How 'old' are young audiences?

An interesting article that popped up in the most recent email from Audiences London and made me look twice...

"Culture Hounds" - a new audience segment?
The Edinburgh International Festival will launch its INcrowd promotion next week. Aimed at attenders in their 20s and 30s, the scheme costs £20 to join and offers exclusive benefits and discounts and is designed to engage the over 26 group who miss out on the best discounts for students and young people.

For more details check out...http://www.eif.co.uk/news/incrowd

Survey round up: Twitter and Facebook facts

Again pushed through to me by the power of Twitter, recent survey results on the use of Facebook and Twitter by age group.

Texting at a Symphony?

Cellphones are hardly applauded in concert halls, where it’s considered gauche to have them turned on, much less to pull them out during a performance. So at a recent Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra concert of classics like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, it was a little surprising when the conductor instructed audience members to take out their phones.

Symphony administrators had decided to let the audience choose the encore by text-messaging votes: “A” for Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown,” or “B” for Wagner’s prelude to Act III of “Lohengrin.” (“Hoedown” won by 23 votes.)

More to the story

Things I should of remembered from 2008

Now, how about a blast from the past? I was at this presentation. I remember it, I remember thinking yes, this is the kind of thing I need to be hearing.

I think I'm also starting to mix it up with one from the 2009 Ticketing conference in Feb this year. But no matter, never hurts to be rousted by a stirring keynote speech...

How's this for some info?

About 14 years ago I learned something about the relationship between many Americans and the arts. I was teaching a general survey course, Intro to Theater, at a small public university in ldaho, a rural state known mainly for its potatoes. On the first day of class each term I would ask the 120 or so students to raise their hands if they had ever seen a professional theater production. About 10 hands would go up. I would then say, "Raise your hand if you would like to see one." 15-20 hands would go up. Remember, this was before podcasting, blogging, YouTube, MySpace, Iphones, and P2P file sharing revolutionized communication and social networking.

So, I would ask of the remaining students, "'Why wouldn't you want to see aplay?" The answer was generally, "I've gone this long without seeing a play, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything."

You don't miss what vou've never had.

Marketing Summit 2008: video Diane Ragsdale - keynote