Conference

The five-day conference presents 32 students delivering their own papers on the future of our industries. This unique insight is attended by industry professionals and members of the public as well as other management students. This year’s programme will include talks on the Digital Economy Act, augmented reality, new business models, and the role the critic in a digital age; and will span the performing arts and new media, including dance, music, theatre, television and gaming. A list of proposed topics is below

Speakers: Management Students

The 32 students in the third year of their Management degree at LIPA are specialising in Management of Music, Theatre and Entertainment. They have just completed a placement module in which they spent three months managing projects in arts and entertainment organisations including QDos Entertainments, SEGA, Comic Relief, Jack Morton Worldwide, IETM, Future Publishing, M17 Productions, Chibuku, and Clitheroe Grand. Many of them have been offered their first industry job at their placement.

Future leaders? Previous graduates of the course have gone on to work at DCMS, Oxford Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith, Pippa Ailion Casting, The Lowry, EMAP, Warner Music, Universal, Atlantic Records, Google, Apple, PRS, PPL, Cameron Mackintosh, and the UK Film Council as well as in events, film and television, and to set up their own companies. Theatrejunki, one of Lastminute.com’s top 50 bloggers in 2010, is also a graduate, as is producer Lynette Howell, co-founder of Oscar-nominated Silverwood Films.

Previous conferences

Last year’s conference included talks entitled ‘Will digital innovation be the future of theatre?’ by Andrew Girvan, now acting deputy editor and Off-West End editor of Whatsonstage.com; ‘Opera houses as methods of urban development’ by Tansy Teuten, now at experiential marketer Ignite; and ‘Experience or Exploitation – unpaid internships’ by Siobhan Pridgeon, now Awards and Events Producer at Women in Film and Television.

Attendance

Anyone connected with music, theatre and entertainment may attend all or part of the conference. The conference can also be followed on Twitter and will be tweeted using the hashtag #ciam11.

The course

Contemporary Issues in Arts Management is a part of the Music, Theatre and Entertainment Management degree at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). Annually, we invite ten speakers at the top of performing arts management to talk for one session each about the future of the arts, music, theatre, and entertainment. Speakers have included Cameron Mackintosh, David Pugh and Pippa Ailion, with Marcus Romer of Pilot Theatre, Music Lawyer Ann Harrison, and Kate Kinninmont scheduled for this year.
The assessment for the course is through a presentation, and these presentations combined have become our annual Contemporary Issues in Arts Management Conference.

This annual module and conference is run by management lecturer Maria Barrett and management students at Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts as part of the Music, Theatre and Entertainment Management degree at LIPA. This year’s students are due to graduate in July 2011. More details can be found here http://artsconferences.co.uk/

Proposed topics 2011

Contemporary Issues in Arts Management

• Publishing Powerhouse: How modern day managers can manipulate the printed word
• Shock Value: The value of shock in the arts
• Inspiring future managers: how enterprise and the arts can make a difference.
• Has the Wikileaks' project set a benchmark for freedom of information in a digital age?
• What are the possible applications of augmented reality in the arts?
• The healthy manager - how to stay healthy in arts management

…Music

• The Digital Economy Act: One year on.
• Cloud Locker – 3 major players and rights issues
• Fighting to the top: Spotify's Quest to Overthrow iTunes.
• To buy or not to buy - In this digital era, do people want to own music anymore?
• Can Topspin fix the artist to fan relationship?
• Do you remember when we used to have to leave the house to buy music? An investigation into the recent activity of HMV as a music retailer
• Product killed the video star: The marriage between the 2011 music video and product placement
• Off The Charts: The Demise of Top 40 Influence on Contemporary Popular Music 
  Death: Does it kill your music career?
• Music 3.0: The Changing Digital Behaviours of Music Consumers

…Theatre and Dance

• Are Critics still Critical to The Success of A Show?
• Should theatres lose their charitable status?
• Should regional theatre follow the commercial West End theatre model?
• Is the current trend for reality dance programmes undermining the art form and limiting the public’s perception of dance?

Proposed topics 2011

…Event Management

• Are we doing enough to protect our audiences? Ensuring that the crowds love does not become a crush.

…Television and film

• Will product placement Americanise British television?
• Are LGBT people portrayed through any art forms in children and youth’s lives, and, if so, in what way?
• How has reality talent-finding television changed the face of the UK entertainment industry?
• The Increasing use of Soap to Highlight Social Issues, using The BBC's flagship Soap, Eastenders as a case study.

…Games and gaming

• “Inner Peace through outer violence” violent video game content.
• With people using iTunes, Amazon and buying their games on Xbox live, are High Street Media Outlets Doomed?!

…Employment and ethics

• Changes in the Cultural Labour Market - Is a large part of the sector going to be run by volunteers in the future?
• Recent changes in artistic and cultural visas
• Dying for your Art. As arts managers, should we be doing something to safeguard the health of our performers?
• Artists for Sale: With the recent revelations in the media that artists such Nelly Furtado and Beyonce played for notorious dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his family, should artists and their management consider where they are playing and who they are playing for or should these factors remain a strictly business decision?

Please note that these topics are proposals; the confirmed list will be available on the website: http://artsconferences.co.uk/

This year’s speakers on the course:

• Ann Harrison, music industry lawyer, author of ‘Music, the Business’
• Tim Difford, Business Solutions Director, Steria
• Stella Hall, events manager, Preston Guild
• Marcus Romer, Director of Pilot Theatre and Shift Happens conference
• Chris Carey, Economist, PRS for Music
• James Robert Thompson, Course Leader, Northern College of Design
• Lynette Howell, Silverwood Films
• Kate Kinninmont, Chief Executive, Women at Film and TV
• Dr Kate Oakley, Demos.

Previous years’ speakers have included:

• Sir Cameron Mackintosh, A conversation with Tony Field
• David Pugh, West End Producer (Art, Heroes), A conversation with Tony Field
• Alex Cox, Film Director
• Pippa Ailion, Casting Director (the Lion King, the Blue Man Group)
• Professor Anthony Everitt, formerly Secretary-General of the Arts Council of Great Britain; Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Nottingham Trent University
• Brian Message, Radiohead/Music Managers Forum
• James Seabright, theatre producer
• Tony Field, theatre producer and consultant
• Paul Birch, Revolver Records
• David Hayward, BBC College of Journalism
• Louise Ferguson, Open Rights Group
• Mark Borkowski, Borkowski PR.
• Jeremy Ledlin, Director of Channelfly
• Melanie Harris, Independent producer; formerly BBC Northern Exposure
• Colin McKeown, Film & TV producer
• Jon Webster, Clancy Webster
• Michael Elliott, Chief Executive, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
• Tony Reekie, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Children’s Festival
• Dee Davison, DCMS
• Marc Dicciani, USA/ the Grammy’s; National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences
• Tony Wood, Creative Director, Lime Pictures
• John Robb, TV pundit and author
• Warren Bradley, Leader, Liverpool City Council.