Speaker(s): Sean Kelly, Founder, VATIC

Managing dynamic pricing on your own takes time, a lot of it. Time away from other tasks that you could be doing. Automated dynamic pricing sounds ideal, where all of the ease is maintained, but crucially, you also have the final say on pricing decisions.

Join us as VATIC founder, Sean Kelly, unveils Vatic Control and walks you through its features. You’ll also get a test run through the user interface that provides critical analysis of how your sales are doing while at the same time providing you with much needed oversight.

This session has been sponsored and developed by VATIC.

Speaker(s): Catherine Heitz New, CEO, RSC Associates

In 2025’s volatile economic and national climate, orchestras can't afford to wait, hope, or pause. Relief funds are gone, expenses are rising, and, for many, earned revenue is plateauing. Meanwhile, fundraising is experiencing a familiar shift, echoing patterns from the Great Recession and the pandemic. With major gifts driving results, it is critical to adapt quickly and strategically.

You need strategies that meet today’s realities—strategies that put you, not the economy, in control of the ask. This session will give your staff and Board members clear, actionable guidance to navigate donor uncertainty, secure immediate cash flow, and stabilize your orchestra’s finances.

Drawing from RSC Associates’ proven methods, which have been tested and refined across orchestras of all sizes, we’ll show how to accelerate fundraising efforts, build a resilient Annual Fund, and grow major gift revenue without losing momentum. Whether you have a full team or a solo fundraiser juggling it all, these practices deliver real results—and fast.

This session has been sponsored and developed by RSC Associates.

Speaker(s): Justine Townsend, Arts & Culture Specialization Leader, Your Part-Time Controller, LLC and Molly Yoon, Arts & Culture Specialist, Performing Arts – Orchestras & Ensembles Lead, Your Part-Time Controller, LLC

Aligning financial planning with artistic vision is often a challenge for orchestras. Especially in this ever-changing environment, leaders must remain resilient and mission-focused. This session will explore strategies for budgeting that support artistic excellence while ensuring long-term financial sustainability.

We will illustrate and define strategies for building budgets that support your artistic priorities, examine funding trends and industry benchmarks, and discuss how these factors impact financial decision-making.

This session has been sponsored and developed by YPTC.

Speaker(s): J.L. Nave, Principal, Nave Strategies

Passion isn’t your orchestra’s problem; bandwidth is. In this 75-minute session you’ll unlock free access to a point-and-click toolkit that pinpoints the marketing channels most likely to pay off for your orchestra and automates first-timer follow-up lists—so you can simplify planning and clear the tasks that slow small teams down.

What you’ll get:

• A live walkthrough of free Marketing Plan Advisor and First-Time Retention online tools

• Learn how Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes doubled their holiday concert revenue in one year

• A data-informed marketing campaign built before you leave the room

Walk out with practical tools, a clear plan, and lifetime free access—perfect for any small marketing team juggling big goals with limited resources.

This session has been sponsored and developed by Nave Strategies.

Speaker(s): Dan Titmuss, Senior Consultant, Capacity Interactive

For the past two decades, Google has been the king of helping people find what they need. But with more people turning to AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, the rules of discovery are shifting. In this session, we’ll explore why strong SEO fundamentals—clear, honest, and useful content—are more important than ever. You'll learn how to optimize your website to improve search rankings and increase the chances of your content being pulled into AI-driven results. We’ll break down specific SEO strategies orchestras can use to stay visible, competitive, and easy to find—no matter how people are searching.

This session has been sponsored and developed by Capacity Interactive.

Speaker(s): Guiomar Blanco, Head of European Strategy, Artist Manager, Arabella Arts; Sarah Smarch, Director of Content & Storytelling, Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Curtis Stewart, Artistic Director, American Composers Orchestra; and Maarten Walraven, Co-CEO, Symphony.live

Videos tell a story—what’s yours? This panel brings together video producers, marketers and artistic administrators to explore how orchestras can leverage video storytelling to enhance their artistic narrative and community presence. While high-quality concert recordings remain valuable, there is untapped potential in creating focused, narrative-driven video content that captures the essence of an orchestra's mission, artists, and impact. Through case studies and practical discussion, panelists will demonstrate how strategic video content can strengthen an orchestra's brand and deepen audience engagement—often at a fraction of the cost of traditional concert recordings.

This session has been sponsored and developed by Symphony.live.

Moderator: John Kieser, Co-Founder JDJK Consulting

Speaker(s): Jennifer Barton, Senior Vice President & Chief Revenue Strategy Officer, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Alan Brown, Managing Principal, Wolf Brown; and Wolfgang Graf, Co-Founder & CEO, Easy Connect

Current and future audiences are evolving and may not be the dedicated subscribers of days past. Today, people cherry-pick amongst cultural and entertainment offerings as well as leisure time activities. Concurrently, over the last years, the online landscape has changed dramatically. Mobile is now the dominant platform, and people of all ages increasingly use NextGen apps to organize their lives and engage with their friends, families, and colleagues.

Orchestras must connect with these people where they digitally live to bring them into our venues, but how? This interactive session will reveal successful initiatives and best practices from performing arts organizations and orchestras across Europe and the US that have met this challenge. And it will give examples on how organizations can collaborate to engage with the next generation of arts lovers, by using nextgen apps with integrated ticketing, social and community features, direct and personalized communication options and much more. But we also want to hear from you! Come prepared to talk about your challenges and victories.

This session has been sponsored and developed by Easy Connect.

Speaker(s): Anah McRae, Senior Account Executive, Spektrix; Bethany Nothstein, Sector Strategy and Community Manager, US & Canada, Spektrix; and Brian Ritter, Executive Director, Mercury Chamber Orchestra

Are you making the most of every revenue opportunity? Audit your existing income generation activity and explore ideas for boosting the bottom line, in a participatory session designed to help you identify and access untapped returns. Considering ticket income, donations, memberships and more, you’ll walk away with an actionable audit of your current activity and a bank of ideas for ongoing growth.

This session has been sponsored and developed by Spektrix.