Thursday Morning, October 1
Spotlight on Marketing – 9:15am – 12:30pm
Spotlight on Marketing offers an in-depth, hands-on learning experience designed for presenters, marketers, artists and communications professionals in the performing arts. Structured as a flexible “choose your own adventure,” the morning features two concurrent 90-minute sessions followed by a second set of two sessions – allowing participants to select the topics most relevant to their work and build a personalized learning journey.
Led by four expert facilitators, each session dives into a distinct aspect of contemporary arts marketing:
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Why This Show Sold Out (And That One Didn’t) by Briana Doyle
Why do some shows sell out while others struggle – even with strong marketing? In this interactive session, artists and presenters will share real-world examples and uncover what actually drives attendance. Together, we’ll explore what’s within our control, what we can influence, and what we can’t predict – and how better alignment across roles can lead to stronger results. Expect practical insights, fresh perspectives, and a few “aha” moments along the way.
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Critical thinking for AI-powered marketing by Inga Petri, Strategic Moves
The performing arts sector has spent the last decade catching up to a digital baseline – better websites, nuanced social media, some streaming, new kinds of CRMs. But we have already entered a fundamentally different phase. The next five years will be shaped by AI-native tools, new immersive audience experiences, networked performance, and ultra-high-speed connectivity. Come explore AI tools and the future!
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Conveying authority and trust in AI-centered discovery by Frederic Julien, CAPACOA
Event discovery is changing. Whether arts goers are searching for events to attend through traditional search engines or through chatbots, their queries are interpreted, executed, analyzed and/or summarized by one or more AI models. Soon, with the advent of agentic AI, arts goers might even stop searching, let their agent decide which event to attend and then book tickets on their behalf. Schema structured data can help. Event structured data is effective both with traditional search engines and AI chatbots. Artsdata can also help. In this session, you will gain awareness and understanding of different strategies to publish information that can be found and trusted, no matter which service is used to access it.
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Social Media for the Arts: what’s working and what’s not in 2026 by Rebecca Coleman
Social Media can be so overwhelming! Which platforms should you be posting on? How often? And when? Should you be making video? And do you really need to make a video lipsyncing and dancing to Charli XCX in order to get more than 200 views??? Also, who even is Charli XCX? In this workshop, Rebecca Coleman breaks down the fundamentals for presenters: how to choose the platforms where your audience is, what to post, how often to post, and some hacks to save both your time and your sanity. Using real-life examples culled from local BC companies, Rebecca will break down what’s working and what’s not working for Arts Organizations in 2026.
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Designed to be practical, interactive, and immediately applicable, Spotlight on Marketing empowers participants to deepen their skills, exchange ideas with peers, and leave with actionable strategies tailored to their own organizational context.
Friday Morning, October 2
Peer Panels – 9:15am – 10:45am
Peer Panels offer a dynamic, discussion-driven format designed to spark practical insight and candid exchange among performing arts professionals. This 90-minute session is structured as three consecutive 30-minute panels, each led by a different facilitator and focused on a timely topic shaping the sector.
- One panel explores the Re-imagining Customer Relationships project – a national, collaborative, open-access research initiative examining new approaches to audience loyalty and engagement. Participants will hear early findings from the Supporting Initiators field study, receive updates on Trialling Membership Offers, and engage in a facilitated discussion alongside firsthand testimonials from participating organizations.
- A second panel focuses on how venues and presenters can better support artists and companies in developing high-quality, tour-ready new work, emphasizing collaboration, investment, and long-term artistic relationships.
- The third panel tackles the intersection of AI and climate change, inviting participants to consider both the opportunities and challenges these forces present for the performing arts.
Designed to be interactive and peer-led, these panels create space for shared learning, practical takeaways, and meaningful dialogue across the sector.
Saturday Morning, October 3
Knowledge Café in partnership with CAPACOA – 9:15am – 10:45am
Returning to the Pacific Contact 2026 conference is the Knowledge Café with CAPACOA. Facilitated by industry experts, this program allows conference participants to join small roundtable discussions and workshops to share their experiences on a range of topics.
The event will feature two rounds of discussions and workshops, with topics repeating in the second round. Each round will accommodate 7 to 10 participants in each session. Attendees are encouraged to move between tables/workshops during the rounds to engage in different activities. Each round will begin with facilitator introductions, followed by group discussions and activities to share knowledge and insights.
Network Meetings – Thursday, Oct 1, 2:00pm-3:30pm
Venue Manager’s Meeting
This meeting allows venue managers from BC and beyond to discuss trends, successes, challenges, and other topics related to venue management and programming.
Marketing & Development
An opportunity for marketing and development staff to meet and connect following the Spotlight on Marketing in the morning.
Box Office & Front of House
The Box Office & Front of House meeting focuses on the operations and management of ticket sales and audience services at live events or performances.
Festivals Meeting
Festivals connect, network and discuss the most pressing issues facing them today, including funding, touring, audiences, community engagement, production, ticket sales, equity, diversity and inclusion.
Artists & Artistic Companies
This meeting offers an opportunity to meet with artists and artistic companies from BC and across Canada to share ideas, address common challenges, offer support, ask questions, and seek ways to collaborate.
Agents & Managers Meeting
This session is an opportunity for agents and artist representatives to network, discuss topics of interest and share best practices.
Meeting – Sunday, Oct 4, 9:30am – 11:00am @ the Coast Hotel
Block Booking Meeting for Presenters & Festivals ONLY
Join Petrice Brett, BC Live’s Block Booking Coordinator, for an in-person meeting to explore your interests for the upcoming performing arts seasons. Presenters will have the chance to pitch artists, discuss potential tours through the Arts Touring Connector, and review current touring opportunities available.