You gotta have art

Mix one part recruitment, two parts publicity, some fine arts and a dash of wine and what do you get?

A surefire recipe for integrating high-tech and high art.

Such a connection was recently made with "Ballet Beta Test." About 1,500 high tech professionals saw the first act of Ballet Austin's "Butterfly" for free, but could also visit booths set up by high-tech company sponsors. The sponsors got an opportunity to get in front of highly sought workers, all the techies got a chance to network over a glass of wine and Ballet Austin took home net proceeds of $23,000.

Ballet Austin and other arts organizations are targeting Austin's high tech community, not just for fiscal contributions, but also to entice them to attend the performances.

"We know high tech is a growing demographic here," says Carolyn LaMarsh, director of development for Ballet Austin, "and they have not been part of our audience...we wanted to figure out a way to be linked with the high-tech community, specifically the younger demographic."

Part of that motivation is based upon the deconstruction of traditional ballet. Instead of expecting a younger audience to find traditional ballet appealing, Ballet Austin is making its 2000-2001 season more attractive to the younger audience. "Stephen Mills [artistic director for Ballet Austin] is more edgy and contemporary," says LaMarsh. "This seems to appeal more to younger audiences."

The needed link to Austin's high tech community turned out to be John Thornton, principal at Austin Ventures, who also donated $1 million to the ballet in March.

When Chris Greta of advertising agency The Ad Ranch lost a bet over dinner with Thornton, Thornton sought payment in Greta doing for the ballet what he had done a year before for eOpera.

Using an Email blast to communicate to the tech community in its desired forum, Greta had drawn 900 to the Austin Lyric Opera for a dress rehearsal.

"We had wanted to get the tech world over there [to the opera] to give them a free sample," says Greta.

This time, instead of focusing strictly on the performance, Greta envisioned Ballet Beta Test as a social/recruitment event, especially when he discovered that Grapevine Market is a Ballet Austin sponsor and would contribute wine.

"Wine would be a good icebreaker," says Greta, who added a wine-tasting to the post-performance socializing. Sponsors paid $3,000 for a booth and four cases of wine. Thornton offered $500 to each AV portfolio company which participated in the event, investing almost $5,000 to offset the cost of 10 participating companies. A total of 12 companies sponsored the event.
Sponsors set up tables, handed out information, poured wine, answered questions, poured more wine and even collected résumés.

"Everybody's trying to recruit," says Greta about the high tech sponsors, "but it was more of a chance to get in front of 1,500 to 2,000 people to tell them what they do."

Nevertheless, recruitment did occur.

Public relations firm Burson-Marsteller recently opened an office in Austin and decided this event was a vehicle for publicity, recruitment and supporting the arts.

"It's very competitive right now to recruit people because there are so many agencies and so many positions open," says Jim Moore, director of the Austin office. "We've gotten a lot of résumés from it."

Vinay Bhagat, CEO of Convio, another high tech sponsor, said that Ballet Beta Test was an inexpensive way to reach out to a new audience, for both the ballet and for companies.

"Supporting the community in general is a much more effective way for building a brand than just advertising," says Bhagat. He says word-of-mouth is the most effective form of recruitment and publicity.

Marc Lurie, founder and CEO of @hand Corp., another sponsor, agrees. "Part of generating recruits is to do these events in order to get your name out there."

@hand has a hefty recruiting goal of 100 people by the end of the year. Only one and a half months after launching its recruitment campaign, the company received 1,500 résumés.

As for the perceived gap between high tech and high art in Austin, Bhagat says high-tech support has been nascent, and claims the opera was the first to actively reach out to the high tech community. Convio was also one of three sponsors at a High-Tech Happy Hour at the Austin Lyric Opera House in March.

"Every nonprofit has a mission to broaden its demographic, to become more appealing to minorities, the high-tech sector," Bhagat says "Every nonprofit is trying to change their support base. An older demographic is not sustainable."

While Austin may be the music capital of the world, high-tech professionals with disposable income choose Austin for its job opportunities. Once here, they discover Austin has more to offer than live bands and beer.
"A lot of people have moved from other cities that have more culture," says Bhagat, "but we have a lot of solid organizations for a town this size."
SHANNON RENTNER can be reached by Email at: srentner@bizjournals.com

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