Creative NZ National Conference 2010

Limes Room, ChCh Town Hall
Mon-Tues 21-22 June 2010, Tickets $225+gst from www.creativenz.govt.nz

Creative New Zealand presents its 21st Century Arts Conference: Dream it, Do it, Prove it.

Each year Creative New Zealand runs this excellent and inspiring conference that focus on audience development and the challenges facing arts organisations. This year the conference will be in Christchurch on 21-22 June and the initial announcement indicates that its going to another outstanding line-up of speakers: including the inspirational Richard Gerver, Claire Eva (Head of Marketing at the Tate in the UK), Andrew McIntyre from Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, James Ashcroft (Artistic Director of Taki Rua productions), Emere and Wharehoka Wano (Sounds Aotearoa and WOMAD), Jenny Harper (Director, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu) and Robyn Archer (Artistic Director of Melbourne’s The Light in Winter).

The conference is based on the 7 Pillars of Audience Focus, a concept developed by UK arts consultancy Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in partnership with Creative New Zealand which encourages an approach that is: vision-led, brand-driven, outcome-oriented, inter-disciplinary, insight-guided, interactively-engaged and personalised. The themes for this year’s conference are vision-led and outcome oriented.

While the conference is invite only, if you’re really interested in attending you could contact susan.nelson@creativenz.govt.nz and if there are any spaces available.

Creative New Zealand publishes most of the keynotes on its website, so its an excellent resource to check out. At the 2008 conference, the standout was an inspiring and challenging opening keynote from Diane Ragsdale. The 2009 conference, featured the impressive Alan Brown, talking about audience segmentation. You can read the conference reports online and also see videos of some of the presentations.

DAY ONE | Vision-led
Visionary artistic leadership and relentless audience focus are at the core of every successful 21st Century Arts organisation. So why do we find it so hard to articulate what difference we want to make our audience or the world?
On Day One we will put your visions to the test. Do they really say what your art means to you or what impact you desire your art to have? Inspirational leader, Richard Gerver, who works closely with Sir Ken Robinson on developing the awareness of human potential and creativity and features in Robinson's new best-selling book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, will talk about the role education has had in curbing our creativity. A host of New Zealand artistic leaders will present a wide range of practical workshops and clinics to demonstrate how your vision can have a powerful impact on your success.

There will be a cocktail evening from 6.30pm hosted at the Christchurch Art Gallery at the end of the Day One.

DAY TWO | Outcome-oriented
Many of our arts organisations are already successfully vision-led – they dream it and they do it – but how many can actually prove it? Traditionally the impact – emotional, intellectual, social or spiritual – of art on its audiences has been considered impossible to measure. Andrew McIntyre, whose company Morris Hargreaves McIntyre specialises in arts audience research both here and in Europe, will show how just about everything can be measured. Imagine the power of being able to prove that you are achieving your vision.
Once again there will be a series of exceptional and highly practical breakout sessions run by New Zealand and international practitioners designed to help you implement these measures in your own organisation.

Download the Programme.

www.creativenz.govt.nz