How to plan an indie concert

OK, so the band is doing well, you did some gigs in front of your family and friends and now you want to go to the next level. The best feedback you can get for your band is playing in front of a live audience, but that can prove to be more difficult to achieve without a label or a manager. However, in our times, when internet and social media are the best things that could ever happen to an aspiring music band, planning an indie concert can be a task easier than you might think. But remember… it might be easier, you might have all the right tools, but you’re still going to be putting a lot of effort into it. No pain, no gain.

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So, here are some nice tricks that can help you organize a small concert:

1. Google is your friend.

You can find anything you want on Google. The real key to using your new best friend is to know what you are looking for. According to Music Think Tank, there are a couple of interesting websites for indie artists that can help any aspiring musician learn a lot about industry, managers and booking shows, like Sonicbids Blog, Rap Rehab, Hypebot and, of course, Music Think Tank.

this-businessYou might also want to check out some interesting books about concerts and tours. One of them is “This Business of Concert Promotion and Touring: “A Practical Guide to Creating, Selling, Organizing, and Staging Concerts” by Ray Waddell.

A must-have for indie artists is: “All You Need to Know About the Music Business” by Donald S. Passman. This book is the definitive, essential guide to the music industry and is now in its eighth edition, revised and updated with crucial information on the industry’s major changes in response to rapid technological advances and economic uncertainty.

2. Mastering the Social Networks

Obviously, when you and your band don’t have big budgets to spend on marketing and promotion, social networks are the safest way to success. It might take some time but if you do it right, the results are guaranteed. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are names that you should be familiarized with, as they are key to a successful event and a growing popularity of your music.

Singer Josh Levi claimed that “social media definitely plays a huge role in success today” and he is right. Either you are trying to promote your song or your concert, synchronize your accounts on every social network and start posting. You might bump into haters so keep calm and carry on posting… You might find out that a hater will only promote your music and some of his friends might actually enjoy it and come to see you play live.

3. “It’s not the singer, it’s the song”

These are wise words from the music industry so you better take them seriously. You can’t have a concert if you don’t have songs. While singing covers will help you fill up the playlist, people will come to see your concert so if you want to be successful, you must have some personal creations. It takes just one good song to hit the charts and be successful but just like in any business, getting to number 1 is hard work and staying there is even harder. So it’s best you prepare a good and entertaining playlist for the people who come to see you.

4. Choose the right venue

Now this is crucial. The selection of the venue can help you have a successful concert. Obviously you must select the venue that fits your target. If you want to organize a jazz concert, organizing the event at a Rock Club is definitely a bad idea. So, depending on what you sing, choose your venue wisely, as the venue itself can generate some audience. After all, it is in their interest also to get people to come inside and spend some money there. And since we’re talking about venues, make sure that the venue has the technical capacity for a proper concert. You might want to avoid places where the sound is bad or where people are cramming in and have no air to breathe.

5. Sell the tickets

You managed to set everything in place. You have all social network accounts working and your website is up and running. You found the perfect venue for the concert and set the date now comes the crucial part: how to sell the tickets and generate some revenue? So what is there to do? Well, take matters into your own hands and sell your own tickets. It’s your show, your money, your time so why not sell your own tickets directly from your website?

Once you advertise the concert on the social networks the people who are interested will come on your website and find more details about you, your band, your music and your events. Your website is the primary source of information for people who want to get to know you so why not sell tickets from your website. A few years ago, creating your own ticketing software was very expensive but now you have Oveit. With just a few clicks, you can set up your event in a couple of minutes and then use an Embed code to paste it on your website, and that’s it. You can now start selling tickets directly from your website. No more telephones to the ticketing platforms, everything you need is in your hands. So now you can focus on things that matter: the concert!

6. Keep your attendees close

It’s the evening of the concert. You sold your tickets and everything went as planned. People came to the venue, enjoyed your music and had a great time. What next? Transform your attendees into your fans. If you used Oveit’s event registration software to sell tickets, you might want to know that you have now gathered a lot of information about the participants. So now you have a data base to use and improve and you can send e-mails, make a newsletter and keep in contact with everyone. The key detail to being successful is communication. Music comes first but it doesn’t matter how good your music is if you lack interaction with your fans. Keeping them happy and satisfied will get you a long way. And now you can do that with your own data base.

Back in the days, getting in contact with your audience was quite difficult. Now, this is not the case. Labels have discovered that organizing events themselves will improve their revenues. Why hire someone to do your concert when you can do it yourself? So if the labels do this, why couldn’t the indie artists do it?

July 15, 2016 Concerts, Event management, Events No comments yet

The TEDx Phenomenon

Even though we live in an era where technology offers us any kind of information we want with the cost of just one single mouse click, people seem to lack knowledge more than they did a couple of decades ago. Why is this happening?

We can blame it on the fact that younger generations keep away from libraries and books. We can also blame it on the media, always on the run for the sensational, and, of course, there is the internet… the place where freedom shakes hands with snooping eyes. But really, why are there signals in the media about the fact that some youngsters grow up in the darkness of ignorance? As the Daily Telegraph claims it in a trending article, children grow up with a lack of role models.

According to Helen Wright, the president of the Girls’ Schools Association, children “during this journey through their lives, from being a baby to being an adult, need to develop more of a perspective on life and they gain that from trusted adults; be they school teachers, be they family members, be they people you work with in the community. That’s our socialization, that’s how we move through from childhood to adulthood and start to understand the world.”

The lack of role models in our society is something that people have looked upon from the last decades of the previous century and this is why in 1984, Richard Saul Wurman set the cornerstone for what would become a leading conference phenomenon that influences and inspires millions of people worldwide: the TED talks.

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Originally, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) was an event that merged three different fields. In the first TED event, people witnessed a demo version of the compact disk, the e-book and also a couple of interesting 3D graphical revolutions presented by Lucasfilm. During this first event, mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot showed the attendees how to map coastlines by using fractal geometry. Though the themes presented at the first TED were very interesting, the event was not a financial success. It took 6 years for Wurman and his partner Harry Marks to do the event again. Now, however, times have changed.

In 1990, the TED conference held in California was a major success and it became an annual event. The number of attendees grew and although it was an invitation-only event, more and more people became interested in the themes that were being discussed at the TED talks.

A new era for the TED talks began in 2000, when Wurman decided it was time to find a successor for his project and approached new-media entrepreneur Chris Anderson. Anderson’s NGO Sapling Foundation acquired TED for £4m and soon TED became a world-wide phenomenon. Its purpose now goes beyond Technology, Entertainment and Design. It soon became a platform for “ideas worth spreading” meant to make the world a “smarter and better place”.

There have been numerous speakers at the conferences, some of them being world-famous personalities such as Bill Gates, Bono, Jamie Oliver, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Stephen Hawking, Julian Assange and many more. All the speakers are chosen by Anderson personally, as he also hosts the conferences and decides what talks go online.

David Binder on the Arts Festival Revolution

During the years of him being the TED curator, Anderson expanded the conference so that it covered all topics possible, including science, business and personal development. He built a Fellows program that now has over than 300 alumni and established the TED Prize which is being awarded to outstanding people that have “one wish to change the world”. In just a decade, TED went on a journey to become more than a conference. It is now a worldwide stage for thinkers and doers from many areas who share their ideas and make people dare for more.

In 2009 Anderson made TED a global brand. Now quite the star on the internet and throughout the world, Anderson took the motto “ideas worth spreading” to a whole new level. He introduced the TEDx initiative which offered TED licenses to organizers from all over the world so they can create their own TED events. Until now, there have been more than 8,000 events all over the world, generating an archive of over than 60,000 TEDx talks available on the internet.

In 2016, Oveit became a partner of TEDx Bucharest. A locally organized event, licensed by TED, TEDx Bucharest began its activities in 2009, aiming to make a positive impact on the development of the local and national community of thinkers and doers. The latest event, Women of Now, held on the 16th of June 2016, was a well received as it presented the local community a conference focused on the women of today: women who are mothers and daughters, best friends and role models but also business partners, top leaders, innovators and achievers.

The TED phenomenon is growing and necessary. In a world where the darkness of ignorance seems to be growing, every TED speaker is a beacon of light, a living proof that the future generations will not only have plenty of role models but eventually will grow up into becoming role models themselves.

June 28, 2016 Event professionals, Events No comments yet

Top 5 Summer Festivals for Indie Music Lovers

No plans for this summer yet? Here are some cool festivals to attend the following months, all over Europe. If you are a music fan, and your favorite indie band is playing at a festival, there is no better way to see them live! Plus, it is a really good way to discover new artists that you might like: a lot of emergent artists and bands play for their first time on minor stages at festivals.

Open’er Festival, June 29-July 2, Gdynia (Poland)

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A music festival which takes place on the North coast of Poland, the event was given the Best Major Festival prize at the European Festival Awards ceremony in 2009 and 2010. This year’s lineup include popular local and international artists, such as Sonar and Wiz Kalifa.

Mainsquare Festival, July 1-3, Arras (France)

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Happening in the stunning Citadelle Vauban, this event boasts an impressive alumni list like Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Placebo, Muse and Metallica. This summer, you can listen to Iggy Pop and Ellie Goulding. All you have to do if you get there is have fun and not worry about having to carry cash with you: at Main Square Festival, you can buy stuff “Cashless” – a contactless payment system, thanks to a microchip in your bracelet, which will make your life easier when shopping during the festival (drinks, meals, merchandising, etc.).

Indietracks, July 29- 31, Derbyshire (UK)

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Indietracks is a summer music festival which combines steam trains and indiepop music. Quite smart, right? Visitors are free to enjoy steam train rides, railway attractions and museums, discos, art and craft workshops. Each year around 50 new and established indie pop artists perform across a range of stages at the festival. However, if you can’t make it for the festival, every year the organizers release a download compilation album featuring bands playing at the festival. In 2016, Saint Etienne, The Aislers Set, The Spook School, Emma Pollock, Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern, Comet Gain will be performing at Indietracks.

Spellground Festival, August 12-14, Capidava (Romania)

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A music and arts festival that takes place this summer, that will host dozens of famous singers and bands, such as The Kooks, Amber Run, Soul Clap of Noir. The festival is located on the way to the Romanian seaside, next to the Capidava Citadel, on the Danube shore, at a distance of 160 km of Bucharest or 65 kilometers of Constanta. The organizers also provide camping accommodation for those who want to live a full festival experience. Long story short, this is what you get for less than 50 euros: 72 hours of live music, 3 concert stages, art performances and various workshops.

Summer Well Festival, August 13-14, Stirbey Domain, Buftea (Romania)

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This year, Summer Well marks its sixth edition. If you choose to attend the event, you will get the chance to listen to The Chemical Brothers, Hurts, Years & Years, The Neighborhood, Crystal Fighters, Milky Chance, BØRNS, Blossoms, Sundara Karma and HÆLOS. There is no accommodation provided, but there is that a dedicated bus available for the festival, linking Piata Victoriei in Bucharest to Domeniul Stirbey in Buftea, so you can get to the festival and back home, free of charge.

Did you make up your mind? Then just pick your favorite event, pack and go! Enjoy your summer!

June 21, 2016 Events, Festivals No comments yet

How to increase traffic to your museum or gallery?

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The Vatican Museum. Source.

Today, the world is changing faster than ever. Information is now instantly available to everyone online, so modern museums need to sell a reason for people to pay to view the real thing. Therefore, in order to respond to the social changes and adapt to your visitors’ expectations, you must innovate, and technology might just be the right choice.

Create your own museum app

More and more museums in the world are making the experience interactive, educational, and engaging for their visitors. Your own museum app can provide cellphone tours, audio guides, interactive movies or games and even augmented reality.

Optical recognition and enhanced reality (using QR codes and such) is a great way to improve the experience of your visitors, as you will be able to enhance what they are seeing through their mobile device. People can scan an object of interest with their camera, and that gesture triggers delivery of relevant content, in order to better understand the exhibits. With the help of your e-ticket and NFC technology, visitors can simply touch their phones on the museum devices and benefit from the latest trends in augmented reality. All the devices from the museum and gallery can connect to Oveit, hence the only thing that visitors must do is purchase an online ticket and come with it on the smartphone. From there, they can relax and enjoy the sights.

Sell online tickets and subscriptions

Purchasing e-tickets will give your customers a lot of benefits: they decrease cost and are instantly delivered (no transportation needed), they are a great time saver, more accessible, safer (these won’t get stolen or lost), and last but not least, they are a ‘green’ alternative.

Apart from these facts, there are also great advantages for you when it comes to selling tickets or subscriptions online. For example, you are able to collect essential customer data that can be used to better plan marketing campaigns for future exhibits or events. With Oveit’s embed system, you can issue and check electronic tickets directly on your website so that you can make sure that customers will never be forced to a third party website that sells tickets. Moreover – there is no setup fee and implementation is instant, by just copy-ing and pasting an embed code.

Provide multiple access

If you have various galleries, collections or exhibits going on in your museum, you can sell multiple access tickets. Oveit’s event registration software can help you create as many different types of tickets as you need. You can also set prices, ticket quantity limits, and much more. Therefore, visitors will be able to benefit from simpler access, using only their smartphone. With the multiple access option, visitors will be able to configure their access ticket any way they want, choosing whatever exhibition they want. Just imagine that you can buy a ticket in less than 2 minutes and with that same ticket you can do everything you want in the museum. So, pay once, visit more.

Host events

Events enable you to promote your activities to a very select group of people and can be a fun and interactive way to engage with potential and existing visitors. Make visitors feel like a part of the museum family, by inviting them to special ‘member’ events. Let them share their experience with the museum and their future expectations. Also, events can be a great way to thank existing customers for their support and interest.

In order to host a successful event, you need to have an easy registration system in place. In a couple of minutes, Oveit can help you design and create personalized badges for all your attendees, create complex seating designs (in case your museum hosts a conference) and sell access to your planned event.

June 1, 2016 Event management, Events, Museums No comments yet

Top Largest Gaming Conventions and Events in the World

Gaming has taken the world by storm and it seems it won’t be stopping soon. eSports, mobile gaming, huge investments in developing increasingly impressive games have all been factors in creating a global gaming phenomenon.

Gamers and gaming industry representatives gather and interact each year in some fantastic events. We decided to take a loom at the top largest gaming conventions and events. So here they are:

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in US and Australia – 70 000 ++ attendees

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PAX, the event formerly known as Penny Arcade Expo, is a series of gaming events held in Seattle, Boston, Melbourne, and San Antonio. Though the exact number of attendees has not been published since 2012, we know that it has been on the rise and you should consider a figure way above 70 000.

The event was created by Jerry Hulkins and Mike Krahulik in 2004 as a gaming – only event. Jerry and Mike are also the authors of Penny Arcade, an webcomic focused on gaming culture. Following the success of Penny Arcade, they’ve decided they need a place where gamers can get together and experience their favorite hobbies together. So PAX was born.

The first edition was attended by 3 300 people in Bellevue, Washington, at the Meydenbauer Center. As the word spread out PAX moved to other cities and then other countries. In 2013, PAX arrived in Australia. That same year, passes for PAX Prime, the original Washington Festival, were sold out within 6 hours.

To make room for the incoming stream of game developers interacting with the gaming community, a new event was born within the PAX ecosystem: PAX Dev. As the event’s website states “PAX Dev is about elevating the art and creating a place to share, debate and learn.”

Igro Mir in Russia – 157 000 attendees

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Igro Mir (meaning “Gaming World” in Russian) is the largest games event in Russia. It is organized by the committee of Russian Game Developers Conference in Moscow every year since 2006.

While many things can be said about the conference, like the fact that it grew steadily since its launch, that the event took Moscow by storm and more, a certain pattern comes up when it’s being reviewed. Can you notice this beautiful pattern?

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Results for “IgroMir 2015 Russia”

ChinaJoy in China – 270 000 attendees

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The largest gaming and digital entertainment event in Asia is ChinaJoy or China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference .

The event features more than 120 000 sq. m. in exhibition space, over 3500 games showcased and visitors from more than 30 countries.

ChinaJoy is growing rapidly and expects over 270 000 attendees this year.

Tokio Game Show in Japan – 270 000 attendees

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The TGS 2016 theme illustration. Source.

The Tokio Game Show or TGS started in 1996. It is held once every year, in September, in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. The show is focused on Japanese games but often international game producers attend the event to showcase upcoming titles.

The event grew steadily since start and has reached a record of 270 197 attendees in 2013.

This year the number of expected attendees is 230 000 and the theme is “Press start to play the future”, a take on how the gaming industry is redefining the future of entertainment.

This year’s theme has been illustrated by Ippei Gyobu who mentioned his view on the impact of games:

“The game world is moving from monitors to headsets, and at some point gamers will probably even remove the headset. Is that world real or unreal? Games are creating the whole different concept of the world! The Tokyo Game Show has continually delivered to us the history of those revolutions, and is turning 20 this year. I can’t wait to go see a new revolution. “

Brasil Game Show in Brasil – 300 000 attendees

In 2015 Brasil Game Show attracted more than 300 000 attendees which makes it the largest event of its type in Latin America.

BGS is a mix between gaming, cosplay, entertainment and business opportunities for gaming industry professionals. Its main expo area is focused on B2C but there is also a special B2B space where entrepreneurs and professionals can meet and interact.

The show was created in 2009 by Marcel Tavares, an entrepreneur and journalist. One thing about Tavares is that he really likes video games. He likes them so much that throughout the years he has acquired 350 consoles, 3500 games and hundreds of accessories.

BGS grew at a rapid pace and the reason for that is the high potential of the LatAm gaming market.

A report by Superdata puts the gaming market in the region at $4.5 billion, with Brasil accounting for 35% of this figure:

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Gamescom in Germany – 345 000 attendees

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Gamescom gathered 345 000 attendees and 806 exhibitors in 2015. The European gaming convention brought in people from 96 countries to attend 4 days of gaming extravaganza.

The convention, held in Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is organized by the Federal Association of Interactive Entertainment Software. For four days is home to game developers showcasing their creations and avid gamers interacting with them.

The fair includes cosplay village, music and on-stage entertainment, interactive panels and a very, very large exhibition area.

Gamers can test games before their market release, purchase merchandise, have fun and even buy games before they are available publicly.

May 25, 2016 Event management, Event professionals, Events, Festivals 1 comment