Off To Houston For #AAAE18

I’m in Houston today for the 37th Annual Association of Arts Administration Educators Conference and am scheduled to give a presentation about building data-driven cultures on Saturday, June 2 from 10:30am – 12:00noon.

This will actually be my first time in Houston and other than bracing for heat and humidity, I’m looking forward to learning more about the city and it’s culture scene first-hand. If you’re attending the conference, be sure to reach out and say hello and same goes if you’re in the area and want to find time to talk shop or potential project work.

Joining me on the session is longtime colleague and conference session colleague, Ceci Dadisman.

We plan on making the slide deck available once the conference is wrapped up and assuming academics are prone to live tweeting, you can follow along with their observations at #DataPills.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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