Conference Complete

A great, informative and rewarding session at the Hyatt Crown Center, Raglan Road Irish Pub and the Boulevard Brewery this past weekend at the Conference of Irish and Celtic Festival Organizers. I had intended to post stuff from down there at the conference but I was afraid I'd spill beer on my laptop.

The conference began Friday with lunch and that afternoon and all day Saturday were filled with meetings, panel discussions, round table banter and guest speakers. Topics ranging from entertainment issues, sponsorship challenges, recycling, risk management, viral marketing (which, I found out, is what we do here. Who knew?), and a whole bunch of other stuff pertinent to our industry. Of course as helpful as the business sessions are, those of us who've attended these events in the past know that the real work gets done off the clock with networking and deal making over pints. The Friday night music showcase at Raglan was great and it was nice to see a lot of you there. Saturday night, the closed session was held at Boulevard Brewery where John Spillane, McPeake, Rawlins Cross and The Elders all put on spectacular shows. With agents for all on hand, I'm sure they all filled their schedules for the next couple summers.

More than two dozen festivals sent representatives and attendees traveled from as far away as Ireland and Cape Breton and we were thrilled to host them. I hope they had half as much fun as we did. It was great to see so many old friends and make so many new ones. This is an amazingly talented, dedicated and hardworking group of people and I don't just say that because they bought me beers all weekend. As summer approaches, I'll be posting a complete list of their festivals and encourage you to attend as many as possible.

Thanks again to all who made the trip. And a tip of the KCIF cap to our own Laren Mahoney who did the lioness' share of the organizing work putting this huge event on, and to Kathy Magwire, Keli Wenzel, Dave Shaughnessy and all the Irish Fest staff who iced the beer, booked the bands, made the airport runs, assembled the gift bags and did all the other thousand and one jobs needed to put this show on. Thank you to Sean and David and all the crew at S.E.C.T. Lighting and Sound for their technical support at our music showcase. Thank you to our good friends at Boulevard, Raglan Road and the Hyatt for being such gracious hosts. HUGE thanks to all the musicians who came, on their own dime, from the four corners of the Earth and Kansas City and played for us, especially the members of McPeake who spent a fun-filled night in New Jersey watching flight after flight get cancelled while they tried to get here from Belfast. You're all amazing.

Our next conference gathering is scheduled for Ireland in 2010. That should suck.