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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A group of professional performance artists participated in an intensive four-day workshop at Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (NACC) last week.

Debbie Peters, founder of a music management company in Whitehorse called Magnum Opus Management, led the workshop series.

Musician and storyteller Pat Braden is attending a national showcase in Toronto next month where he will network with theatre and festival directors from across Canada. He performs at Northern Arts and Cultural Centre on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. - photo courtesy of Tessa MacIntosh

Among other skills, the artists - including musicians and spoken word artists - learned about the organizational and promotional strategies needed to pitch their acts to artistic directors scouting for acts to book.

Peters focused on opportunities offered by annual industry showcases, such as North by Northeast in Toronto and Pacific Contact in Vancouver, held annually throughout the continent to put performance artists in front of the people who may hire them.

Similar to a trade show, these conferences attract diverse industry players representing theatres, festivals, community arts councils, record labels and film and television programmers.

Each conference features a showcase event at which each performer is allowed 15 minutes on stage to present a taste of what they have on offer. Agents often attend the showcases to hunt for new talent to represent.

"Showcasing is probably the best way to get your message out there," Peters said. "If they like what they see they'll pick up your promotional materials and the dialogue begins from there."

Ben Nind, executive director at NACC, visits several showcases each year to book professional acts to perform on stages in the NWT.

"We draw 85 to 90 per cent of our professional performers from the national showcases," he said. "It's not so much the booking as it's relationship building. Out of the relationship-building comes the business of it."

Songwriter, storyteller and musician Pat Braden attended Peters' workshop at NACC last year and returned last week. He is preparing to attend his fourth music showcase, Ontario Contact in Toronto, next month. He attended other shows in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

"Pat has shown himself to be the first artist to showcase on a consistent basis right across the country," Nind said. "So, he is opening up doors into a world that no NWT artist has really entered into and that is opening up huge possibilities because in any given contact room is walking around $3 to $10 million in potential bookings."

Braden's appearance at Pacific Contact in Vancouver last year landed him a gig at the Harrison Arts Festival in B.C. in July. However, because many theatres and festivals book years in advance, most opportunities will develop for 2009, 2010 or even 2011.

"The thing about these things is that I'm a total unknown and the North is totally unknown," Braden said. "They've never seen anything down there, at these events from the North, and so what we're trying to do is put ourselves up at the same standard of presentation and quality of performance and quality of performer and to just say there are Northern acts that are ready to come down and play in the south."