This week I went to Brighton for the annual Arts Marketing Association Conference. I was joined by Mike, Devinda, Matt and Anna for what turned out to be a 5-hour train journey to Brighton during which it felt like we called at every station in southern England! 

I will try to write in more depth later about some of the themes and learnings from the conference but for now here are a few pictures and some flippant comments. That's what people really want anyway, right? 

The title of the conference was Connect, Engage, Inspire. This goes quite well with the work we do at National Theatre Wales, taking 'engagement' away from being an isolated department and just turning our whole universe into a community of people who watch, make, do, learn, share and enjoy theatre and the arts together. 

Particular conference highlights for me included Andy McKim from Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, Canada. He spoke about organisational structure and allowing ideas to come from all parts of a company. 

I also really enjoyed a two-hander session given by Ron Evans from Group of Minds and Roger Tomlinson of The Ticketing Institute. Aside from the brilliant banter and audience involvement, they shook hands with and welcomed every person to their seminar, and put chocolates out in the front two rows to reward people who sat there.

Oddly I didn't feel that chocolate was enough to make me sit at the front, which is strange and possibly a subject for a whole other blog. The session itself explored social interaction and how this affects the culture consumption process. Do people feel the influence of others when making decisions about culture and ticket buying? Is the rise of Facebook ticketing apps a sign of social engagement? More to come on this too. 

And now for the pictures and flippant comments: 

Yummy cupcakes - reward for listening to a sales pitch! 

The wall in the Pavillion Bar is pretty cool

You know a conference is going to go well when there are really good pastries.