Reflections on a week of professional presenting

We’re two-thirds of the way through the Arts Innovation & Management colloquium series, and I’m heading home for the weekend.

After giving the same presentation about “technology and audience engagement the Blue State Digital way” four times in five days, as part of similar but not identical programs for arts managers in four very different cities (LA, SF, Dallas and Chicago done, Detroit and Boston to follow), I have a few observations:

(1) Being on a stage every day is hard work! I have a new appreciation for real touring performers, who have the obligation to be consistent and charismatic and “on” not just four days in a row, but dozens of days in a row, with all the stress of travel and unfamiliar locations overlaying it. No wonder so many of them end up with addictions or other strange stress-relief habits.

(2) Every day has to be fresh. I know this material very well, but even so, it’s not something I can phone in. I have to prepare myself each day, review the material, think about how I might customize it for this audience and this room, and then go out on stage bursting with enthusiasm like this is the first bright new day of my wonderful life. (And these are friendly audiences!) And then I have to say things I’ve said a dozen or a hundred or a thousand times before, but in a way that feels fresh and current and made for just this moment.

(3) The shape of the room matters. I’ve learned that just a few extra feet between you and the audience makes for a more reserved, cooler interaction. I’ve learned that high ceilings make people reluctant to speak up. I’ve learned that uncomfortably wide rooms (with you having to turn left and right to see everyone) are still vastly better than uncomfortably deep rooms (where there are people way in the back who may not be able to see your face).

(4) While on tour, you won’t do anything else. The only night out of five that I did anything other than eat dinner and go to bed early was the night of the one day we were “off.” And even so, I was in bed by 12:30.

(5) Fortunately, that’s all made up for by the personal connections you make. Every person who’s excited by the material you’re presenting, who has a flash of insight s/he can own and take home and put into practice, feels like a victory.

Thanks to Bloomberg Philanthropies and the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of… for making this program possible, and for inviting me to take part. I look forward to next week’s sessions!