Developing Networking Skills

03/06/2014 9:00 AM

Hana Becker ‘15

Over the weekend of February 21 & 22,  eight students from the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts attended the annual Self-Employment in the Arts conference held in Lisle, Illinois.

The purpose of this conference is to educate aspiring artists about entrepreneurial skills.  The goal is to push students farther in their career as independent professionals through connecting them with other students or artists, educators and arts-business professionals.

Baili Martin, freshman music major, mentioned the benefits she experienced at SEA.

“I received a great deal of insight into the business side of music, like networking and sales pitching…Outside of the sessions I was able to talk with student artists from different colleges and put my networking skills to use,” said Marin.

The Bradley students ranged from backgrounds in music business, general music and communication and they found there was something for everyone.

The SEA conference consisted of seven sessions, each of which attendees would pick one of eight to 10 speakers, activities or discussion options to attend.

These sessions were lead by successful professionals in different fields such as music, visual art, culinary art, theatre and more.

Sessions such as Licensing Your Music for Synchronization Usage, Pitch Jam: Making Your Pitch, So You Want To Be A Screenwriter?,  How to Create and Present an Effective Portfolio, and many more were found of special interest and assistance to the Bradley attendees.  

 “The best part of the experience, in my opinion, was being able to have so many people with similar personalities and passions from all different facets of the art world come together in one place,” said Payton Orr, sophomore interactive media major.