I entered my undergrad as a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Public Relations, if only because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. During my sophomore year, I was called to film a number of intro segments for a small niche cable channel's series. Excited, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I headed to the studio, sat down in front of the camera and and got ready to film my first intro.

All I have to do is read the teleprompter. That's it. Shouldn't be too difficult, right? Okay, here we go...ugh, messed up. Can we do this again?

My voice was raspy, I was fumbling my words, I was nervous and in all honesty, I just didn't enjoy it. It didn't energize me the way I thought it would. In the end, they had me film one (ONE!) closing segment for the series where I read their website and phone number. I had, for all intents and purposes, failed, at least at reaching the goals both I and others had created for myself.

Succeeding is awesome. Knowing that you met your goals and that other people are happy with your product is amazing. But what happens when you fail? What do you do with those mistakes?

One of the sessions I attended at the New-to-the-Field preconference was Chad Bauman's presentation, titled "I've Made Your Mistakes For You." In another session I attended, one of the audience questions was: "What other marketing ideas did you generate but were never greenlighted?"

Here are just a few marketing failures that have been shared in sessions here at NAMPC:

• Investing time and resources in developing something on irrelevant platforms, like Second Life
• Accidentally omitting sponsors in printed materials
• Using an event hashtag that is being used by another event
• Attempting to engage on a new platform with a failure to generate authentic content on a regular basis (that stagnant Facebook page or blog)
• Losing potential communities by using long-winded and abstract messaging

It's great to hear about others' successes, and it can help form and inform your strategies moving forward. However, I have to advocate for the opposite: hearing about others' "failures" is equally, if not even more, helpful to me in informing my future strategies. (Isn't that why shows like TLC's "What Not To Wear" are extremely addicting?) If someone can tell me what hasn't worked for them, that's one more lesson I can learn. That's one more mistake our field can not make and that's one more step forward that we all can make.

Of course, a strategy that hasn't worked for one organization may work for another, and vice versa. But knowing and being able to pinpoint what wasn't right for that organization is definitely helpful!

And what did I take away from The Great Teleprompter Failure of 2006? Broadcast Journalism did not work for me. The next morning, I promptly dropped my Broadcast Journalism minor, kept my Public Relations major and added a Music minor: a combination that sent me on my way to a career in the awesome, exciting field of arts management.

What are your thoughts? What "failures" have you encountered and how can arts marketers and the field as a whole learn from it?