Florida Festivals and Events Association (FFEA)

During your concert experience, as you dance with the crowd…do you ever stop to think about what goes on to make sure this live event is conducted and handled professionally? Annual convention and trade show associations like the Florida Festivals and Events Association (FFEA) have a mission with standards that uphold specific criteria. Florida Festivals and Events Association’s mission is to promote and strengthen the festivals, event and fair strategy in Florida through education, networking, dissemination of information, and the cultivation of high standards for the industry. The Florida Festivals and Events Association, Inc. has reportedly grown to more than 415 members, and represents 750 events throughout the great state of Florida. FFEA also hosts more than 3,300 event organizers, vendors, speakers, and sponsors at its annual convention and trade shows. FFEA presents around 1,000 awards recognizing the creative and technical innovations of its members at these trade shows.

Associations like FFEA are important to the entertainment industry because they promote public awareness of the genre to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field. FFEA and other associations like The Americana Music Association demonstrate the effectiveness their influence has on the community as a whole by the success of their festivals and live events. If you’re looking to become a member of the Florida Festivals and Events Association, their survey indicates that the most important reason people join is for the ability to connect and exchange ideas with other event professionals throughout Florida and across the nation. FFEA members also have the ability to connect with other fellow FFEA members in order to ask questions, send out notices, and offer discounts, as well as promoting their event or services. Music festivals & live events are a specific category under the entertainment business field that need guidance and some regulations by associations like FFEA.

Annual convention and trade shows are also a major feature that attracts audiences to FFEA. The convention and trade shows offer a high quality 3-day educational program filled with new ways to manage and grow business event sponsorships, creative and cost effective marketing, safe operations, securing and rewarding volunteers, and how to improve your bottom line. For the trade shows, vendor members have the opportunity to showcase their new and improved up-to-date products and services.

Music, Medicine, & Your Brain

Medicine or music? Law or sports? Something practical...or what we truly have a passion for? These are critical decisions that young adults are having to make every day. World renown TED speaker, Violinist Robert Vijay Gupta performs beautifully for the first two minutes of his lecture. TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, that started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from 3 worlds: Technology, Entertainment, and Design. This lecture is about Robert Gupta who was caught between a career as a doctor and a career as a violinist. Gupta realized he was stuck in the middle of the two worlds, he was ready for both but had a sense of social justice in his heart. In his lecture, Gupta tells an inspirational story about how society's marginalized and the power of music therapy, which can succeed where conventional medicine fails. 

From the lecture held in April 2012: 

"This was the very reason why we made music: we take something that exists within all of us at our very fundamental core, our emotions, and through our artistic lens, through our creativity, we're able to shape those emotions into reality." -Robert Gupta

Gupta's lecture is moving and inspires you to let your brain access that creativity you hold back most of the time. In this lecture you see the audience and their reaction to Gupta's storytelling about the path of music or heading for the path of medicine. Watching this lecture has given me a chance to develop a deeper understanding of Gupta's passion behind education and outreach, both as musician and as an activist for mental health issues. He has the privilege of working with Nathaniel Ayers, the brilliant, schizophrenic musician featured in "The Soloist," as his violin teacher (TED 2012). Gupta's lectures are so moving because he builds a trust with the audiences and shares his personal knowledge with them through his speech. He speaks very eloquently and personable, as if he's sitting down to have a cup of coffee with you. This lecture is mainly about finding one's place in the world with your talents. Dr. Gupta loved both of his worlds and found his place amongst them and continues to help others do the same. 

Robert Gupta: Between Music and Medicine

Filmed April 2012, posted Octover 2012, TEDMED 2012

Other Resources used in research: Ted.com's "Best of the Web"

SXSW Music Fest Pulling Together For Hurricane Sandy Relief

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conferences & Festivals are banning together to help bring awareness to the victims of the recent Hurricane Sandy. New York City’s subways alone are experiencing the worst damage in its 108-year-history. According to CNN, over 4.8 million people remained without power on Thursday morning in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The worst affected states are New Jersey with 1,983,694 people out of power, New York with 1,514,147, Pennsylvania with 526,934, and Connecticut with 352,286. SXSW has started a Sandy Relief Fund that ties in with the American Red Cross, they ask you to help raise money to bring aid to those who were affected by Hurricane Sandy in any way that you can.

SXSW urges people to donate to the Red Cross because they have an amazing history of being the first on the scene in disasters. This is article by SXSW also touches on how making a contribution, no matter how large or small can truly make a difference in these disaster victim’s lives and the lives of their families. Pat on the back for SXSW to be one of the only music festivals to step up to the plate and lend a hand!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with South by Southwest (SXSW), the first music conference was held in 1987 in Austin, Texas. Their original goal was to, “Create an event that would act a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, to bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas.” In keeping with the tradition, they continue to strive to achieve that goal in music, film, and interactives. According to SXSW, Austin’s eclectic music scene goes back to early in the city’s history and encompasses a wide variety of music including country, folk, jazz, blues, and rock. Central Austin boasts more original music in nightclubs in a concentrated area than any other city in the world.

Below is a video recap of last year’s SXSW festival!