Photo posted to FB by Cheryl Joyal seemed kinda perfect for this. Thanks Cheryl!
Okay, from here out… I’m switching to mostly first person cause this may be one of the last times I’m communicating with you all in this way …
ENORMOUS thanks (in no particular order) to all of our wonderful Sponsors for… well… money, cause we need money; to Dom Flemons for pure excellence in musicianship and humanship (it should be a word); to Susan Werner, Joel Mabus, Sav Buist, Katie Larson and Elexa Dawson for more than living up to the name of the panel (it’s Wisdom Across the Ages for those who needed it); to THE Annie Bacon for being so freaking adorable and charming while expertly moderating the Wisdom panel; to Sue Kessell for running a fabulous DJ Showcase and to all the DJs for being your music-loving selves and giving independent artists some airtime; to Maurice Smeets, Karen Jenson Smeets and Eric Olsen for patience and good humor while providing the very excellent sound and lights so we can actually see and hear the performers playing and singing their hearts out on the main stage; to Charlie Steen for bringing all that intimidating video gear and knowing how to use it for to capture our main stage events – (and some other stuff too) we can’t wait to see (if you’d like to purchase any main stage showcases click here); to Lee Herman and Enda Reilly for lending us their less intimidating video cameras so we could capture (almost) all of the workshops and I learned how useful (and small) those SD cards are (we’ll be posting the videos to the Whova app in stages, but all should be available by mid November); to all of our awesome workshop presenters and panelists for sharing your knowledge, insights and hearts with anyone who was smart enough to be in the room; to Maggie Heeren and Claire Horn of La Luna Recording and Sound for representing the woefully underrepresented female badassery in the audio engineering world and bringing our first Pop-up Recording studio so folks can experience that badassery first hand; to all of our Private Showcase Hosts for keeping the music flowing will into the wee hours; to Dave Sheely of the Proshop & Celebrate Hudson Concert Series for getting those last minute t-shirts done so fast and you kept smiling; to Joan Hellmann for always being at the ready to help and also she’s the queen of Performance Lane; to Smitty Smith who stopped taking my calls (;-) but at least when it still mattered, he went above and beyond wrangling showcase artists, helping with volunteer coordination and stepping in wherever he was needed, as well as some much needed puppy therapy; to Karen Rigotti for help, help and more help with many admin jobs and speaker coordination and smarts, she’s got ‘em; to the inimitable Sue Fink our most excellent Registrar – it’s a BIG job, people and it’s a big people job – not big as in size, it’s just, you need to be good with people; to our super volunteer, Randy Styka for keeping everyone up all night (if he has any say in it), and also he lets us use his ipad so we can take credit card payments; to all of our Mentors for generously volunteering to sit down with anyone who signs up and share the stuff they know with others; to EVERY volunteer who shows up and does things we need them to do throughout the conference; and without Cindy Morgan, those volunteers would not know what to do or where to go, nor, in some cases, would this conference director 😉 – give her a hand cause she’s always giving one to someone else; to Nik Thomasma (and that great hair!) for invaluable contributions to the team, he IS our social media presence, plus he can figure stuff out when there’s no room left in my brain, like when I need someone to learn how to run the projector & screen, what a load off my mind; to Charlie Mosbrook for being so damn cool and always offering level-headed leadership as FARM Board President, stepping up when nobody wanted the job of Private Showcase coordinator and lots of other things all while doing whatever FARM Board Presidents do when they’re not helping with the conference committee; and last, but certainly not least, to Ellen Stanley for taking this leap (woah. wait. where’s the net!!!!)- In all seriousness, it would have been a lot harder to move on if I didn’t know for sure that FARM would be in such good hands!
It has been my honor to serve as your conference director these past 5 years. I’ve learned SO much and though I’ll miss the work (um, not … I mean… okay … maybe a little), I’m really looking forward to joining you all as an attendee in the coming years!