We love a good dance conference, and we recently heard about this new offering for dance studio owners and teachers that takes place in Chicago in August. Energize provides a space for these professionals to gather, network, get the jump on costumes, and take advantage of a variety of different seminars designed to help them take their businesses to the next level. We talked with Suzanne Gerety of Dance Studio Owner and Revolution Dancewear about the upcoming event and got some great insights we’re happy to pass along to you here…
Suzanne, can you tell readers a bit about yourself and how the idea for Energize came about?
Sure! I’ve been helping dance studio owners start, run and grow their business since we launched Dance Studio Owner back in 2008. I was born into the dance studio life as the daughter of a successful studio owner. Our studio is celebrating it’s 45th season this year. My mom, Kathy Blake and I also are the columnists for Dance Teacher Magazine’s “Ask the Experts”, which we’ve been writing for them since 2011.
In 2013, Dance Studio Owner became part of the Revolution Dancewear family of brands – REV UP Brands – and we are truly grateful to have reached thousands of studio owners world-wide with our mission to help them keep their passion for dance alive as they grow their business. We offer membership to our website and through those resources studio owners can get exactly what they need to find more students, increase student retention, develop loyal faculty, staff and students and overcome any challenge with the business such as problem parents or studio drama.
Energize came about from our entire creative team at Revolution. Since we have been doing events over the years at our headquarters in the Chicago, IL area such as a live fashion show, shopping events, seminars and trainings, it made sense to combine all of those great events into one awesome weekend for studio owners, teachers, and their staff.
Now that we have four versatile brands that help you run your studio successfully it is a great opportunity for our customers to have time with us in person to learn how to get the most out of each resource. Our costume and dancewear flagship brand; Revolution Dancewear, our elite performance line; Tenth House, our Studio Resource; Dance Studio Owner and our online Dancewear and Costume Sales for studio owners to sell to parents; Nimbly.
What is the thing that makes Energize unique from other dance conferences?
Our customers and members say it’s the personal connections and that they get to truly see how the costumes go from idea to creation. We also make the event a really fun and festive experience for everyone. We bring in dozens of dancers who model our newest styles in a beautiful fashion show and treat all attendees to a cocktail reception too. Coming to Energize literally fires you up to have an amazing dance season through the classes and seminars for studio owners, teachers, and staff.
This is an intimate event where we make time to for attendees to connect and collaborate. Our primary goal is that you leave knowing you are a valued customer, friend of our brands, partner in this dance journey and the bonus is you get to see some of our behind the scenes on how everything works. When you receive your costumes, dancewear or login to our website you truly know the team and all of what happens to make your dance season a success.
What are some of the key offerings that this event will be providing for participants?
We have seminar topics for everyone including:
Studio Focus:
- How to Take a Great Headshot
- Transform Your Studio – And The World – One Dancer at a Time
- Recital Themes: Brand your Recital and Transform your Show!
- Overcome Burnout: Rekindle Your Joy & Passion for Studio
- Drama Free Dance Studio
- Teacher Training Program
- Performance Opportunities for a Non-Competitive Studio
- Stage Makeup Made Easy
Classroom Focus:
- PowerDance Technique: Body Mechanics – Floor Class
- PowerDance Technique: Body Mechanics – Movement Class
- How to combine Acro and Dance: Across the Floor AcroDance Progressions
- Setting Up Your Lucrative and Long-term Acro Program: from Preschoolers to Pre-Professionals
- Teaching Toddler Dance: Ideas and Tools for Teaching 18 months – 2.5 year olds
- Unique Props: Creative Ideas for Ages 2-6
- Tools for Classroom Management
- Exploring the Concepts of Dance Through Improvisation
- Choreography Map: A Guide to Recital Choreography Success
Front Office Focus
- Studio Website Essentials to Attract New Students
- Take things off your plate: How to set priorities and delegate effectively
- Student Retention: Gather Constructive Feedback to Your Benefit
- Studio Economics and Key Data Everyone Should Know
- New Student Lead Process
- Price your Products to Sell – How to Make a Profit on Dancewear & Costumes
- Nimbly: Boost Revenue with Online Shopkeeping
- The Art of Pre-Registration
- Studio Communications Like A Rockstar
- Small Town, Big Dreams: An Introduction to Growth Management
I noticed there are two options for attending, a General Admission ticket, and a VIP Studio Package. Can you elaborate?
Yes. We have two registration options, both are fabulous. General Admission or our VIP Package. For general admission, it’s $125. When you attend you actually receive a $125 REV UP BRANDS merchandise credit to spend on-site with Revolution, Tenth House, or DanceStudioOwner.com. It’s a win for you!
Plus you get: complimentary meals and drinks, all business seminars and movement classes, the fashion show, and cocktail reception. You can visit with vendors and receive exclusive discounts, and get inspired by our Keynote Speaker.
We do have a fabulous VIP studio package, it’s popular because it includes all of this for $399 and up to 4 people can attend:
You get, complimentary meals and drinks, all business seminars and movement classes, the fashion show and cocktail reception. Here you can also visit with vendors and receive exclusive, discounts and get inspired by our Keynote Speaker. PLUS…1 year Membership to DanceStudioOwner.com with Rev Perks (a $399 value), professional headshots for 4 members of your staff at the event (a $1000 value), a one-on-one consultation with DanceStudioOwner.com (a $250 value), one-on-one Revolution and Tenth House costume shopping with a dedicated representative, and VIP reserved seating at the Fashion Show.
It sounds like this will be a great opportunity for studio owners and teachers to see all the latest costume ideas. Are there any pricing “perks” for those attending?
The perk is the ticket price and with general admission you get your fee paid back as merchandise credit back to use toward purchases. With a Dance Studio Owner membership at the annual plan, you also get REV PERKS, which are exclusive savings and our cash back rebate program for Revolution and Tenth House. Right now, if you use code DSOBONUS you can get $150 in merchandise credit when you buy a general admission ticket.
You held this event last year. Can you share a few words about the overall atmosphere at Energize, and comment on the feedback you received after the event?
Everyone who was there felt welcomed into our REV UP Brands family and they said they truly felt refreshed, inspired and most of all energized after attending. So we think the name is fitting!
Is there anything else you’d like to share with people who may be interested in attending this gathering?
The best investment you can make in your dance studio is to invest in yourself. And we’re so confident that this will help you have an awesome season ahead. We also have great industry vendors attend and they have great information to share to help you run and grow your studio. Ultimately, we want you to have an advantage when you start your new dance season and everything we have planned will help you have your best year yet from studio to stage and beyond.
Learn more about Energize on their web page. This year’s event takes place from August 10th through the 12th.
Also for more details, our friends at Dance Advantage have shared some additional information about Suzanne and the event on their website. Take a peek!
Disclosure: 4dancers received compensation from DanceStudioOwner.com for this post
