As IEBA wraps two Spring projects, I am reminded of a Gloria Steinem quote: “Without imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
In the past few months, IEBA has hosted three educational Workshops. Our Back 2 Basics Workshop is open to college students and young professionals. We talk about the roles each of us plays in the business: venue managers, agents, promoters, talent buyers, artist managers, production managers, F & B directors, et al. We discuss offers and deals, and we follow the money all the way to settlement.
With our Beyond the Basics Workshops, we took at look at Career Development at one event and the Festival Business at the next. (Please note: IEBA’s Beyond the Basics Workshops are video taped and are available exclusively to IEBA Membership on YouTube via an unlisted link.)
At the same time, IEBA’s Scholarship & Educational Outreach Committee has been reviewing submissions from dozens of student applicants who are hoping to receive one of our Summer Internship Scholarships. Both of these projects reflect that excitement of possibility and the drive to be creative and innovative. The IEBA staff and our Board of Directors are focused on sharing success stories and best practices. Our goal is to approach all of our projects, especially our 44th Annual Conference this September, with a renewed sense of creativity and to look for ideas that are original and relevant.
We all run departments or businesses. Hitting our performance goals is serious as people’s livelihoods rely on the success of our companies. At the same time, we believe our industry breeds a culture of creativity. The entertainment business is fun. We want to inspire and encourage you, our colleagues in the entertainment industry, to share your success stories with us. Reach out to us. You can reach me personally at pam.matthews@ieba.org. I am excited to hear from you.
— Pam Matthews is the executive director of IEBA