Arts Ally Blog

Podcasters across borders – The 2011 conference is underway

artsally — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 23:50:01 +0000

PAB 2011 is just getting started. It looks like what is already a great community of story tellers, creators and communicators continues to evolve. Looking forward to being entertained and inspired.

A weekend at the Canadian Guitar Festival

artsally — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:54:43 +0000

I just returned from a weekend of music at the Canadian Guitar Festival. This was my first time attending and I have nothing but positive things to say about the experience.

Fingerstyle competitions at the Canadian Guitar Festival

This year, the festival included performances by 13 exceptional players (including Don Ross, Michael Manring, Tony McManus and Vicki Genfan). The event also included guitar workshops, an open stage and the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Championship competition. The performances were, of course, remarkable. Michael Manring in particular surprised and delighted the audience with a one-hour performance on his fretless electric hyper bass. A fretless electric bass at a fingerstyle guitar festival, you say? I’d like to describe it to you, but I couldn’t possibly do it justice. You’ll have to experience Michael for yourself.

What’s really remarkable about the Festival is its role as a career enabler for young artists. It’s a place where young and developing musicians can showcase their talents and get to meet successful artists in an atmosphere free of the usual pretense. By attending, jamming, playing on the open stage and performing in the competition, they get a chance access to an entire network of musicians. The competition is fierce. This year, 24 young guitarists from Canada, the U.S. and Australia (and elsewhere?) performed. Some of the competitors, like last year’s winner Ewan Dobson, will return to perform at the festival in subsequent years. Some get invited to future gigs, are offered access to other festivals or find recording opportunities in Canada.

I had a chance to chat with some of the performers about their careers and plans for the future. I wanted to know how they work, how they promote and manage themselves and what their long term plans are. Based on the few conversations I had, a few key themes emerged. Above all, they are dedicated to their craft and passionate about creating and performing. They seem to confirm the theory that success is primarily due to hard work and being in the right place at the right time. You have to have some talent, of course, but even the dullest stone can be polished to a bright luster with enough effort. In addition to selling disks and merchandise, some of the musicians earn money by teaching guitar and giving workshops. Most have a manager and/or a recording label. Promotion is often handled by the record label and gigs are organized by a manager. Those I spoke to all used some sort of social media channel (blog, Facebook fan page, YouTube, Myspace) to build their fan base or simply to share their recordings and schedules with the public. I couldn’t find any who are doing all of this by themselves, although I suspect some of them do. I spoke with the event’s founder and organizer Del Vezeau about factors for success and he agreed that what young artists must have, in addition to drive and talent, is the ability to conduct themselves like professionals — that is, be organized, show up on time and be ready to perform. I can’t over emphasize this point. When offered the choice between two relatively unknown and similar talents, people in the industry will invariably go with the one who conducts himself professionally and can be trusted to meet his commitments. This is an important factor for all emerging artists to take into account.

If you like good music and a great atmosphere (not to mention exceptional value), you owe it to yourself to attend this festival. The Canadian Guitar Festival takes place every year at Loughborough Lake, near Kingston, Ontario.

Looking back at PAB2010 and forward to the Canadian Guitar Festival

artsally — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:17:20 +0000

It’s six weeks later and I’m still excited about Podcasters Across Borders. Mark Blevis, one of the event’s co-founders, reminded me that many of the folks who attended are there in both a professional and personal capacity: “What I find particularly interesting about the PAB community is that even though (as you point out) it’s about creativity, content, passion and authenticity with a personal flair, among us are PR and Marcom folk, political consultants, journalists, professional video producers, educators and of course hobbyists. The connecting thread is common among personal and professional interests, and PABsters get that.” I hope to take part again next year.

This weekend, I’m headed to the Canadian Guitar Festival near Kingston, Ontario. This event brings together fingerstyle guitarists and enthusiasts from near and far to take part in performances, workshops and competitions. The Festival was created in 2004 by Del Vezeau and the community continues to build. It was inspired by a “guitar weekend” hosted by Canadian guitarist Don Ross in 2001. This will be my first time at the event, and I’m looking forward to it with great anticipation. I’ll post a report on my experiences later this weekend. Until then…

PAB 2010 – Something special happened on the way to the conference

artsally — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:45:03 +0000

I thought the Podcasters Across Borders (PAB) conference would be different and boy was it ever. I expected a weekend focused on tactics for exploiting podcasting as a marketing and communications tool. I got that wrong. Turns out PAB is really a creativity and storytelling conference. In speaking with a few of the attendees on the first day, it became clear that these people weren’t at PAB for professional development per se.

Group photo of the PAB2010 conference at the National Arts Centre

They weren’t emissaries from government or business. Instead, they’re part of a very special community, initiated online, where the common bond is self-expression. In fact, the people at PAB reminded me more of the musicians and music enthusiasts I’ve met at festivals and music camps than the people who typically attend business and technology conferences. For these folks, the focus isn’t how to sell the next widget, it’s about the content–their own content–and their love of audio. And while podcasting is more than just audio (check out Sylvain Grand’Maison’s site) tied to a variety of online distribution channels, it shares many of the characteristics of radio, which is a very intimate medium and ideal for storytelling.

More surprisingly, PAB is a real-life example of how online communities can manifest themselves in real time and space. People arrived from across Canada and the United States, most of them on their own nickel. These folks have developed an enuring bond through online conversations and a shared love of the medium. I arrived hoping to learn enough about podcasting technology to add it to my own inventory of technical knowledge, with no intention of returning to the event next year. I left thinking about how I could continue to stay connected and looking forward to the next event.

A weekend with Podcasters Across Borders

artsally — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:40:46 +0000

A few weeks ago, someone tipped me off to this online thingy called Meetup. Meetup is a service allowing people with similar interests to connect with others in real time and space. I attended a meetup gathering called Third Tuesday Ottawa. At that meeting I was introduced to Mark Blevis, who told me about a conference called Podcasters Across Borders. The event is dedicated to podcasting and seemed like a great opportunity to learn about a technology that I haven’t had much of a chance to work with. I’m heading over there later today for the kick-off. I’m excited about the potential for podcasting as a communications tool in not-for-profit and public organizations. Although it promises to be an accessible, affordable and engaging tool for organizations and individuals on tight budgets, podcasting isn’t being used to the extent it could be. My guess is that most people are simply unfamiliar with how to produce podcasts and how it fits into the total communications mix. So come back and I’ll share with you what I learn over the weekend.