For the ninth year in a row, I made it to one of my favourite work events of the year, Capacity Interactive’s Boot Camp. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a digital marketing conference specifically for performing arts professionals to learn, get inspired by high-quality presentations and get to know their peers. As Plank does adjacent things to digital marketing, and we focus primarily on arts and cultural website projects, it’s the perfect place for people to learn about us and hopefully choose to work with us as well.
With a first-time move from Manhattan to Brooklyn to a more suitable cultural venue at BRIC, I was excited for the two days of presentations, conversations, and inspiration.
Attending again this year, I spent most of my time at our booth in the Sponsors area, but I did get a chance to take in most of the presentations and, as usual, came away with a slew of new ideas. While there were tons of great presentations on very relevant topics, two stood out the most for me.
Personally, one of the standout presentations was the conversation between Monica Holt and Deborah Rutter. While currently the Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke, Deborah’s time as President of the Kennedy Center offered a unique window into what leadership at the highest levels of the arts world looks like. Her perspective on Servant Leadership rang true to me as I strive to follow these principles as much as I can.
I was also impressed by the presentation moderated by Christopher Williams with Amber Cox, COO and GM of the Indiana Fever, and Keia Clarke, CEO of the New York Liberty, While I was initially sceptical about a presentation devoted to sports, it’s easy to forget that a lot of the challenges of sports and the arts are the same, as both are about performance, entertainment and developing long term, devoted fan bases or audiences. It was also great to hear stories about resilience and how sweet success can be after years of hard work and investment in the WNBA.
On top of sponsoring Boot Camp, I am proud to support this event for other, less business-y reasons. From the moment I attended in 2016, it was clear that the Capacity Interactive team behind Boot Camp were kind, compassionate, and like-minded people. I could feel the empathetic nature of their team and culture the moment I stepped into the room. I immediately wanted to be a part of it.
Second, the quality of the speakers and presentations has been strong every year. I always leave the event with new knowledge to make Plank a better company and with inspiration that I hope makes me a better leader.
Finally, attending the event in person offers me an annual opportunity to explore one of my favourite places in the world, New York City. With my home base this time in Brooklyn, my time in the city was different, but no less enjoyable.
Once Boot Camp ended for the week, I was blessed to be able to stay an extra day to explore the city, and it was just perfect. With the sun out and the temperature hovering around 18°c, I took the opportunity to walk through Prospect Park to start the day.
I then met up with some old friends for lunch, and once we were done, I got on the subway to visit The Frick Collection in the Upper East Side. I was surprised at the line to get in and how many people were visiting as well, but with the building closed for the last few years, I’m sure a lot of people wanted to see what they had been missing.
The rest of my day was about taking another long walk through Manhattan. I started in Central Park and then went down 5th Avenue until Washington Square Park. From there, I ended up on Canal before heading back to Brooklyn for dinner.
