I am looking forward to attending my first SERFA conference this week, down in Montreal North Carolina. I have been to most of the Folk Alliance Regional Conferences multiple times and they are always fun and a great way to meet people. The International Conference is so big that you can be there all week and not catch up with your friends. I always leave a regional feeling like I’ve made some great new friends.

Because it’s my first time at SERFA, I didn’t organize my usual Big Orange Tarp showcases for the conference, but many of my frequent showcasers will be on hand. If you are a presenter, I would encourage you to catch David Roth, Tim Rice, Meg Braun, No Fuss & Feathers Roadshow, Kerry Grombacher, Roby Lytle, Sarah Clanton, Will Pfrang, Brad Cole, Caroline Cotter, Eric Lee, Kirsten Maxwell, Betty Soo, Bryan Ashley Jones, Mike Agranoff, and Martyn Joseph. I have had the pleasure of working with all of these fine musicians and highly recommend them.

I will be Moderating a panel in the Promotion/Gigs track entitled Making Technology Work for You – Creating an internet Identity. On Saturday at 2-3:15pm in the Lakeside with Panelists Mike Kornfeld, Mike Vial, and Dave Curley. I have created an online handout for my portion of the workshop. It’s available online at http://bigorangetarp.org/serfa-internet-workshop-handout2016/ Check it out for more info on what we will be covering.

I will also be mentoring as I do at NERFA and Rocky Mountain Song School. I am looking forward to getting some one-on-one time with a few of the conference participants. Over the years, I have done a couple hundred mentorings. No two have ever been the same. I have had just about every job you can have in music, so I do a quick interview with the performer and try to discern what they believe is holding them back and then we discuss strategies and solutions for overcoming those obstacles. I get a lot of good feedback from these. Upon further examination of the schedule, it looks like I have only 5 sessions total on Saturday Afternoon. If you want to reserve one, you may want to sign up ASAP. If you miss out, send me an email to BigOrangeTarp@gmail.com and maybe we can arrange an ad hoc mentoring at some other time.