There are a four workshop slots at NERFA, each involving a choice among many interesting-sounding workshop topics. I went to ones on (I’m paraphrasing their actual titles, from what I have in my notes) 1) Booking and Touring, 2) Maximizing Radio Airplay, 3) “I Want You to Want Me (how artists should approach venues), and 4) Performers and Presenters Partnering to bring in Audiences. Here’s what I learned. The Booking and Touring workshop was featured a number of booking agents on the panel; although they ascertained that almost all the panel attendees were musicians booking themselves, they primarily focused on how to be a good agent (or how to choose an agent). Still, there was some useful info that came out of it for those of us booking ourselves, including the usefulness of contracts (or letters of agreement), and “advancing the gig” shortly beforehand, which includes touching base about the details shortly before the show. (That was also one piece of advice I got from one of the mentors I worked with as well; save a question or two like “where should I park when I get there?” so that you have an easy excuse to contact the venue a little ahead of when you’ll be playing there, to insure that everything is on track for the show. Also something that got discussed in at least two of the workshops I was in and one of the mentor sessions was the importance of asking the venue for a media contact list and really working it, to a) try to get coverage of and publicity for the show, and b) show the venue that you’re actively working to turn out an audience. You can also point to your experience in doing that, and willingness to do that, as a way to persuade the venue that you’re worth taking a chance on booking. The workshop on Maximizing Radio Airplay didn’t include dramatic new insights (I’ve been to enough of these that I’ve learned a lot of this information), but it did suggest that I’ve been doing some things right, including a) using a respected radio promo person, b) having a known producer, c) doing some important design things like including track times and track numbers, and d) having packaging that represents my sound. It did reinforce the usefulness of putting the track listing on the CD itself (something I did with my first CD but not the second), including a tray card with brief song descriptions (which did go out with my CD this time around) and not sending too much info or bugging the DJ unnecessarily or in an uninformed way. It can also e useful to get info out about holiday/seasonal songs/themes that might be useful for folk DJs who program with those things in mind. Third workshop on artists approaching venues emphasized the importance of doing background research on the venue, who it books, and what it wants from you; and providing info about why the venue should be interested in booking you – and don’t exaggerate. But keep it brief and clear rather than sending too much information. This workshop along with the final one both emphasized the importance of having good quality video available and directing venues (and potential audience members) to it. That’s something I really need to work on. The final workshop focused on what both venues and performers can do to turn out bigger audiences; this was the one workshop that most successfully addressed the needs of the different constituencies in the room. Apart from the other things I’ve already mentioned, it did give me some helpful information about how it would be useful to organize my own website to be helpful to venues trying to publicize a show for me (including things I know but haven’t really done as well as I could, about having bios of different lengths, high-res downloadable photos of different dimensions). There were celebrations of QR codes and discussions of the need to tailor your presentation to your audience, and the advantages of trying to mobilize any niches you might have to bring in people who might not otherwise show up at a folk venue. I don’t think there were any completely surprising bits of information across any of the four workshops, but each had a few fairly easy to implement suggestions and others I should be aiming for, with some combination of things I know I should be doing, and some I hadn’t really thought about that I should be doing that made sense when they were mentioned. So I just need to remember to start to integrate them into my ways of doing music business.