The lowdown on ROUTES beyond WOMEX: Building networks, touring opportunities & audiences

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

African Proverb

As someone who’s been involved in promoting, producing or touring culturally diverse music for more than 25 years now (eek!), I’m really excited to be facilitating Arts Council England’s ROUTES Beyond WOMEX ‘open space’ event at WOMEX on Friday 25 October.

Like my many peers and friends across the music sector, I know that it’s never been harder to make ends meet and get (big enough) audiences along to gigs. Ticket sales are hard to predict and the funding climate is really tricky; in short, there’s just less money around. Small wonder then that bookers are find it increasingly hard to take a punt on something new or different that might not bring a ready-made audience with it.

That’s why the question at the heart of this specially-curated event is “how can the music sector work together increase the touring of culturally diverse music and develop and/or diversify our programmes and audiences?”  

Hosted by Arts Council England (ACE), and bringing together a representative group of UK independent promoters, producers and venues (and a smattering of other international professionals) ROUTES Beyond WOMEX is an ‘open space’ event that is designed to help you to super-charge your relationships, expand your networks and kick start new possibilities.  The Arts Council wants WOMEX24 to leave a lasting legacy, across the North of England and throughout the UK, including a practical and sustainable change to the programming and touring culturally diverse music, and in terms of developing and diversifying. In the room will be a group of professionals who are actively engaged in these areas and have a lot to share, so the focus will be a mix of discussion and networking to enable you to explore the current landscape, meet likeminded people and develop your work in the UK and internationally. Ultimately the point is to explore whether we can make the world a little bit ‘better’ for everyone.

Change has to start somewhere, and open space events are a great place to (as someone I know once said) “engage with the stuff […] I only knew how to complain about before”.

So, how’s the event at WOMEX going to work? Read on for the low down…

Open Space is people power in action

It’s called an ‘open space’ event, because the agenda at it isn’t being set by any funders, or by the WOMEX Jury. Instead, it will be set by the people who come along. In my experience, often the best ideas emerge when very different kinds of people come together. So that’s what this event aims to do: bring together people from across the music sector – producers, promoters, venue reps and agents – to invent an exciting future for touring culturally diverse music and developing/diversifying the audiences for it, and discuss how to make that future a reality.

Open Space ‘technology’ is simple. It’s people. ‘Open Space’ isn’t about any one person or organisation taking control or promising to solve everything; it’s a way of bringing together people who want to address a complex issue, by focusing on what matters to them, making essential connections, and doing what they think must be done. It’s about a culture of shared responsibility through which ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.

So what’s going to happen?

The process will start with a group of people coming together at Manchester’s Midland Hotel, people who’ve come along because they care about the future of culturally diverse music in the UK; a group of people that’s unique, and who have never and will never again be together in exactly this grouping.

At the outset of the session there’ll be a chance for anyone with a burning issue, big question or great idea to timetable a conversation about it. You’ll post a topic on the wall, it will get timetabled, the agenda for the event will come together, and over the course of the event people will join the conversations that ‘speaks to them’ the loudest. It’s people power in action.

At any one time, there might be 4, 5, or even more, breakout conversations going on at the same time, with people in each one working hard on the topic at hand. The ‘law of 2 feet’ (or of ‘personal mobility’) means that you can dip in and out of conversations as you want; you might sit through a couple from start to finish, or move between loads more than that, adding a few ideas to all of them as you go. The choice is yours. The responsibility is yours. Then, at the end of the event, everyone comes together again, to share their reflections, learning and the actions they want to commit to after the event. We end as we finish, sharing what’s important to us all.

More than just a talking shop, the aim is to get things and people moving

At ‘open space’ events all of the thinking, all of the ideas, all of the actions get documented in some way. Because the aim is for this event to feel like a beginning of something bigger, the notes from all of the conversations that have taken place will be shared with you after the event, along with details of all participants (and contact details where people are happy to share these), so that you can reach out to others as you start to work together to move forward your ideas.

I love the ‘atomic collisions’ that occur when you bring together people with different ‘norms’ and starting points to explore and invent new ideas and alternative realities – thinking that wouldn’t have come about in any other circumstance, and ideas are generated that wouldn’t otherwise have seen the light of day. In my experience, after an ‘open space’, everyone involved leaves a little bit changed – and re-charged – by the experience.

I’m expecting some real ‘atomic collisions’ when we get together. By the end of the afternoon, what will have happened? My hope is that everyone WILL leave feeling a bit different, with some new ideas and insights, some new potential collaborators, a spring in their step and some clear action points to keep them busy and connected in the weeks and months that follow.

We all have a role to play in helping to build a healthy touring ecosystem for culturally diverse music, and in developing and diversifying audiences, so please have your say, make your mark…

Spaces at the open space are limited, and booking is essential. It would be great to see you there, so please book your ticket here.