Addressing some issues about the Digital Art Conference Frankfurt 2017
Verfasst: 4. Jul 2017, 21:42
Hello guys,
I am the organizer behind the Digital Art Conference in Frankfurt and I recently had a phone call with Marcus Blätterman to talk about the event because he had some questions. He has also told me that more people from the forum are having the same questions and thoughts, so I am writing down what I told Marcus so you understand what exactly is going on.
The biggest elephant in the room is off course the name so let's address that first. I will walk you through my thought process that went on before deciding on the name.
The first thing I did before doing anything is researching other similar events. So I googled Digital Art Convention/Conference...and it was really hard to find any because they all have special names: IFCC, Trojan Horse was a unicorn, Industry Workshops, Promised land etc... While I think their names are cool, I wanted to have Digital Art in the name...because that is what it will be about, and I thought it's going to be easy for me to pitch the event since it says what it is about right in the name!
Very early on, with some artists from Frankfurt, we fantasised about maybe also doing smaller local events to revive the art scene in Frankfurt. This brought me to the idea of having a more generic name that can be flexible for many things. At first I came up with 'Digital Art Foundation', but that was a bit too narcissistic I thought, so I went for 'Digital Art Frankfurt' because...it is in Frankfurt. So appending Conference* to it made it easy and I got 'DAFCON' which I thought was cool since it was inspired by the digital art forum conventions. My intention was not to name the organisation in such a way to end up at 'DAFCON' but everything fell into place so smoothly that I thought it was a good idea.
After making all these decisions I went straight to work to have something tangible to show to the public before announcing anything. Here is where I think me, and Daniel, made a mistake. I think we should have first announced our intentions on the forum and talked about it with the community, since it's what inspired it, and it was using the same name. When I look back now, it's quite clear to both of us, that's what we should have done first.
The people I personally have spoken to from the forum so far never had any objections, but I understand some might feel otherwise. I'm really not sure what to do right now since the event is only 2 months away, but I would like to hear more thoughts and opinions.
Sponsorships.
--------------
One of the sponsors this year is Wacom, although like with the old Digital Art Forum Conventions, they are not sponsoring the event with any money. I have reached out to many organisations and none of them were willing to give money. My original idea was to get organisations to fund most of the costs so I can keep the price as low as possible while organising a serious event with cool stuff. I still want to give people a good time and have really cool things happening at the event, but it will be completely self-funded by ticket sales only. Whatever sponsorship I have now, or in the future, it will be in the form of physical goods like equipment or prizes.
Volunteers
--------------
Because of this event I have now been on both sides of the situation and for me it has always seemed a fair and mutually beneficial relationship. When I was younger I volunteered for some events to get free entry with various reasons and I never felt abused and it was always entirely my own choice. I feel the offer I am extending to volunteers is fair and while their nr. 1 priority is the successful operation of the event, I will schedule the work accordingly so they have time to participate in workshops they are interested in. The volunteers who have already signed on are very positive and I believe each individual can make up their own mind and decide for themselves if it's worth or not.
Money
--------------
All teachers have been incredible with their approach to the event. Most of them spontaneously offered to speak for free at the event but I did not want that. The reality is that first the basic costs (rent, equipment, teacher lodging and transportation, ..) have to be met before anything can happen. That's why all teachers have agreed be paid less than their original fee, or in worst case, to speak for free if the basic costs of the event are not met or there are not enough ticket sales to meet their full fee. They are all doing it because they want to see this happen, and not just for the money, so I am incredibly thankful to all of them.
Will I make money on this? Just like with business, if the basic costs are covered and the teachers are paid their full fee, then anything left after that is basically mine. Since I am already employed full time, there is little point in actually earning something because of taxes. Most of the profit will be better spent on making the event better or buying some physical goods that can be used for this edition and potential future editions. Those of you who are freelancers or run a business will understand what I mean.
I really hope this post has answered some of your questions and cleared things up. Everyone who is involved in the event really has their best intentions in it, but I think me (and Daniel) failed on communicating properly with the digital art forum community first.
If you have other questions or thoughts, please let us know so we can have a constructive discussion about it.
Cheers
Danijel
* at first it was called convention, but it confused a lot of people because they had completely other expectations than what the event would actually be like. So eventually I changed it to conference because that seems like a better description.
I am the organizer behind the Digital Art Conference in Frankfurt and I recently had a phone call with Marcus Blätterman to talk about the event because he had some questions. He has also told me that more people from the forum are having the same questions and thoughts, so I am writing down what I told Marcus so you understand what exactly is going on.
The biggest elephant in the room is off course the name so let's address that first. I will walk you through my thought process that went on before deciding on the name.
The first thing I did before doing anything is researching other similar events. So I googled Digital Art Convention/Conference...and it was really hard to find any because they all have special names: IFCC, Trojan Horse was a unicorn, Industry Workshops, Promised land etc... While I think their names are cool, I wanted to have Digital Art in the name...because that is what it will be about, and I thought it's going to be easy for me to pitch the event since it says what it is about right in the name!
Very early on, with some artists from Frankfurt, we fantasised about maybe also doing smaller local events to revive the art scene in Frankfurt. This brought me to the idea of having a more generic name that can be flexible for many things. At first I came up with 'Digital Art Foundation', but that was a bit too narcissistic I thought, so I went for 'Digital Art Frankfurt' because...it is in Frankfurt. So appending Conference* to it made it easy and I got 'DAFCON' which I thought was cool since it was inspired by the digital art forum conventions. My intention was not to name the organisation in such a way to end up at 'DAFCON' but everything fell into place so smoothly that I thought it was a good idea.
After making all these decisions I went straight to work to have something tangible to show to the public before announcing anything. Here is where I think me, and Daniel, made a mistake. I think we should have first announced our intentions on the forum and talked about it with the community, since it's what inspired it, and it was using the same name. When I look back now, it's quite clear to both of us, that's what we should have done first.
The people I personally have spoken to from the forum so far never had any objections, but I understand some might feel otherwise. I'm really not sure what to do right now since the event is only 2 months away, but I would like to hear more thoughts and opinions.
Sponsorships.
--------------
One of the sponsors this year is Wacom, although like with the old Digital Art Forum Conventions, they are not sponsoring the event with any money. I have reached out to many organisations and none of them were willing to give money. My original idea was to get organisations to fund most of the costs so I can keep the price as low as possible while organising a serious event with cool stuff. I still want to give people a good time and have really cool things happening at the event, but it will be completely self-funded by ticket sales only. Whatever sponsorship I have now, or in the future, it will be in the form of physical goods like equipment or prizes.
Volunteers
--------------
Because of this event I have now been on both sides of the situation and for me it has always seemed a fair and mutually beneficial relationship. When I was younger I volunteered for some events to get free entry with various reasons and I never felt abused and it was always entirely my own choice. I feel the offer I am extending to volunteers is fair and while their nr. 1 priority is the successful operation of the event, I will schedule the work accordingly so they have time to participate in workshops they are interested in. The volunteers who have already signed on are very positive and I believe each individual can make up their own mind and decide for themselves if it's worth or not.
Money
--------------
All teachers have been incredible with their approach to the event. Most of them spontaneously offered to speak for free at the event but I did not want that. The reality is that first the basic costs (rent, equipment, teacher lodging and transportation, ..) have to be met before anything can happen. That's why all teachers have agreed be paid less than their original fee, or in worst case, to speak for free if the basic costs of the event are not met or there are not enough ticket sales to meet their full fee. They are all doing it because they want to see this happen, and not just for the money, so I am incredibly thankful to all of them.
Will I make money on this? Just like with business, if the basic costs are covered and the teachers are paid their full fee, then anything left after that is basically mine. Since I am already employed full time, there is little point in actually earning something because of taxes. Most of the profit will be better spent on making the event better or buying some physical goods that can be used for this edition and potential future editions. Those of you who are freelancers or run a business will understand what I mean.
I really hope this post has answered some of your questions and cleared things up. Everyone who is involved in the event really has their best intentions in it, but I think me (and Daniel) failed on communicating properly with the digital art forum community first.
If you have other questions or thoughts, please let us know so we can have a constructive discussion about it.
Cheers
Danijel
* at first it was called convention, but it confused a lot of people because they had completely other expectations than what the event would actually be like. So eventually I changed it to conference because that seems like a better description.