Monday, February 19, 2007

Hosting the country's service organizations

Because we don't have enough to do, we felt like hosting a national conference in March. From March 14-17, the Alliance along with help from the Orange County office of Arts and Cultural Affairs is hosting the Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations. Yes, there is an association for everything. This is the first time the conference has been hosted in Orlando. We are excited to show off our cultural assets as this is the first visit to Orlando for many of these people. All attendees serve roles similar to the Alliance in their cities like concentrating on building awareness and audience development. We have set up a strong itinerary for the group and we will visit many of the area's cultural venues to hold the various workshops.

Why do you care? Well, Terry Olson (the founding ED of the Alliance) and I have offered Orlando for several years, but most of the participants had no desire to come to Orlando since it was a theme park town. I think this conference in a small way is one more step in the right direction of our growth as a cultural community. It is an incremental step of course, but not one to be taken lightly.

I am eager to share our success and our challenges with our peers from across north America and one from London. We will have approximately 60 people from 30 organizations. Here are some of the websites of the groups who are a part of APASO.

Arts Boston
http://www.artsboston.org/

League of Chicago Theatres
http://www.chicagoplays.com/

San Diego Performing Arts League
http://www.sandiegoperforms.com/

Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts
http://www.atlantaperforms.com/

Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

Alliance for Arts and Culture (Vancouver)
http://www.philaculture.org/

Society of London Theatre
http://www.allianceforarts.com/ http://www.solt.co.uk/

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