It appears that Michael Kaiser's appearance in Richmond yesterday went unnoticed by most of the region's residents, and that's unfortunate for the hundreds of cultural organizations in Central Virginia.
Kaiser, the president of the Kennedy Center and author of The Art of the Turnaround, was in Richmond as part of a 50 state tour focused on "Arts in Crisis." I live blogged the event as it happened, and am providing a more detailed summary here.
His message was simple enough. It came in three parts:
- Arts and cultural organizations are struggling.
- This is only partly due to the recession.
- Deal with it.
Actually, Kaiser wasn't quite that matter-of-fact, but he was close. And his message was well-received by the crowd of several hundred artists, staff and board members representing dozens of the area's arts and cultural organizations.
I'll tackle the gist of Kaiser's very important message -- vital for every organization, whether they are cultural or business, nonprofit or corporate. And then stay tuned for a bit of tooth-gnashing, focused at the event management side of things.
Kaiser started the morning with a startling message -- cultural organizations weren't struggling because of the economy, but because they have essentially priced themselves out of the market. The recession has exacerbated the struggle, he continued, and too many organizations are taking a very predictable path -- cutting programming and marketing.
While cost management matters, especially now, Kaiser suggests that competing harder and smarter is going to keep the best organizations from being culled from the cultural herd.
During the first 17 states he's visited on his 50 state tour, Kaiser says the trend toward cutting back has been obvious -- smaller plays, smaller exhibits. And much less planning.
"You have to plan your art well in advance. I plan my art five years in advance," Kaiser said. Before joining the Kennedy Center, Kaiser was executive director of the Royal Opera House in the United Kingdom, and previously the American Ballet Theatre and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation. His first cultural turnaround was as general manager of the struggling Kansas City Ballet.
Kaiser told the crowd that better art is the outcome of better planning, and advance planning helps with fund raising. "I'm raising funds now for 2015," he said. "You aren't."
Planning also allows for collaboration -- effective collaboration requires time to reach agreements, work through contracts, learn to work together -- and big projects. Kaiser believes in the power of big initiatives: "When we do something big and special... the community notices," he said.
Kaiser spent most of his time -- at the request of moderator Bill Martin of Valentine Richmond History Center -- walking the audience through his "10 Rules of the Turnaround," which he said applied to any organization.
You can read the 10 rules and much of Kaiser's commentary on them in the live blog, but I'll tackle a few highlights here.
"You can't save your way to health" and "Extend your planning calendar" went hand-in-hand as two of the more compelling messages.
He said he doesn't mean not to save -- "I squeeze a nickel until the buffalo poops," he said, laughing. "But waiting every year for someone to die" and leave you their cash is bad planning. Most organizations that are struggling, he continued, don't know how to raise revenue.
One way to raise revenue, he suggested, is to extend your planning calendar -- "How can you plan your fund raising if you don't know what the art you're raising money for will be?
Hence his fund raising for 2015 reality.
One suggestion that raised some eyebrows -- in the room and afterward -- was that organizations should "focus on a donor level that makes sense to your organization." He continued this thought during a Q&A session later in the morning when he told a playwright to focus her small organization's energy on foundations and individuals -- "the people who come to see your work." He added that he felt too many small organizations relied too much on institutional giving.
That matches my experience consulting with small businesses and nonprofits. The conversation I have with clients isn't to ignore institutional giving -- a big check from Target or Altria can transform an organization -- but to understand the power of the individual donor, and structure your board and organization to connect at that individual level.
It usually starts by revisiting your vision, mission and strategy -- the very things Kaiser mentioned in his second turnaround rule ("The leader must have a plan."). It's often followed by revisiting your board (Rule #9).
It is some of the hardest work a fledgling organization will ever do, and it's exactly the work that separates those who thrive and those who fall. Self-serving as it sounds, hiring a strategic planning consultant is probably the smartest dollar a small organization can spend.
Kaiser had plenty to say about boards, and about Richmond's failure to market itself nationally. (I'd argue the real failure is marketing itself locally, but they're both important.) Read the entire summary at the live blog post.
Unfortunately -- after live blogging the event -- I heard from many organizations that they hadn't heard word one about Kaiser's visit. I only learned of it because I hadn't gotten around to removing myself from the Virginia Commission for the Arts email list.
I discovered today (after scanning the TD for a story on Kaiser's appearance in town) that local media wasn't even informed until Monday that Kaiser was speaking. Given the media coverage he's gotten in other cities for one of the more important public talks I've heard in some time, that's inexcusable (if accurate). As I mentioned earlier, Kaiser's key messages are essential for our community.
A final gripe: The event wasn't even wired. I'd arrived early planning to live blog and tweet the highlights, only to discover that my iPhone got zero coverage in the sub-level meeting rooms at the Marriott -- and that getting access to the hotel's wireless (outside of the lobby) rang in at a chummy $200 per day. Let me repeat that: $200 friggin' dollars a day. Not an hourly rate -- a daily rate. Since it wasn't part of CenterStage's contract for the event (they were the organizer), the Marriott management suggested I put it on my personal credit card.
Or I could quietly hack into their network and pirate some bandwidth. Thanks for making that part of the day easy, Marriott IT staff.
