Dance Space Meeting with Fractured Atlas
Hosted by: Dance/NYC
Location: Mertz Gilmore Foundation

Tuesday, May 31, 2011
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Leaders:
Lane Harwell, Director, Dance/NYC
Adam Natale, Director of Partnerships and Business Development, Fractured Atlas
Kirsten Nordine, Project Manager, Technology Programs, Fractured Atlas

Participants:
Lacey Althouse (Dance/NYC)
Thomas Bell (CPR, Center for Performance Research)
Eugenie Cowan (Exploring the Metropolis)
Christina deRoos (Chez Bushwick)
Emma Dunch (Dunch Arts, Dance/NYC)
Hannah Durack (The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)
Ximena Garnica (Cave)
Gina Gibney (Gibney Dance Center)
Tamara Greenfield (Fourth Arts Block)
Leah Krauss (Mertz-Gilmore Foundation)
Dennis Lue (The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)
Alma Malabanan-McGrath (New 42nd Street Studios)
Eri Misaki (Dance Project SEQUENCE, Inc.)
Catherine Peila (Dance New Amsterdam)
Michael Reisman (New 42nd Street Studios)
Kayla Rosenberg (Nonprofit Finance Fund)
Lynn Shipley (Ballet Hispanico)
Marie-Louise Silva Stegall (Ballet Hispanico)
Andrea Sholler (Dunch Arts, Dance/NYC)
Phoebe Stern (Fourth Arts Block)
Paz Tanjuaquio (Topaz Arts)
Pam Tanowitz (New York City Center)
Karyn Treadwell (Mark Morris Dance Center)
Rebecca Wender (Movement Research)
Michele Wilson (Gibney Dance Center)

Space Database-NYCDanceSpaces.org
Space Database Demo, Kirsten Nordine

New Features
• Calendar for each space with available renting hours blocked off
• User dashboard pages for the space seekers and the facility manager with more management options
• Option to save favorite spaces and favorite searches
• Ability to set rates by day and time
• Ability to upload documents

Assistance for Facility Mangers
• Organizational profile page-a public page, option to add members to your organization by email
• Ability to approve or reject each rental that is requested (future developments may include a “black list” or “approve permanently” option), a renter will receive confirmation once facility manager approves, must enter reason for rejection
• Calendar
........o Organization-wide calendar for all rentals and events
........o Notates if the reservation is pending or accepted
........o Features to hide or show various reservations
........o Ability to click on reservation to show more details
........o Ability to edit reservations or add notes which is only available to the studio manager when they log in
........o Tool offers option to issue a full or partial refund
........o Ability to create recurring rentals
........o Once a certain time is blocked out, the time is no longer available to other users
• Settlements
........o Allows the facility manager to view all transactions and accounting details
........o Fractured Atlas will release the funds 2 day after the rental has occurred
........o Eligible renters can select as a non-profit to receive non-profit rates
........o For the future-renters will be able to book and pay for multiple spaces at once, send schedules to collaborators, offered incentives for referrals, save payment info and set automatic recurring charges for regular rentals
• Costs
........o Listing your space is free
........o Using the calendar feature only-$20/month or $200/year (for entire organization, not per studio space)
........o For space rentals-5% of rental cost: 3.5% goes to credit card fees, 1.5% goes to Fractured Atlas (this option can be applied so all or just some of the spaces you list)
........o Renters pay to book the space, but otherwise they are not charged. Creating an online user account for the renter is free. Users will receive a questionnaire about their user experience.

Space Manger Feedback
All participants

Benefits
• Streamed booking process
• One stop shop
• Time saving
• Access to wider pool of clients
• Analysis of other options (Fractured Atlas will build out more sophisticated reporting tools.)
• Removes a lot of overhead
• Awareness
• Increased revenue
• Will create informed renters
• Sponsored listings



Challenges
• Specialized rates-not everyone has a standard list they are comfortable listing
• Spaces without rates will come down lower in searches (It is possible to list rates for each studio, rates for performance rehearsal, special times, and rates can be edited at anytime.)
• Details around special events determine fees such as set up for piano, chairs, labor, food, etc. Perhaps and special “add ons” option can be included for billing. (Option for users to make a rental inquiry through the site if needed.)
• In person meetings prior to bookings are necessary for some space (The venue could call the renter once a new renter requests the space.)
• Customizable/sequential questions are not available
• Special clauses that the renter needs to agree with are not available
• Other websites are available for space marketing and they each one take a fee (hOURSpaces.com, Mindbody, Patron Manager). Possible integration? (This is version 1.0 and further integration with these sites, QuickBooks, etc. could be in the future. Integration could also be possible in the future with a funder type software, Fund for City of New York, other CRMs including Fractured Atlas’ new Athena ticketing software, or pull information from open APIs.)
• Verification of not for profit status (Right now, honor system is used, but in the future uploading documents that prove nonprofit status would be necessary.) Many who take the not for profit rate are artists that are unincorporated.



Suggestions
• Integration with organization’s Google calendar
• Export feature of the data with a date range in order to upload into other systems
• Pre-report set up options





Community Benefits
• Standardization of booking
• Help desk
• Open source technology (Spaces project not part of the open source initiative. Open source technology is when the coding of the software itself is free and open to the public so that the software can be customized for a specific constituencies and so that any developer can make improvements.)





What else can Fractured Atlas be doing?
• Community outreach for training the community and marketing tips
• Help desk for renters to use to save venues on administrative work
• Information shared across the field based on when renters are purchasing and at what price to help improve field management decisions
• Research-based advocacy tool-for dance in NYC and nationally
• Reports on use of NYSCA subsidies
• A realtime blog that is searchable (like TurboTax) to help reduce calls and to promote community conversation
• Online and offline community dialogue between venues that will allow for cross-pollinating audiences, shared learning and best practices on a range of issues, from insurance to contracts and cancelation policy. Dance/NYC may play a role here.
• A note to let renters know that donations are possible and that rehearsal space costs are at market pricing and are operated by nonprofit organizations
• Insurance advice and certificates
• Renter interface improvement (Will grow in sophistication. Opentable.com, a restaurant reservation tool, was mentioned for comparison of how renter interface could grow.)
• Link to the space’s website calendar already in use (At this point, a space site can be linked to the space database.)
• Accept other methods of payment (Currently, if the renter does not have a credit card they do not have the option for billing by another format. But features do include a confirmation, receipt and automatic reminder the day before booking.)
• Collect data on pay scale, benefits, policy for travel, job share

Timeline for release: Launches tomorrow in Los Angeles and Spring 2011 in DC, Salt Lake City, Minnesota and other areas. Rehearsal space reservation technology available in San Francisco Bay area and New York City. Beta release in NYC in June with limited functionalities. NYC beta release to a small group of spaces (contact Adam Natale if interested in being a part of first group). Improvements will be made then efforts to bring in more spaces.