Arrived in Nashville with no problems. Had lunch with publicist Lori Lenz and radio promoter Shannon Becker at a cute cafe called Provence. Chatted about lots of stuff, including why the chickens Shannon owns laid all of their eggs in a laundry basket in his garage.
My roommate for GMA, Kathleen Burke, is doing publicity for a bunch of artists, including Natasha Ponticelli from Destination 7, Gina Tarajano, Matt Brower, Virginia Hill and The Sonflowerz. She's got our living room suite booked solid with interviews the whole week.
This is a quiet night; nothing major scheduled. There are some showcases around town but without a car (or even that much ambition) I'll be sticking around the hotel.
Speaking of showcases - this year GMA is running a little differently than in years past. Media used to be credentialed, and we were able to get into almost any showcase with that, the theory being that artists are here to connect with media, and the more exposure the better. Think about it; when else are you going to get Christian writers from New York and Sweden in the same room?
Anyway, this year GMA did no credentialing. That meant that publicists didn't know who was coming, and so couldn't schedule interviews without coming to us to see if we'd be here. We have no credentials for showcases, and we can't go into the convention center or sit in on seminars.
Basically, media is pretty much cut out of GMA week. I can't tell you what Jesus junk is hot this year (that's where I first heard about Scripture sneakers and Jesus energy drinks). I can't sit in on any of the seminars and give you info thatmight make you want to come to GMA. (Which is really too bad, because rumor has it that registrations for GMA are waaaay down. One track alone is down 2/3.)
The other thing is that the Dove Awards are on Thursday this year, only no one come right out and told us. Sure, the date was on the press releases, but for years the show has been on Wed night. I can't tell you how many media people I've talked to who are scheduled to fly out Thurs morning because that's the way it's always been.
All of that to say that this GMA is going to be really interesting.
4:00 PM - hanging out with Natasha Ponticelli, from Destination 7. She showed me a great video to the band's song, "Wait For The Sun," which an anime artist did for free. Really amazing.
7:00 pm having dinner at Paneras with Kathleen, Alan Rasmussen from Control Track TV in Orlando and Ryan Street from 11:28 Worship. Ryan made a great comment about worship: "What you are consumed by is what you worship." Think about that for a while.
Heading back to the hotel. I'm tired and my body is an hour ahead of Nashville time.
More tomorrow!
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Yes the attendance does seem low this year and that is obviously because of the economy. But those that are here are definetly here to accomplish something.
To me GMA is always what the individual makes of it..... while I would admit they don't seem to go out of their way for the media, the information is there if you look for it. And that is what you will probably have to do.
Hi, Ted! Ive actually had a great GMA week. I can't wait to share it with readers - definitely less GMA involvement but I had great time with artists. :) After almost 10 years the event has def lost it's luster, LOL, but this year ended up great. :)
Hope you enjoyed yourself! Maybe we ran into each other this week?
Joanne
host of the GS blog
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