CIC Interns Now Players

Many of the volunteers at the annual Concert Industry Consortium come from a concert business program at the University of Montana, Missoula. They come to the conference in hopes of landing jobs and in many cases are successful.

Dr. Scott Douglas, who supervises the program, told Pollstar an estimated 20 students over the years have come away from the program and CIC with industry jobs including at William Morris Agency, SRO Consultants, House of Blues, GSO Group, Insight Management and the MetraPark Arena. Quite a few have bypassed the mailrooms and have gone straight to assistant positions, he said.

“The whole reason we’re at CIC in the first place, the reason we know about CIC, is because of the emphasis instructors put on it. The instructors clearly state that it is important for students to attend this meeting,” Douglas said.

The one-of-a-kind certification program at UMT features classes that are taught “99 percent” by guest lecturers straight from the business, Douglas said.

Those include Miles Copeland, technology guru Marc Geiger from William Morris Agency, UMT grad Keith Miller from William Morris Agency, and AEG‘s John Meglen. The students also produce campus events with university funds and money they make from the productions.

Maria Brunner from Insight Management works closely with the class and is a former Montana State University “Bobcat.”

About 35 students are accepted into the program each year.

One student was promoted after six months and was put on the marketing management team for Linkin Park and is a personal assistant for some of the band members. At press time, one student had a job interview lined up at CAA as an agent’s assistant.

Douglas said that the program and CIC allows students the opportunity to approach industry veterans who often act as mentors to the students, and meet other important people through them. Last year, a student left CIC with an informal job offer from William Morris Agency that later materialized.

“It provides them with an opening to an industry that is usually very difficult to find an opening to get into,” Douglas said.

The idea for the course developed during the CIC conference visits to Las Vegas in 2000 and 2001.

The university’s business school dean, Larry Gianchetta, and Talent Buyers Network president Brian Knaff (another alum) talked about creating a course on the entertainment business and met with possible participants.

– Ryan Borba