FLCCA’s Star Search
I am a new member to the Board and had no idea how the acts came to the Harris Center or who provided them to us. Live On Stage (LOS) is an organization that brokers the talent to approximately 200 community concert associations nationwide that provide entertainment in their communities. A conference is held every year in Nashville, TN and for 2 days you can see and hear many acts perform live that are available for booking. You also have the opportunity to speak to them personally. The following is my experience taking the trip for the first time. It should be mentioned that this is all at our own expense.
Our search for talent began on Wednesday July 29th when eleven of us headed for Nashville to attend the Live On Stage conference; seven board members and four friends and/or spouses attended. We arrived at a very warm and humid Nashville in time for a late dinner at the beautiful Hermitage Hotel restaurant. On Thursday we loaded into the rental van and headed out to see the sights. Our first stop was Fontanel, Barbara Mandrell’s 27,000 sq. ft. log mansion. Our guide sang to us at the end of the tour (this really is music city). Next, on to the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson and ending the day on the General Jackson showboat for a cruise with dinner and a show. I can honestly say the day was a success.
The conference began on Friday morning starting with a very good discussion on marketing where we got advice on how to change the hosting of our website to reach a more diverse age group. We are now in the process of updating our website so you will be able to read it on portable devices, IPad, IPhone, etc. Facebook should be part of our plan to reach more people, and we’re working on that. From 1:30 to 6:30 PM we attended the LOS Showcase where we saw about 18 live performances and the high level of talent shocked us. The Gala dinner was at 7:00 PM with music, dancing and entertainment.
Saturday started with a morning talk on how to improve the outreach programs which proved very helpful. The LOS Showcase that afternoon was amazing. The performers were better than the day before. How wonderful it is to have the problem of just picking 10 acts from the total of 37 we saw. Most of us had 20 on our list. We ended our day at the Prime 108 restaurant located in the old Union railroad station.
Our last day in Nashville was spent touring Belle Meade plantation and the Parthenon. We ended with a true Nashville experience of eating ribs on Broadway and enjoying an ice cream. On our return to the hotel we ran into Cyndi Lauper who was a guest there and exchanged a few words. It is now time to head home after some blood, sweat and tears. We had some minor scrapes, hot weather and performers that brought tears to our eyes.
Bobbi Schmidt, Board Member – FLCCA