By Gene Carr, Founder
This year, my annual review of all things tech and the arts mirrors what I wrote a year ago, with some new insights. Last year’s message was that we’re between chapters. The hardware devices most of us use to access the internet — tablets, smartphones, desktops — all work pretty well and are ubiquitous. And although we can already begin to see the contours of another generation of technology, it’s not here yet.
By Aaron Schwartzbord, Director of Marketing
Performing arts organizations are slowly coming around to allowing, dare I say encouraging, audiences to take photos inside their venues prior to events. But there are still many organizations resistant to the idea, holding on to stodgy policies and shaming patrons for trying to get a picture! I was recently at a show where I heard an usher tell an audience member that photos weren’t allowed inside the theatre, but that they could take a selfie in the lobby—the patron was just taking a picture of their program cover. My response, “What’s the fun in taking a picture in your boring lobby?!” Read the Article
By Jacob Trussell, Marketing Coordinator
Depending on who you ask, the U.S. may be looking at a recession come 2020, which obviously could have some adverse effects on your arts organization. But we’re not here to get all “doom and gloom” on you! As I’ve always been told, it’s much better to plan for the worst and hope for the best than to have no plan at all. So even if we aren’t hit with a major economic upheaval in the next year, it’s still a great idea to start putting procedures in place that’ll help ensure financial security if your institutional giving is ever negatively impacted by the ups and downs of our economy. Read the Article
Today’s blog post is written by Jonathan Kay, Marketing Intern, PatronManager.
A little while back I was watching “The Pizza Show,” one of my favorite shows on Viceland that’s all about… you guessed it, pizza. This particular episode was unique because it focused on the emergence of technology in the pizza industry. I encourage you to watch this clip—I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of it, and it will help tie together some of the points I’ll be making below.
One of the companies highlighted in the episode was Zume Pizza—a startup out of Silicon Valley that is changing the pizza game in a genius way. This is not your local family-run pizza parlor (which I still love and believe should remain a staple in every neighborhood). It is an on-demand food company that has applied modern automation and specially-designed robots to enhance their customers’ experience.
Zume’s business model operates as follows:Read the Article
Today’s blog post is written by Samantha Colbert, Senior Client Support Specialist.
One day while I was working from my home office in Texas, my personal cell phone rang. It wasn’t a number that I recognized, but the caller ID said: “United States.” I answered it.
“Hello, is Samantha Colbert there.”
“This is she.”
“Hello, Samantha my name is,” for the sake of the story let’s call them Marvin, “Marvin, and I’m contacting you today from the Microsoft Company because we have a report here that your windows computer has been hacked.”
I instantly knew something was off. Through mandatory internet security trainings here at PatronManager, stories I have read on the internet, and old jokes about Nigerian Princes, I had a feeling I was speaking to someone who wanted my personal information… a scammer. Marvin proceeded to try to prove that he was legitimate by telling me my email address. Besides that, clearly, he already had my phone number, but I just assumed this personal information was likely sold to his company from somewhere else.
After about 10 minutes of letting him lead me on, I decided that it had been long enough and said “It’s been really nice chatting with you. I’m glad I could keep you on the phone this long so that you couldn’t spend this time trying to scam someone else, but I really need to get back to work…” at which point he hung up on me.Read the Article
Today’s blog post is written by Mary Alice Dutkanicz, Senior Manager of Data Migration Services.
This past month, I was delighted to see Marie Kondo’s “Tidying Up” appear in my Netflix queue. I was familiar with Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and was excited to see her practices getting mainstream exposure.
The KonMari method breaks down the process of tidying one’s living space into categories, rather than organizing room-by-room. Within each category, the homeowner is asked to consider each item, determine whether it “sparks joy” in their life, and then either fold it neatly back into its drawer or thank it for its service and part ways with it. While it’s not so much of a stretch to apply these concepts to organizing the physical office space of your business, this practice of considering the “joy” factor in decision-making could also be applicable to your arts organization’s digital space.Read the Article
