Panel Alert: Broadway and TV Financing . . . and how it’s changing.

Oh, how different things were just a few years ago.

When I was brainstorming creative ways to raise money for Godspell that were aligned with the creative message of the show (Godspell is about a community of people coming together, so I wanted to create a huge community of Broadway Investors), everywhere I turned there seemed to be a web of archaic securities regulations that tangled me up.

As you know, we eventually found a way through the web, and ended up producing the first ever crowd-funded Broadway show (Woo! Woo! Thanks again, POGs!).

And then two years later, Obama signed the JOBs Act.

What’s ironic, and also what demonstrates the enormous need and desire for crowdfunding and other related regulatory easing, is that I was contacted by some folks high up in Washington, DC during my Godspell raise. And they all said, “Legislation won’t happen.  It’ll take too dang long.  Especially with this congress.”

And then poof.  We’ve got the JOBs Act.

Now, the JOBs Act has a number of different moving parts to it, and crowdfunding is only one of them (and the one that is probably least likely to affect Broadway Investing and Producing.  Off Broadway Investing, is another story, however.).

And next Tuesday, I’ve been asked to be a part of a fancy panel of finance and entertainment thought leaders to discuss how/what I did on Godspell and how that relates to how the new rules and regulations of the JOBs Act will change how you and I raise money for Broadway and Off Broadway shows (and television and film and hardware stores) in the future.

Other speakers at the event/panel/networking event include David Wield (former Vice Chairman of NASDAQ), William Scheckel (Director of TerveriMarket SA), Glenn Myles (CEO – First Wall Street Capital), Bruce Lipnick (CEO – Asset Alliance and Crowd Alliance) and Ariane Smith (CEO – Enchanged Thyme Entertainment).  And the event is curated by the founder of The Soho Loft and one of the leading advocates of Crowd Funding around the world, David Drake.

And, of course, me.

What I love about the event is that it includes a bunch of finance folks whose job it is to work with the money-raising laws everyday.  See, it’s only one small part of what Broadway Producers do.  But it’s so much of what these other folks do.

And that means, I’m looking forward to leaning a lot myself.

If you’d like to attend, click here for the details.  And, because you’re a PP reader, I snagged you a 40% (!) discount off the regular rate.  Just use code FOXVIP40 to save.

If you don’t attend, make sure you stay tuned to this blog-station, because I’ll be writing about some of the other intricacies of JOBs soon enough.  And you’ll want to hear about ’em.

Need more tips on how to raise money for your project?  Click here to read all my best practices.

 

(Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below! Email Subscribers, click here then scroll down to say what’s on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

– Win two tickets to see The Roundabout’s Bad Jews Off-Broadway.  Click here.

– The next Broadway Investing 101 Seminar is on October 19th.  Click here to register.

– The How to Raise Money Seminar is SOLD OUT.  Click here to be notified of upcoming seminars and to sign up for the waitlist.

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Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.

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