Thursday, February 3
Round Table - "Promoting 101 - Back to Basics"
Wayne Forte, Entourage Talent Associates

A highly successful new event implemented at the 2005 Concert Industry Consortium was a group of round tables, covering a wide range of topics and facilitated by some of the most highly respected people in their fields. Running the gamut of industry concerns from how to structure a deal to purchasing tour insurance to staying sober on the road, conference guests could stop at one discussion or visit them all for a taste of what’s happening in today’s concert business.

The job of a promoter isn’t what it used to be with the creation of the Internet, satellite radio and other mediums, but the trend appears to be going back to basics, according to this round table discussion.

“Today’s promoters are no longer ‘promoters’ in the true sense of the word,” moderator Wayne Forte told Pollstar. “They are, for the most part, presenters, marketers and producers of shows and events.

“The art of promoting has been lost in the shuffle and with it, the true development of the artist and the artist’s career in the individual marketplace throughout the country and the world, for that matter.”

Forte said 30 to 50 people stopped by his round table sessions. The discussion covered how the Internet and other electronic media have diminished promoting in the real sense of the word.

“While, yes, there are many additional aids in reaching audiences today, these things, again, in and of themselves, are not promoting,” he said. “They are marketing and marketing tools that assist in attracting the audience and selling the tickets, which are one piece of the puzzle in promoting, but do not necessarily achieve the total end result.”

Forte said the participants seemed to be concerned and interested in getting back to actual promotion, contributing a lot of good comments. He even forged a couple of new relationships as a result.

“This type of close-up relating is what is lost when something that starts out as a good concept becomes too big,” he said. “One-on-one, not 1,000-on-one, is what business is all about!”