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LIB07 went off with nary a hitch, and wild success a week ago…finally! i liken the process of working on a music festival to going through labor with 20+ people for 5 months, and when the baby’s delivered it graduates, and moves off to college.

so we ushered LIB off, and in the aftermath, as per usual, i got insanely sick. full on can’t-get-out-of-bed sick, the ground moves when i get up sick, my sinuses are on a rampage sick, there’s a symphony in my lungs sick, etc…. this generally happens after every big production. back when i was managing the circus, we would all get sick after big performances, as if on cue. maybe it’s a matter of immunity being the first to get dumped overboard once the momentum throws a mutiny, or maybe it’s a matter of the celebratory champagne bottles that get passed around the whole crew at the end of the weekend. either way…. it’s been like that for the past week, and i am finally now starting to head in the direction of health once again.

there is a LOT of new news coming up in the next couple of weeks. changes are afoot, and on their heels are a some new projects that i’m gonna be wrapping my head around–and hopefully, a few of them are going to be MY projects, which should also be an exciting change.

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until THEN, however…. i wanted to make a belated little mention here about…

the Spring 2007 Do LaB Aritst Network email that we put out just one day before the festival doors opened. in the ensuing madness i didn’t have a chance to post anything about it here before, but it’s something i’m tremendously proud of, and keep getting prouder of with each issue. (this is the second. the first one came out in Winter 07). we put out this online arts publication showcasing the best of the creativity emerging from the Do Lab’s community on a quarterly basis and i’m very happy to be able to report that as the Do LaB’s email list keeps growing (now, a full 30% larger than it was back when we did the first issue of the AN, just 4 months ago), our open and click-thru rates get higher and higher. the Spring AN email, featuring some kick-ass videos, had the highest open & click thru rates of any of our emails, with almost 3 times as many people actually checking it out as did the first one).

and furthering the community- generated direction that this project is heading, the design for this issue of the AN was created by the winner of the LIB Poster Contest, Albertico Acosta. having different graphic artists within the community participate in creating the AN is definitely something i’d like to continue. albertico’s winning poster entry (chosen by the community’s vote):

people keep asking me what i’m up to these days. people that don’t know that my life has been completely taken over by Lightning in a Bottle. and i try to explain something about how there’s this 3-day greeen music festival, and how i’m directing the whole marketing strategy for it, and how that involves managing everything from our email communications, website updates, street promotions, pr efforts, and to all kinds of other initiatives… but the truth is that when you’re so in the thick of it, it’s really hard to step back and gain enough perspective to really be able to articualte ANYTHING that you’re doing. it’s hard to comment on the state of the battle from the trenches.

so it’s dawned on me that i should have started this months ago. but what the hell, 4.5 weeks out is better than not at all, right?

at this point there’s new moves happening fast and furious, and i figured this could be a good place to document the LIB07 marketing & communications strategy process. it’s also the process through which a grassroots organization is transitioning from the underground to the spotlight, elevating both its community of fans and network of creators with it.

here’s what’s happened within the past few days in the land of LIB promotions:

– LIB + worldchanging = : worldchanging is an online hub that aims to connect innovative, forward-thinking people who are doing things now to create profound, positive change for a better future. i thought they were great even before that fortuitous introduction to alex steffen at sxsw that resulted in this great little piece. turns out worldchanging digs us too: we’re now officially the “coachella for environmentalists”! awesome!

– what lucent dossier really wants to know is… : met with dream this weekend about really kick-starting community interaction among lucent’s 16,000+ myspace friends. we’re so excited by all the great response we’ve gotten already that we’re planning to continue stirring up conversation among that community on a very regular basis leading up to LIB. (taking cues from gnarls barkley on this one, for sure. 😉 )

– the santa barbara news press, which did an article on LIB last year wants to know what’s new about LIB this year. they’re saying that unless there’s something drastically new it probably won’t warrant extensive coverage. so what do you say to that when you know that the santa barbara community digs us hardcore for what we are, not for any gimmick we might be doing differently?

i say:

“last year it was the first time we’d ever done an event in s.b. we have a devoted following in l.a. but we had no idea how people there would react to it. whether they’d even care. the response we got from the people there was really overwhelming. we kept hearing over and over how excited they were that we had brought an event like this to santa barbara. people really loved this festival.

so the big difference is that while last year our venture into s.b. was somewhat of an experiment, the genuine enthusiasm for LIB within the santa barbara community (the same community where “earth day” originated) is what’s giving us the support to bring LIB back on a larger scale in all areas in 07.”

– “hi, i’m an awesome video of Lucent L’amour that no one’s seen before”:

david starfire, one our mainstay event djs, and on the lineup for LIB, turned us on to this really great video of an event we did in february 2006 (yeah, that’s how long it takes us to catch up here, at the Do!) anyway, we contacted the creator, and are considering using this video in the Spring issue of the Do LaB Artist Network email blast, which is going to be all about videos, especially music videos. he says he’s got footage from LIB06 as well, maybe we can find some way of convincing him to edit that too…- lots of other bits and ends going on, and in the works, including that ad in Plenty Magazine, now on newsstands, gonna be getting some coverage from bijoubreaks.com, the San Luis Obispo New Times is gonna be doing an interview with some our crew–jesse, dream, and shena, i think. brian shaw is hopefully programming our music contest as i type, i think…brian? are you? will we be able to announce it to the bands that sent in submissions soon? ….

and then there is, of course the constant construction and preparations going on for another little festival called Coachella where the Do will be producing an acre-big installation with full performance stage and sound-system just two weeks before LIB…. so that’s going to be madness….

i think this is all i can think of for right now…. not sure how often i’ll be making these “what the hell is a strategy?” posts, but i’m positive it’s a good idea that i started.

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