Strabane’s Alley Theatre was at the centre of the digital world on Friday, September 17th, as it hosted the groundbreaking “Like – Building Digital Networks” conference. Over 260 people involved in the arts industries and New Media courses ...from across the North West took part in interactive social media workshops, whilst listening to expert social media commentators including Derry’s Digital champion Mark Nagurski and Mark O’Flaherty, Platform Director from BT.
“This unique social networking conference, supported by BT and the Strabane Chronicle, with funding from Arts & Business has made a major impact in revealing the social media opportunities that are available to people online” commented John Kerr Alley Theatre Manager. “This intensive day, which not only involved keynote speakers on social media, but it also provided a series of educational interactive workshops from Derry’s Nerve Centre social media tutors. Today will leave an amazing legacy within the North West and we would like to thank all our funders and sponsors for making this wonderful event possible.”
Peter Morris Consumer Director, BT, said “Supporting young people in developing their online and entrepreneurial skills is something that we are passionate about at BT – nothing demonstrates this more clearly than our long history of involvement with the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. Events like today can show people how to use social media tools to best effect. Through continual investment in our own innovations such as BT Infinity we continue to drive online capability providing users with an even greater online experience. Congratulations to all the team at the Alley for putting on such a successful innovative event today”
"Some people assume that everyone under the age of 30 knows all they need to know about social media but in reality, getting yourself known online, in the arts or business, is a skill that needs developed. With this in mind, it was great to see so many local people taking an active interest in doing just that and I hope there'll be more events like this in the future." Mark Nagurski, Digital Champion for Derry
Beverly Coomber from Arts and Business NI commented ““Arts & Business Northern Ireland is delighted to support The Alley Arts & Conference Centre to develop its creative partnerships with its local and national business sponsors through the Reach Investment Programme. We would congratulate BT and NWIPP for working with the Alley on this fun and educational interactive seminar”.
For more information on the “Like – Building Digital Networks” Conference, including images, information handouts and video’s, visit www.facebook.com/thealleytheatre
Showing posts with label BT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BT. Show all posts
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Friday, 9 October 2009
Strabane businesses praised at Arts & Business Creative Advantage Breakfast
The Alley Theatre recently took part in a Arts & Business Creative Advantage Breakfast in Derry. The A&B ethos champions the power of innovative partnerships, in which businesses can create a ‘competitive advantage’ through creative innovation, inspired by engagement with arts and cultural organisations. The Alley has benifited wonderfully from developing strong Arts & Business partnerships and we were delighted not only to be taking part, but also to have several special mentions from the guest speakers.
With economists predicting a return to growth for the UK economy mid 2010, local businesses were keen to learn how engaging with the Arts could enhance their competitive edge and lead to future success and sustained economic regeneration.
Social and economic regeneration in Derry and the North West were addressed by Aideen McGinley, Chief Executive, Ilex – the Urban Regeneration Company. Speaking about the future plans for the area and her experiences of working with arts organisations to encourage community buy-in to social regeneration projects, Aideen said: “The importance of culture to Regeneration is fundamental to achieving social physical and economic success, which I understand at first hand and recognise its continuing importance in these challenging times.”
To succeed in the global or local marketplace, businesses need to consider their brand image and review corporate strategy to ensure marketing and communications strategies deliver key objectives.
David Beck, Head of Marketing Communications BT Ireland and sponsor of the Alley's BT Sounds Like Summer music festival focused on the changing face of brand sponsorship, and how BT’s new emphasis on Innovation and grassroots engagement - demonstrated through new partnerships like QFT & most recently the Alley Arts Centre in Strabane - is challenging perceptions about BT the brand; “Sponsorship is becoming a crucial part of the marketing mix as brand’s turn to new categories, Arts sponsorships in particular, add much needed credibility to their brand propositions.”
It was left to Joe Barber, Manager, Linton Robinson, Strabane and another Alley sponsor to showcase the value to local businesses, citing their own successful partnership with The Alley Arts Centre, which has seen increased footfall and increased sales throughout the store, as well as strengthening their customer base and enhancing their reputation, saying "We have remained in business for over 56 years thanks to our reputation for offering quality and value. The In-Store Gallery, curated by The Alley, has been enormously popular and extremely successful. As a local business, we have been able to give our customers a new consumer experience - something that the multiples would find difficult to recreate.”
Facilitating questions from the floor and bringing the event to a close, Mary Trainor, Director Arts & Business NI, said “It’s good to see that businesses have been increasingly using arts partnerships as a brand platform to express or even define who they were as a business. We want to inspire them to engage further to help them deliver successful marketing and corporate social responsibility campaigns that use culture in distinct and powerful ways!”
The Alley staff were delighted with the special recomendatons from the guest speakers and certainly reinforeced the Alleys position as the leading arts organisation in the North West!
With economists predicting a return to growth for the UK economy mid 2010, local businesses were keen to learn how engaging with the Arts could enhance their competitive edge and lead to future success and sustained economic regeneration.Social and economic regeneration in Derry and the North West were addressed by Aideen McGinley, Chief Executive, Ilex – the Urban Regeneration Company. Speaking about the future plans for the area and her experiences of working with arts organisations to encourage community buy-in to social regeneration projects, Aideen said: “The importance of culture to Regeneration is fundamental to achieving social physical and economic success, which I understand at first hand and recognise its continuing importance in these challenging times.”
To succeed in the global or local marketplace, businesses need to consider their brand image and review corporate strategy to ensure marketing and communications strategies deliver key objectives.
David Beck, Head of Marketing Communications BT Ireland and sponsor of the Alley's BT Sounds Like Summer music festival focused on the changing face of brand sponsorship, and how BT’s new emphasis on Innovation and grassroots engagement - demonstrated through new partnerships like QFT & most recently the Alley Arts Centre in Strabane - is challenging perceptions about BT the brand; “Sponsorship is becoming a crucial part of the marketing mix as brand’s turn to new categories, Arts sponsorships in particular, add much needed credibility to their brand propositions.”
It was left to Joe Barber, Manager, Linton Robinson, Strabane and another Alley sponsor to showcase the value to local businesses, citing their own successful partnership with The Alley Arts Centre, which has seen increased footfall and increased sales throughout the store, as well as strengthening their customer base and enhancing their reputation, saying "We have remained in business for over 56 years thanks to our reputation for offering quality and value. The In-Store Gallery, curated by The Alley, has been enormously popular and extremely successful. As a local business, we have been able to give our customers a new consumer experience - something that the multiples would find difficult to recreate.”
Facilitating questions from the floor and bringing the event to a close, Mary Trainor, Director Arts & Business NI, said “It’s good to see that businesses have been increasingly using arts partnerships as a brand platform to express or even define who they were as a business. We want to inspire them to engage further to help them deliver successful marketing and corporate social responsibility campaigns that use culture in distinct and powerful ways!”
The Alley staff were delighted with the special recomendatons from the guest speakers and certainly reinforeced the Alleys position as the leading arts organisation in the North West!
Sunday, 30 August 2009
King Coma takes BT Sounds Like Summer 2009 title!
After tough competition on the night, Strabane's King Coma (left) took the title of BT Sounds Like Summer Champions 2009 on August 21st, in what the judges saw as a mind blowing performance which had the crowd calling for more. The five piece band from Strabane beat rivals Fiona McCaughey, Ross and the Wronguns and Derry's The Wonder Villains to walk away with the converted music industry prize.
The band now get the chance to record their own music video, record a CD, get a professional photo shoot and receive BT Broadband for 1 year.
The final was a spectacular event with strong performances from Fiona McCaughey, The Wonder Villains (next big thing out of Northern Ireland, pictured below, click here to hear the addictive Oh Peter), Ross and the Wrongens and King Coma. With excellent sponsorship and support from the NWIPP and BT, the Alley presented a strong, fun and cutting edge musical festival, which accommodated fans from thrash metal, acoustic, indie and electro pop under one roof.
The is Year 2 of Sounds Like Summer, so what is expected in Year 3? At the present time the staff are debriefing about the festival to management, what went well, what could be tweaked, what shouldn't happen again. On a quick note, and you would expect me to say this, the marketing for the event was spot on. We went down several different avenues from traditional print to more cutting edge approaches like our podcasts, facebook and twitter pages. The 5 nights of music offered a great stage for unsigned bands in the island of Ireland, with a number looking to be heading for great things in the next few years. Exhausted but delighted with the festival, I cannot wait to get started on the next one.
After the event, John Kerr, Alley Theatre Manager stated "The BT Sounds Like
Summer Festival has been a great success, attracting bands and fans from 
across the island of Ireland and further afield, including finalists Ross and the Wrongens from Kent (pictured right). We would like to thank our sponsors, NWIPP and BT for making this festival the great success it was and thank the bands for performing some wonderful gigs. We can't wait to see what next year has to bring!"
"We are delighted to have come on board this year as the BT Sounds Like Summer Festivals main sponsor" stated Tony Sheehan, BT Shop
manager, the Richmond Centre. "From the quality of the entries, it's clear to see that there is an enormous pool of talent in Northern Ireland and we're delighted, that through this competition, the creativity and commitment of our local musicians can be recognised and encouraged. The success of BT Sounds Like Summer has far exceeded our expectations and we're excited about the future of this inspiring event."
Personally I feel for all three organisations, BT, NWIPP and the Alley, all benefited tremendously from the success of BT Sounds Like Summer and I personally look forward to next year! For a full festival report click here.
Monday, 20 July 2009
BT Sounds Like Summer is set to get Turbulent!
The BT Sounds Like Summer Music Festival is about to hit the Alley Theatre in what should be a far superior competition than last years event. Starting on August 7th, this years final has an abundance of quality entrants, with bands from all over Northern and Southern Ireland applying to be in the final 16 bands. This magical music event is free to attend for people wanting to hear the very best in unsigned talent, thanks to the collaboration with our sponsors BT and NWIPP (thank you!!).
This year we have bands form Derry, Strabane, Fermanagh, Belfast, Donegal, Limavady to name but a few, with all music tastes covered. As I have been marketing the event we have used
various tools, from the traditional avenues like our events guide, flyer's and posters, to radio, ticket comps and social network sites like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Twitter etc.
One piece of advice I would give any band looking to do well in any festival or within the music industry, make sure you have a good website, nothing too fancy, but something that covers all the bases. From band bio, video clips, free track downloads, press pictures, contact details, gig guide and links, these are the essential items for a band to have available at a moments notice, ready for when the press or music label come calling.
One band which is taking part in the BT Sounds Like Summer Music Festival and ticks all the boxes in being prepared are Turbulent Eddy, whose new website I believe covers all the areas I would be looking for. Check it out by clicking here
Who will win the BT Sounds Like Summer festival and walk off with the top prize of a music video and a CD produced by the Nerve Centre, free broadband for a year and extensive media coverage? Well at the moment I would say all 16 bands are in for a real shout, its that close! For more information on the BT Sounds Like Summer click here.
This year we have bands form Derry, Strabane, Fermanagh, Belfast, Donegal, Limavady to name but a few, with all music tastes covered. As I have been marketing the event we have used
various tools, from the traditional avenues like our events guide, flyer's and posters, to radio, ticket comps and social network sites like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Twitter etc.One piece of advice I would give any band looking to do well in any festival or within the music industry, make sure you have a good website, nothing too fancy, but something that covers all the bases. From band bio, video clips, free track downloads, press pictures, contact details, gig guide and links, these are the essential items for a band to have available at a moments notice, ready for when the press or music label come calling.
One band which is taking part in the BT Sounds Like Summer Music Festival and ticks all the boxes in being prepared are Turbulent Eddy, whose new website I believe covers all the areas I would be looking for. Check it out by clicking here
Who will win the BT Sounds Like Summer festival and walk off with the top prize of a music video and a CD produced by the Nerve Centre, free broadband for a year and extensive media coverage? Well at the moment I would say all 16 bands are in for a real shout, its that close! For more information on the BT Sounds Like Summer click here.
Friday, 22 May 2009
BT invests in the North West Music Scene
This summer musicians not only from the North West, but across the island of Ireland will benefit from a major arts partnership between telecoms giant BT and the North West’s leading music and arts venue, The Alley Theatre in Strabane.
For decades BT were seen as little more than the company that supplied your phone line. Since the birth of the internet however, BT has become something of a pioneer in bringing services such as Broadband, wireless, mobile phone internet and business networking to a global market. Today they are a vibrant, appealing brand, right down to slashing their moniker from the old British Telecom, to the cooler and more casual BT. Now this revolutionary company is investing in Strabane and the Alley Theatre’s Sounds Like Summer Music Festival, which is taking place throughout August and is aimed at profiling the very best in unsigned bands.
So how did they shake the image of being the company that supplies the curly cord phone to that of a world-leader in telecommunications in a relatively short space of time?
The answer is simple. Good marketing. BT is the world’s oldest communications company and a direct descendant of the first ever telecommunications service, The Electric Telegraph Company back in 1846. Few could have realised then that 150 years on, they would be responsible for making the emergency 999 number a household device or that they would send the world’s first email in 1981.
For much of its life BT has been regarded as simply a multi-national phone company. But David Beck, Head of BT’s Marketing Communications in Ireland has been quietly working away behind the scenes chipping away at that old image. David and his team have been working at moving the BT brand out of the UK and Ireland’s capital cities and bringing it to an audience in smaller, harder to reach areas. One perfect example of this move is this year’s Sounds Like Summer music festival.
BT have come on board as the festival’s main sponsor and have put up a first prize of the opportunity to record a single in a professional studio to go with the video which will be shot by a top team of producers. Meanwhile, they have agreed to give the winner or winners a year’s free Broadband. The last part of the prize might sound like only a minor addition to what really is a fantastic prize for anyone looking to make their way in the music industry. But again, it is an example of the BT marketing team’s desire to win over the hearts and minds of a younger and fresher demographic. Convincing a name as huge as BT to come on board for what is essentially, a regional music event was a major coup for everyone involved with Sounds Like Summer. But as David explained, it is exactly the kind of vehicle BT in the 21st century are looking for.
“John Kerr, the Alley Theatre Manager, was a massive influence in us coming on board,” David explained. “He approached us some months ago and pitched the idea of Sounds Like Summer to us. So initially we bought into John because he knew what he wanted from the off. But as we learnt more about the actual event, we realised that it very well established and commanded a lot of appeal. What we tend to do is concentrate so much of our efforts in and around the Belfast area so Derry and Strabane are areas we are very keen to raise our profile in. Sounds Like Summer is very much about us supporting our investment in areas outside Belfast,” he said. Does Sounds Like Summer sound good to you? Are you a young upcoming band or musician? Then why not join the race to sign up for this year’s competition. Simply log on to www.connect2yourtunes.com/soundslikesummer for more information.
For decades BT were seen as little more than the company that supplied your phone line. Since the birth of the internet however, BT has become something of a pioneer in bringing services such as Broadband, wireless, mobile phone internet and business networking to a global market. Today they are a vibrant, appealing brand, right down to slashing their moniker from the old British Telecom, to the cooler and more casual BT. Now this revolutionary company is investing in Strabane and the Alley Theatre’s Sounds Like Summer Music Festival, which is taking place throughout August and is aimed at profiling the very best in unsigned bands.
So how did they shake the image of being the company that supplies the curly cord phone to that of a world-leader in telecommunications in a relatively short space of time?
The answer is simple. Good marketing. BT is the world’s oldest communications company and a direct descendant of the first ever telecommunications service, The Electric Telegraph Company back in 1846. Few could have realised then that 150 years on, they would be responsible for making the emergency 999 number a household device or that they would send the world’s first email in 1981.
For much of its life BT has been regarded as simply a multi-national phone company. But David Beck, Head of BT’s Marketing Communications in Ireland has been quietly working away behind the scenes chipping away at that old image. David and his team have been working at moving the BT brand out of the UK and Ireland’s capital cities and bringing it to an audience in smaller, harder to reach areas. One perfect example of this move is this year’s Sounds Like Summer music festival.BT have come on board as the festival’s main sponsor and have put up a first prize of the opportunity to record a single in a professional studio to go with the video which will be shot by a top team of producers. Meanwhile, they have agreed to give the winner or winners a year’s free Broadband. The last part of the prize might sound like only a minor addition to what really is a fantastic prize for anyone looking to make their way in the music industry. But again, it is an example of the BT marketing team’s desire to win over the hearts and minds of a younger and fresher demographic. Convincing a name as huge as BT to come on board for what is essentially, a regional music event was a major coup for everyone involved with Sounds Like Summer. But as David explained, it is exactly the kind of vehicle BT in the 21st century are looking for.
“John Kerr, the Alley Theatre Manager, was a massive influence in us coming on board,” David explained. “He approached us some months ago and pitched the idea of Sounds Like Summer to us. So initially we bought into John because he knew what he wanted from the off. But as we learnt more about the actual event, we realised that it very well established and commanded a lot of appeal. What we tend to do is concentrate so much of our efforts in and around the Belfast area so Derry and Strabane are areas we are very keen to raise our profile in. Sounds Like Summer is very much about us supporting our investment in areas outside Belfast,” he said. Does Sounds Like Summer sound good to you? Are you a young upcoming band or musician? Then why not join the race to sign up for this year’s competition. Simply log on to www.connect2yourtunes.com/soundslikesummer for more information.
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