MANAGEMENTWORKSHOP“The Seed [Management Workshop] started my career.” - Alex Lahey, artist
“Attending The Seed was THE most important and formative week of my early career. I was able to ask all the questions I had about the business (but was too afraid to ask) and formed close relationships with peers and experienced managers. It gave me the confidence to pursue management as a career and I retain lifelong friends, tools, and knowledge from that week.”
- Andrew Stone, 2023 AAM Manager of the Year.
Created by artists for artists, The Seed Management Workshop was the brainchild of John Butler and Danielle Caruana (Mama Kin) in 2005 as a way for the community to share resources and impart wisdom to managers and self-managed artists beginning their often-challenging careers in the music industry.
The first workshop was held in 2006, with annual cohorts of alumni coming together for an immersive retreat to hear from industry experts, learn from each others’ experiences and create lifelong camaraderie and professional connections. The workshop has seen over 300 managers and self-managed artists come through the program, while the Seed Fund overall has distributed over $1.5 million through grants and initiatives.
The project has delivered twelve workshops across fifteen years to some of the biggest behind-the-scenes names in the Australian music industry including Van Picken, Andrew Stone, Jen Cloher, Jodie Regan, Luke Girgis, Maggie Collins, Fred Leone, Jake Mason, Melody Forghani, Anthony Zaccaria, Monique Rothstein, Scott Mesiti, Leah Flanagan, Jess Beston, Katie Besgrove, Nick Lynagh, Rick Chazan, Nicole BZ, Rowan Brand and many more.
With program funding from Create NSW, the workshop is back under the guidance of Caruana and The Seed Fund Managing Director, Stacia Goninon.“In a time where artist managers and self-managed artists are predominantly working in silos, facing a barrage of long-standing and new challenges, opportunities to intentionally come together and form personal and professional connections is incredibly valuable,” says Goninon.
“The Seed Management Workshop offers something crucial in the ecosystem, an immersive experience that bigger conferences can’t offer, creating a community hive mind working towards the common goal of a thriving community and industry...we all leave transformed.
The workshop serves as an informal training opportunity to address the cultural and creative sectors skills shortages. The artist is the centre of the industry and managers (including self-managed artists) are pivotal in its success.”
The Seed Management Workshop will be held in mid-2025, in regional New South Wales, tapping into the formula that has worked so well in the past, but updating the content and context for the newly emerging music industry.
Founder and Director of The Seed Fund, and artist in her own right under the guise of Mama Kin, Caruana is elated about the return of the program, saying, “I love that we are able to deliver a program that is responsive to what emerging managers, self-managed artists and artists are facing in their current realities. We focus on facilitating connections that will follow our participants back into their working lives and through the long arcs of their careers.
Alumni will attest that there is as much value in the workshop’s information delivery as its network making. We are an industry built on the love of music, a community of people dedicated to Australian artists, making music that is ready for local and global stages.
A think tank as much as a workshop, these participants ARE the Future Makers of our industry and of our community and fostering their growth is an investment in our collective futures.”