The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Some cool folks in Portland have been throwing this awesome sounding festival for a few years called "XOXO":

https://xoxofest.com/

I have never gone and this is the last year they're doing it for the foreseeable future sadly. Jonathan Mann and Brad Sucks have attended and given talks. Maybe we could organize something like that around Song Fight? Have a Kickstarter to raise some money to be able to put on a bigger shindig than usual, etc. Get some past and present participants to give talks and performances, talk about their other cool stuff they work on (games, comics, etc.). Try to leverage whatever connections folks in the community have to bring in some folks who are loosely or not at all affiliated with Song Fight. Could be awesome!

SongFest!? Not sure how wide of an appeal there would be given that things like xoxo already exist but I'd be all up for a smaller festival that's easier for people to get into. Running things like this can be really freaking hard and perilous, though - just ask the organizers of DashCon.

The XOXO folks have already said they are not doing XOXO Fest next year at least, and may not do it again:

https://xoxofest.com/about

That's part of what made me think of it, as we could rip off their format and cannibalize some of their speakers/performers/attendees. It would definitely be smaller though, of course. They started out smaller too, and we'd have to start out even smaller than that, I'm sure.

It would definitely be a major undertaking. Somebody I worked with at BandPage was organizing a conference before he left and it sounded super stressful.

Oh, I didn't know they were going on perma-hiatus. That's kind of too bad, I wanted to get around to going someday and it always seems like great stuff comes out of it.

Here in Seattle we have Town Hall which is sort of like a never-ending series of TED talks. I've never attended any but people keep telling me I should. I also have a bunch of ideas for talks to give at it, too. Anyway maybe that would be a good venue for a Song Fight! event.

This is the stuff I dream of. I would adore something like this. I think this community could put on get performances and talks and could put together a great multi-day experience.

There's been a bit of a lull lately and if we were ever going to look into something like this, SF would need to be on more of an upswing. (just stating the natural ebbs and flows of this place)

A conference about music making and creativity, not about selling, would be great. Probably only initially viable in a place where potential volunteers are clustered, like San Fran.

Tod McHatton is, I learned today, the brother-in-law of one of the XOXO organizers.

JB

Maybe something like this...?

Friday:
- early evening: registration/sign-in
- night: welcome party/concert

Saturday:
- breakfast/registration/sign-in
- keynote, talks, exhibitions, workshops
- lunch
- talks, exhibitions, workshops
- happy hour/dinner
- concert/all-star live fight(s)

Sunday:
- breakfast
- talks, exhibitions, workshops
- lunch
- wrap-up
- less formal concert more a la regular Song Fight Live