Identifying Issues and Speakers

The events manager's first task is to identify the issues and speakers to be featured at the annual workshops. To determine the emerging and important issues in the music industry that directly affect the songwriting profession, the manager must review information contained within Web sites, trade magazines and industry papers (e.g., Billboard, Spin, Rolling Stone, Indie Music Newsletter). The next step is to identify locally or nationally successful songwriters to be speakers at workshops by considering songwriters' past work history, success, speaking experience at workshops and conferences, genres of music, and whether or not they have written any books or articles. Subsequently, the events manager must contact the necessary individuals and organizations to obtain information, permissions and commitments.

Writing Letters and Bios
The letter of invitation is essentially a piece of persuasive writing that must build a convincing and cogent argument, and it demands that the writer be well informed about her or his reader. The events manager may already be familiar with the invitee, or she or he may have to search for background information through databases, the Internet or trade magazines. No matter how the list of invitees is determined, the contents and style of the letter must be in tune with the audience — the reader/invitee — to have a favorable chance of being accepted. Once the panelists are determined, the events manager must write a short biographical sketch, often simply referred to as a "bio," of each workshop panelist. To draft bios of the panelists who accept their invitations, the events manager may actually have to conduct interviews with the panelists or have them submit lists of their accomplishments, awards and bits of personal history, from which the events manager then composes a narrative. For those panelists who are established songwriters, the events manager then compiles discographies (a descriptive list of songs a songwriter has written or co-written) to have on hand for workshop attendees to provide them with valuable information about the panelist. The events manager must be sure to make the format uniform and cite all information accurately (e.g., title, songwriter, artist, copyright date).