Thread: Advice from teachers/producers needed: how do you plan your events?

Looking for some advice from fellow teachers and event/show producers:

How do you pick the dates for your events or shows?? I realize in our community we have no communication about dates and therefore end up with events on the same weekend or even the same night sometimes! As someone who is starting to host shows/events as well as attend as many as I can, I find this incredibly frustrating. For example, in March there wasn't a single event, but April there are already 5 lined up!!

So how do you go about it in your communities?? Do you communicate with one another, or do you just book your venue and cross your fingers?? If you are planning something on a night and you find out there is already something else scheduled, do you change it???

Thanks!!

This is a tricky one! You could be sitting down working out a show and a date at the same time as someone else and then both advertise on the same day!

The only advice I can give is to be a member of a Middle Eastern Dancers' Organisation (if you have one, if not, start one!) where you have a central place you can list dates of events. It also helps if you have a yearly event on the same date each year (i.e. the first weekend of June etc) then you get on a calendar automatically as people expect it to happen then.

Otherwise, organise early, advertise early, so anyone wanting to hold an event will move away from YOUR date.

Shimmies,
Charni
Belly Dance Lessons Online - Home

If you plan to host an event regularly, one option is to pick a particular day that does not seem to be especially popular already, make that "your official event day," and plan all of your subsequent events with that in mind (open dancing on the first Sunday of the month, or a workshop on the third Saturday in August, or whatever). If you want to be conscientious about it, you can contact the other organizers to ask if they mind your locking your schedule in like this before you start signing contracts for visiting teachers or booking venues.

If you're in a contentious dance community, on some level, even the ones who don't want you getting into the fray will acknowledge that it's easier to plan their events if yours don't move around, and most dance communities are not large enough to hold competing events without losing money. Of course, if you have a nemesis in town, this may mean that it makes it easier for them to spite you by planning their events on the same day, but there's only so much you can do about people who are willing to cut off their own noses to spite their faces. Then again, if everyone in driving distance knows you always do your thing on a particular weekend, they'll see conflicting events for what they are.

we have to pay attention to when school is in and out. when are all the graduations ...when dorms are empty...when families get that last summer trip in in august. religious holidays..but that is here.

hmmmmmmmmmm i am re reading..read again..most if not all of you only refer to a dance community listing. wow, here it is the paying public we have to pay attention to. when it comes to haflas and performances only our studio is interested in those functions , workshops as well are all supported from within .
very interesting indeed ! we had to hand comb and pick a date for a huge show for the local food bank in june around grad nights..school being out but students still in town...families still in town .just a ton of stuff that none of you mention.

Interesting Zamora. While general public does make up some of the audience, I find most shows/events really are attended by the dance community here. I do indeed take some of that into consideration (spring break, summer is a bad time, nothing too close to Xmas, etc), but I still find many events are 'in competition' as there is only so much time or money to go around.

Originally Posted by lauraw

Interesting Zamora. While general public does make up some of the audience, I find most shows/events really are attended by the dance community here. I do indeed take some of that into consideration (spring break, summer is a bad time, nothing too close to Xmas, etc), but I still find many events are 'in competition' as there is only so much time or money to go around.

ok, i get it..i guess . each studio here is it's own community i guess. i have never had to take anothers events into concideration...i do not know when or what others do. i dought they know ours either. 2 years ago 2 of our dancers were asked to perform at an event. thats about all. oh, and making another schedule for ramadan.
i always learn stuff here !

From my experience with helping one of my teachers, we consult all available information to us. We have several great resources: two Yahoo! groups with calendars that appear to be used, a site called BellyDanceNewEngland with another calendar, and simply keeping an eye out.

We also consider other factors, like whether people will be traveling. This system isn't perfect, but we try hard to accommodate other events and not "compete" for the same groups.

"not "compete" for the same groups. "
what does that mean ? i do not feel those into civil war re enactment want to go to ren faire !..i could be wrong.

I meant belly dance groups, because that's the topic of Bhuz; we don't really check out general events, unless it is blatant something would hinder travel or attendance.

I was thinking along the lines of styles, since I can think of one instance where a tribal event was held the same time as an Oriental event; people obviously could only attend one of those events, and I think attendance may have suffered as a result. I, as well as others, would've loved to have attended both events.

We also do some checking with general things in this area, since other teachers in nearby states bring in some big names for workshops.

Originally Posted by indigostars

I meant belly dance groups, because that's the topic of Bhuz; we don't really check out general events, unless it is blatant something would hinder travel or attendance.

I was thinking along the lines of styles, since I can think of one instance where a tribal event was held the same time as an Oriental event; people obviously could only attend one of those events, and I think attendance may have suffered as a result. I, as well as others, would've loved to have attended both events.

We also do some checking with general things in this area, since other teachers in nearby states bring in some big names for workshops.

ren faire is not a general event we have been a paid guild for 10 years. it does land on the same week end as civil war in fresno some years.
was i snotty ?.....yes i know bhuz is about belly dance..we dance at faire.
whatever.what the hell did i say ? geesh..wont come back here!

Mom and I started a dance festival in 1999 that still runs today. We looked long and hard at what already existed in the area (Southern California, population over 20 million), from Santa Barbara to San Diego on the coast, nearly to the Arizona border on the east.

Belly Dancer of the Universe: mid-February (Los Angeles area)
MECDA's Cairo Caravan: early June (also Los Angeles area)
SAMEDA Faire: mid-July (San Diego)
Bedouin Bazaar: mid-October (also San Diego)

There were (and are) several smaller, but good-sized events, to avoid, too.

So we hit upon early April as a good time to host our event in Orange County (between Los Angeles and San Diego).

Yes, it's happened that other relatively close by events have been scheduled on the same weekend, or the week before or the week after, but that can't be helped. BUT . . . if you find a date that seems to work, and you do it for several years, people will begin to know that your event is coming up and will most likely try to avoid overlapping if at all possible.

If there are any calendars on which you can announce your event, use them -- early. We have several in our area and I hit all that I know of, and keep my ears open about any that come up.

Research really is the key. Find out what's going on, on a regular basis, and avoid those.

Deborah

Originally Posted by zamora

ren faire is not a general event we have been a paid guild for 10 years. it does land on the same week end as civil war in fresno some years.
was i snotty ?.....yes i know bhuz is about belly dance..we dance at faire.
whatever.what the hell did i say ? geesh..wont come back here!

I'm not sure why you think indigostars is saying something bad towards you or towards renn fairs. She and the original poster were talking about scheduling events that dancers create for the benefit of the BD community (e.g. dance workshops, dance festivals, showcases, shows), not events that are created by people outside the BD community for the general public.

Even if there isn't a conflict in "draw" between BD events and non-BD events, it sure does come in handy to know about stuff that may cause your event-goers additional stress, like parades, town-holidays, etc. I can think of *3* events right off the bat I've taught at in the last 5 months where the schedule and traffic flow for students was changed by town celebrations/parades.

Here in Providence, we have a slew of colleges, so it's important to watch for parents' weekends, graduations, reunions, etc - that will cause a run on hotels, additional traffic, problems in parking, etc. Or it may be a street festival that blocks off a major street near the studio, etc. So if that can't be avoided, it's smart to come up with alternate plans/routes for attendees to take. Cuts down on stress for everyone :)

Originally Posted by rosehips

Here in Providence, we have a slew of colleges, so it's important to watch for parents' weekends, graduations, reunions, etc - that will cause a run on hotels, additional traffic, problems in parking, etc. Or it may be a street festival that blocks off a major street near the studio, etc. So if that can't be avoided, it's smart to come up with alternate plans/routes for attendees to take. Cuts down on stress for everyone :)

Oh yes! In our area, question number one in the fall is is there a Badger football game that weekend? because if so, there will be no hotel space. In the summer, it's avoid the art fair, avoid Taste of the city, avoid the Good Neighbor Festival.

As far as avoiding what other studios are doing... we have a really small dance community in town. Should there be just ONE other thing going on, your audience is halved and your event is a failure. That makes everybody rush to get "save the date" announcements out, like calling "dibs", even if no other details have been arranged yet. I personally really appreciate that. I like to get things on my calendar.

In my town the BD community is pretty much self-supporting - not much GP interest really - and also, very small, so if there's a event, say workshops, one weekend, having a bunch of other workshops then set up the weekend before can kill the first event. I've seen it happen a lot.