Networking – Can You Help Me?

What a cruisy start to my intern day 10. Researching potential artists for AIME’s upcoming fundraiser KiNDLiNG. From triple J to upcoming YouTube stars from Perth, this task is really shifting the Monday blues into a Monday session of cruisy beats and soulful artists. What makes this moment even better is that it is raining outside, and not a light drizzle but a thunder of water battling against the window pain. This is my kind of day in the office. However, I know it won’t always be like this. It will rarely be like this. 

I guess the flip side to my chilled out morning is the task that lays ahead. When I will have to put in the hard yards to book in a musician or band. It is one thing to listen to their music, appreciate their talent and want them to perform. But to actually book them in as a confirmation can be a tricky endeavour. One that I would say should have been done months ago. 

I am now experiencing the all too familiar “sorry we are already booked” reply. It feels as if I am unrealistically hoping that a semi-famous band will be available in two months’ time, knowing all too well that schedules are written and stamped months in advance. However, I will not keep a couple of ‘rejection’ letters keeping me from achieving AIME’s set list. Hopefully a really exciting act will come my way. 

So two things I have learnt from this experience.

1. Always plan ahead. You might not be ready in terms of planning an event, but it is certain that people outside the organisation are planning their lives, especially musicians who will have gigs, concerts and tours lined up with no space in between.
2. Secondly, I am more than ever realising the power of networking. How one face can lead to another, and potentially a performing act, an inspirational speaker or even a caterer. Networking is everything!

So I am putting this one out there to anyone who is reading this. PR students, colleagues and tutors, if any of you have connections with a local band (Perth) or a semi-famous musician group can you please let me know in the comments.

Sending all my thanks in advance!

From networking with friends I have already confirmed a WAAPA 3^rd year dance student to do a contemporary piece, so perhaps networking will once again work in my favour. 
 

I love music so this internship just keeps getting better and better. Maybe next year’s KiNDLiNG event will have a headliner! Perhaps in 5 years’ time this event will become an Indigenous music festival, inspiring social connectivity within the non-Indigenous and Indigenous community.