Every year IBMA hosts a three day event called Leadership Bluegrass. Leadership Bluegrass provides an opportunity for disparate members of the community, such as artists, engineers, label reps, etc., to all gather together for three days, in Nashville, to learn from each other and brainstorm about the future of the bluegrass music industry.

One of this year’s attendees was kind enough to write us with a copy of a paper he wrote summarizing his experience at Leadership Bluegrass.

Danny Clark attended the event, wrote this paper, and received 3 credit hours toward his Recording Industry Major at MTSU. The specific course he applied these credits toward is entitled Individual Problems in the Recording Industry.

Danny also wished to express his thanks to Stephanie Taylor, assistant professor of music business at MTSU, for her help in gaining university credit for his Leadership Bluegrass experience.

Here’s Danny’s report.

In March of 2009 I participated in an intensive informative program put on through the International Bluegrass Music Association. For three full days I was actively involved in Leadership Bluegrass. The goal of Leadership Bluegrass is to bring together musical insiders and to create a musical think tank.

There were many themes discussed in Leadership Bluegrass, topics ranged from using cloud computing to further my online marketing potential, to the advantages and disadvantages of having my own publicity and marketing team. The three day course was broken down into hour increments of concentrated information. Every hour a new guest speaker talked about their daily job routine and how I can use their insightful concepts to increase my job potential. Guest speakers included Grand Ole Opry General Manager Pete Fisher, Bobby Cudd who has worked for Marty Stuart and Ricky Skaggs, Dan Keen of ASCAP, professional musician Del McCoury, and many other remarkable presenters.

Leadership Bluegrass was a useful resource that will help further my livelihood in Bluegrass music. The intensive three day program kept me informed and updated on current trends in Bluegrass and Country music. I have gained an immeasurable amount of musical knowledge thanks in part to IBMA’s Leadership Bluegrass. I feel more prepared to tackle the everyday problems that surround a young industrialist musician.