Dan Steinberg, Square Peg Concerts
FROM THE DESK OF THE MANAGING EDITOR— Writing about panels presents a conundrum for journalists. Sure, panels are packed with tons of quotable content and quick sound bites, but it can be a real challenge to extract and condense that information into something digestible. That’s because panels tend to jump all over the place — and as a writer, it’s our natural tendency to try to connect things and find cohesion.
There’s also one other small thing that bothers me about panels that I’m not really sure I’m comfortable admitting here in this column, since we cover so many panels — so I’ll leave it up to my good friend Dan Steinberg (let’s call him Steiny from here on out) from Square Peg Concerts, who never has a problem sharing his opinions.
“Panels are absurd. They’re incredibly boring and you learn nothing,” he told me on Sunday while preparing for, what else, an upcoming panel he’s moderating this week at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Steiny’s critique of panels goes something like this — most panelists tend to wing it rather than prepare in advance. Winging it leads to a lot of bloviating and pointless insider sniping. Audience members tend to feel like they wasted their time.
“There’s something about the entire panel concept that seems antiquated,” said Steiny, whose greatest benefit from self-employment is his ability to say whatever he wants. “The panelists just show up to get through the hour so they can take their free badge and hear themselves talk.”
Don’t get the guy wrong — he’s not against self-obsession. Anyone attending his upcoming panel “Pack the F**king Rooms” should prepare themselves for 60 minutes of the Dan Steinberg Variety Hour. “Pack the F**king Rooms,” which takes place Wednesday, at 3:15 p.m. in room 15 of the Austin Convention Center is as much a head-scratching contemplation of a man with no discernible boundaries as it is a critique of the modern panel format.
“Pack the F**king Rooms” is dedicated to concert marketing and, in true promotional flair, Steiny and the team at Bill Young Presents have created an amusing sizzle video and show poster for the 60-minute event. “Pack the F**king Rooms” has its own Facebook page (101 likes at press time), a sponsorship deal with the Bill Young team and an official after-party at Rusty’s on 7th (a first for a panel at SXSW, Steiny says).
Steiny once again finds himself in the moderating roll for “Pack the F**king Rooms,” after taking some time off from moderating at other music industry confabs. He preps for hours prior to the panel, coming up with questions and scripting out one-liners. His panels are rapid fire Q&As that follow a frenzied pace with drinking games interspersed in between. Expect him to dress up in costume and hand out swag items. Last week he sent me a hockey puck with his logo on it. Today I received some rolling papers in the mail designed to look like Mike and Ike candy. It’s hilariously in bad taste, and Steiny gets away with it because he’s just kidding.
He will rein in the crazy behavior when it goes a little too far. Even the organizers of SXSW have their limits — panels are actually voted on by SXSW attendees and in 2013, Steiny got thousands of votes for a panel idea simply titled “The Best Mother F**king Panel ever.” The whole thing was over-the-top and a not-so-subtle mockery of insider events like SXSW. The conference organizers of the event had a friendly conversation with Steiny and eventually put the kabash on the whole thing.
Panel poster for "Pack the F**king Rooms"
Steiny gave me a preview of this year’s format — I promised to keep most of it under wraps, expect drinking games and costumes and uncomfortable moments. He’s also got prizes for the audience, including 50 free tour passes and laminates from Access Pass & Design, and a free registration for the conference AspenLive.
“The hope is to give people who come an advantage with marketing so that they can see an increase in their numbers,” he said. “We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about social media, where a lot of people make mistakes.”
And, of course, a panel is nothing without its panelists, and Steiny has a large Rolodex of people to call on. I’m going to let Steiny describe each panelist in his own words:
Jeff Chabon, AT&T Center: We’ve got an arena-level booker here. Here’s a guy who can implement marketing for arena shows and fill the room. And he’s got a background in sponsorship. He’s the real deal.
Amy Morrison, AEG Live: Amy’s territory at AEG is the entire world and that’s because she’s the absolute top dog for marketing at the company. She markets the Rolling Stones. She markets Bon Jovi. She markets Kanye. She markets Rod Stewart and Katy Perrry. When it comes to marketing their biggest acts, Amy is the one they give the ball to, anywhere in the world. Wow. Amy’s marketing mind is insane.
Jamie Loeb, Nederlander Concerts: Jamie is like Amy, but on a regional level based in one of the biggest markets in the country. She’s got the Greek Theatre, which is one of the coolest places in the world, and she deals with San Jose and Santa Barbara and Anaheim and anywhere else Nederlander should jump into. Plus, she came over with Alex Hodges from House of Blues and Live Nation where she sat at the top of the world and got a ton of experience.
Jim Lewi: Jim is from the management side and his career includes everything from putting on big food events to managing acts at Red Light, the biggest management company in the world. Jim understands the management process, and he built the AspenLive conference from scratch, handling all of its production and marketing. He was involved heavily in the HORDE festival and sold sponsorships for CAA and ICM. The dude’s got an amazing Rolodex.
As for the rules of the panel, I thought I’d let Steiny explain that, too.
“Don’t pitch the panel or use your time to talk about your band,” Steiny said. “Use your time for asking a question. You’ve got the ear of Amy Morrison. You know what — almost no one can get you Amy’s attention. I got it for you. So ask her a real question.”
Dan can be reached on Twitter at @TheJew and will be live tweeting from SXSW all week using the #SteinyXSW