Last week, Tessitura hosted another successful virtual conference, this time with Tessitura Europe Community: Future in|sight. Though, of course, we would rather meet in person, online conferences enable expanded reach and engagement, opening the door for attendees who otherwise may not have been able to make the trip. Adage was fortunate enough to attend a handful of sessions and attest (as a partner on US Central Standard Time) that they were a great way to start the morning.
Over five days, Tessitura leadership and community members showed us a few key things: strength in the community, all the buzz around Tessitura v16, and overall commitment to positivity. Here’s a brief recap of Tessitura Europe Community Week: Future in|sight (TEC).
Community
There’s no doubt the Tessitura community is vital. It’s comprised of performing arts professionals who are innately creative and passionate individuals with a talent for improvisation and resiliency. In the opening session of TEC, Founder and Co-CEO Jack Rubin offered reassurance in the stability of Tessitura Network as an organization. Tessitura is going strong, supporting its employees, and taking extra steps to help its community. Since March, Tessitura released 40 new features to meet client needs during the pandemic. Rubin mentioned the organization’s collective empathy, a key theme we repeatedly saw throughout the week. On the other end, industry thought leaders also chipped in to help the community by sharing their experiences from the past year.
Tessitura v16
With its release right around the corner in 2021, there’s no way that Tessitura v16 wouldn’t be a star of TEC Future in|sight. V16 will introduce many new browser-based screens into Tessitura’s business application, enabling for the first time some users of the business app (depending on their job function) to do their work entirely in the web-based screens. This version will also feature an overall new design and re-written memberships, and function entirely on REST API. The sandbox for v16 is available now, with a public beta planned for mid-2021 and general release later in the year. As we addressed in last week’s blog post, Tessitura – SOAP to REST: Updates and Next Steps, users will need to be fully converted to REST API before upgrading to v16.
Multiple TEC sessions focused on v16, diving into more details on timing and preparedness. A Wednesday morning webinar led by Kevin Sheehan, Senior Learning Designer, took a deeper look at Memberships in the new version. On Friday, to wrap up the week, Product Owners, Chris Szalaj and Nara Zitner, outlined in great detail v16 data, processes, and tips to best prepare for the upgrade.
Positivity
Finally, though this was undoubtedly a theme from the beginning of TEC week, I’m choosing to close this blog post out with positivity. The opening session featured uplifting remarks from Co-CEO Andrew Recinos where he introduced six key activities embraced by forward-thinking organizations that have helped them remain positive. Throughout TEC, success stories touched on each of the six activities, which included:
- Engage all audiences
- Strengthen relationships
- Diversify revenue streams
- Streamline operations
- Enable safe gathering
- Transform experiences
In another session, “Making a Positive Impact in a Changing Landscape,” we heard directly from the European Community members about their experiences, challenges, and growth over the past year. Mayflower Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Danish Theatre, and the Science Museum Group all offered incredible examples of making the most of a difficult situation. A positive outcome from the pandemic’s toll on the arts industry has been new and better data and analytics.
With so many challenges facing the Arts and Culture industry, Tessitura has continued to do an exceptional job of offering support and a forward-thinking mentality. Tessitura didn’t call the week Future in|sight for no reason! While we never want to get ahead of ourselves, it does feel as though brighter days may be in sight, and Tessitura is here to lead its community toward a brighter future.
If you missed TEC Future in|sight, session recordings will be available to community members on the Tessitura Network website. Adage is looking forward to the next Tessitura event and we hope to see you there!
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