Trade Mission Report to Shanghai, October 2004

Introduction:
Barely a day passes without an international newspaper making comment on the development in China. Over the last few years many political and business trade missions have been undertaken, not only from Britain, but from many countries around the globe as they vie for China’s attention. In this light, it seemed timely that the artist management community be alerted to developing opportunities in China and begin nurturing new artistic and business relationships.

Building trust and confidence in an entrepreneurial and somewhat "risky market" was the principal aim of the mission. It was not about "cracking the Chinese market" as is so often heard. It is a misconception to expect that. If there is anything to be learned it is that China is an enormously complex and ancient society. Understanding and appreciating this is the foundation to any successful partnership.

Shanghai was the chosen city for this visit because of its fast developing profile in the presentation of the "international" performing arts. Shanghai has ambitions to become a financial capital of Asia and this means attracting international experts who are accustomed to having a choice in lifestyle opportunities in all environments. Furthermore, there is a growing appetite among the local inhabitants for what the world has to offer. The market for cultural product is still at an experimental level, but audiences appear willing to absorb different experiences and, to some degree, pay international ticket prices.

Shanghai has built, along with many other Chinese cities, state-of-the-art performing arts venues which now seek cultural product that will not only lend status to the city, but also connect China to the rest of the world. On a philosophical level, if the performing arts are about communication and the sharing of human values and creative expression, it appears that China wishes to signal to the outside world that it is ready and willing to participate in a comprehensive economy including a wider interpretation of value for its society.

Partnerships:
IAMA’s responsibility as the Accredited Trade Organisation was to recruit the companies, organise the briefing session, determine the UK speaker list and, in terms of its contract with UKTI, distribute the necessary funds. By initiating these schemes, IAMA hopes to open markets more effectively for it members, obtain information that can assist with developing international business perspectives and promote a frequent meeting programme on behalf of its membership.

This mission was made possible by a number of partners:
• UK Trade and Investment supported the visiting UK companies by way of a grant-in-aid as part of the vertical mission scheme. China is a relatively new market to the delegates if not entirely new.
• The British Council proved an invaluable ally, not only negotiating the terms with our Chinese partners but also encouraging promoters to attend the sessions that were organised. They were also responsible for the design of the conference exhibition stand and sponsoring a reception. Jim Hollington, Deputy Director, should be singled out for his leadership and initiative. He and his team worked tirelessly throughout the project.
• The Shanghai Festival Forum, who are affiliate members of IAMA, have mounted several conferences over the last five years. They gave up part of their usual programming to offer the first ever UK-China Promoters conference within the Festival programming. They have been actively pursuing international relationships since 2000 and many IAMA conference delegates would have got to know Wei Zhi and Chen Chiang who attend meetings regularly. As hosts, they provided the overall structure and, for those who registered, a programme of events that offered delegates the opportunity to become better acquainted with the city in generous style.


 
Photo: Chen Shenlai (President) Centre for China & Wei Zhi (Vice President) Shanghai International Arts Festival

The supported applications on the mission were:
Roderick Thomson: Director of Projects – Van Walsum Management Ltd; Niels Veenhuijzen: Consultant – Harrison Parrott; Patrick Garvey, Managing Director-Patrick Garvey Management; Rosemary Pickering: Chief Executive - Young Concert Artists Trust; Stewart Collins: Artistic Director - Henley and Chelsea Festivals; Stephen Carpenter: Chief Executive – City of London Sinfonia; John Summers: Chief Executive – Hallé Orchestra; Catherine Le Bris: Managing Director – CLB Management; Glynis Henderson: Managing Director and Michael Brazier: Associate Director - Glynis Henderson Management; Jo Shore: Artistic Director- Salisbury Festival; James Brown: Managing Director - Hazard Chase Ltd; Sharon Zhu: Sales Executive - Boosey & Hawkes; Olivia Ma: Managing Director - Olivia Ma Artist Management; Harold Clarkson: Director - KD Schmid UK Ltd; Peter Martin: Director Finance and Touring – Askonas Holt; Paul Cutts: Publishing Editor – MUSO magazine, Martin Huber: Publisher - Alain Charles Publishing.

This delegate list encompasses a broad range of the performing arts spectrum including commercial West End productions, classical/world/ethnic/dance artist management, orchestras, festivals and publishers. In addition to this list, Graham Sheffield, Artistic Director of Britain’s largest arts centre, the Barbican, was supported by the British Council and also accompanied the delegates. Nelson Fernandez of Visiting Arts played an integral part in providing information to the UK delegates both at the London briefing session and in China.

Briefing Session – 28 September, 16:00-18:00
Prior to the trip, a useful and informative briefing session was conducted at the British Council offices in Spring Gardens, London on 28 September, hosted by Paul Parkinson, Music Officer at the British Council. Nelson Fernandez, Glynis Henderson and Peter Martin presented their expectations and aims and what they hoped to gain out of the mission.

A clear request arising from this meeting was the need for more information about Chinese promoters and time within the conference to meet and get to know the Chinese counterparts.



Photo: The new Pu Dong area of Shanghai

Proogramme
15th October: International Expo Centre – Pu Dong
The Festival and city of Shanghai hosted a grand opening evening reception for all festival delegates. This was followed by a performance of a new contemporary dance production called A Dream of Red Mansions, mounted by the Beijing Zhan You Dance Ensemble in the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

16/17 October: Everbright Convention Centre
Within the structure of the Shanghai Festival Forum programme, which opened on the morning of the 16th, there were two China-UK discussion sessions programmed with a question and answer time following each. This is a new programme format for the Festival which, it was felt, would lead to more fruitful, open dialogue and better understanding of the market. Simultaneous interpreters were provided by the British Council, which was an essential element to this situation and made one-to-one meetings possible.


Photo: L-R Michael Brazier, Glynis Henderson (Glynis Henderson Management), Zhang Liqing (China Performing Arts Agency), Jim Hollington (British Council), Peter Martin (Askonas Holt), Stephen Carpenter (City of London Sinfonia), Harold Clarkson (KDS UK), Yang Shaolin (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre)

The first of these sessions took place on 16th October in the afternoon with the session title: UK Export to China. During this time, speakers from the UK delegation addressed an assembly of Chinese promoters and Festival participants. Glynis Henderson from Glynis Henderson Management, who had recently mounted a successful tour of Stomp, gave valuable insight into the problems of touring a production and what to recognise as important during the negotiation process. Peter Martin of Askonas Holt gave his view on touring orchestras and including China on the Asian and world circuits. He stressed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to define a national interest in the arts as the movement of artists around the world was becoming more fluid. It was not unusual that one would find Chinese orchestral players in British orchestras. Harold Clarkson of KD Schmid UK, added his views too on orchestral touring. Stephen Carpenter of the City of London Sinfonia presented the perspective of the British Orchestras, including funding structures and expectations of touring musicians. Chris Humphries of Virgin Atlantic in Shanghai presented the dilemma that sponsors are faced with in deciding what to support. He pointed out the practical matters that proposals should take into account, such as corporate mission statements, time-lines and budgets. More importantly, all proposals should demonstrate imagination and connect with corporate values and image.

From the Chinese local promoters, the two speakers at this session were Zhang Liqing, Vice-General Manager of the China Performing Arts Agency and Yang Shaolin from the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre.
A number of questions were received from the audience that highlighted concerns about high ticket prices and the need for performing arts education projects to be developed.

Exhibition Stand: Everbright Convention Centre – 16-19 October
The morning of 17th October was the opening of the Festival trade fair held at the Everbright Convention Centre. This type of exhibition is more well-known to the United States performing arts market but not in Europe. For the Chinese, a physical presence does signal credibility. In line with this thinking, and with support from UK Trade & Investment, an impressive booth was designed and built for the purposes of meeting space, a home-base for information, DVD displays and informal gatherings.

Our thanks go to the British Council staff who managed this area so ably. It was time well invested and much appreciated. 


Photo: UK Stand: Shanghai Festival Forum


The afternoon session on 17th October was entitled: China- UK: The Importation of Chinese Performing Arts to the United Kingdom.

Graham Sheffield, Artistic Director of the Barbican Centre, supported by the British Council, gave an articulate presentation on the realities of programming a modern, international arts venue. There is a market for contemporary Chinese performing art and the Barbican and other venues in Britain are open to proposals and ideas. His speech was followed by Stewart Collins, Artistic Director of the Henley and Chelsea Festivals. From the Festival point of view, Chinese productions offer diversity within the Festival programme and are therefore an attractive artistic consideration. Nelson Fernandez, Head of Performing Arts & Professional Development for Visiting Arts added the perspective of a funding body that encourages the connection and importation of talent abroad to Britain. He stressed the need for longer- term planning, partnership and a management exchange programme to facilitate better business relationships in the future.

From the Chinese side the General Manager from the Shanghai Symphony could not deliver his speech due to an emergency situation, but his assistant Rachel Cai was fortunately able to present this in his place. The session was concluded by Sun Mingzhang, General Manager of the Shanghai City Dance Company Ltd. who gave his account of their touring productions.


Photo: Niels Veenhijzen (Harrison Parrott); Catherine Le Bris (CLB Management); Paul Cutts (MUSO Magazine)

It was encouraging to see other IAMA members also present at this Festival including Julia Glawe: IMG, New York; Hans Otto: Musica Antiqua, Cologne; Mario Giovanni Ingrassia: Ma Music, Florence and Virginia Braden: Arts Management, Sydney. Johann Zietsmann: ISPA, New York was also present as were ISPA members.

In recent times, it has been pleasing to see growing support for IAMA’s agenda of world meetings which not only brings the community together, but helps the Association function more effectively.

Reception: Everbright Hotel
The conclusion of the UK Promoters conference was a reception hosted by Jeff Streeter, Director of the Shanghai office of the British Council, for all participants. Interpreters were assigned to the delegates for the evening so that the effect of any language barrier could be minimised.

Site inspections
On Monday 18th October, site inspections of the major performing arts venues in Shanghai were organised. First was the Shanghai Conservatoire which had finished a new concert hall in September 2003. Second was the Shanghai Grand Theatre, which is host to many visiting productions and has more venues than it can fill with productions. Third was the newly re-opened Shanghai Concert Hall which has recently been moved 66m to a new position and been fully refurbished. The Oriental Art Centre is another prestigious venue in the financial district of Pu Dong which is to be opened on 31 December 2004.

On the 19th, the Festival Forum hosted a trip to a nearby ancient water-city called Zhou Zuhang about two hours’ ride from Shanghai.


Conclusion & Outcomes
A welcome change in the Festival Forum has occurred over the last two years. There has been a positive shift from a large number of curious "buyers" to a smaller number of more serious companies attending this year’s forum. The market is becoming more defined in terms of company identification and the people behind them.

In China, decisions appear to be made with great speed or with much delay. In both cases, results can be risky. A commercial company offering an artist an engagement without the backing of local government might very risky. For this reason, members doing business in this region should be cautious and do their homework. There are still pressing issues of trust and confidence in this market and clearly there is work to be done to improve the situation.

An important point that emerged from Chinese promoters during the panel discussions was the need for education-style performing arts programmes. Not only is there demand from the promoter, but ultimately audiences for the arts can only be grown though exposure and greater access to arts-related education initiatives. In this way the experience would be contextualised. This is an area for creative opportunism and one that touring groups should not overlook.

There is a pressing need for a younger generation of managers to receive work experience, which will help narrow the gap in management practice and expectations. This is an initiative of Visiting Arts, a department of the Foreign Office, who will be pursuing this matter in the future. It will certainly be beneficial to all future business collaborations and it is an area in which IAMA takes an active interest.

An important new network, Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres (AAPAC) has recently been established with its first meeting having taken place in Shanghai during the Festival. It aims to bring together promoters form the Asia/Pacific region into an association under the Chairmanship of Benson Puah, CEO of the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore. It is important that this network becomes a strong and effective body, not only to support initiatives in that region, but to facilitate further development of relationships with China too. For this reason, IAMA hopes to join this network to further assist and develop its information and links to the region.

IAMA would like to thank UK Trade and Investment, British Council and the Shanghai Festival Forum. Last but not least, those companies who decided to commit themselves to this trip which was time consuming but worthwhile. Thanks go also to Roderick Thomson of Van Walsum Management who was the appointed IAMA Board director of the mission.
Atholl Swainston-Harrison
Executive Director
12 November 2004