keynote speakers
This year's conference will feature the following prominent speakers:
(Please check back often for updates on confirmed speakers)
Preconference Luncheon with Brenda Andolina
Director, Brand Marketing & Public Relations, Fisher Price
Brenda Andolina works as Director of Brand Marketing & Public Relations at Fisher Price, one of the leading brands of infant and preschool toys and baby gear in the world. In her Brand role, she launched Fisher Price’s first targeted marketing campaign to the Hispanic segment, built comprehensive partnerships with market-leading companies like Royal Caribbean, Loews Hotels, and Lifetime Fitness. She also trademarked a concept called PlayGate™, installing themed playspaces in airport gate areas. Most recently, Brenda established a multi-faceted marketing partnership with major zoos across the country featuring permanent play features, education programs, special events, and cross-promotion projects.
Prior to her work at Fisher Price, Brenda has served in a senior marketing capacity at such companies as Bausch & Lomb and Polaroid.
A city girl by origin, Brenda lives with her husband, five-year-old daughter, Australian Shepard, and a few dozen Black Angus cattle outside of Buffalo.
Opening Keynote Address with J. Walker Smith
President, Yankelovich, Inc.
J. Walker Smith is back by popular demand, having rocked the house at the 2004 National Arts Marketing Project Conference! In his address, he will reveal his insight into the patterns of consumer behavior, and you will be able to glean how to respond to your customers’ unspoken needs. His speech will transform how you think of new media as a tool for forging relationships with new audiences.
Smith is president of Yankelovich, Inc., a marketing consultancy specializing in consumer lifestyle trends and database targeting solutions. Described by Fortune magazine as “one of America’s leading analysts of consumer trends,” he is co-author of three critically acclaimed books and a weekly commentator on public radio His ideas and insights have been showcased in many forums around the world and appear regularly in the national media and business press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Week, Time and other leading publications. He has made frequent appearances on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and Bloomberg TV.
Prior to Yankelovich, Walker was director of research for DowBrands, Inc. He was a summer lecturer at the annual School of Marketing Research at the University of Notre Dame for 14 years and he is a past vice president of the marketing research division of the American Marketing Association. He is a director of Premiere Global Services, a member of the Board of Advisors for the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a director of the American Marketing Association Foundation. Walker holds three degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including a doctorate in Mass Communication Research. He was the commencement speaker for the UNC-Chapel Hill 2005 Graduate School Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. Walker and his wife Joy live in Atlanta, Georgia.
Luncheon Plenary Session with Elena Park
Met Assistant Manager/Editorial & Creative Content, Metropolitan Opera
Elena Park has worn a variety of hats in the field of the arts, working as editor, journalist, writer, producer, and communications director. Currently, she is one of the Metropolitan Opera's assistant managers and oversees editorial and creative content. In that role, she manages a broad area including producing features for HD transmissions and radio features, web content, publications, marketing, press, and public relations. Previously, she was executive producer for music and culture for WNYC Radio, the country's largest public radio station. For WNYC, she executive-produced award-winning national specials such as "The Ring & I: The Passion, The Myth, The Mania" and "Walt Whitman: Song of Myself" and live national broadcasts featuring ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic. from venues such as Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall.
Under the leadership of the new General Manager, Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera has launched a series of bold initiatives designed to broaden its audience and revitalize the company's repertory. Elena has played an instrumental role in many of the company's new outreach initiatives. She will discuss the Met's overarching approach toward transforming the image of the 127-year-old institution, widely considered the leading opera house in the world.
In addition to making international headlines, the Met's recent efforts have resulted in higher ticket sales, increased donations, and a greater public awareness of opera. This year, the Met revolutionized the way opera is shared with the public by introducing a series of HD transmissions of live opera into movie theaters around the world. Building on its 77-year-old international radio broadcast history, the Met also introduced Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS, an around-the-clock satellite radio channel broadcasting both live and rare historical performances.
The Met has made a commitment to presenting modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, with highly theatrical productions featuring the world's greatest opera stars. The company's other audience development initiatives include open houses, which offer the free public access to final dress rehearsals; reduced ticket prices, including an immensely popular rush ticket program; and the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, which exhibits contemporary art connected to operas in the Met's repertory.
Closing Plenary Session with Ben Cameron
Program Director for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Ben Cameron motivates audiences everywhere he goes with his passion for pairing arts and audiences. He is program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, where he supervises a $15.6 million grants program focusing on organizations and artists in theater, contemporary dance, jazz, and presenting fields. Previously, he served for more than eight years as the Executive Director of Theatrer Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the American nonprofit professional theater, significantly expanding its programs, membership base and grantmaking activities.
Mr. Cameron was formerly a Board member of the National Arts & Business Council. Also, prior to his arrival at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation he was active in corporate philanthropy, first as Senior Program Officer at the Dayton Hudson Foundation and subsequently as Manager of Community Relations for the Target Corporation. He will discuss issues of understanding value as an essential component of arts marketing, as well as the shifting nature of the audience-artist relationship. His time with you will renew your enthusiasm to flourish in the new frontier!
He has taught theater at the Yale School of Drama, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and is currently a member of the adjunct faculty at Columbia University. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a John Motley Morehead scholar; an MFA in dramaturgy from the Yale School of Drama in 1981, where he was the first recipient of the Kenneth Tynan Prize; an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from DePaul University in Chicago in 2001; and in 2003 an honorary MFA in Acting from American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.
He has served on a national number of boards in the past and currently sits on the board of Grantmakers in the Arts. He has appeared annually on the Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon quiz feature every year since 1996, has lectured on theater on three different cruises aboard the Queen Mary 2, twice rode his bicycle from Minneapolis to Chicago to raise money for AIDS, and is currently a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee.
