Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
The National Association for Campus Activities or NACA for short is an organization that helps connect performers with the people who book entertainment on campuses across the United States… This description comes directly from their own website –
NACA hosts a National Convention each February. This high-profile, high-energy, four-day event provides networking opportunities with other professionals, students and associate members. Attracting more than 2,000 delegates from nearly 450 member schools, NACA’s National Convention is the nation’s largest campus activities marketplace.
During the Convention, delegates can view more than 80 live performances ranging from music and comedy to lecture and interactive programs. Educational programs focus on topics such as professional and student leadership development, programming, multicultural education, campus organization dynamics and advising, and identification of current trends in the field of campus activities. These programs also include Featured Speakers in targeted areas of professional development. NACA’s Campus Activities Marketplace gives students and staff the ability to meet member agents and artists face to face, enhancing familiarity with the marketplace and facilitating campus bookings.
This is another one of those conferences like Pacific Contact and Artstarts that I’ve discussed on the blog previously. If you’re lucky enough to secure one of the 80 live performance slots described above and knock it out of the park in that performance then your chances of landing a TON of quite well paying work is pretty great! I know many variety entertainers who based much of their career on touring colleges in the US and have had great success at it.
If you google ‘booking college gigs’ you get a slew of different people telling you the pros and cons to this market along with a ton of advice on how to best capitalize on the market. Though I have done a few dates at universities in Canada, it was never a market that I pursued in ernest. That being said, I can say that the shows I did do for college audiences were a bunch of fun!
Had I been more driven to pursue this particular market I’m sure that I could have tapped into it and done very well, but I’m a big fan of booking a diversity of gigs in a variety of venues. Somehow by mixing things up on a regular basis I’ve managed to keep things fresh and interesting which is what works for me. If this is a market that’s of interest then I’d highly recommend exploring the many resources available on-line that can help you tap into the potential gold mine that exists in doing college shows!
[…] that my knowledge was a bit limited, much of which I wrote about in a recent-ish blog post here… He took that information, followed up on it and asked another friend, Wacky Chad, some more […]