The South's Premier Christian Music Festival

“The Atlanta Fest, the South’s premier Christian music festival and America’s best Christian music and family entertainment value came to Stone Mountain from June 15-18 of 2011. “ (Atlantafest.com) This is no ordinary weekend festival. There is much planning, budgeting, executing as well as team management involvement. Without a doubt having been to Nashville’s Country Music Festival four times, there are several project managers in a production of this size.  In addition to musicians who are flown in from all over the world, there are national speakers added to the festival. These speakers are “designed to work in conjunction with the music to deepen the Atlanta Fest experience.” (Atlantafest.com)

            A year prior to the fest the project manager must begin to set the plan from artists to speakers to volunteers to vendors and even sponsors. Completing a well thought-out detailed plan must include budgeting, which includes how much the artists will be paid, as well as vendors and most importantly what sponsors are willing to donate time and money to the festival. In addition to the line up pricing of tickets and scheduling is a large portion of the project manager’s position. With a large event spanning over three days, having several project managers would be most beneficial. This will allow group managers to focus and complete their tasks within the master plan that has been designed.  Heerkins mentions, “Preparing a Detailed Project Plan is crucial. As you move forward, it’s important to allow each team member to play a major role in defining his or her specific work on the project.” (Project and Team Management. McGraw-Hill Create p. 93).  The lead project manager needs to remember to schedule time to meet with each additional manager of their assigned task to follow up and make sure all deadlines are being met. Without holding being accountable for their tasks some may tend to slip and not complete partial parts of the project on time, therefore affecting others that are evolved in the bigger picture.

            Overall, the Lead Project Manager has a lot of responsibility to communicate, develop, lead and execute a festival where budgets are met and overall customer’s/fans are excited and satisfied. Without fans or visitors there would not be a festival every year. No Visitor of a three day festival would want to spend the money they do to find out it is not worth the price due to someone’s lack of team work put into the project.

 References:

Atlanta Fest Retrieved on June 30, 2011 from http://www.atlantafest.com/

Heerkens, G. R. (2002). Project Management. New York, NY: The McGraw Hill Companies. 

LIFT Dance Atlanta Review

LIFT Dance Atlanta, a yearly performance of all male dancers and choreographers. Founder, Daryl Foster created this performance as an outlet for men to express themselves freely on stage.  Daryl gave seven choreographers the opportunity to share their limitless piece of works expressing their emotions through multiple types of dance genres.  

            This performance was an emotional event through the connection of the audience and the dancers, however for Daryl to put on an event of this magnitude and a variety of dancers planning, budgeting, execution, project control and most of all customer satisfaction were all essential when managing.  As the founder and project manager Daryl needs to first define his event, which include planning things such as what dancers will be involved, what venue will be use, how much tickets will cost etc. Each year his showcase is performed he learns what is successful and non successful. As Heerkins says, “You must define the opportunity” and Daryl has acknowledged that which allows an all men performance to showcase their dancer ability.  The other areas in with Daryl has succeed at is budgeting. Understanding the venue is a cost per night, how much his audience will pay for a ticket and of course making sure the dancers understand this is an opportunity to show their work and not a paid performance.  Putting on a performance showcasing all male dancers in types of dance, which include; jazz, African, hip hop, contemporary is a risk. Most often men are taken as seriously as a dancer and for Daryl to execute an outstanding performance where his audience wants to return year after year to a sold out show exemplifies a great deal.  

            The four broad areas project managers responsibilities fall into are; the project, organization, team and themselves.  “You also have a responsibility to your organization. The project you’re managing is expected to provide a tangible return to your organization.” (pg 41)  This statement is true no matter if you are the founder, like Daryl Foster or an employee of a larger organization. Executing such an event takes all aspects of a manager.  Overall, Daryl Foster has done an outstanding job in managing a sold out performance year after year, understanding what his audience wants to see.

Project and Team Management. McGraw-Hill Create p. 41. 

Mind Body Client

Looking for a universal business mangement tool? Running a small business is not always easy, however MINDYBODY is the one stop shop for all small business. Whether you are self-employed, working from home, or the manager of a large business, MINDBODY will help you simplify your life, boost your revenues and focus more on your clients. This simple business tool is fast developing in Yoga, Dance, Fitness as well as spa salons. In addition to the ability to forcast revenue, increase client count, manage sales MINDBODY also works hand in hand with Constant Contact which is an online email marketing tool. The ultimate reason to use MINDYBODY is all support is included in a your monthly charge.

Working with many dance and yoga studios as well as fitness locations such as crossfit, has allowed myself to be an expert in both MINDBODY and Constant Contact for business development. Feel free to contact me with any further questions:Jennifer Mercier

Effective Social Media Tips

Challenging a dance studio owner to maximize their social media outlets is not always an easy task. As social media continues to grow rapidly owners need to make sure they are using social media on a daily basis if not several times a day. Social media’s frequent ability for updates can influence a dancer’s decision in an instant. There are 5 basic skills every owner should always remember. One must be able to read and write effectively, expressing one’s thoughts in a conversation format not just “comment” worthy.  Lastly, knowing where to get the information to post about is necessary as well as managing your time using the social media outlets correctly.

As the article speaks about the 5 basic skills, one must also remember social media such as face book is a source for advertising allowing one the ability to show short clips of current and past routines.  Social media also allows to quickly reach a diverse and multitude of people in a short amount time.

I would agree that these are the basic skills for social media however Anglea Hausman, PH.D says it best “The days of every out-of-work person thinking they can do social media marketing just because they take a good picture, can write a little. You may need a strategist who can think strategically to put together the campaign and 1 or more tactical people who can implement the strategy.” The additional skills one should always consider are patience, analytical, thick-skinned, creative and strong grounding which are also all mentioned in Anglea Hausman article about the “Top 7 Skills for Social Media Marketing Manager”

All in all, one must always remember who one’s target audience is and what the best social media outlet is which will ultimately build a solid brand for one’s business.