Andy Stone will be updating us on progress of the IBM British Ring Convention that takes place September 22nd - 26th 2010 in Eastbourne in the run up to the convention:

At the last FISM in Beijing, Julius Frack won the Illusion category in the world championship competition. He had a well-presented act, containing some interesting twists on old themes. The 10 jury members particularly emphasized the “creativity and innovation” of Julius’s act.

Unfortunately, he was unable to compete for the Grand Prix, as his partner, Cindy Keller had damaged her ankle. You’ll be able to see this award-winning act in the gala show at Eastbourne. Julius comes from Stuttgart in Germany and credits Eberhard Riese as his most important consultant and mentor. Eberhard Riese has directed many award winning FISM acts. This is an innovative illusion act you won’t want to miss.

Of course, it’s not just Germany that has produced award winning FISM acts. We have another FISM award winning act in Eastbourne from closer to home. The Nardinis (Paul and Mhairi) from Scotland won the award for “Comedy Presentation” at FISM in Den Haag in 2003. Their act, featuring “The Great Nardini”, incompetent conjurer and his long-suffering assistant, has taken them all over the world including Las Vegas and The Magic Castle in Hollywood. It is very funny and demonstrates superb comic timing. You can see them in our late gala show on the Friday night.

Some of the most interesting lectures presented at our Convention over the years, have been the non-trick lectures, covering a variety of subjects. This year Bob Yelland presents a lecture entitled “Strategic Marketing for Magicians”.

How do you plan to grow your income from Magic in 2011? Do you pro-actively shape the type of engagements you receive or do you let fate decide? Are you dependent upon repeat bookings and the limited success of haphazard prospecting activity? Are you tired of enquiries seeking the lowest priced performers? If so, this thought provoking lecture is designed for you.

If you derive income from performing Magic then you should have a strategic marketing plan. This plan will identify your target markets and the actions required to develop your act, your branding and your communications to succeed in those markets. Many magicians believe marketing is solely about having a good web site, an eye-catching advertisement in yellow pages and a flashy video on YouTube. However, these activities are less effective if you have not first determined who you are trying to talk to and what you are trying to achieve, with the result that you could waste a lot of time and money.

Bob Yelland is responsible for a multi-million dollar marketing budget for a large, multi-national company. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is also a keen amateur magician. In his lecture he will apply the marketing techniques and strategies used by successful companies to a one person magic business. He’ll look at how a magician might go about getting more profitable bookings, increase their fees, convert more enquiries into bookings and attract the right customers for their services. This is a business lecture with no tricks which will challenge you to think seriously about your own business aspirations and potential.

Of course, if a magic convention lecture without any tricks isn’t for you, we’ve a good selection of trick lectures as well. I’ll be looking at some of those soon.

You can get more information on our convention which takes place in Eastbourne 22nd - 26th September 2010 either here or get further information at the official British Ring website