If you take a look and a listen around you, the music scene is exploding—in fact, Visit Fort Wayne’s Jess Campbell says we’re ready to make some national noise as our official music economy strategy takes shape.
The area’s musical culture, nurtured by many, has long been a source of pride to local creatives and city planners alike, which is now taking shape as a music industry recognized as a driver for economic growth.
WBOI’S Julia Meek and Campbell discuss how we can capture, share and grow it with the help of the international experts at Sound Diplomacy and what this will mean to the entire community.
You can connect and learn more about the music economy strategy at the Visit Fort Wayne website.
Read the transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Jessa Campbell, welcome.
Jessa Campbell: Thank you for having me.
Julia Meek: Now, Visit Fort Wayne and Greater Fort Wayne Inc. have been working overtime on a Music City project. What's the rush factor, excitement factor about now?
Jessa Campbell: Oh, it's the rush of excitement with passion from our community.
There's a lot of passion and excitement to see what this means and how we can capture this opportunity that we have in our community. We all see it.
Julia Meek: And we're feeling it and we've gotta know more.
Jessa Campbell: Yes, exactly.
Julia Meek: And our connection in this project is Sound Diplomacy.
Would you explain their place and purpose in the process and what last year's work with them entailed? It was a busy year, what happened?
Jessa Campbell: Yes. So sound diplomacy. They are international experts and do studies and economic impact assessments on communities who want to capture the benefits from creating a creative community and specific to music.
So, they've done work across the United States, in Memphis, Huntsville, Delaware, as well as in Canada, England, and across Europe.
And they are experts. They really come in and know exactly how to look at the creative economies and assets within a community.
So last year, they took the whole year alongside Visit Fort Wayne to build out and look at Fort Wayne's music economy.
And it's specific to Allen County as well as a little bit of how the region works together.
Julia Meek: And this is official, specific as to becoming that city we want to be.
Jessa Campbell: It's official, exactly. So, they did an asset mapping. They did an economic impact analysis of the output of music and music byproducts, as well as just the whole industry itself.
They looked at strengths and weaknesses through surveys they collected from artists and organizations, as well as music fans.
And then met with a lot of our stakeholders in workshop discussions, just to get a lay of the land, what opportunities locals are seeing, because that's our expertise, and where we can shine.
Bright is what we have locally, and what opportunities we see locally, and they put that all together in this strategy and recommendations of around 17 projects that we can put out as our vision and focus for building a city with music at the forefront.
Julia Meek: You have been busy. Let's fast forward then to that recent official giant, literal giant step launching that impact analysis and strategy. That was just last June. What did that reveal, define for our next steps?
Jessa Campbell: Yeah, so it really defined that here is what our vision is with these 17 recommendations, and here is the place we're going to do it with a music office and a music board. Those first two priorities of ours.
Julia Meek: So, the music office is official.
Jessa Campbell: It is official. We have a place it's going to sit while it's kind of based off of a group of seven board members with Visit Fort Wayne, Greater Fort Wayne, the City of Fort Wayne, Embassy Theater, Arts United, Surack Enterprises, and Sweetwater.
So, they are all going to be guiding this office, and we're going to be hiring for executive director, the first executive director to lead this strategy and help guide growing a music ecosystem in our community.
Or continue to grow because we already have one. And how do we capitalize on that? [both chuckle]`
Courtesy/Visit Fort Wayne
Julia Meek: Big time. Can you say where it is? Can we have that reveal?
Jessa Campbell: Yes, it is going to be at Arts United. While they aren't going to be leading the initiative by themselves. They've got seven board members behind us that I mentioned, and that will be guiding that person's position
Julia Meek: In that physical space.
Jessa Campbell: In that physical space. Of course, there's flexibility there for them to hopefully be going to some shows, going to festivals, being out in that community.
Julia Meek: And they won't be there all the time.
Jessa Campbell: [both laugh] No, no, absolutely not.
Julia Meek: This is an action position. Now, okay, 17 recommendations within that strategy, you just told us. One and a half down. That's 15 and a half more. So, what's next?
Jessa Campbell: Yes. So, we have some low-hanging fruit, of course, to build out maybe a one-stop shop for permitting.
So, it makes it more of a seamless opportunity for individuals who want to create activations to perform on our streets to just be a part of that community more, to make it easier.
To eliminate some of those obstacles with permitting, with what does it mean? How can I do some busking? What does that look like?
So, working with the city of Fort Wayne to identify that into a format that's easy to use.
As well as education and training, we have some amazing assets within our community with Purdue Fort Wayne, University of Saint Francis.
How do we make sure that those students coming through that program stay in Fort Wayne, give them opportunities? But some really initial ones will likely be: How do we tell this story?
Not only locally, but internationally, regionally, through Visit Fort Wayne's work, through Sweetwater's work, how do we all speak and share that same sound with our friends and people who want to learn more about our community?
Julia Meek: This is the nitty gritty from start to finish, involves a lot of moving parts. Obviously, we're working on them all. How exciting!
So, Jessa, we are aware and quite proud of Fort Wayne's music scene-it's no longer a best-kept secret, for one thing, we can feel that we can see the effects.
From the economic development side of your office, how is this going to help things?
Jessa Campbell: Well, we see it in a place that people want to visit will be a place that people want to stay.
When we say that, then that's people who want to come and live here for our affordability, then they also want to find a job here, and then bring, again, their visiting friends and family.
So if we all see it that it starts with just that initial visit, and so the economic impact we'll see is bringing in conferences and conventions.
We're already looking at music-related conventions we can host within our community. Bringing in that spending to not only our venues like the Grand Wayne Convention Center, Memorial Coliseum, but into our hotels and restaurants and attractions.
But then, from a broader perspective, it's this music office building out structures that bring in that creative community and culture feel that people want to be a part of.
Whether it's building a business here, or maybe it's a local entrepreneur building out a studio or production facility.
And then it's that supporting the local artists in their upskilling of their experiences from knowing that there was a big gap in the study that we found from those who make music a part of their daily job and those who haven't been able to make that a reality.
And so there's a skills gap in there, and maybe a position or business need with those managers, artist relations. I mentioned it before, studios, but also then the publishing of that music.
So we have an opportunity to incubate to provide services for those needs specifically, and that will then impact bringing in those more artists to our community.
We already have an artist community, and we see that with people working at Sweetwater, but also those who've been here day in and day out, and local to our community, supporting them as well.
WBOI goes live & local on the Landing
Julia Meek: So, when we think of music venues, and that's a wonderful place to start and end perhaps our quest.
There's every single aspect that you've just brought up in between, as well as tourism itself. Can you yet measure what a difference it will make to the tourism?
Fort Wayne draws a lot of people through and to and destination, but even travel and "travelin' on"--might that be amplified itself?
Jessa Campbell: Oh, absolutely. We see that downtown Fort Wayne is a big driver of tourism and visitors to our community, and so as it remains vibrant and continues to grow in vibrancy.
Whether that is through you know activations along our riverfront with music or more live music experiences at our venues, we will see that increase in visitors.
Not only from like a leisure family getaway or friends getaway, but from those conventions and large groups that come into town because they want to be a part of that.
And they see the opportunity of attracting more attendees to their conference because of that vibrancy.
So, we have 9.1 million visitors that come through our community, and we are tracking that, and we know what they spend their money on.
Whether it's through, they obviously, if they stay the night, they're going to stay at a hotel. That spending is very important.
But when they stay the night, they spend a lot more money. They're coming to our restaurants because they need to eat. They're looking for something else to do, so they're going to our attractions.
They're going to shop maybe if they need something, and that spending just helps offset all this quality of life that our community loves.
And then supports that balance for those businesses, so we know that spending, and we'll be tracking kind of when that starts to change.
Courtesy/Visit Fort Wayne
We know the entertainment spending and how that is impactful for our community. So using that to really showcase that economic impact of this opportunity of ours.
Julia Meek: And less accountable perhaps beforehand, but the sheer game of telephone where this good word gets spread.
Jessa Campbell: Yeah, the best marketing tool you have is that grassroot, that word of mouth as people start to hear about Fort Wayne.
And we continually hear it daily from visitors, but also media that come into town. That wow, I had no idea Fort Wayne was here.
One, they think we're in Texas because Fort Worth, [both laugh] but Fort Wayne, Indiana, we surprise them every time they come because of the quality that we have, because of the affordability.
And that only will amplify as those people talk to their friends, who talk to their friends, and then find that opportunity here.
Julia Meek: You hit a great point and take that one step further on a national and global level. How does our area compare to economic development in the arts, especially music, with other communities our size or maybe larger?
Jessa Campbell: Mm-hmm. I think because of our size, we are better off. We have a little bit of a smaller community where people can make change and get involved and feel impact. Whereas someone maybe in Chicago can't do that or feel like they are making a broad impact, so that one helps our community.
But through this study with Sound Diplomacy, they 've said it best--it's like your assets are incredible for the community size that you have.
And how are we capitalizing on that is exactly what this study is about. And knowing that our venues are incredible, we've have a ton of history as well.
Like maybe some of the venues, I was just doing some research about a teen venue, I can't remember, it might be Swinging Gate. I was looking it up.
WBOI goes live & local on the Landing
Julia Meek: That is from my day, and I can vouch for that.
Jessa Campbell: Okay, yes, like a teen venue that was one of a kind during its time and did an amazing job of bringing in up-and-coming artists.
And we have that history here, as well as with Embassy Theatre. We have the technology here with Sweetwater and their expertise.
And how do we bring that all together? That just builds in that further opportunity to continue to punch above our weight and bring in those people that don't realize the gem that we have here in assets, in people's passion, and in interest in supporting this.
Julia Meek: You brought up an important word, change, and change is scary. Let's face it, Jessa, even cool change, like all of this. What is the feedback on this grand, massive plan, literally from the community?
Jessa Campbell: So, it's a couple of things. Initially, it's passion and excitement. What are we going to do with this? What does this mean? I want to be a part of it.
And then that secondary comes in of like last year, especially we kind of went quiet. So, we had that study done at the end of November, December timeframe.
And so we sat on it since January, February, March, all the way through June. We didn't make any announcements.
We kind of kept the people who were a part of building out those stakeholder conversations updated, but we were done and kind of trying to make that implementation, that first step to do this right, getting it in place first before we made an announcement.
So there's a little bit of is it really going to happen? That skepticism is there, like I, it's a great idea, but can we really do it? Like, I believe we can. It's healthy.
Julia Meek: It's natural.
Jessa Campbell: Yes, exactly. I mean we've seen it. We're just, we're excited, but want to be sure that we don't get too invested if it doesn't work out. [chuckles]
But that is kind of the two battles we're up against: is that skepticism, and then maybe those that think our investment should be elsewhere or our focus should be elsewhere.
Of course, there are just differing priorities, and we have to balance that. But hopefully, this study can help and blend with those other priorities.
I know for Visit Fort Wayne, our tourism master plan, there's 20 recommendations, but they all are going to work together, and music is a part of that. Music will help our attraction of sports tournaments.
It will help us continue to be a more accessible destination. That is a priority of ours. So it's just really balancing that and making sure it kind of all works together.
Julia Meek: And basically, with that, beyond that, what do you say to folks in the community that fear this is going to turn into something too big, too much, too fast? Is that a problem?
Jessa Campbell: I think we heard that when Greater Fort Wayne Inc. launched the Act plan. It was called Top 10 Music City, which is still a goal of ours.
We still want to be known as a top 10 music city, but what does that really mean? Does that mean we want to bring in the honky tonks of Nashville, or we want to try and be Austin, or try to be Memphis?
And that's not the case. And so it's really telling that story that we want to be Fort Wayne specific.
We want to be unique to what Fort Wayne has to offer, and not try to be something we aren't, or that try to bring in something to make us feel like something else.
Be true to the Fort Wayne sound, the Fort Wayne artist, the Fort Wayne assets, and really make that part of our brand and our story.
Julia Meek: So, in the meantime, for everyone hoping for bigger, better, sooner, faster, more, more, more--what might they be able to anticipate for this very next part of the adventure, like, like right now?
Jessa Campbell: Next venture is really finding that executive director, hiring currently to find this person that will lead this music office.
And building out those support structures, the processes, the future of the funding, just the whole concept. Yes, the board has identified key priorities.
Some of those I've mentioned before is that permit, one-stop shop. How do we have a place that people can easily create and activate music, as well as a brand?
What are we all--are we all singing the same tune? Are we all in key? Like, keeping that all together and making that be a part of that first initial step is key to have it be something that remains throughout this effort, as well as activation.
How can we take easy steps to make music more visible within our community? Not only activations and live music, but can we see it through public art? Can we learn about it?
Maybe there is some learning sessions, I don't know, with partnerships that we have within our community, from nonprofit arts organizations to artists themselves.
WBOI goes live & local on the Landing
How do we kind of get that education piece in there, as well as just hopefully from our front and visit Fort Wayne and bringing in conferences? Those are some first initial steps that likely won't be this year.
The music office executive director will be that first step, and that we'll see before the end of the year, we hope, but others will be shortly thereafter.
Julia Meek: Carry it forward, we hope. And Jessa, the last time we spoke officially, you nailed it, saying, "a region often overlooked, Fort Wayne and Allen County's music scene is quietly shaping itself, and we are ready to make some national noise.
Okay. How can we crank that up still more? How noisy can we get?
Jessa Campbell: We all have to be speaking that language. We all have to be being proud of our community. I think that's good and bad for our community is, we're humble, but we have an opportunity to share this story.
And when you have a visitor that you meet on the street, sharing what you love about our community, being proud of it, excited to have them here is important.
When you're out traveling and someone asks where you're from, you can talk about music. We can all be doing this and sharing what we have to offer. And then when you have a bigger voice, maybe you're an organization.
Look for those opportunities to include music as a part of your theme, whether it's a program that you're putting together or something permanent, having that be a part of everyone's thinking will help us create that noise.
And then at Visit Fort Wayne, we see it every day, of people just being surprised about our community. And I'm ready for them to be like, "Yeah, I knew this place was going to be good."
I-I'm ready for that change to happen. And I think, I hope we're there. I hope I get to see it in my lifetime, but it definitely is a part of being all proud of what we have in here.
Julia Meek: Jessa Campbell is Visit Fort Wayne's Director of Destination Development and Communications.
Thank you for sharing your update on this wonderful development, Jessa. Keep up the good work. Blessings on that journey every step of the way.
Jessa Campbell: Thank you, I appreciate it, Julia.
