We work with a fair few people in the arts sector and, for several years now, I’ve been a member of the Arts Marketing Association. “Why?”, I hear you cry, “You’re no arts marketer!”

True. But the idea is that we can be more helpful and useful – i.e. better at our jobs – when we have a decent understanding of what it is the folks we work with actually do all day; their aims, wider objectives, challenges etc. to use some businessy-type speak. And, yes, we may even meet potential new clients while we’re at it; bonus.

(Another significant reason for joining is that I don’t believe it ever hurts to learn new things either professionally or personally.)

So, that’s why I’m a member of the AMA. And, while I have rocked-up to a decent number of the local networking sessions (run by our trusty West Midlands reps Amy and Tim), I’ve certainly never been what you could call an active participant in the association.
Until Tuesday.

For it was Tuesday that I trained-it up to Sheffield (along with ooooh, at least half a carriage-load of Brum-based arts marketers) to attend my first AMA Conference; this year spending 2 days focusing on ‘game-change’.

The theme was introduced by Jo Taylor, AMA Chair, whose opening keynote was warm, enthusiastic and motivating, making for a good start and reassuring me that the next couple of days could be a very good use of my time.

Over those days I learnt a great deal; agreed with lots of things; disagreed with others; understood more than I expected to; felt out-of-my depth at times; caught-up with people I know; met loads of new folks … and made plenty of notes which I’m busy turning into blog posts (one of which will explain this post’s title).

One of the main things that stood out to me was that an arts marketer’s role is invariably varied. Mix that with the ever-changing ways in which people are communicating, and the sector's already stretched finances becoming even tighter, and the result is that marketing departments – or those whose role includes marketing – are having to take on more and more responsibility. So, us being better at our jobs (making sure our projects run smoothly – and enjoyably) is becoming more and more important.

All-in-all it was an intense, thought-provoking, tiring and enlightening couple of days. So, that was the easy bit! Now for the tricksy task of helping to put some of these learnin’s into practice …