Katherine Mooring

“Charlotte in 2012” is becoming quite a theme this year, as we prepare to welcome more than 600 arts marketing and development practitioners from across the country to the National Arts Marketing Project Conference (NAMPC), November 9–12.

The National Arts Marketing Project is a program of Americans for the Arts that, in addition to the annual conference, hosts monthly webinars, organizes regional training programs, and provides on-site workshops on a range of arts marketing topics.

The three-and-a-half day NAMP Conference includes two full-day pre-conferences, four keynote addresses, and more than 100 presenters in more than 50 workshops and discussion groups. Attendees will gain new ideas to build audience, learn ways to stretch even the tightest budget, and discover methods to better engage donors. Past host cities include Louisville, KY, San Jose, CA, Providence, RI, Houston, TX, and Miami, FL.

Method Products Co-Founder and Chief Brand Architect Eric Ryan launches the 2012 Conference as the Opening Keynote. Nina Simon, author and executive director of the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz, CA, will invigorate attendees on day two. The Conference closes with author and strategist Rohit Bhargava who will not only share his marketing expertise, but also his new book, Likeonomics, which was just named a must-read of 2012 by Forbes! (Editor's Note: You can watch all of the keynotes live online!)

Individual session titles will tackle diverse topics like, Innovations That Pay: How Arts Organizations Are Adapting and Finding New Income Streams, Consumer Psychology: New Experiments That Use Science to Grow Your Audience, and The Win-Win: Arts Organizations and Businesses Partner to Achieve More.

Attendees at a NAMPC 2011 session in Louisville. (by Frankie Steele)

Thanks to scholarship underwriting from the Arts & Science Council, more than forty representatives from local cultural organizations will be attending the conference, where they will benefit from sessions on broadening audience development, deepening engagement and more.

Local sponsors like Bank of America, Duke Energy, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Wells Fargo and our partners at Center City Partners, the Charlotte Chamber, the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, and the Charlotte Regional Partnership have also provided invaluable support.

Local professionals are also serving on the conference marketing committee, as session presenters, as dine-around hosts and informal city guides.

NAMPC 2012 is not only an opportunity for learning and development, it also serves as a tremendous platform for showcasing Charlotte as a vibrant cultural destination for some of our national arts community’s most dedicated communicators. Last year’s conference generated over 6,000 tweets alone!

The Charlotte cultural sector can’t wait to welcome these marketing and development professionals from around the county to learn from experts in the field, their peers and the Arts & Science Council on how to connect with and grow audiences for their organizations and communities.

(Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on the Arts & Science Council's A Vibrant Cultural Life blog.)