Pan needs a big idea. Like when Peter Ueberroth made the 1984 Olympics the TV games, raising close to a billion US dollars from broadcast rights. Previous to 1984, others focused on stadium seats to be the main supply of revenue.
So we need a big idea. Ueberroth changed the “product distribution” from the stadium seat to the living room couch.
What if we went on a massive YouTube thrust where we put steel bands in worldview and simultaneously start a conversation with the world? Blogging and building a communities interested in tuning, arranging, organising, building teams and all the other great stuff that steelbands do. This will mean steelband people learning some new skills. Skills that are no harder than what they do now. Of course steelbands will also be able to sell their recordings and take bookings.
Or what if we did something crazy like stopping Panorama for a 3 year test period and get steelbands back playing in their community blockos and across T&T. What if we could promise the movement the same level of government subvention to be distributed to its membership as it determines.
Stopping Panorama might be a biggest big idea. It removes the focus on 8 minutes of music and places it back on the instrument and its power to delight well beyond 8 minutes. Do pan people have the belly for this big idea?
