Our Guide to Conferencing

Much like we discussed in episode 45, this guide focuses on how we tackle booking conferences, focusing on the presenter’s perspective.

Preparing for a Conference:

- When possible, book early! Take advantage of the Early Bird rates for conferences as well as the conference hotel rates, which do book up quickly. Also, remember that flights can get more expensive the closer to the trip.

- Planning your Schedule:

o Add Professional Development, Expo Hall Hours, and known networking events into your calendar first to know where your free times are.

o Don’t overbook your schedule and try to give yourself some free time in the expo hall to find something unexpected.

o Don’t forget to add your meetings and events in the time zone of the conference! It’s not fun to re-do everything or always be adding/subtracting an hour.

- Do some research: Take some time to look over the rosters of the agents you are meeting with so you can make the most of your time.

- What to pack:

o Aside from the essentials, the No Business Like Team presents to you the Katie Miller “How to survive a conference” packing (short) list:

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Umbrella

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Weather-appropriate clothes

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Snacks - sometimes you are busy and forget to eat

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Water Bottle - similar to snacks, but convention centers and hotels can be very dry

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Comfortable shoes

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Sweater – convention centers can be very cold

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Travel Febreze

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Lint Roller

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Band-Aids

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Nail file/clippers

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Travel packs of tissues

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Binder clips - organize all the brochures and literature you pick up

o If you forget something, you can always find it locally, or you can find a Mom friend, they tend to be prepared 😊

Expo Hall Etiquette (included in BAM!’s Complete Guide to Conferencing: https://www.bairdartists.com/pdf/BAM-Guide-04-Complete-Guide-to-Conferences-USA.pdf

Conferences: This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some of the ones we mention in our podcast. You can learn about many more in the BAM! Complete Guide to Conferencing, linked above).

- State

o Check with your local consortium to see if they host one.

- Regional

o Midwest Arts Expo (MAX): https://midwestartsxpo.org/

o Western Arts Alliance (WAA): https://www.westarts.org/conference

o South Arts: https://www.southarts.org/conferences

o Arts Northwest: https://www.artsnw.org/conference_overview

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- National

o Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP): https://apap365.org/conference/

o International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA): https://www.ieba.org/conference-info

o Pollstar: https://www.pollstar.live/website/38746/

o Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA/USA): https://www.tyausa.org/events/national-festival-and-conference/

Shoes: Josh mentioned his various shoes he packs when he is conferencing. Here’s the breakdown of Josh’s shoe schedule:

Day 1 A nice Florsheim brown leather dress shoe

Day 2 Grey leather Florsheim dress shoes

Day 3 Hybrid dress/tennis shoe (still stylish!)

Day 4 Depending on how his toesies are feeling, either the hybrid dress/tennis shoe or flat out running shoes

Danielle and Katie advocate for one pair of sensible heels that go with two outfits and then FLATS ALL THE WAY 😉

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