Happy New Year from PANDA, the Performing Arts Network and Development Agency for the North West!

2008 was a great year for PANDA and our members:

• PANDA expanded our geographical reach from Greater Manchester to cover the whole of the North West region and welcomed our first new members from Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.

• Our membership grew to include over 600 individuals and 200 organisations from all disciplines of the performing arts; theatre, dance, live art, street art, live literature and circus.

• Our members include artists and performers, writers, directors, producers, choreographers, technicians, designers, photographers and people working at venues, rehearsal spaces, training providers, industry organisations and in many other related services.

• The PANDA website celebrated its first year since its relaunch, delivering the latest performing arts news, events, opportunities and exclusive member-only resources, including 47 issues of the members’ favourite, the weekly PANDA Network Newsletter.

Some of our highlights of 2008 included:

• Delivery of 16 different events during 2008, including socials, a pilot brunch series for more established practitioners and several Spotlight On panel events. Experienced guest speakers from organisations such as the BBC and Edinburgh Festival Fringe delivered their own unique insight into topics including Performing for Broadcast and Regional Support and Rural Touring Opportunities.

• PANDA’s project management service went full steam ahead, producing several projects both large and small during 2008, ranging from the 2-day residential Next Stage Symposium to booking a UK tour, from organising a VIP launch event to registering a member’s new company.

“It was a joy to work with PANDA’s efficient flexible tour booking service. A potentially difficult schedule was managed efficiently and professionally. We are delighted with the results.” John McGrath, Artistic Director of Contact

• We were delighted to hear the many success stories from our members due in whole or part to the support of PANDA, such as the playwright who secured a sell-out run at the Lowry following the advice of a mentor she got through a PANDA scheme. Or the two trainee producers from the PANDA Producers Consortium who went on to secure great jobs at venues in London this year.

And so onwards and upwards into 2009!

We’ve got loads to look forward to this year. As well as making constant improvements to our existing services we hope to be delivering lots of exciting new projects as well. Here’s a taster of some of the stuff you can look forward to from PANDA in 2009:

• More of the successful Spotlight On events, focussing on topics such as Funding Your Work: Where Has the Financial Crisis Left the Performing Arts? and Evaluating Your Project: Making Evaluation Painless Not Pointless!

• The launch of our exciting new forum events for more established performing arts practitioners, the Creative Conversations series. VIP guest speakers will lead discussions on topics including Working Internationally and Creative Producing.

• PANDA members can look forward to more exclusive special offers and discounts from our partners adding to our ever growing range of ticket offers, discounted rehearsal space and reductions on membership to dance studios and theatre organisations.

• We’ll also be using our expertise and ever growing network of contacts to roll out our project management service and take on even more projects from our members, partners and commercial organisations.

For more information about PANDA, our project management service, or to have a chat about how we can work together please contact Liz O’Neill on 0161 274 0629, email liz@panda-arts.org.uk or visit the website at www.panda-arts.org.uk.