After taking a week off, it\u2019s good to be back home again.\u00a0\u00a0Last week, I was in\u00a0New York City\u00a0attending the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference.\u00a0\u00a0My expected stay took a little detour and my wife and I ended up with the extended stay version.\u00a0\u00a0Planning on coming back to Van Wert last Wednesday, our plans changed with a nine inch snow fall Tuesday night in\u00a0Manhattan.\u00a0\u00a0When I tell the entire story to friends, they tell me it sounded like the John Candy scene in the movie \u201cPlanes, Trains, & Automobiles.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0If you have ever seen the movie, you know a little about what we went through just trying to return to\u00a0Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0At times, I felt like I might be in the back of a covered truck being serenaded by a Polka-playing clarinetist.<\/span><\/p>\n Well, enough of our traveling challenges.\u00a0\u00a0Besides the travel mess-ups, the conference was a good one.\u00a0\u00a0Many people ask what it\u2019s like going to these conferences.\u00a0\u00a0I thought I might give you a little insight into how things work.\u00a0\u00a0The APAP conference is held in\u00a0New York City,\u00a0Manhattan\u00a0to be specific, because so many of the booking agencies are located there.\u00a0\u00a0It is really the national, if not international hub of artist agencies.\u00a0\u00a0I can easily tell you that the area code forManhattan\u00a0is 212!<\/p>\n At the conference, there are artists, agencies, and agents who represent everything from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Weird Al Yankovich, and most everything in between.\u00a0\u00a0I believe there are over 1000 booths spread over three floors in the Hilton Hotel at the corner of\u00a0Fifth Ave.\u00a0and 53rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n There are literally thousands of performing artists who are trying to sell their talents to presenters like the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.\u00a0\u00a0My job is to try to find and make contact with a number of concerts that I think our programming committee will think our NPAC audiences will enjoy.\u00a0\u00a0I bring back ideas and we start the process of putting a season together for the next season.<\/p>\n A number of factors are considered when selecting concerts.\u00a0\u00a0Certainly, we want what we think many people will enjoy.\u00a0\u00a0We also want to keep in mind ourmission of \u201centertain, educate and inspire.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0I believe our audiences have found many types of concerts and shows to be to their liking that they might have never considered.\u00a0\u00a0I like to think of that as culturally educating our audiences.\u00a0\u00a0Whether you realize it or not, people of Van Wert and surrounding areas have become more culturally educated than others just because of what we have been exposed to.\u00a0\u00a0Van Wert audiences have been receiving this opportunity dating back many years with the Community Concerts at the Marsh Auditorium and now at the NPAC.\u00a0\u00a0Our local theater productions have also been doing a fine job for years.<\/p>\n Another consideration is pricing.\u00a0\u00a0Routing often affects this.\u00a0\u00a0Agents who have been hired by artists to put together tours are looking for the best routing of their concerts and shows that make financial sense.\u00a0\u00a0At times, we may want a certain artist and the routing just doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes, we can come back the next year and things work out.\u00a0\u00a0It is also a tedious decision to decide what our market will support as far as ticket prices.\u00a0\u00a0Variety of pricing and types of performances are considered.\u00a0\u00a0We realize we are not\u00a0New York City\u00a0or even\u00a0Chicago\u00a0or\u00a0Cincinnati.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s always wonderful when the agencies and artists also realize this.\u00a0\u00a0This is when we can land some exceptional, highly recognized concerts for our NPAC audiences to enjoy.<\/p>\n After considering all the above, making and receiving countless emails and phone calls, and then working and massaging the calendar for about three to four months, we are ready to announce a new season.\u00a0\u00a0So, stay tuned because while you are enjoying the many shows and concerts we have this winter, know that there are a lot of people working behind the scenes to put together another wonderful season for 2011-12.<\/p>\n It is also at this conference that I have been able to put the final pieces in place for the upcoming Fountain Park Summer Concert Series.\u00a0\u00a0I think it is now ready to go and we will be releasing that information once all commitments are in place and probably just when you need a nice warm thought in the middle of our coldOhio\u00a0winter!\u00a0\u00a0And if you need a warm thought, don\u2019t forget about\u00a0Swan\u00a0Lake\u00a0on February 1 at the NPAC.<\/p>\n FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Music? After taking a week off, it\u2019s good to be back home again.\u00a0\u00a0Last week, I was in\u00a0New York City\u00a0attending the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference.\u00a0\u00a0My expected stay took a little detour and my wife and I ended up with the extended stay version.\u00a0\u00a0Planning on coming back to Van Wert last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 16:13:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}