The Business of Art Conference

I'm gearing up for the Business of Art conference in Kanab, UT this weekend. This year is the second annual conference here in Southern Utah. I went last year not knowing exactly what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. Even though some of the content was not applicable to the mediums of graphic design and photography I fount quite a bit of it to be applicable. It was at least a good experience to get out and network with other creatives.

This year a fellow artist submitted my name as a possible candidate to speak on marketing and publicity. I was contacted and asked if I would be willing to do it. I, of course, was nervous and wondered why me but I agreed to do it. Although the work I do is very closely linked to marketing... it is not marking. I will not be speaking about doing market research or writing press releases because that would make me a fraud! I am, instead, going to focus on a few marketing related things that I know about. The two main things I will be speaking about are: 1. Determining your target audience & creating appropriate materials for that audience. 2. Branding yourself as an artist or your business to achieve maximum brand recognition (from the right people). I will touch on a few other ideas but those two topics are key.

The conference is free and they feed you breakfast and lunch! It is worth the drive to Kanab for that! If you are interested in more info here are a couple of links:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saint-George-UT/The-Business-of-Art/175358451761

http://new.dixie.edu/ce/business_of_art.php