Indy Car Racing at Sonoma

Well, this is my last blog post at least while I’m in the Entertainment Masters Degree program at Full Sail University.  I was trying to decide what to write about for this last required blog post.  I wanted to complete this before Sunday evening (the last evening of class when everything is due) but I have been working the Indy Race at Sonoma raceway for the last two days for 10 hours each day.  My job at Sonoma is a corner worker.  A Corner worker is a track official positioned generally before a corner on a road course, to provide flag communication to the drivers and radio communication to the track steward. The corner worker may provide information that will save both the driver and racecar from serious harm due to unsafe track conditions ahead. They'll also be the ones to let a driver know a faster car is approaching, and whether something is wrong with the car that the driver is not aware of. They're there to protect a driver’s life.  This is my part time job and it can be dangerous, but I have been doing it for about 7 years now and I love it.

Since this is my last assignment, I have to mention that although I love the concert industry, I also love auto racing and baseball (Yankees).  This has made it difficult throughout the Masters program to decide what to I want to do with my degree and what to write my business plan on.  I’d love to be able to work in all three of these areas.  With this said, I have decided to write about the entertainment, or sport of Indy Car at Sonoma.  Indy Car is open wheel racing and the cars go at speeds of approximately 170 miles per hour at this road course.  Most have heard of the popular Indy Car drivers like Mario Andretti (Mario has retired from racing but his grandson Marco races in the series), Will Power, Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, and Tony Kanaan.  Another driver I have to mention is Dan Wheldon, who was killed in a horrific crash last year at Las Vegas.  He was my favorite driver.  This was very sad.

It is exciting to stand on a racetrack and watch these drivers go by and watching out for their safety.  This event and NASCAR are the popular races at Sonoma and tends to draw more hype and entertainment with camera’s everywhere.  I have attached couple videos you may be able to spot the corner workers, we are dressed all in white.  The first video will show a crash that happened in my corner during practice on Friday, it can be scary when a fast car hits a wall and starts spinning toward you.  It’s really fun to be part of this exciting sport, and I have the best seat in the house.

CHEAP TRICK AND AEROSMITH REVIEW

I am nearing the finish line of the Entertainment Business Masters Degree Program, and I just completed my Business Plan (the word document part anyway). So, I have decided to keep this blog post on the light and fun side rather than serious school work side, and write a review on the Cheap Trick and Aerosmith concert I attended last weekend.  This review does go along with my blog theme, concerts and concert reviews. 

Last week my friend, Joanne, a huge Aerosmith Fan, was kind enough to invite me to the show at the Oracle in Oakland.  I didn’t realize that she was going to purchase one of the VIP packages that included some perks, excellent seats on the floor and a question answer session with Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford, and Joey Kramer of Aerosmith.  It was a great!

This was the first time I had seen Cheap Trick, kind of a surprise to me as I have seen over 200 concerts and Cheap Trick was a favorite in the early 80’s.  Maybe I have overlooked it.  Anyway, Cheap Trick put on a good show playing all of their hits and my favorite, The Flame. 

Now I have seen Aerosmith at least 8 times, if not more, and worked for them in the capacity of catering in the early 80’s and a Runner in 1994.  Also, I am from Massachusetts and had the opportunity to see them when they played at smaller venues when as a teenager.   

With that information I have to say this show was exceptionally good.  Steve Tyler has always been a good showman, well there was an exception to that when they played in the early 80’s, and thankfully he straightened his act out.  Aerosmith is a band that sounds great live.  Our seats were on the floor next to the catwalk, before the show started I saw people moving to stand next to the stage and I followed and stood there for the entire Aerosmith show.  When the show started Steven Tyler rose up from the end of the catwalk, very close to where I was standing.  One good review I read said it nicely, “It really doesn’t get any better, and if anyone on this planet was born to be a rock star, it was this man. Seriously, a born rock god”.  (Debord,2012)

 

Aerosmith are veteran rockers and you can certainly tell that they love to perform and play their music.  Each member of the band got to play solo and they all sounded great in solo and all together.  I like that they played quite a few of their old songs like “Draw the Line”, "Same old Song and Dance”, “Walk This Way”, "Dream On”, and one of my favorites “Sweet Emotion”.  I will say my favorite moment was when Steven Tyler came up from under the stage sitting at a piano and played "Dream On" with Joe Perry standing on the piano playing guitar.

In all it was a great night of great live music.  And the house was packed!!!  I have to add, even with the downed economy, consumers are still paying to go to concerts.  Thanks for the VIP tickets Joanne!

Aerosmith at Oracle Arena Oakland, California, 8/4/12, Bebord, Jason (August 5, 2012) Retrieved on Aug. 8, 2012 from: http://rocksubculture.com/2012/08/05/aerosmith-at-oracle-arena-oakland-california-842012/

Pictures and video were taken by me.

My Business Plan - Applying what I've Learned from Experts

Winding down to the end of my class, Business Plan Development.  I’ve started the process of writing my business plan.  When I first began writing the Mission Statement of my Business plan I must say honestly that I was a bit overwhelmed.  I was over thinking my Business Plan as if it was set in stone for life and I had to make it perfect.  Also, I have so many interests in concert production and sports entertainment and it was difficult to narrow my services down. Then I reflected back to the article I posted on July 1^st, where I talked about Barbara Corcoran and Steve Ellis. 

In the article Barbara Corcoran wrote, she stated that a lengthy business plan is useless and suggested to keep your business plan simple.  Her suggestion was to just list what’s most important to attend to, and to imagine what exactly you want your business to look like when it is successful.  Make a simple “to do” list of what’s most important to make your dream a reality.  These were excellent suggestions and I was able to keep my business plan simple and focus on what is important for the purposes of this business plan.  I can always change it later. (Burhoe, 2011) 

Steve Ellis suggests concentrating on your product, what you’re trying to sell.  He believes that the critical component of a business plan is the name of the company.  He believes that the name of the company must represent who the owner is and the concept the owner is trying to portray.  The company needs to be unique and marketable, and grab the attention of the investor.  The name of my company is JPS Music Tour Management.  Although I’m still struggling with the name and would like to be more creative, I would say that the name of my company does represent who I am with JPS and what I am trying to portray is Music Tour Management Company.  (Glaenzer, 2011)

The most important part of my Business Plan would be the Mission Statement and Executive Summary as both tell the investor what it is I am going to do.  Barbara Corcoran also stated that the Investor does not want to read the entire plan, and to treat it like a resume.  Put what is most important first, if it grabs the attention of the Investor, they will read further. 

Sources:

http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/tips/ThemeGallery/777018

Burhoe, Steven. (2011, March 31). Expert Views on Business Plans. Retrieved on June 30, 2012 from: http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/


Glaenzer, Stefan. (2011, October 27). We al know that business plans are a sub-genre of science fiction. Retrieved on July 1, 2012 from:   http://fanuscripts.blogspot.com/2011/10/we-all-know-that-business-plans-are-sub.html

Experts Key Concepts of Writing a Business Plan

The world is full of successful business people.  But how did they become successful?  For the most part, it all started with a Business Plan.  In this blog I will discuss two successful business people, and what they believe are the key components in a Business Plan. 

Barbara Corcoran, a member of the Shark Tank Crew, is a Real Estate mogul who started Real Estate Company in New York with a $1,000 loan from her boyfriend.  Her Real Estate Company turned into over $5 billion in 25 years.  She also wrote a national best-selling book about business called; If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails.  Corcoran believes that a critical component of a successful business plan is a great executive summary.  She makes a very good point in her reasoning as she says most investors will not read the whole plan because they have so many other plans to consider. You will grab the attention of the investor if you answer the questions, “What problem are your trying to solve?  Why are you uniquely qualified to solve it?  Is it good business? What’s it going to cost?  And how long is it going to take?” I guess you could compare this to a hiring authority looking at your resume.  You want to list your most qualifying skills and/or experience first.  Corcoran also stated that two of the biggest pitfalls in writing a business plan are overestimating your company’s addressable market and downplaying risks.  (Burhoe, 2011)

Additionally, when Corcoran was interviewed about writing a business plan, on the show Shark Tank Tips, she stated that a lengthy business plan was useless.  She suggested keeping the business plan simple.  Just list what's most important to attend to and what's not. I thought a great suggestion from her is to imagine what exactly what you want your business to look like once you are successful.  Like a daydream. Make a simple "to do" list of what's most important to make your dream a reality. http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/tips/ThemeGallery/777018

Steve Ells founded the restaurant, Chipotle in 1993 with a loan for $85,000 from his father.  Ells is the co-Chief Executive Officer and was appointed Chairman of the Board in 2005.  Before to launching Chipotle, Ells worked at Stars restaurant in San Francisco for two years, and graduated from the University of Colorado with a BA in art history.  He also graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1990, and is currently a top investor on NBC’s, America’s Great Next Restaurant. Ells suggests to concentrate on your product, what you're trying to sell to the investor. (Glaenzer, 2011)

The investors on America’s Great Next Restaurant believe that one of the key and critical components investors look for in a business plan is the name of the company. They believe that the name of the company must represent who the owner is and the concept the owner is trying to portray.  They also believe that the concept of the company needs to be unique and marketable and grab the attention of the investor.  (Burhoe, 2011)

Sources:
Burhoe, Steven. (2011, March 31). Expert Views on Business Plans. Retrieved on June 30, 2012 from: http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/ 


Glaenzer, Stefan. (2011, October 27). We al know that business plans are a sub-genre of science fiction. Retrieved on July 1, 2012 from:   http://fanuscripts.blogspot.com/2011/10/we-all-know-that-business-plans-are-sub.html


http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/tips/ThemeGallery/777018

Musicians Utilizing Social Media

As we know, social media is a way of life these days, especially for digital marketing.  Just look at all the advertisements on Facebook.  Speaking of Facebook, the recent news of Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) starting at $38 per share, has U2’s front man Bono in the news.  Bono bought into Facebook when it is fresh and word is that he may now be one of the richest musicians in the world (after Paul McCartney).  Bono has more than a two-percent stake in Facebook and it is worth $1.5 billion.  (Kaufman, 2012) This brings me to the topic of how musicians are utilizing social media to share their music with the world and interact with the fans.  How many musicians are utilizing this? I would say that if you are a musician and not on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media networks then you are in the dark ages.  I would guess that some utilize it more than others.  It’s not surprising that Bono is on board with social media and interacting because after all, it’s Bono! U2 uses social media to be connected with the fans during their live show.  Although U2’s tour is an enormous production, I’m sure there are other bands who use social media during the live show to connect with the fans. 

Recently I attended 2 concerts, Roger Waters and Coldplay.  While attending these concerts I was involved in social media, as were people sitting around me in the audience.  We were all taking pictures and I know that I was posting them on Facebook.  I would take a guess that others were doing the same.  In 2009 and 2011 I attended the U2 360 Tour.  A blog article in High Talk, 3 Social Media Lessons from U2, by George F. Snell III, talks about how it was difficult to avoid social media at a U2 live show (the article refers to the actual show I attended in Foxborough, Massachusetts).   Snell talks about how U2 used technology and social media throughout the show to interact with the fans.  It is well known that U2 care about world issues (e.g. One.org, Amnesty.org) and they used technology, social media and the web to create a strong bond with their fans and to get them on board with the causes they care about.  While U2 is entertaining their fans, they are also getting them connected and using the power of the web to tell stories, get people connected and sell their brands.  Most consumers want connection to the people behind the brand they are interested in buying, Bono creates a human face to U2 while he showcases his products and ideas to his fans.   So in this case what Bono is selling is a cause and he can sometimes get a bit political, but the way he interweaves it into an amazing show works.  He is also selling his music. 

In my last blog I said I was going to attend Roger Waters in San Francisco.  I also said I would give a review, as I had posted a blog about the difference between the arena and stadium shows.  But I don’t have much to report, the show was basically the same (fantastic) but just larger.  I will add a video of Roger Waters discussing how he uses social media.  

References:

Kaufman, G. (2012, May 18). Facebook IPO Could Smash Records, Spur New Tech Wave:  MTV News takes you behind the scenes of Facebook in a    2011 documentary that explores the company's unique non-corporate culture. Retrieved from: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1685335/facebook-ipo-diary.jhtml

Kaufman, G. (2012, May 18). Bono's Billion-Dollar Facebook IPO Haul: By The Numbers: You could buy nearly seven million pair of Bulgari Bono sunglasses the cash. Retrieved from: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1685414/bono-facebook-ipo-billion.jhtml

Snell, George F. III. (2012, September 2009). 3 Social Media Lessons from U2.  Retrieved from: http://hightalk.net/2009/09/21/3-social-media-lessons-from-u2/