Hi Gang!

What is the appropriate office to contact at colleges and universities to see if they want a show for their students?

Thanks in advance!

Jim

The 'Activity Director' should be able to help you find the right person.

Tom

Thanks, Tom! I think that's the phrase I needed!

I would think that the Activity Director could say, you need to talk to this person or that group.

Over the years I've learned that you can find out just about anything you want to know on a cold call if your first words are, “Hello I’m A Little Lost, Do You Mind If I Take A Second To Tell You Why I’m Calling?” Doing it that way, not only will they listen to what you have to say, they will be more willing to help you.

Tom

Had a couple of people thank me for the cold call comment, so for those that may be wondering about it. Let me expand on it a little. No, it’s not for everybody. And I’m not saying anyone here should use it. Many would never cold call anyway, and some hate it but feel they must do the calling anyway.

It is not new by no means, I have used it in years gone by and it is still being used today by some of the top salespeople in the world. It does several things up front at once. It lets them know you’re not a 'salesperson' (that is the last thing a professional salesperson wants to be viewed as) It builds trust and prevents them from hanging up right away. Instead of jumping into a sales spiel you’re asking for help and getting permission to explain why you calling.

Once they say, how can I help, you give your name and a brief description of what you do. They will say I’m the one in charge of that or they will give you the name of the person that is. Either one is a win. Not always, but I personally would sometimes backtrack at some point and say I was a little lost because I didn’t know exactly who to ask at the same time I would be thanking them.

Anyway just wanted to share those additional thoughts. Take what you like from it.

Tom

Obviously I don't work the collage market, but isn't most
events handled by industry organizations like NACA, not
the individual schools?

I'm not sure how far you'll get by cold calling them.

Yes, I think some of the largest ones are.

But it wouldn't hurt anything to ask someone at a college you were targeting.
Rarely does 'asking' hurt anything. I don't think the phone operator would call the
NACA to say don't hire the guy because he called us.lol

And it's not really cold calling when you call to simply ask a question

Tom

Thank you all for this helpful advice!

Hi Munsey

From my experience working the college circuit, every college has their ways to name their student activity board.
ex. The most popular are SAB (Student Activity Board), CAB (Campus Activity Board), then you have others who go by SPB (Student Program Board), SEB (Student Events Board)... then you have cute ones that match their school's name/mascot, ex. Fitchburg State University is called FAB (Fitchburg Activity Board), ain't that Fabulous ?

You get the idea. Colleges is hard as hell to sell to since all decisions are made by students, and they have a new group annually.
Be ready to do a whole lot of googling and research, good luck

PS: NACA is not a booking agency. They host conferences Where you can buy a booth space or compete for showcasing spots so you can get in front of students & advisors. I'll advise away from that as it is a significant investment, and if you haven't any foothold in the market already as an independent artist, you will be immediately drown out by the long list of showcasing artists and agencies. Reaching out directly to your local schools will be a better use of your investment IMO. Furthermore, back in the days schools make decisions at the conferences to block book artists, nowadays a lot of them don't even book until they get back to their campus and use this conference as a research only. Last I heard they even trim the showcase floor hours so you get even less face times with students if you aren't showcasing ...#Yikes

The sentiments about NACA only being for the largest schools is quite inaccurate. They largest schools often have the budgets to afford the acts they desire, it is the smaller schools that gain the most from NACA as the networking access and price savings for routing and multiple pricing allows them to take great advantage of NACA pricing to allow them to book acts and levels of acts they otherwise couldn't.

I’m glad Nash checked in here. I had told Munsey he would be the one to talk to about the schools.

Tom

I find it interesting that everyone’s thoughts about NACA are usually based on their experience with the organization. There are other ways to do abs other organizations.

Colleges are not an easy nut to crack this is for certain. Many of the companies in there here been for decades and have relationships that are hard to compete with using a phone call saying “I’m a bit lost”. You can end up sucking a lot of money down a very deep hole quickly if you don’t know what you are doing and worse yet if your act simply isn’t ready.

Not all colleges are part of any organization. There are still tough to crack! It is a heck of a lot more than having the right phone number and email address.

Even those with relationships in the market spend 40 plus hours a week on the phone and in email just getting work. It takes time and a budget.

My thought was a billion years ago to join and get noticed by an agency. I screwed it up in more ways than one, but a large one was simply not being market ready. More than anything that is something that will hurt you because there are some just incredible acts looking for skits.

NP I'm slowly transitioning away from the college market as a magician. Happy to share anything I had learned the last decade.




Touche', those are the ones I'll suggest Munsey or anyone who are *curious* about the college market to try first before jumping to NACA/APCA. There are still tons of local community colleges / private universities who don't attend NACA / APCA conferences and they prefer to find local talents. The benefits of finding a local independent artist is they can save on budget without paying for the extra agency & traveling fees. **In fact I often lose these local gigs to my homies who are independent artists LOL **

A little more on this, here are usually the types of shows you can sell to colleges:
For community colleges, you're likely hired to do strolling magic at their student center/cafeteria for their special events like Valentines day events, Welcome back week events, etc... Or the dreaded nooner shows where you do a stand-up gig at their Caféteria during lunch time when their students are on campus since community colleges students are often commuters.
For universities where they have students living on campus, you can sell a week night stage show at their auditoriums / student union ballrooms. THOSE ARE THE BEST!!!!
Timing wise, every school is different but from my experience most boards usually start planning a quarter ahead (ex. Summer qrt they'll start planning for events starting Fall qrt; Fall qrt they are planning for Spring/Summer, etc...)

Anyway,sorry about the chattiness but hope this info helps

Oh lord the nooner!

Joining the organizations is an easy way to make a small fortune. First step, have a large fortune. Second step join one of those with no real plan. You will have a small fortune in no time.

I agree with you 100%