The Left Right Blog

Creative City Conversation

Allyson McGrane — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:10:03 -0500

Today I went to the Vancouver Playhouse to attend the Creative City Conversation. It's the second year for this event... and the second year running that I have only gone to part of the event! This year, I went to various conversations including Cultural Tourism Strategy, Cultural Grants and Support Programs Review, Facilities Priorities Review and Public Art Program Plan and Review.

I had several interesting conversations... but the most interesting was a discussion about making the City of Vancouver bylaws more friendly to artist facilities. Apparently, there are antiquated bylaws which prevent using existing spaces for cultural uses. I intend to do more research into this topic...

First Thursdays is back!

Allyson McGrane — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:57:38 -0500

Joyce Rosario from Made in BC is helping me get First Thursdays up again. It's meant for those of you who have a hand in running an arts organization. Basically, if
you spend your days writing grants, staring at spreadsheets,
contemplating how to grow your audience.... well, it's time to get out
of the office!

We want to have a casual get-together every first Thursday of the
month for the people who are involved in making art happen (behind the
scenes). Yesterday, we met at The Alibi Room. Next month, who knows - but we hope to see you there!

Okay, if you're really interested in coming out, we did start a Facebook group called First Thursdays - so just ask Joyce if you can join the group!

Left Right Minds at SXSW 2008

Shane Birley — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:24:55 -0500

Hello!

For the last five days, I have been in Austin, Texas attending South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi 2008).  Today, I am on my way back to Vancouver and will be writing a lot about my experiences here over the next few days and share with everyone the things I know will help us to help you get closer to the bleeding edge of web technology.

Some brief highlights:

Chatting up Blogging For Dummies, 2nd Edition and meeting up with a lot of new bloggers who are looking to improve their blogs.
Having a blast hanging out with some of the people from Creative Commons and talking about where they are heading with new licenses.
Hanging out with a couple of people from a few of the live streaming web video sites that I am going to chatter about in the next day or so.  Some very interesting and very cool things going on.

Stay tuned!

Whoa, Is This Really The Left Right Minds Website?

Shane Birley — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:48:49 -0600

It's alive! Today, Left Right Minds launched its very own web site - and within minutes (I'm not kidding!) we started receiving e-mails filled with congratulations and a few "it is about time" messages. We are happy to have, finally, got this launch off our plate as it has taken quite a long time to get our ducks in a row. If you run your own company, you know how hard it can be when, after a full day of client work, the last thing you want to do is hop back into your chair, boot up that machine (again) and start looking at your company and explain to the world what it is that you do. Not to mention, throw into the mix a company like ours that works in a variety of disciplines (and works damn hard, darn tootin'!) and you will come to realize it can be exhausting.

We started Left Right Minds in January of 2006 and from the very beginning our mix of expertise and good natured attitudes launched us down a path that we were surprised and unprepared to navigate. Work started pouring in, the word of mouth started to spread, and, the next thing we knew, it was 2007. But how can you blame those people out there that love us and want to work with us. I remember having a company meeting back in early 2007 that we really needed to get our company web site done and out the door. I laugh at that meeting now because, since then, we've asked for help and found that other companies we hired to help us out never really understood what it is we did. It was probably our fault but our vision was clear albeit crazy and grand. From my perspective, it is quite simple: we build web sites and we help artists manage their companies. Looking from the outside, it may seem like a queer little mixture. But, in reality, it isn't. The overlap in promotional discussions ultimately lead to a talk about the web and I happen to know a whole lot about how artists can use the Internet to harness a little attention for themselves. After talking at length with a few other business partners, we decided it was really us who should put this thing together and rock it out as best we could.

As time has lurched on and 2008 became a reality, we planned to take a few hours every week or two and work on getting the text complete. So, here it is. Over two years in the making. Nothing fancy - just information about us, plain and simple.

Of course, we have had a lot of help along the way and I have to send out some thankyous to some special people who helped us get our own heads straight. In no particular order:

To Ken Driediger who helped us write the content, to get rid of a few things that are not important for a web site, and, generally, who kicked our butts for months at a time - thanks, man, you really need to kick it more often.
To Pete Quily who suffered through us not being as reactive as he would have liked but his comments, feedback and many sets of rolled eyes helped us more than he knows.
To the Drupal community that I love dearly and to those of you out there that answered my questions and helped me clear my thoughts as to why I should keep this site as simple, clean, and completely filled with great information.
Aaron Mok who drank beer with us, looked at us funny, and got us the best darn person to take care of the books. Thanks, Sue!

Anyway, enough of my sputtering at this late hour. Send us some feed back and let us know what you think and I need to head home and have a few hours of non-connected time.

Canada Council - last minute consult

Allyson McGrane — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600

The Canada Council Theatre grant for emerging artists are due on March 1. I spent a few hours helping out Cameron MacKenzie, a recent Studio 58 grad, with his first application. He was referred to me by my friend Jennifer Smith, who is the General Manager for Pound of Flesh Theatre. Cameron is planning a fall project with an ad hoc group of artists. He had done an excellent job of the initial draft and already gotten feedback from a number of his peers. We went through the application step-by-step, making sure that all the attachments were included. We reviewed the project description and spent time developing solid project objectives. Then we revised the budget to truly reflect the scope of the project. Best of luck with your application, Cameron!

A blogger talks about art

Allyson McGrane — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:21:59 -0600

This guy named Dave Olson is talking about his art and his blog. He's encouraging the audience to be artists, share your stuff and consider allow collaboration on projects. He wants to have cross-pollination where people work together and distribute their work for free. I wonder what the Canadian Actors Equity would think of these ideas? When will live performance join the Internet revolution?

Northern Voice 2008 - advertising on your blog?

Allyson McGrane — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:10:57 -0600

We're at a session that James Sherrett from Adhack is facilitating. He's looking to the expertise of everyone attending the session and asking who has advertising on their blogs and who doesn't. The question is becoming -- is it a benefit to the readers or a detriment? Yes, the money is great but no one wants to alienate their readers. Someone just said that he uses ads on pages to punish readers who click through from Google searches about Guitar Hero. The person next to me then said that why don't you ask your readers?!?! And a new suggestion is -- here's a tip jar, if you like our content, pay up!

Here are the reasons on the YES side:

non-commercial
contributor
not for readers / only archives
to pay for hosting
salary
money
business
affiliate sales
recommendations
free stuff / beer
right fit
reader tax
karma

Here are the reasons on the NO side:

fear of rejection
clutter
company site
confuse motives
temptation
ugly / aesthetically displeasing
personal
feeling pressure
kids
competitors ads
podcast reviews
neutrality

And then, we're now discussing if the whole blog is actually advertising for you! What do you think???