you will also need experience of stage work, like as a stagehand. You can get relevant experience from student, amateur or community theatre, or as a casual stagehand in local theatre.
 

Hall space held for emergency refuge. 

In 1980 first concert opened and it was opened by the held was Queen

Venue live for 200 days a year 
The Venue live for 200 days a year and it is managed the Genting and Arena Birmingham. In 2008/2009 ticket pricing increased and building was beginning to looked tired, this meant that the arena was closed for 12months for regeneration to change the hall to an opening space with restaurant, box office and entrance area, which also brought in the new feature of entering with a barcode ticketing, Security arches to control safety and queue control. They also now have a unsigned stage so that local talent can perform before gigs to support and promote upcoming talent. The foyer had a maximum capacity of 6000.  To promote merchandising, queue control and increasing spend per head the offer the audience to arrive one hour early. Throughout the years they have been the Best merchandising stand in the country the customer journey is a big part of the whole experience from arriving, support acts, parking and security messaging, merchandise and refreshments. The arena also has only one entrance so that the consumer has the full view of everything they have to offer as it is all in front of them as they walk in. The end is a heavily marketed area which needs to be constantly on top of so that the customer gets the best journey through the experience. The arena gets sponsorships from external companies.. e.g Citroen and it is now owned by the Genting Arena owned by Resorts World this meant that the name had to changed and the name will be resorts world arena as it is very close by the shopping centre.  

experience. The arena gets sponsorships from external companies.. e.g Citroen and it is now owned by the Genting Arena owned by Resorts World this meant that the name had to changed and the name will be resorts world arena as it is very close by the shopping centre.

The arena its self is an actual square and it was originally originally the largest span building in the country and the Seating bowl around the sides includes 9000 seats around the top with 6000 on the floor with maximum capacity of 1500/1600- the same as Arena Birmingham. When it comes to tickets the Speed of sale is essential to ensure customers move through as quickly as possible, cashless payment is essential to aid this. When a show is booked Labourers, local crew, caterers ask for a lump cash payment before events. The arena provides the Staging shell which has 3000 amps worth of power, catering, stuarding provided by the Arena and the artist will tend to bring everything else. Depending on the artist will depend on how much it will cost them to hire the venue out, this will also effect the ticket prices. The security is controlled in a special suite which has all of the camera feed throughout the arena sent to that suite. At the arena that have a grid system that allows them to places lights across the arena. The weight of equipment that is used needs to be monitored so that there isn’t too much weight on the rig. Due to severe weather in the past the Nec has had a heating pad installed to try and reduce pressure of the snow and ice on the roof so that they are able to prevent build up and to prevent cancellations of shows. The seats are the colour that they are so it doesn’t look as obvious when their is an empty seat. A new lighting system for the building with full LED use to change colour and light up specific areas to hide empty seats and add to events eg mrs browns boys had the Irish flag colours. 

The loading area is a complete flat surface, and it has direct entry to the arena floor making it easy for companies to get in and get out. Large vehicle doors across all corners of the building to promote ease of turn around. They added additional exits to reduce the exit time from the building which enabled them to add more seating and enable more members on the arena floor. For a full arena there it takes 30mins to exit everyone from the building. This can take longer depending on the age of the audience The halls surrounding the arena  are all linked so that it will ease traffic flow and promote larger scale shows. The dressing rooms within the arena are basic dressing rooms. They have a sofa mirror fridge and a toilet. This is so that it can easily be re decorated and restored if anything gets damaged or marked. Some artist bring their own thing for there dressing room. There are also interlinked dressing rooms. Fully equipped medical rooms for emergencies whitening the arena. There has been injuries deaths and even births at the arena. The are NHS ambulance staff that work at events of their days off, but there’s is a rare case that they do need an ambulance. When it comes to an even the rise assessments are always different as they have to asses the style of act that is performing and what kind of injures could arise and what kind of medical assistant that will be needed.

 

VIP guests have their own entrance as well as their own in house hospitality company called Amplify. They provide buffets, sit down meals for corporate members 

Club restaurant with private bar for corporate members and VIP guests 

With hosts to and from the arena, Post show access for an hour after a performance to add to the customer package, Functions and parties can be held for special events and hired by external companies when the restaurant is empty. 

Artists can book from a year to a few weeks before the show. They use a Pencil system for bookings which can be cancelled last minute depending on album releases. Some dates competitive dates can be fought between acts and bought. This means that Marketing needs a quick turn around as last minute acts hire as little as a week before the show. At the NEC the all the marketing is in house, Studio team, digital team, PR team. The Marketing team made up of 5 people. Which Covers the Genting Arena, Arena Birmingham and Amplify hospitality. Marketing have to arrange new dates, texts, emails, radio, media. The Weather and illness can alter shows. 

The Time period can be really tight for media to voice statements whether shows will happen or not and have to wait for the promoter to make the overall decision. 

If the show cancels refunds can be made. A Minimum of 1-100 ratio of public and staff members, When staff can’t get in due to severe weather results in closure of the arena. The arena has changed names due to the commercial partner that sponsors the building allowing for regeneration, they are usually contracted to a 10 year deal with a 5 year break clause, Barclycard has to withdraw due to problems with their own banking issues which meant they had to reduce sponsorships. Genting is changing as after 5 years they feel that they have made their mark, as a company they are changing to Resorts World Arena as Genting own Resorts world and it is opposite the arena. As a reward they are given a lounge area, reduction of fees on specific days, advertising and signage, design takeover ie colour scheme and arena design. Some events carry their own sponsors which can result in name changes to particular arena’s depending on the size of the event help. The olympics held gymnastics within the O2 arena but as they weren’t sponsors it temporarily changed to the North Greenwich Arena. Different tours dates can be implemented by school holidays to decide on tour and hiring dates. There is a Mixed in house and contracted team: 

Catering is in house 

Ticket factory is  in house 

Security, stuarding, cleaning OCS is external
There are Around 2000 employees, 60 full time staff of both arena, can alter depending on the time of year. If there is any Maintenance and down time that needed to happen this is usually over summer 

  

Electricians- lack of touring riggers and electricians, apprenticeships partnered with Solihull to try and boost 

Marketing is in house: Arena, Amadeus, ICC, Ticket factory, NEC

Range from 3-5 members each with their own marketing teams with a central team 

Designers

Digital

Research and PR 

STUDIO team with 21 hours 

Media buying can sometimes use agencies 

No set period for bookings 

Some annual events are ran on a 5 year cycle 

Comedy tend to book early 

Music can be up to a year.. little mix are a year in advance due to tv advertisement through the Xfactor 

Annual estimated turnover- £22,000,000

Winter is the busiest period for ticket sales due to Christmas presents 

Status generates the cost for hire 

Promoters generate the ticket prices 

Music events have been hindered due to streaming and YouTube which results in rises of ticket prices. 

Marketing platforms: Internal channels, Earned channels (partners), Bought channels

Biggest profit through emails through subscriptions, Social Media, Websites, venue, press release, radio, tv, Resorts world, virgin trains, regional and local promoters depending on budget. 

Pantomime, 4 years running, co-promotion, John Conway (producer) own Cudos. Larger venue, cast, audience, smaller cost. Co-promotion means that the marketing team are responsible for the budget and all designs and promotions. 1 weeks of TV promotion £35,000. During peak season (November) will double to £70,000. Housewives packages, advertisements between soaps. 

£1000 budget will gain 1 billboard promotion for 1 day. 

Social media used to generate a mass of sales but has significantly declined due to the politics of the social media pages. Mainly used to reach out to audiences for crisis. 

Fire strategy is to clear the building within 13 minutes. Testing shows that this could be reduced to 7. 

Key Job Roles: everyone liaises with each other. Event production meeting every 3 weeks. Lead by the senior events manager with a member from each department. Venue director, general manager, head of sales and marketing... 

contracted teams are also essential to ensure a smooth order. 

NEC venue partnerships to create new relationships with new venues and existing that are coming to and end of their contract. Wide variety of roles and responsibilities that exist at a very fast pace. Work with external events eg. the Commonwealth Games. 

 

 

the mac has 86 members of staff a year that work full time, with 200 employees overall but some work as little as 2 hours a week to put their input into projects. 

Don’t market one thing specifically unless they’re really pushing that project. for example a show that they have produced, Because they have so much going on they can’t market everything at the same time as there wouldn't have enough hours in the day to be able. The audiences that they get at the Mac prefer to have a physical copy of brochures and similar as most audiences, so they would like to have a paper or a programme of what is happening through the next few weeks, especially the cinema as it is more of the older generations that visit. However, social media is still a big influence for their marketing strategies as artists and people coming to use the space can easily look on social media for certain hings like room availability and spaces that are free. For the big performances, billboards are placed around the city. Only for shows that are running for a time of 5+ weeks. 

You can hire the studios and spaces, but technicians are needed for the equation out equipment as they are technically advanced, especially in the main theatre, not so much for studio space. 

You can talk to the hire team about hiring the spaces or the in house team chooses what they want to show within the space. if you want to use the space in the mac you have to enquire about the spaces and they give you the quote on how much it will be. they would like two weeks notice so they can supply the staff for the events, just so they can plan ahead. Have to be able to fit around what’s already planned such as events. 

Catering is all in house and people who enter the MAC are not allowed to consume their own food as it is all supplied on site. 

All prices are kept the same depending on the group, it goes by the size of the room/space that you want to hire. So there is a standard set price for everybody depending on which space/equipment they need. 

Social media is run by the communications team, they all run twitter and Facebook pages. Nobody is specifically dedicated to running them, everybody has access. The communications team is also the marketing and sales team and they have a variety of jobs to partake. Small team for such a large venue and the amount of jobs that they undertake. 

They offer to sell the tickets for performances if they require it, or the company can sell themselves, but the Mac prefer to sell the tickets as they can get the background of the audience and know where they are coming from. 

The place is unique because it has so much to offer to the community and local artists. Hasn’t had as many audiences this year due to schools not coming to perform their ‘Christmas shows’, this could be due to lack of funding at schools. 

Programmed groups tend to be more adult based, but hiring the spaces can be anybody as it ranges. They have a regular Saturday group that provides regular income to the theatre. The main theatre space is built to be equipped with seats that can be taken away and added again to provide additional seating.  For shows with more children, they provide crash mats for them to sit on, which allows them to fit more people in, which takes it up to around 250 capacity. They offer artist in residence opportunities, where the are allocated rehearsal spaces and they are available for them to use. 

Can co-produce but they don’t produce their own work. Companies such as motion house have used to the space to perform shows, and have performed their show ‘charge’ in the main theatre space. The Main theatre space, has a large white screen that allows projections to be played and also hosts a kabuki drop feature that reveals the back of the stage. 

The hexagon is used mainly for stand up comedy, music, musical theatre and conferences. Can also offer screenings, even though the projection isn’t of a high quality but still useable. It seats 84 people and has a unique shape designed around the staging area. Isn’t as technically advanced as the main theatre and hosts older lights in comparison to it that restricts the lighting and only offers basic lighting in the hexagon.

Foyle studio is a flexible space, that seats 126 people as there is bench seating. It can be used as a performance space, or just as a studio. It’s flexibility provides a space that gets used regularly. It was only built in 2010, as previously it was only a roof but when provided with funding they turned it into a studio with performance spaces. 

The cinema screens films everyday, sometimes with 2 screenings a day, with a combination of current and older films. They usually screen them just after they become new releases. If they screen new releases, they have to show them a certain number of times which is something they tend not to do which is why they show them afterwards. They made a deal with distributors to allow them to screen the films and live productions such as ballets and operas. They have a cinema producer that chooses and allocates what it screened within it. It seats 150 in total. 

Partake in various film festivals such as Birmingham Indian film festival, and can also hold conferences in this room too. The price is similar to that of a normal cinema, maybe slightly cheaper. 

Depending on the show, the turn around time is between 4-8 hours, including the process of getting the audience in and out. Technicians within the Mac are all versatile and don’t specialise in one area. For smaller showcases, they will bring their own technician and have one from the Mac also, but for bigger they bring multiple people with them to help them with the shows. 

 

For PPP we have to organise our own showcase which spreads across two days, Dance and Acting. As part of the unit they have to assign themselves job roles as part of the unit. 

What budget do we have for the showcase?

Is there anything specific that it needs to be allocated for?

Is there a HE budget?

That’s to cover their own choreographies, if we run from a budget we are able to keep the costumes and props used rather than students using their maintenance to pay for them separately. We could use what we’ve already got and embellish them. Typical lyrical costume is between £20-£30.Materials for sets for acting are non existent. This unit ties in with the marketing unit, and fundraising has began to start creating a budget for programmes etc. (Admin)

Budget needed is mainly for costume, set and props. 

Is the budget set at a specific amount per performance?

It is dispersed by the amount of budget the college has and then separated in terms of what is needed. Maintenance, Materials etc.. But it will be a set budget that you can work with. Students need to sit and work out what is needed in what areas, set, costume, paint... Split between the two shows. Try and get the most of what you’ve got and purchase things that are flexible/ reusable. Rather than purchasing consumables that can only be used one. Be clever with the resources you’ve already got to try and minimise excessive/un-necessaryspending.

Is there anyone you can approach to help us to create the programmes and take photos? To start building the programmes with information on pieces and artists in residence. 

What is the evacuation procedure with an audience? “We’re not expecting any fire alarms tonight, but if the alarm is sounded then this is the procedure.” Initial announcement (What’s expected, no filming of the pieces etc.. ) 

Meeting 2 set for 23/01/19 to answer questions and arrange for graphics design to discuss programmes. Approach marketing to get quotes as well as asking for quotes elsewhere.

Printing.com 

Rink print 

Pintrest (create a style board)

Need to know how many pages (4pp) 4 pages = 8 sides

Size

Paper stock (glossy, uncoated, matte)