Video Conferencing Facility Pays Off For CBA,
Local Arts Organizations

UC's College of Business Administration (CBA) is serving as a location sponsor for a national effort to help strengthen the business side of arts organizations.

The National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP), a $2 million effort supported by a grant from American Express, is helping arts organizations in 12 selected cities, including Cincinnati, learn how to create long-term marketing strategies that get results and take audience development to the next level.

The Cincinnati NAMP program is administered by the Arts Services office of the Cincinnati Institute for Fine Arts.

CBA's participation is helping local arts organizations in trying to meet their marketing goals. The same holds true for the college.

"I think this is a way to showcase some of the new facilities we have to offer," said Fritz Russ, CBA's dean. "There are a number of our faculty who feel it is important to have a strong arts presence in our community. This is a great way to reach out to that part of our community."

Central to CBA's participation is the college's new video conferencing facility in Room 108 of Carl H. Lindner Hall. The state-of-the-art 45-seat facility opened at the start of fall quarter. It has been used to host joint international business classes with university students in Finland and Canada, as a tool for the evening MBA program offered out of Raymond Walters College in Blue Ash, and for special events such as NAMP, according to B.J. Zirger, associate professor of strategic management and director of grants from the Cleveland Foundation and the Cincinnati Bell Foundation, which helped fund and equip the facility.

NAMP has held a series of programs hosted by CBA this year. Because of CBA's capabilities, Cincinnati is the only one of the 12 NAMP cities using video conferencing as a primary tool for participation.

On Feb. 11, CBA hosted a session about creating in-kind sponsorship opportunities. Gary Steuer, president and CEO of the Arts and Business Council, Inc. of New York City presented in person, but Ann Norton, president of the League of Washington, D.C., Theatres worked with the group via video conferencing. About 45 local arts representatives participated.

Russ says he saw the impact of the technology during an earlier NAMP session, when a presenter from Atlanta asked the group if everyone understood what she was saying and the people in the room all nodded their heads. "You know you're communicating when you get that kind of natural reaction from people," Russ said. "It is great to see that this works to that level."

Working with the arts was a natural choice for CBA. For one thing, the college offers a joint master's degree program with CCM in arts administration. Also, a number of MBA students have found rewarding and interesting research projects through working with non-profit arts and community service organizations to address their most pressing needs.

Andrea Dixon, assistant professor of marketing, has been a major proponent of this approach. She is a co-chair of the local NAMP project and volunteers with a number of other organizations.

"This offers a wonderful opportunity to build bridges into the community that we don't normally have," Dixon said. "We are supporting the business side of the arts, and that's our specialty - how to make business grow, whether it's filling seats or selling shoes."

Benefits often come back to CBA in unexpected ways. For instance, Dixon says during one NAMP session this fall, she made the acquaintance of a marketing professional for Kings Island. That relationship paid off for her MBA students later when that individual presented a module on complex multi-point pricing to one of Dixon's classes, information they wouldn't have had access to ordinarily.