Guelph Arts Council and the City of Guelph will present the Guelph Cultural Connections Conference on April 6, from 1 to 7pm at the River Run Centre.
The conference will concentrate on providing participants with the tools to engage with their community and develop and enhance partnerships with community members, businesses and organizations.
The daytime workshops will concentrate on providing participants with the tools and resources to makes partnerships and projects happen. The second half will focus on putting ideas into action.
The speed networking portion of the event, which will take place from 4:30 to 5pm, will see participants swapping contacts, information, and ideas. This will be followed by the launch of a crowd sourcing program.
The pilot program is intended to create more opportunities for innovative, creative individuals to source funding from their local community.
The crowd sourcing part of the evening will run from 5 to 7pm and will include a full dinner. Prior to dinner, participants are encouraged to submit a 150 word written pitch. The pitch will be analyzed by a team of community members including a representative from CFRU and Guelph Arts Council.
Those responsible for the top five written submissions will be invited to share their idea with the audience, who will vote for their top pick. The crowd favorite will receive a cash prize of $500 which will be sourced from the audience by way of their admission fee into the conference.
Although artists are free to use the money to fund their project in any way they see fit, there are some guidelines for participation. The top pitch must either come from a Guelph resident or the project must take place in Guelph.
The conference registration fee is $20 for Guelph Arts Council members and $25 for non-members. To register go to http://culturalconnectionsguelph.eventbrite.ca/
