On Tuesday, November 27th, New World Stages hosted the first-ever TRENDING BROADWAY. It was a day spent fully immersed in conversation about key trends across culture, technology, and media that are shaping the future of the Broadway business.
The inaugural event was presented by The Shubert Organization and digital agency, Situation. Through the power of their community, the duo created an inspiring lineup that zeroed in on issues impacting our industry today and in the years to come.
The day kicked off with a thought-provoking keynote from Priya Parker, the author of The Art of Gathering. Priya roused the audience members with a series of poignant questions, asking audience members to stand if they related. From there, the hopeful energy in the room was solidified.
Situation’s Damian Bazadona joined Priya on the stage for a fireside chat about her book. The rest of the first session welcomed a panel on creative convergence with executives from Lyft, The Phantom of the Opera, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, moderated by Situation’s Jeremy Kraus. Next up, Situation’s Lisa Cecchini joined the stage for her talk on how to market to international audiences in our new reality.
Session two kicked off with talks from Tim Kashani of Apples and Oranges Studios as well as leaders from Boum Creative, ProductionPro Technologies Inc., and Gimlet about the impact of technology on the art of theatre-making.
The following session took the technology conversation even further with a panel examining the growth of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Tech experts from BroadwAi, Satisfi Labs, and Activity Stream discussed the new leap of faith with moderator and tech journalist, Lance Ulanoff.
When you’re in the Broadway business, you recognize that the theatre industry has a great purpose. The final session of the day centered on the root of that powerful message. Dori Berinstein, the founder of Dramatic Forces, sat down with influential speakers from The Case Foundation, Proctors, and Situation to bring it all home.
After all the new insight, information, and inspiration, guests enjoyed a cocktail hour to talk about it all. In the end, it was easy to conclude that this amazing community certainly deserves a toast.
Check out the photos from the event here. A special shout out to New World Stages for their beautiful space, as well as all of the folks who introduced individual sessions including Rose Polidoro, Alecia Parker, Kyle Wright, Charles Flateman and David Andrews.
Will we see you again at TRENDING BROADWAY in 2019? We sure hope so.
