Meeting 3

Today was the third meeting for the VTU concert committee that I have attended. In today's meeting a number of things were discussed. Primary focus was on making sure those who are working the concert for The Roots tomorrow had gotten their assignments via email.

Along with that, VTU is really pushing their organization members to promote the Gym Class Heroes Concert. The number of tickets sold was discussed and the goal for total tickets was discussed. The work needed to be done by the concert committee was clearly explain. Basically: promote, promote, promote. I volunteered to work several hours tomorrow handing out fliers to people on the drill field. It should be interesting to see if I can decipher the core from the inclined from the disinclined. It will be interesting to get a first hand experience dealing with strangers and seeing how they react to having information put in their hands in a fraction of a second and how variations in the interaction could potentially change the response of the receiver of the flier.

Virginia Tech's annual "Laugh Riot" this year featuring Nick Swardson has received quite the setback. Unfortunately, Nick Swardson is sick and will not be able to perform tonight as planned. However, the ticket sales staff has no way of informing every ticket holder. Committee members were encouraged to tell anyone they knew who had a ticket and fingers are crossed that word of mouth would travel far enough. An announcement was planning to be made via facebook, and I actually made an announcement on the campus radio station today during my show.

While I'm sure many have been informed, there is no doubt there will be some disappointment from uninformed patrons.

This shows a lack of planning on the part of the ticket sales committee, and is certainly unfortunate. The show is being rescheduled, I believe for November the 13th.

In the current era of technology, it would make sense to have every ticket buyer's email address. However, I do not believe tickets were available online for purchase, so naturally to create a fast and easy transaction, nothing more than an exchange of money was required to receive a ticket. So unfortunately, any bad PR tonight was unavoidable with the current system. It will be interesting to see if VTU and the box office in Squires will take action to prevent future mishaps.

Meeting Two

Last Monday, the Concerts committee did not hold a meeting because VTU was helping set up Lane Stadium for the concert.

Today's meeting was very interesting. The first topic of discussion was naturally the Concert for Virginia Tech. The group reached a consensus that the concert was a wonderful event as part of the healing process for Virginia Tech.

On top of that, David, the director of concerts (will be referred to as David from now on) brought up that this was a golden opportunity to present upcoming concerts to the student body. Many had a wonderful time, and it's fair to say this served as a point of entry into the arts at Virginia Tech for a large number of students.

The next show being hosted by VTU is The Roots. As an incentive, nine people on the staff who volunteer to work the concert will receive free tickets to the show. Along with that, whoever works the most hours before the show will get a free ticket.

Next, David introduced marketing tools for upcoming events. The group has set a goal of wanting to draw at least 2,000 people to The Roots' show. Committee members were encouraged to take the fact that a decent amount of the university is still excited about the concert that just happened and told to distribute fliers, alert friends that tickets were on sale, and use facebook to network these and other messages about upcoming shows.

While I do not know how effective these tactics will be, time will tell depending on the results the day of the show.

VTU's next event is:

THIS THURSDAY September 8th

Percussionist Jim Donovan of Rusted Root hosts "Rhythmic Motivation: Drumming Workshop for Everyone".

At 3 pm, 4 pm, and 5 pm, Donovan will host a drum workshop. No experience is needed at this event.

and at 7:30 pm, there will be a live performance & speech.

This event will take place in the Old Dominion Ball Room, 1st floor Squires Student Center. Admission is FREE to all segments of this event.