Ontario Presents is thrilled to support our members and staff to attend conferences and professional development events with a special focus on discovering new artists. This article is an opportunity for our network to benefit vicariously through those experiences.
Below is an account of the Ontario Presents Northern Connections event as told by Susan Kendal Urbach, Program Manager at THEOP.
All photos care of Carrie Libling Consulting.
It was a pleasure to attend Ontario Presents’ Northern Connections back in April, a two-day seminar that brought presenters from across Ontario together. Most of the attending presenters were from Northern Ontario, with a mix of programming for adults and for kids. Many of us were from small communities, along with some folks from Northern music festivals.
We gathered at the rather fancy Delta Hotel in Thunder Bay with a blindingly beautiful view of Lake Superior. Thunder Bay in April is still definitely in a state of winteriness, though it’s mild enough for a sweater when venturing out and about in town and at the local craft market (yes, I came home with local handmade goods!).
I’m the Program Manager for THEOP, a community presenter in Deep River, Ontario. It’s a little town on the Ottawa River, looking across to the Laurentian mountains, equidistant to Ottawa and North Bay. The town is situated at the bottom of the official “Northern Ontario” line, but is still waaaaay South of most of the presents at Northern Connections! This is my second Northern Connections, and it’s sweet to connect with some familiar folks from last year, while meeting a number of new presenter buddies too.
Led by facilitator Carrie Libling, 30 of us gather around a long conference room table to discuss audiences, marketing, and partnerships. Carrie is a performing arts consultant specializing in marketing, communications, audience development, arts education, and producing. She’s done arts marketing for The Rose theatre and had her own theatre company called Electric Moon. This means she comes to the work of presenting with experience from both sides of the stage, which feels valuable and unique.
Carries shares the five pillars of social media content, and I find this to be a useful takeaway of the seminar, a clear way to craft and assess our social media. The pillars are: Educational, Promotional, Engagement, Human Interest / Behind the Scenes, and Inspirational / Entertaining. When listed they seem obvious, but Carrie’s explanation was really engaging!
Having and developing a real-life presenter community feels so good. My spirits are bolstered being around a bunch of people who actively care and work to bring live art to their communities. I’ve benefited from the connections made over working and eating together!
We worked on building our own simple, actionable marketing plan using our own show materials, followed by a robust feedback session. There are many wise voices in the room, I’m taking a number of hot tips from this lab into my own marketing materials.
Carrie is keen and full of verve, and flows easily with the push-pull of her best-laid plans and the way that things unfold in real-time in this room full of presenter variety and experience. There’s space to hear her expertise and lots of space to hear from one another. It’s a satisfying balance over our time together.
On the last morning we all know each other a bit better, and when we split into small groups to design theoretical audience engagement events that are connected to someone’s show, great ideas and hilarity ensue! It’s practical and also lol-funny, which is such a great way for examples to stick.
I am struck by the creativity and performances in this room of presenters who spend their time getting other people on stage. This is a great reminder of how passionate us folks are behind the shows, behind the artists and technical staff of a performance.
We spent our last minutes together defining our goals with worksheets to take into our presenting work back homes. We shared contacts and there are many good hugs.
Seven of us bump into one another again almost immediately in the airport and have a 12-ish hour adventure through weather delays to get back down to the Southern areas of the Province. Much laughter and camaraderie unspool as we get more unhinged with exhaustion. I highly recommend a group of new-best-presenter-buddies for passing an hours-long airport delay!
Northern Connections really lived up to its name. I am more connected than ever. Feeling really grateful for Ontario Presents and for all the keeners who make live art happen. ∎