After Lauren Smith began attending "jam sessions" with her dad at a local music store in Sullivan, Missouri, she realized something: These jam sessions provided opportunities for connection between artist and audience.A freelance stage manager at the time, Smith began to relate what she saw to her work. Theaters, particularly those that produce classic works, she thought, could learn a few things from Westgate Music about providing such a gathering space for their patrons.You can find Smith's entire essay...

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In the arts, there’s often the ambition to be accessible for all, explains Jonathan Goodacre in this Arts Professional article. Well, according to a recently completed study by the Audience Agency, "outdoor arts consistently attract an audience that is representative of the population as a whole."Goodacre continues: "Is it as simple as the fact that they are free? Price incentives have not always worked at generating audiences across other areas of the sector, so it must be that there’s...

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Why do people go to live events in the first place? It's a question Jim has answered on this blog (here's a tidbit from that post): "But ultimately, you see something live because it’s more exciting than it is at home, and a big part of that feeling is that there are other people there."And at many live events -- sports and concerts, for example -- audiences often yell, scream, cheer and trash talk. And while that behavior might not...

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"It’s amazing to me how quickly things go from cutting edge to tired," Jim begins his post Preference is Perishable. Keep Your Mindset Fresh. He continues: " ... in 2011? It’s too late to plead that things are moving too fast.You’ve got to be able to revise your mindset much, much faster than that. If food trucks and flip cams and Digg are already out, and they feel like they were just coming in, you’ve got to develop some kind of...

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Most of the time, those aren't lighters you're seeing at concerts these days. They're phones flashing as fans snap pics of the stars on stage, of themselves, of the venue.Whatever your opinion of picture taking during shows, according to a new study by a team of researchers from the University of Southern California, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, "taking time to snap photos of experiences like concerts and vacations helps us enjoy those experiences more," reports CBC News Canada.Apparently, there's a...

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In live entertainment, it's rare to be the first. Unless it's a world premiere of a play or a musician performing an original song, there's a chance your show (or something similar) has been done before.But that's OK! It's also not a unique problem. As MarketingProfs writer Sarika Periwal points out, it's an issue with apps, products, practically every industry. The solution isn't to worry as much about being first, but with being the best. As Periwal says: "A good user...

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We wrote about Games of Thrones getting in on the live event action when HBO launched an interactive art installation, Art of the Throne, in NYC featuring works inspired by the fantasy series.Now Magic Mike is coming to Vegas: Magic Mike Live is scheduled to open at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas next March, writes Michael Cuby for Flavorwire.In a video featuring Channing Tatum accompanying Cuby's article, the actor explains his vision: "We want to create a place...

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Was Bach really meant to be heard in a brewery? Steuart Pincombe gave it a whirl when he played the Baroque cello to a standing-room-only crowd at Dock Street Brewery in Philadelphia.Philadelphia Inquirer critic Samantha Melamed gave the performance a thumbs up, writing, "Taking this 18th-century music out of a sterile environment and into the familiar realm of my neighborhood bar made it feel fresh and timely."Dock Street Brewery also offered a pairing of one of its beers with...

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Back in 2014, Jim declared that food is entertainment, and gave some advice for live entertainment organizations: "Like the immersive stuff we’ve been talking about, food events done to [a high] degree of care and customer experience raise the stakes once again on what people expect from a traditional, seated, watch-the-show or -game type of event.It would be a big mistake for you to put this kind of event in a different (and conveniently noncompetitive) category from your theater or sports team or...

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Imagine walking into a theater and smelling a just-baked pie. That's exactly what awaits audience members entering the lobby of the Brooks Atkinson Theatre to see the new Broadway musical Waitress.According to Broadway World, there is an actual pie being warmed in a convection oven in the entryway of the theater.It's the perfect fit for a story about a waitress and expert pie maker -- and a fresh idea which Jim touches on in his post, "The Audience Has...

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