Have you ever faced a dilemma that you could never seem to solve... only to have someone else come along with a solution, and you think to yourself, "now why didn't I think of that?"
Over the last decade, working alongside arts and cultural organizations as the internet grew in popularity, I've always wanted to develop or find the perfect online events calendar that worked for everyone. The arts community as a whole needed it. But it couldn't be just any list of events, we needed something that worked for us.
It needed to be:
- Totally inclusive of ALL cultural events - a 'one stop shop' online for people to find out what's happening.
- Easy to use. For event producers as well as the event-goers.
- A great way to get our message and our events known by the community and beyond.
- Able to attract audiences outside of our own area.
- All this in a nicely-designed format that is appealing to the eye and generates excitement about those events.
Sound possible? It's actually more difficult than it sounds, and hard to do on a shoestring budget. It's a dilemna I have been seeking an answer to for a solid ten years.
And then, last Summer, I was approached by Matt Lehrman at
ShowUp.com.
ShowUp.com is run by a non-profit organization, Alliance for Audience, whose mission is "audience development" for arts and culture (this is when I said to myself, "now why didn't I think of that?").
They developed
ShowUp.com to be the complete arts and cultural guide to the great Phoenix Metro area, and they succeeded - beyond anyone's dreams. Now
ShowUp.com has expanded to include Tucson, and just this month, we launched the Flagstaff site at an event at the Coconino Center for the Arts.
BIG thanks goes to the City of Flagstaff, staff and council, and specifically the leadership of Rick Swanson, Karl Eberhard, Stacey Button and Kevin Burke. Their support made this effort in Flagstaff possible. Funds to bring
ShowUp.com came directly from the City's
BBB Revenue Fund, which is so essential to all the quality offerings we have in Flagstaff.
Cheers,
John Tannous "JT"
Executive Director
ps. Check out the site! -->
