Concurrent Facilitated Workshops
Friday January 24, 2025 at 2:15pm2 hours
This year’s Levitt National Convening will feature an afternoon of concurrent facilitated workshops on topics such as digital marketing, de-escalation techniques, accessibility planning, equitable frameworks, and more! We’re thrilled to bring in renowned experts and presenters to share best practices, lead interactive demonstrations, inspire new thinking, and help you prepare for an impactful music series. Learn more about each session and speaker in the descriptions below.
Action Guide for Building Socially Connected Communities
HEALING FORWARD™: Designing for an Equitable Future
Practical AI for Community Arts: Saving Time, Stretching Resources, Leading Responsibly
Marketing that Hits All the Right Notes: Digital Strategies to Amplify Your Free Concerts
Leveraging Verbal Judo for De-escalation Under Pressure
Planning with Purpose: Creating Accessible and Inclusive Events
As we continue to plan our time together, we appreciate if you would share which concurrent facilitated workshop you’re interested in attending by taking this quick survey. Please note, your selection is not binding. Our team is using this information for planning purposes and to get a sense of each session’s space requirements.
Action Guide for Building Socially Connected Communities
Location/Room: TBA
Morgan Marler and Ashley Krombach | Foundation for Social Connection
While many leaders recognize the importance of fostering social connectedness and engagement in their communities, they need practical guidance for approach and to scale their efforts. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the Foundation for Social Connection’s Action Guide for Building Socially Connected Communities—an innovative platform empowering local changemakers to form lasting partnerships and co-create effective, sustainable social connection initiatives. Through an interactive exploration into the six action steps and other resources in the guide, Morgan Marler and Ashley Krombach will equip participants with tools, best practices, and evidence-based strategies to deepen social connection and community belonging through their own music initiatives. By the end of the workshop, you will emerge from these discussions prepared to translate insights into meaningful actions that build inclusive, connected communities and enhance civic engagement.
HEALING FORWARD™: Designing for an Equitable Future
Location/Room: TBA
Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Rika Iino | HEALING FORWARD™
Co-created by Marc Bamuthi Joseph (internationally renowned cultural strategist, spoken word artist, and Vice President of Social Impact at the Kennedy Center) and Rika Iino (entrepreneur and founder of cultural incubator SOZO), HEALING FORWARD™ is a lively workshop that engages cultural leaders to think structurally about equity. Utilizing their unique framework, this program supports leaders and organizations in their journey toward an equitable future. Since its launch in June of 2021, HEALING FORWARD™ has impacted 70+ organizations of all sizes through retreats and workshops, with a cohort of 200+ leaders in arts and culture. This workshop is designed to introduce attendees to this unique framework and initiate discussions on how it might deeply impact their organizations.
Practical AI for Community Arts: Saving Time, Stretching Resources, Leading Responsibly
Location/Room: TBA
Beth Kanter | Nonprofit Thought Leader and Author
AI can be a force multiplier for community arts organizations and nonprofits across sectors. This engaging workshop, led by nonprofit technology expert Beth Kanter, shows how grassroots organizations and changemakers can leverage AI to accomplish more while staying true to their mission and without compromising integrity or community trust. Through practical demonstrations and peer discussion, you’ll explore how AI can help reclaim hours spent on administrative tasks or grant writing while maintaining authentic community connections. Beth will share concrete examples of organizations using AI responsibly—from streamlining operations to enhancing creative programming—all while addressing key concerns around ethics, bias, and privacy. Participants will leave with ready-to-use templates and prompts that save hours on routine tasks and help you integrate generative AI, and a toolkit for evaluating free and low-cost AI solutions that align with your organization’s needs.
Marketing that Hits All the Right Notes: Digital Strategies to Amplify Your Free Concerts
Location/Room: TBA
Michael Goodrum | Community Boost
Hit the high notes with your marketing! Join Michael Goodrum of Community Boost, the country’s largest nonprofit-focused digital marketing agency, for a dynamic workshop designed to help amplify community engagement and attendance at your free concert series. This workshop will cover digital marketing hits—paid ads, free promotional opportunities, and organic strategies—that small to medium-sized nonprofits can use to elevate their events and fundraising efforts. You’ll learn practical tools and walk away ready to orchestrate a 2025 marketing campaign that breaks through and resonates with your audience. From creating show-stopping ads on a budget, to harmonizing organic and free promotion, crafting encore-worthy campaigns to leveraging the full power of email marketing—let’s make your concerts the talk of the town!
Leveraging Verbal Judo for De-escalation Under Pressure
Location/Room: TBA
Mike “Ziggy” Siegfried | Verbal Judo
This workshop will demystify the practices of “Verbal Judo,” a gentle yet powerful method of persuasion that will help you avoid, resolve, and manage potential conflict when presenting your music series and interfacing with your audience and community members. Verbal Judo teaches us how to listen and speak more effectively, by engaging people through empathy and using proven strategies that allow us to successfully communicate. Participants will learn practical techniques and conditioned responses that have been extensively tested in the field, allowing you to address heightened situations and manage a range of scenarios through a calm and confident approach. Participants will learn to remain in control of situations without creating stress, frustration, or continued conflict, while treating everybody with dignity and respect. This workshop will include a one-hour lecture with Q&A and finish with several group participation practical scenarios.
Staying Ahead of the Storm Front: Developing Contingency Plans to Mitigate Severe Weather Risks for Your Concert Series
Location/Room: TBA
Peter Ashwin | Event Risk Management Solutions
During this hands-on workshop, Peter Ashwin will guide Levitt teams, with a focus on AMP/BLOC/VIBE locations, through a pragmatic approach to enhance your knowledge in mitigating severe and unpredictable weather risks during your concert series. Workshop participants will identify potential risks across the Levitt network, explore industry best practices, and develop actionable plans to enhance safety and resilience, which you will be able to tailor specifically for your community and concert series. Workshop take-aways will include templates for an emergency response procedure (ERP); a decision support matrix to guide decision-making under uncertainty, specifically whether to delay or interrupt, postpone or cancel concert programming; and a template checklist for a concert site evacuation plan.
Planning with Purpose: Creating Accessible and Inclusive Events
Location/Room:
Elizabeth Ralston | Accessibility Consultant
It can be hard to know where to begin when planning an accessible event. We know it is essential to start way before the event begins to ensure that accessibility is seamlessly integrated into the experience, though often it can be added in as an afterthought. Join Elizabeth Ralston, an accessibility expert who guides organizations in the strategic development of accessibility roadmaps, for a nuts-and-bolts workshop that includes a high-level overview of barriers and opportunities for accessibility, as well as considerations to be taken into account while planning your music series. With ample time for brainstorming, reflection exercises, and group discussions, this workshop will help you get started with planning that centers accessibility. You’ll learn from an expert with lived experience navigating a disability and by taking a deep dive into priority setting and visioning what a successful, accessible, and inclusive event looks like.
