks of SW Arts sectors.  It was a good talk. Mary Allen from Mobil Oil (later Arts Council, Royal Opera House, High Tide Festival) talked sense about making the right pitch to business. At the end she, and her colleague panellists, said – any questions do come and talk to us afterwards. I did. No-one else did. [PS I was scared witless…but get over it]. I asked an inane question of Ms Allen, and she was interested in what I was doing.  She offered to meet with me sometime if I was in London and talk more about the project and the challenge.

She didn’t sponsor us, but she was immensely helpful, and in the end we found sponsorship from ICL (but that’s another story). I continued to gain good advice from her for 3-4 years after. The reason she was so interested is because, she told me, Bristol was Day 6 of the roadshow, and she had made the offer every day, and I was the first person to come down to the front and ask for help.  Just Do It.

I offer one bit of advice all the time to emerging creative colleagues – and its always the same. You probably know many people (by name and reputation if not yet personally) who could give you good advice and maybe help directly.  Find where they hang-out.  Go and see their work.  Go to their talks.  Read their books and go to signings.  Tell them you admire them / their work (that’s the special ingredient !!) and then ask for their advice.  Don’t ask for a job, don’t drop your portfolio or 10×8 photo in their beer, don’t stalk them, don’t interrupt a private conversation – but just introduce yourself and be interested in them.  They may just be interested in you.

Good Luck

Chris

(*) for this Blog I am putting myself in the shoes of anyone who wants to meet useful people they don’t know. I admit to knowing Greg…but the point hopefully holds valid even if I didn’t.  For factual accurancy Greg and I ran the Shakespeare Company mentioned in Part 2 of this blog.

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It was about accessible transport and tourism schemes. Two speakers – Peter Harlock – the phenomenally successful director of marketing of the RSC with their amazing bus scheme, and me with my Plymouth Theatre Royal Theatrebus scheme…which had been a flawed but honourable trial project. The convenor of the panel told me off-stage that he was pleased to have me there because I was one of the few people he could invite up who was willing to talk about failure !!!  I took that as a compliment.  I have talked about failure, challenges, lessons-learned, and “oh god did we really do that” for the next 30 years. I hope the stories have usually had some resonance with the listener, and I continue to have the “oh noooooooo” moments that I can share.

I set myself (and others at DandD) a challenge. Share failure (flawed plans, mis-fired enthusiasm, wrong-headed ideas, and lessons learned) – in the hope it will be useful to the next generation.

I intend in the next few blogs to offer:

a) Theatrebus – still getting it wrong financially, but getting great press

b) £1m offer to put on a studio musical – whoops, the money has slipped away

c) Beware the influence of the Board members offering you the perfect man-for-the-job…check his trouser leg

d) A handshake with an Asian project creator – where the offer seemed so perfect

e) Not quite enough sponsorship…so you sell your soul a tad too much

f) Oh help…the show’s nothing like our marketing campaign

g) No way will that show sell, forget it…and it goes on to being a smash hit (thank god noone trusted my opinion)

I am sure I will find a load more to offer to my colleagues.  Do you have some stories to add to the catalogue of moral grim tales. I look forward to partnering up with 4-5 brave “elders” to share a wealth of stories. And I must must add – no regrets….I did it my way, and I will continue to do so.  I have always said that I will make a decision 100% of the time, and 75% of them will be right. This series of blogs may share a few of the 25% which were decidedly wrong.

I remain in love with the magic of theatre, trusting my own instincts, always willing to learn from others – and now very willing to tell my colleagues (and those who come after) a few of the times I got it spectacularly wrong.

Stories to follow

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How do we reach out to those who do not naturally turn to our theatres and galleries, arts centres and orchestras, for spiritual and emotional support ? How can we appear necessary and important to their lives ? How do we raise our consiousness so we can do good together ?

This is the series of questions I have pitched into the very early discussion stages of a new initiative I am really honoured to be a part of. MMM (Mission, Models and Money) have been granted support for a programme called re.volution which brings arts managers from across the UK together virtually and in real rooms to explore “building the resilience of creative practitioners and organisations and realising art and culture’s leadership role in tackling the huge global challenges we face.”

We’ve had one meeting, and the joy for me was that of the 12 practitioners gathered I hadn’t met a single one of them before. A completely new group of creative colleagues across the most diverse of creative sectors. I haven’t got a clue how the next few months will shape up. What I do know is that I intend to try to find the time to be an active participant in discussion and meetings – just to see where it goes.

It is too easy for us as arts/creative practitioners to get bogged down in grant applications, staffing and volunteer support, contracting and making projects administratively sound, marketing the hell out of the tough sellers, raising every possible penny of fundraising to balance the books – and to forget that we are part of a glorious ecology of colleagues and friends who can make a difference.

Every day we have reasons to be Grateful for the artistic/creative world we live in. Every day we can draw on the Abundant gifts of the artforms, the buildings and the colleagues with whom we work.  Abundance and Gratitude are what we have to share.

My question is how do we use what we have wisely, at this time, to do the maximum good for humanity and the planet ?

And don’t get away with saying we can’t change the world – who can ever tell which snowflake broke the branch ?

I would welcome your thoughts by email chris [at] chrisgrady [dot] org and I will feed them through into the MMM discussion also, with your permission.

Thanks for reading  /  Chris

Over the course of 8 hours I met a storyteller & filmmaker working with a global project to bring laughter to young people in all nations; an amazing photographer and arts worker who, through her small company, has had 20 projects working with 1500 of the most dis-enfranchised young people across Westminster – now cut completely Ahhhh; a colleague I’ve not seen in 30 years ago now giving gainful employment to actors to play the roles of pretend litigants under the watchful eye of real trainee judiciary…and championing an emerging playwright; An amazing historical researcher who is moving from library and microfiche to studio theatre and spotlight to tell extraordinary stories of Victorian Murders; An international 3 dimensional artist exploring bamboo and the re-envisioning of buildings and entire cities; And a professional bass player who wants to give opportunities to gifted young musicians in London to improve their musical communication and finetune their art and creativity alongside their existing honed technical expertise. Oh then I went on to meet a visionary artist from the US who has fallen in love with her spiritual home of London and is looking at a transatlantic creative existence.

What a day – and how on earth can we help: a young commercial theatre producer and an aging paper-pushing arts administrator/marketer with half-a-lifetime described as the guy who you call if you have a new musical. We help by having a conversation.

We don’t need to know about bamboo, Victoriana, bass playing, filmmaking or your artform at all. You know about that. Our job (or delight) is engaging with you and talking about what you do, and aspire to do, in a structured creative conversation.

We become involved as artists through you. We listen, absorb, give ideas, coffee, the occasional tissue when it gets raw [and my god some of the challenges emerging artists are facing at the moment make you scream and weep with frustration]. And hopefully, by the end of an hour, you have a load of notes, we may have a couple of leads to pass you on, and we part.
We must pay tribute to all our established colleagues that we champion and suggest they will be delighted to meet/help/listen to someone who has come through CGO Surgery. We try to make good fits, and we hope that they respond to approaches in as open and excited a way as we do. Do let me know if they don’t, and we’ll check in find others to whom we can make referrals.

The next couple of CGO Surgeries are filling up nicely – Sat 4th Feb nearly full, Sat 3rd March still has spaces. If you are professionally challenged by your artistic aspiration – then get in touch.

And hopefully we’ll meet some new extraordinary artists at D&D – Devoted and Disgruntled – Sat 25 Feb – Mon 27 Feb . Can’t wait for that juicy 3 days of exploration with 350 other souls who share so much of what we all care to call creativity. Contact www.improbable.co.uk to lead you through to a booking system – £20 for the 3 days.

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I have to admit its 20 years since I was on a stand at the World Travel Market – but apart from the knees and the back killing me after 4 days, 8 hrs a day, standing up – its not that different. This is the largest travel trade show in the world, I’m told. It covers 43,000 sq m and our stand was 4m.

A week on I thought I’d reflect on some of the do’s and don’ts of doing an exhibition where you don’t have much money and want to make the maximum impact. Just in case its useful to someone doing any scale of trade fair from fresher’s week to an EU summit.

Do – keep it simple – the real buyers don’t need glitz and glamour

Do – shout the name of the stand – so people know who you are and why you’re there

Do – have people who know about the product you are selling

Do – come out from behind the stand and talk to people

Do – have a very simple leaflet, with contacts and basic facts – don’t weigh people down

Do – have enough people on stand to have 2-3 representatives and one resting

Do – collect contact details quickly (business cards or barcode scanner)

Do – get back to everyone you meet within a couple of weeks (quicker if possible)

Don’t – presume anyone will search you out – they will pass you by unless you engage them

Don’t  – presume free gifts will increase sales…they may increase traffic and block the stand

Don’t – hand your stand design, management etc to an agent – you know your business best

Don’t – presume glamour sells.  Knowledge and engagement sells

Don’t – presume the press will be interested – but make sure you have a good story & pics

Don’t – oversell. If someone gives you their contact details – let them move on

At the very heart of what we did at the World Travel Market this week is the phrase “open hearted engagement”.  The most successful moments were when we stood on the aisle and asked passer’s by “Are you having a Good Day ?, Are you getting all the contacts you need ?”. 90% were engaged by our question. 90% were polite. And 80% stopped, looked at our stand for a moment, and were hooked loosly enough for us to ask the follow-on question. “Have you ever thought of Suffolk as a destination” or “What are you looking for at the WTM” – Open questions designed to engender conversation.

In four days we had 200+ meaningful conversations with trade delagates – national press, travel agents, tour operators, massive group buyers, coach companies, and just those who knew Suffolk but hadn’t expected to be thinking about it in their life today.

Whether this will generate mass business for Suffolk arts, heritage, culture and beer providers – not sure yet. But we will be back for the 2012 World Travel Market and we will be re-engaging with new found contacts, and new people passing our stand unaware that Suffolk exists.  We’ll make new friends and have a great time.

Just thought I’d share a few do’s and don’ts in case its useful

Maybe see you at World Travel Market, ExCel Centre Nov 2012

Chris Grady Nov 11

This weekend I’ve been on a Board retreat working with 12 long-standing board members of one established organisation and then went off to assess whether I wanted to accept an invitation to join a fledgling board of another new theatre company.  So I was spending 6 hours thinking about what makes a good board member, and then 2 hours trying to decide whether I liked a new group of people  and could be a useful addition.  I thought I’d share my thoughts in case its useful to existing Boards, those who serve/manage them, or to new fledgling companies.

We were wonderfully challenged by a facilitator at the first board retreat to enter a thinking environment and most importantly to bring attention to each other,  be easy and open with each other (and honest), and to use the time to listen, speak thoughts, and address a key question – What do I think makes a successful Board (and board member)- and here was my list created with another member.  See how you and your Board score…and what would you prioritise.

Group and individual respect; A balance of skills, respected by each other; an understanding of the business (or an essential part of the show business); A willingness to get involved, not interfere, but to be used by the management;  No ego; Willing to assess risk and not to be risk averse; A desire to get to know the whole team (staff, volunteers, creatives);  To like each other, or at least comfortable to be open with each other;  You accept that each person speaks a different language – the language of finance, or legal, or theatre, or education, or funding agency – and a wish to develop a suitable babel fish/translation together so we each understand more of the others lingo;  Time; A wish to see the work, and be seen to see the work; Be an advocate, and ideally having a good address book so you can share your enthusiasm with particularly useful people.

And then came some incredibly powerful key words from around the board retreat table – selflessness, humility, passion (for the work, or at the least real respect for the people who passionately create the work), Respect,  Hearing (not just listening to other’s views),  “Animate not Dominate”, Bravery.

I went from this very formal structured environment to the fledgling meeting where I needed to see whether I felt I could be useful, along with a highly respected theatre director also invited to join.  I was deeply impressed.  It was informal but structured.  It was animated. There was a collective passion and enormous expressed respect for the work and the founding creatives of that work.  There was no chair, or need for a chair because everyone was respectful and hearing – an almost natural thinking environment.  I could see a skills gap I could help to fill (even if I will almost double the average age of the board !!). I could sense their passion, and could see already that other highly regarded theatre practitioners and funding bodies had spotted (and supported) this fledgling company.

So why join a Board – for me its three things – a belief in and respect for the passion and skill of the key people involved;  a feeling that they (or we) can create necessary theatre – which can change lives;   an understanding of what I can do personally to help.

I’m in, I’ve signed my Companies House form, and now I’d better start reading some budgets, plays, vision documents, and background to see how I can actually help Metta Theatre.  Thanks for inviting me, and thanks for the tea and fantastic brie at lunchtime.

His presence and positioning of the whole idea of Open Space breeds confidence and energy from his 200-300 strong circle of fellows.  D&D is a 3 days event. It allows time to think, to break-out, to be inspired, to be bored, to be alone, and to create together.  My challenge was I had 80 minutes.

The learned book by the creator of Open Space, Harrison Owen, claims it can be done with small groups and is a way of life rather than necessarily a big event. I believed him. I’d better…’cos I’d signed up to lead a session on fundraising for a North West conference All About Audiences in Manchester.  I had 25 people and 80 minutes…and they arrived expecting a talk from someone who would tell them all the answers about fundraising.  I arrived knowing they collectively knew more about it than I did – so why not harness that power.

I had a wonderful train journey drawing.  For those unfamiliar with Open Space there is a very strict set of things to do in advance to prepare the space so that, quickly, your colleagues can understand the technique, think about the basics, and learn One Law and 4 Principals.   When I arrived at the conference I completed my preparations by finding an artistic delegate who drew me a wonderful giraffe and a bumble bee and a member of Allaboutaudiences who drew me some butterflies. I was ready.

The organisers cleared the room of tables, computers, screens etc – just a circle of 25 chairs, some flip chart paper, and blue-tacked train-written signs around the wall. I’m not going to use this blog to tell you how it works – because there are site after site that offer that. All I would add is a few thoughts for me in the future (and maybe you).

a)  I absolutely followed the first instruction. Despite only having 80 minutes, I took a very deep breathe first and started very slowly to ask those sitting to observe the circle of people – a unique gathering. Whoever is here are the right people…

b) I was intrigued to find that only 1 of the 25 had ever encountered Open Space before. A lesson to never presume and to honour the fundemental principals of Open Space will work if you talk them through slowly and carefully.

c)  Its amazing – a group of unsure 25 people WILL get involved. They will help to set an agenda from a blank piece of paper. They will join the journey if they feel confident that there is some sense in the odd idea / odd guy leading it.

d) Whatever happens is the only thing that could have… and by the end of the two 20 minute break out sessions we gathered back in the circle having created “minutes” from 8 different meetings that had explored 8 different development themes.  Maybe some of those people will meet again. Maybe some of the notes will be useful to different people. Maybe…  But we all contributed and we all knew a little more by the end.

e) In the closing circle everyone spoke, almost all felt they had gained something by participating. And then we all rushed off to the next thing. It would have been fun to have had the time to have another round, or to carry on talking – maybe they will in the future.

For me. I am now not a virgin anymore, and I will seek to use the technique (and the giraffe, butterfly and bees) back at the office at one or more of our monthly training sessions.   A good experience.  Especially the large pint of beer afterwards.

Thanks Phelim for introducing so many hundreds of us to Open Space…the technique which also led a number of us to be on the march against cuts in “Puppets for Protest” – an idea from the Jan 11 D&D.

I’ve just started being an Arts Council Assessor and I thought I’d take a moment to share the experience. I’m one of two people who are charged with going to see Musical Theatre work which is either by or with organisations that are funded by ACE (or I guess might be in the future).

We are there to be provokative informed members of the audience. We’re not there to be critics or to heap praise or to suggest how we could have done it better. That last one doesn’t count for me because my role is always as an audience member. However the whole tribe of assessors include directors, musical directors, poets, visual artists, dramatugues and lots of people will be seeing work they might have created differently.

What feels good about this system is that there are no score charts. The reports aren’t secret. They are not there to be used specifically for grant decision making. They are there to be shared with the client organisation and then used in dialogue between the ACE artform officer (sorry they have a new name and I can’t remember what it is…and I realise I’ve also just dropped a “the” in conversation and they have been banned from use by Arts Council and other organisations like ex-the National Trust. Sorry back to blog.)

I’ve just done two reports – and as is the nature of the Musical Theatre world I knew the theatres, the people involved, and the works already. So I come along as a very “informed” member of the audience and one who could (if not careful) be a real interfering pain in the but.

The challenge is that we are asked to have an informed opinion, but we only really have the background knowledge to the process as delivered in the programme and from what we see on stage. Its therefore very easy to write something which could be damaging through a lack of understanding of the process or the intention.

I hope (and I have yet to know what the two arts organisations think) that my criticisms were fair and my thought processes were clear as to why I reached the reactions I did. In both cases I had a good night, as did the audience. In both cases I felt there was stuff which could have been done differently which could have given an even better event and experience for the audience.

I come to realise from doing this how delicate the role of the theatre crituc is. How easy it is to say something which could damage unintentionally or upset the creative juices which you want to encourage and cheer. Its meant to be a personal view (quite rightly), but it was really useful first time getting my co-audience member to have a read of it and see whether I was in the right phrasing and emphasis.

It is a privalege to be doing this and I am looking forward to being surprised – seeing something I don’t know, and something which rocks my boat.

In the meantime I await my next summons and see where they send me next.

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