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ECMA Day 1

Well, well… Kim and I got up at 5am today. We packed up the car and hit the road early, arriving in Moncton around 8:30am. I managed to check into our hotel (although we couldn’t get access to the room right away) so Kim would have somewhere to hang out.

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Gypsophilia

I headed over to the Delta at 9am, registered, dropped of my CDs to the Buyers Lounge, checked out the schedule and waited for the Export Readiness Pitching Training Workshop. The workshop was excellent! We talked about what makes a good pitch and then had a chance to make a 3 minute pitch. After my 3 minute pitch I was critiqued on what was good and what I need to work on. That was great! After lunch three people from the class were chosen to pitch to presenters so we could observe an actual pitching conversation.

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Old Man Luedecke

I also made some interesting connections during the workshop with some of my fellow classmates. I am always looking for entertainment that might be appropriate for the NB Highland Games in Fredericton, so it was great to meet the representatives for both “10 Strings and a Goat String” and “Arseneault.” On top of that I met Crystal Mann, a teacher, children’s performer, and violin/fiddle enthusiast from Nova Scotia.

A very cool thing that happened at the end of the workshop was that one of the presenters came to me looking for a CD. She is a music producer for some TV shows and sometimes needs fiddle music. There is certainly no guarantee that my music will be used, but this is the start of a relationship, so I am really pleased!

While I was at my workshop, Kim was able to check into the room. ECMA this year is offering a shuttle service to the hotels where people are staying, which is great! I was able to meet up with Kim really easily and then we have been able to just leave our car at our hotel. That is always nice!

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Matt Andersen

In the evening we went to the Roots Room concert. Performers in the concert included Catherine MacLellan, Matt Andersen, Coco Love Alcorn, Old Man Luedecke, Kim Stockwood, Gypsophilia, ENNIS and Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys. It was a great concert! During the concert the awards for Folk Recording, Roots/Traditional Solo Album and Roots/Traditional Group Album were all awarded. I, sadly, did not win the Roots/Traditional Solo (Kim Stockwood was the winner), however, I am still delighted to have the nomination!

All in all, this was a very successful day!

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