As the season winds down for most creative businesses, attention turns to marketing/business building for the future. Whether that is attending conferences, participating in showcases or doing some other form of promotion (social media or otherwise), now is the time when it all happens. The question then is how do you decide what path you will go down? If all you are doing is for the exposure or networking value, you have to ask yourself not just what the potential return is but much more importantly what the marginal value is for your creative business.
If you are relatively new to the business and are looking for an opportunity to show all that you can do, then the return for attending a high profile conference or showcase is invaluable. You have to be in the circle if you are ever going to get to dance in it. If however, your art and creative business are more mature, then you are already in the circle and dancing in it and attending for that reason is a non-starter. You might have to maintain your status but that is an entirely different calculation and needs to be considered versus other opportunities where that status might be validated.
Here is an easy way to think about it: if you are say, Versace, then, of course, you need to attended the Milan or New York fashion shows. You will likely spend (and lose) a ton of money investing in your couture line for these shows. These shows are what keeps Versace and its brand at the forefront of fashion. How about the Topeka fashion show? Maybe there are a few buyers in Topeka and going there might increase name recognition but likely not. In the case of the Topeka fashion show, Versace’s presence legitimizes the show, not the other way around. With the poles of Milan and Topeka it is easy to see the choice Versace has to make — attend Milan, skip Topeka. Moving towards the center is when it becomes hard and requires discipline to decide whether it is a true value add or not, or if it is something that needs to be compensated for.
The only way to evaluate the middle is to look at the margin. What happens when we do the next show? Do we move ever edgier or is it just a placeholder? Just a placeholder can safely be skipped as they do nothing for the brand. Ever edgier offers a marginal return as it does reinforce the position Versace wants to maintain.
Of course, the next question if you have reached the level where your art and creative business have come to mean something is when do you have to choose yourself? At a certain point, attending all of the conferences, showcases, etc. will have to be weighed against choosing yourself. I am taking Seth Godin’s idea one step further. Not only will external validators become meaningless to you as you are already in the circle, your unwillingness to do the hard work of choosing yourself and celebrating your status with meaningful, related content to those that care will itself jeopardize your hard-earned status. This entails providing meaningful content to those that care. Whether that is through a “think-piece”, a podcast like series or other form of collateral that reminds all that you are who you are, I cannot say. What I can say is that you have to do that work.
You are relevant because you push the boundaries on your own for all to see. My supposition is that it is not enough to just be in the circle any more. You have to define the circle. And yes finding the audience for the circle will be ever more difficult. One conversation at a time is the path to community with the depth of your expertise leading the way as to why you matter as much as you do. A longer, more exacting process for sure. In the insta world, the challenge is to own the value of relationship. The tools to develop that relationship digitally are only going to get better. At a level, failing to use them is an indictment.
So why not skip the next conference this year and think about the hundred people that matter most to you, your art and your creative business? Go start something that means something to them. Then do not stop. First, it is something you really need to do. Second, I am confident an entirely new world will reveal itself as you go down the path you defined for yourself. A brave new world means we get to be brave enough to see what awaits.
