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This is the first draft of a proposed new membership scheme for Audiences Central. It represents our ideas for how to make membership work better for you by offering different ‘packages’ of support in different price ranges, rather than a fixed menu of benefits.

Have Your Say
We are now inviting feedback on how this new approach might meet the needs of your organisation better. We would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to read through this document, and let us have any thoughts, ideas and suggestions for improvement.

All you need to do is click here to download the proposal and allow yourself 20 minutes with a cup of tea to read it through and reflect on it. Please post your comments and suggestions to and be as honest as you can!

You may wish to consider:

* Does the 'package' approach work?
* Affordability and value for money
* Is there anything you would change, or add?

Please do encourage colleagues within your organisation to have a look as well. This is a major opportunity to shape the future of Audiences Central's relationships with its members, and we really appreciate you taking the time to help us get it right.

How important are mottos and slogans for communicating the brand or values of a company, organisation or product? Some feel it is good to be able to sum up who we are and what we stand for in one catchy sentence. Others, would rather the product spoke for itself, taking the Ronseal approach: it does what it says on the tin (which is in its own way, a slogan!).

An interesting article on the BBC website encouraged readers to come up with a National motto for the UK, and being British, people responded in their 100s with flippant, sarcastic and cynical suggestions. Enjoyable and amusing, but begging the question do consumers realy respond to slogans and mottos, or do they see through them? And if they are not for the consumers, why do we have them? Because we’re worth it, of course!

It was my first time at an AMA conference and my first time in Edinburgh, I was excited to be given the opportunity to visit both in August 2007, and I was in for a real treat…

I’ve heard quite a bit about the AMA conference from both colleagues and clients during my last sixteen months at Audiences Central – some of it in a work related capacity and other juicier bits from a social and ‘networking’ point of view. I was really looking forward to finding out for myself exactly what happens at this high point of the arts marketing calendar.

I’d chosen some interesting seminar sessions in advance and was particularly looking forward to the keynotes from John Knell, Intelligence Agency and John McGrath, Contact Theatre, Manchester.

Transport and accommodation was organised and timetabled with military precision (thanks Rachel Harris), so all I had to do was to pack my bag and make sure that I had enough business cards.

Arriving
There aren’t many times that I can remember being welcomed to a conference by a Scottish Piper, but it was a warm and welcoming gesture and was only bettered by the grand interior of the National Museum…

My date for the first evening session was Pamela Zigomo, Audiences Central’s newly appointed Captivate Project Manager. We spent a little time after arriving walking around the vast open space looking at the exhibits and trying to spot familiar faces from our elevated vantage point on the balcony.

In a short space of time, we had already met with a handful of familiar West Midlands delegates from the Arts Council (WM), Arena Theatre and the mac. We decided to take a seat early as not to miss the opening speeches, and were promptly joined by several new faces…

After the delicious meal and some interesting conversation we were given complimentary chips to play on the Black Jack and roulette table, and invited to a late night preview of the Picasso exhibition – which was a fantastic surprise.

The Conference
The sessions took place at National Conference Centre, a short walk from our hotel. The registration process was quick and efficient and left us with enough time to add a few message to the ‘Would like to meet board’.

Both days were well structured: There was plenty of time in between seminars and lectures to meet new people, network and catch up with colleagues and clients. The staff were warm and welcoming and excellent in making sure delegates knew where they were going. The delegates were approachable, friendly and keen to talk about the sessions that they had just attended – it was great to have so many varied opinions and observations on tap.

The second day was just as successful and the sessions were rich in content and incredibly provoking – Chantal Badji stole the show with her talk about her experiences when faced with the challenge of programming the bi-centenary of the abolition of the Trans Atlantic slavery for the BBC.

The conference was a complete success and gave me the opportunity to meet and network with arts marketers from across the UK. I was introduced to new concepts and ideas and given the opportunity to talk about Audiences Central portfolio of work…

For those of you who haven’t yet experienced an AMA conference I would fully recommend it!…for those of you who have, see you again next year (hopefully)!

I recently read an interesting article in the Telegraph Online today about concert finishing times.

In this article, Rupert Christiansen is bemoaning the way in which arts organisations are slow to realise and adapt to the needs of our customers. Why of Why don't we have more matinees he complains. Looking around London he sees nothing but bored tourists who would leap at the chance to go to the theatre in the afternoon.

Or would they? I enjoy a West End matinee - it allows me to visit London, catch a show AND meet up with friends in the evening. However, I've never had to book in advance for one, and I have never been to one which is full. I never feel like you get the 100% best performances in the afternoon either.

It's a subject that fascinates me though. I believe that a lot of organisations do tend to operate in the same way they have for years, how many of us really think of scheduling from a customers point of view. For example, a 7.30pm start might be necessary for a piece of Shakespeare, but for a experimental performance show of 1 hour and 10 minutes and no interval - an 8.30 start might allow people to get the kids to bed, cook and eat and go to the theatre- and still get home at a decent time. rather than rushing to get out, and then find themselves with an evening already over and it's not even 9pm.

I've also heard rumblings recently that the Arts Council are interested in looking at opening hours particularly in museum and galleries, trying to extend them and ensure that the most amount of people have access to what's on offer.

So which is it - should the sector continue to do things in the way we've always done them - because it's the best? Or is it time to really reconsider when we make our work available and accessible to audiences?

I look forward to your comments!

A big personal congratulations to Clare Edwards for her recent success scooping the Young Professional of the Year Award

I know Clare works really hard and wish her all the best in her recent success!