Or so implied Jonah Lehrer (and if you just clicked through, yes, he really was that adorable), at last week’s TCG Conference in Chicago. The NPAC blog recaps Jonah’s story nicely:

Or so implied Jonah Lehrer (and if you just clicked through, yes, he really was that adorable), at last week’s TCG Conference in Chicago. The NPAC blog recaps Jonah’s story nicely:

In his talk, he shared scientific anecdotes about how certain kinds of complexity and heterogeneity in systems can lead to unexpected creativity.  One such story was about the invention of the Swiffer disposable mop, which initially started out as an assignment to invent a better floor cleaning liquid.  However, after some “out of the box” research, the design team arrived at the realization that it was the mop itself that was the real problem. He also discussed research that linked the higher than normal percentage of patents generated by the citizens of San Francisco to urban density and how much people bumped into each other on the street.

I’m inclined to totally agree. The TCG conference was great at helping me reconnect with old friends, colleagues, and classmates. And I listened in on some really thoughtful discussions about the theatre education assessment model, what the next generation of theatre makers hopes for the future, and the challenges managing directors were struggling with at their $5 million + theatres. Sure, I was bummed the Art of Pricing didn’t cover nearly as many interesting points of view as the many conversations here, and here, and of course here (although admittedly I had to leave after the first 1.5 hours). But more and more it’s beginning to feel like if we don’t get more folks like Jonah to take part in our industry wide dialogues about how to make real change, we’ll just continue talking in circles. Of course, this isn’t endemic to just theatre conferences; I also had the opportunity to attend SXSWi this year and there were plenty of complaints.  On the other hand, I don’t think unconferences work all that well, nor did the giant combined NPAC conference in 2008, and you’ve already heard some of my frustration about the Twitter echochamber.

So yes, a new mop will be necessary to figure out new sustainable business models for the theatre (because you know there won’t be just one, right?). But that might mean we need a new mop for discussing the possibilities of a new mop too. Confused yet?

I don’t have all the answers, I don’t even have many suggestions. But I know there’s a lot more folks than me doing cool research about the theatre, and its many challenges. I didn’t hear from (m)any of them at the conference. Overall, I wish there were more (quick!) case studies of successes and failures, more outside voices brought in, more teaching and less meandering discussions. Conference 2.0 was a huge leap forward; next year, I hope the conversations start even earlier. Oh yeah, and the next time anyone, anywhere, for any reason, considers hosting a learning event without free wireless internet available, remember that you’re losing out on the awesome power of live blogging which will record key insights (for historical posterity), diversify the voices “in the room” (by opening up the conversation in real time to those who couldn’t pay to be there), and generate great buzz.

We do it for free because we love you, if only you’d give us wifi.

The Theatre Communications Group 2010 National Conference wrapped up last night. I heard word it was the largest in the conference’s history, clocking in at just under 1,000 attendees. A sizable chunk of those folks live tweeted several breakout sessions, mostly [...]]]>

The Theatre Communications Group 2010 National Conference wrapped up last night. I heard word it was the largest in the conference’s history, clocking in at just under 1,000 attendees. A sizable chunk of those folks live tweeted several breakout sessions, mostly under the #TCG2010 moniker.  My presentation, Social Media Strategy: Why ROI Isn’t Enough went quite well. I’ve received so much great input from folks over the past four months about what I should talk about, and was overwhelmed with gratitude from the many good luck emails in the days leading up to my presentation. So without further ado, for those of you who couldn’t be with us in person, and may not have caught the original tweeted link, here goes nothing:

You can also check out the live tweeting commentary. A few folks requested my notes, since I rattled off a bunch more stats.

Shortly after my presentation, my interview podcast with Technology in the Arts also went live! It in, I discuss the most significant findings of my social media research for theatres.

Speaking of, now I’m off to gather my thoughts on speaking at Americans for the Arts next weekend in Baltimore about Branding Yourself Through Social Media with the estimable Ian David Moss.

Possibly related posts:

1. Theatre & Social Media in 2009
2. A Social Media Measurement Plan
3. Social Media Strategy Recommendations for 2010
4. What do YOU want to know about Theatre and Social Media?

It’s been 44 days since my last post. Oops. After four months of posting about twice a week, suddenly I just dropped off the face of the earth (at least in terms of blogging). Sorry about that.

First there [...]]]>

It’s been 44 days since my last post. Oops. After four months of posting about twice a week, suddenly I just dropped off the face of the earth (at least in terms of blogging). Sorry about that.

First there was spring break:

• I premiered my first (almost full length) play at Yale Cabaret. It’s called Radio Station, it was a hard and heartbreaking and thrilling and terrifying experience. Buy me a beer and I’ll tell you about it sometime.
• I spent a week in LA meeting with senior executives at ABC, NBC, Fox, Warner Bros, Focus Features, Disney, Activision Blizzard, and ICM to talk about the future of the entertainment business. I also needed to catch up with old friends, all trying to “make it big,” or at least make it through next week. They were playwrights, and actors, and directors, and agents, and PAs, and everything in between, and they were all working their ass off in pursuit of great art.
• I spent a week in Peru with my fabulous playwright friend Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco traveling between his hometown of Lima and his favorite vacationing spot Cusco (11,000 feet above sea level). We ate incredible ceviche, went to see Peruvian theatre, hiked ancient Incan ruins, and imbibed way too many Pisco Sours. He was an absolute doll to put up with me for a week, and I can’t wait till Machu Picchu opens back up and I have an excuse to return. I also celebrated visiting my 5th continent in just over a year!
• I spent a week in my hometown of Austin Texas for SXSW. Since I’m a starving student, and apparently a glutton for punishment, I decided to volunteer 50 hours during the music festival so that I could attend the film festival and interactive conference for free.  I went to panels about How to Make a Viral Video (in which we tried to actually make a viral video), Donations 2.0 (and got to finally meet the infamous Beth Kanter), Playing with Place: Location Based Games and Services (where I ran into my old colleague Rob Bole, tirelessly advocating for the future of public media), Rules of Brand Fiction: Twittering MadMen (which was brilliant), Way Cool Maps: Beyond Simple Mashups (where I was in way over my head technically, but had the most awsome down to earth presenter), Design for Big Surfaces (where they showed that those cool scenes from Minority Report are actually viable). I saw luminaries like Ev Williams, Gary Vaynerchuck, Randi Zuckerberg, Pete Cashmore, and Robert Scoble speak. I went to premieres of awsome indie movies like Cherry, The Runaways, and Skateland. I played roadie for Jakob Dylan (that guy Bob’s son), Neko Case, and two dozen other rad artists. I’ve got a few half written posts about the whole experience. Until I get my act together, check out all the SXSW slideshow presentations on Slideshare.

I came home for four days of school, and then off again to the Humana Festival! I fell in love with Fissures (which smacks you in the forehead with a brilliant ending), Ground (which should be in every regional theatre in America), and Heist (best work I’ve ever seen out of the A/I company, and one hell of a night by the inestimable Sean Daniels). And I can’t help but give props to home town heroes, the Rude Mechs. I also snuck in a #2amt tweet up of 2 with the always stellar David Loehr.

That gets us to about ten days ago. I’m exhausted just remembering it all. But I’ve also got a full time job, and a full time course load to pack in there. I’m currently in the middle of:

• Designing a dashboard of key institutional metrics for Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre
• Tracking the changing gender trends of managing directors in TCG theatres since 1970
• Creating a regression model that shows cause and effects (or at least correlations) of TCG theatres’ expansion of seating capacity over the past 40 years
• Expanding my original LORT social media study to include all 473 (!) TCG theatres
• Designing and teaching hands-on workshops for the staff of Yale Rep about ‘How to Facebook and Tweet’
• Building a social media strategy for Vocalo (the so-called, ‘YouTube of Radio’)
• Finishing the 9th draft, 3 years later, of my masters thesis: Strategic Priorities in the Effective Use of Technology at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It’s quite a mouthful.
• Writing a fully functional business plan for opening an employment services agency in Kabul Afghanistan

That last one came out of nowhere, right? Ah, the joys of business school.

And I’m graduating. Classes end in 3 weeks. Graduation is in 41 days. I don’t have a job. So I’ve been grabbing every opportunity possible to get my name out in the field. And the good news is, things are finally coming together.

• I’m presenting my research at the TCG Conference in June!
• The following weekend, I’ll be at the American for the Arts conference, co-leading a roundtable discussion on Branding Yourself through Technology and Social Media with my former classmate Ian Moss, without whom which I probably never would have contemplated blogging in the first place.
• I’ve gotten requests for interviews from both Theater Magazine and Southern Theatre Magazine to discuss the future of social media in the theatre.

There’s also this hilarious/exhausting tradition at SOM called April Foolery in which there is a school wide party planned for every night of April, for all 400 students. We’ve got first year-versus-second year hockey games, a fundraiser auction that pays for all the MBAs working in non profit internships, easter egg hunts, bloody mary brunches, BBQ’s on East Rock Park, and all sorts of messy karayoke and trivia madness.

But on top of all that, I’ve got to

• Lead 2 extracurricular clubs at the School of Management
• Fulfill all of my responsibilities as a teaching fellow for the Innovator course at SOM with 230 first years
• Interview 3 prospective SOM applicants a week for the Admissions office
• Mentor first years pursuing careers in media and entertainment
• Show up to five classes a week prepared to intelligently debate with the best and brightest minds in the country
• Wrap up my job as Director of Research and Analysis at Yale Rep
• Find a freaking job
• Pay all my bills

It’s that last one I’m the worst at. My electricity got shut off this week because I’m two months behind on my bills. Not that I don’t have the cash (although I’m not exactly swimming in that either), but because I haven’t opened my mail in two months. So it might not surprise you that I fell ill this past week and couldn’t get out of bed for 3 days. I’m in full recovery mode now, holed up at my favorite coffee shop, trying to bust through this post, answer the 119 emails I’m behind on, and work on all that other stuff mentioned above.

So, forgive my absence the past month. It’s been a busy one. But I haven’t forgotten about you. In fact, I sat straight up in bed at 6am this morning, knowing that I just HAD to write a post about what Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution can teach us about actively participating in our own communities. I already have the perfect headline: The Naked Artist. Now is that link bait or what?

Possibly related posts:

1. Big News: Devon Gets a Real Job

I recently made a bet with a friend of mine that who ever snags a presenting role at the TED Talks first, has to buy the other one a ticket to the most [...]]]>

I recently made a bet with a friend of mine that who ever snags a presenting role at the TED Talks first, has to buy the other one a ticket to the most expensive conference ever. Ever since I worked for Brian Greene, superstring demigod and frequent TEDster, it’s been my dream to be accomplished enough to get selected as a presenter. TED is all about gathering the brightest minds from across the globe to discuss “ideas worth spreading.” I’m hoping this is the first step towards that goal.

The TCG national conference is coming up in June, and our managing director, Vicki Nolan, has asked me to propose a break out session topic based on my social media strategy research. While I’ve given an endless succession of presentations for work and class (4 degrees and counting), I’ve never presented at a national conference. The theme of this year’s TCG conference is “Ideas into Action,” so I’d like to talk more about the practical application of my somewhat theoretical research. But trying to pitch what I’d be speaking about four months from now in an industry that changes daily is proving to be a challenge. So I need your help! Here’s what I’m thinking:

Session Title: Social Media Strategy: Why ROI Isn’t Enough

Session Description:
You’ve got an active Facebook fan page, a rabid Twitter following, and a kick ass website. Now what? Once you’ve started experimenting, how do you know when you’ve hit upon something that works? How do you measure success? What’s the true impact of your social media strategy?  Can you start scaling back other marketing efforts now that you’ve got all of these engaged fans? Why might you want to take social media beyond the marketing department? Where can you find other social media tools and resources on the web? Join us for a practical discussion on framing a robust social media strategy, deciding what to measure, learning about what’s next in this quickly changing field, and sharing with colleagues from across the country about what’s working and what needs a new solution.

Learning Objectives:

1. Best practices for developing a social media strategy.
2. Key benchmarks for who’s doing what in the field.
3. Meaningful metrics and the tools to capture and analyze them.

Following this session, participants should have a new method for crafting a social media strategy, whether in marketing, fundraising, collaboration, or beyond.  They will have the tools to benchmark their peers, analyze the customer segment they’re trying to reach, formulate a strategic plan, and select appropriately measurable outcomes.

Handouts:

1. Social Media in the Theatre, 2009.
2. Social Media Strategy.
3. Additional material from my blog, 24 Usable Hours.

In particular, I plan to update the social media field research to include non-LORT theatres, and hope to bring up the issues and ideas in social media that are most pressing as of June 2010.

Presenter Biography:
Devon Smith is a recent graduate of Yale School of Drama’s Theatre Management MFA, and Yale School of Management’s MBA programs. She has worked for Yale Repertory Theatre as their Director of Research and Analysis, and as the Associate Director of Marketing; with Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Managing Director to help articulate their long range plan, for the World Science Festival’s corporate relations department, for Roundabout Theatre’s major gifts program, and at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, helping to devise a business plan for $500 million in project expenses, as well as for other theatre and dance companies in New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles, and South Carolina.  She regularly blogs about her research on social media in the theatre at 24 Usable Hours.

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Is this a session you’d want to go to? Are there new or different topics I should be addressing? Are you totally bored to tears by my descriptions? I’ve helped you a few times before, right? Now it’s your turn!