A Race To The Bottom

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Adaptistration People 093

The 6/29/09 edition of huffingtonpost.com published a piece by Kennedy Center for the Arts CEO, Michael Kaiser, that warns of the folly associated with reactive turtling strategies. It is gratifying to see someone else in the business stepping up and pointing out the need to stop panic driven decision making processes responsible for producing a wide variety of long term crippling strategic plans. We’ve been examining these very same issues since the …

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James Russell Gets It

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The 6/28/09 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) published a guest column by James Russell, the architecture critic for Bloomberg. For my money, Russell is one of the rare visionary writers in this country. His onetime blog, Sticks and Stones, was a beacon of insight and reason that not only predicted the 2008 housing fiasco years in advance, but it regularly covered issues related to architecture and concert hall design. Russell’s AJC piece examines the pros and cons related to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s (ASO) decision to shelve plans for the Santiago Calatrava designed concert hall…

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Top 10 Ways To Annoy Your Orchestra Website Visitors

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What started out as pet peeves eventually turned into the annual orchestra website reviews, a resource that has contributed to improved website design throughout the entire orchestra business. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean webpage annoyances have gone away, they’ve just become more refined. As such, I’ve compiled a Top 10 list of the recent offenses… So what sorts of website quirks have been annoying you in recent months?

Sweet Home Chicago

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After a week out of the office, I’m back in Chicago and getting caught up on the ubiquitous pile of email messages, voicemail, etc. that accompany extended departures. As such, I’ll be back on track with regular blogging tomorrow; in the meantime, make sure you didn’t overlook this morsel from the 6/23/2009 edition of the New York Times that reports Barrett Wissman has stepped down as Chairman of IMG Artists. This …

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The Empire Strikes Back

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Crisis management public relations is never easy and there is a good reason entire PR firms exist for the sole purpose of helping individuals and organizations’ deal with negative press in a way that marginalizes damage and ultimately brings about favorable public opinion. Traditionally, orchestras tend to deal with negative press using one a few blunt tools that aren’t very effective in bringing about the sort of change appropriate crisis PR management can accomplish. One common example is to responding to negative public attention that doesn’t merit much hope for changing views is to lash out against the author, which is known as argumentum ad hominem, a logical fallacy often employed by politics as a propaganda tool…

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