After a fabulous 2022 of getting the network back together for trips to festivals & conferences as well as running training events to help the running of your venues, we have an even stronger line-up of events to offer you in 2023.

These range from training events to encourage greater audience inclusion and understanding to trips to new festivals taking place across the country and internationally. Have a look at our overview and we hope to seeing you at some point this year.

Network events

Our Pitch up events which links artists working on new work and venues with partnership opportunities takes on a more regional focus this year. We have 2 events aimed at creating new local connections this year:

• Pitch Up Cambridge (East of England) - Wednesday 22 February, Cambridge Junction
  Artist pitching applications are now closed but there are still spaces for East of England venues looking to pitch. Get in touch if you would be interested. If you would like to attend, please book a free ticket
• Pitch Up Portsmouth (South of England) - Wednesday 18 October, Portsmouth Guildhall
  Artist & venue applications to open later in the year

Following our cluster catch-ups in 2022, the house team will again hit the road with a series of Regional meetings later in the spring. These will be a great chance for venue programming & marketing teams to touch base with other local venues and discuss some of the more pertinent issues to arts & theatre provisions in their local area and common areas for collaboration. We'll publish these dates in February.

In October, we hosted a really practical Venue Network Day discussing the role of Sustainability in venue management and audience development. As we still slowly bounce back from the pandemic and the effects of a Cost of Living crisis, we are currently planning our autumn network day around the theme of Are We Relevant? How can we as arts organisations reach new audiences and re-connect with previous visitors through our programming and understanding of audience needs. Tickets for this will be available from the summer and we would like you all to play an active part in the discussion in the build up to the event with examples of great practice and new ideas.

Training events

Our training offer is always based on the requirements of the network which we learn from members' participation in the house annual survey or through general catch-ups with venues. We are working with some of the artists which we will be touring this year and next to deliver relevant training for venues on the tour but also on themes which will benefit the wider network. Here's our first few free in-person and online training events now open for booking.

Conference bursaries

We will also work with partner organisations to offer bursaries to conferences meaning professionals from small organisations can learn about wider industry discussions and network with arts professionals normally not accessible to them. Keep an eye-out for bursary application details which will be announced later in the year.

• UK Theatre's Theatre & Touring Symposium - perfect for venue leaders and programmers
• AMA Conference - perfect for venue marketing managers - 13 - 14 July, Leeds Playhouse

Festival delegations

We took 35 programmers to the Edinburgh Fringe last year, many of whom had never had the opportunity to visit before. We will once again be making the trip to Edinburgh this year plus we are planning to take a number of delegates to some other arts festivals this year. These are our current festival visit plans (subject to change):

• Vault Festival - visiting a number of shows with our Theatre Associates team between January - March
• Spark Festival - Leicester's family friendly arts festival - 13 - 19 February
• Imaginate - Edinburgh's international children's festival - 27 May - 4 June
• Edinburgh Fringe - looking to take a delegation of programmers on the week of 14 -18 August
• Dublin Theatre Festival - Will take a smaller group of programmers to see the Irish showcase of new work - October

Make sure to keep an eye on our Events & Support page for updated information on all upcoming opportunities and, if you're not already, sign up to receive the house monthly newsletter.