Velvet Singer Bill Bennett awarding copies of Velvet Singer Software to Classical Singer Convention Professional Track Finalists in LA, 2011.

It was a total thrill to come straight from a service trip in Mexico up the coast to the beautiful City of Angels and the Classical Singer Convention 2011. The impressive CS team of Alex, Jo and Dane had everything all ready for me to hit the ground running and begin making genuine and interesting connections with so many singers.

Coming swiftly on the heels of Classical Singer Magazine‘s excellent Article on Velvet Singer, the singers all knew who I was (flattering) and had started to digest some of the principles of my Business Plan seminar. And they had begun to talk things up at their custom page on Facebook.

These things were so important in terms of setting up a fruitful dialogue: singers had read the article, become familiar with my software and shared their resumes with me! That is such a service to singers, to set the tone appropriately and make sure that they got as much out of their convention experience as possible.

I was privileged to present several awards as part of the Classical Singer Competitions (or click here for info on Facebook). As part of presenting this award, a talented young woman from Richmond, VA named Victoria Williams joined me on the platform. She was only one of seven National Finalists in the undergraduate competition, and she absolutely slayed the audience as she described why Velvet Singer is so cool. Thank you Victoria!

The highlight for me was the ability to teach my Business Plan Seminar for the Professional Track. These topics are not the most exciting, fun topics to present — especially compared to a masterclass with the likes of Jane Eaglin. And so I was absolutely blown away with the amount of people that enthusiastically attended my session (large audience mostly off camera in this video). This is a testament to the convention overall and the type of singers this draws — hungry, earnest and passionate young professionals.

A few clips from the seminar at Classical Singer Convention including: what is a business plan, why do we need one and what do you do with it.

After the seminar, I ran many one-on-one meetings where we were able to dig deeper into artistic Business Plans and Resume Feedback. This is something I am going to start doing much more of. It seems that this is a very effective way to connect with people. Following a group seminar, these one-on-one sessions allow singers to digest and come with their individual questions and thoughts. It is quite demanding work (requires tons of energy), yet is equally fulfilling and rewarding.

Naturally I also had a booth on the floor, where I was charmed by countless young singers. I truly enjoy absorbing some of their energy and ambitions! What a blast. It was also an opportunity to show people Velvet Singer — and it is always a delight to watch people light up when they realize all of the things this solution can do for them. I suppose that is not dissimilar from performance!