The 2007 Orchestra Website Review: What Happened To Milwaukee?

Throughout last week, a number of readers took the time to send in an email inquiring why the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) wasn't included in any of the 2007 Orchestra Website Review material. It is true, the MSO was deliberately excluded from this year's review, but there is a good reason, one which has everything to do with a new website development product that functions as blueprint template to quickly build a Tessitura integrated website, all at a cost that is well within the means of a variety of budget size ensembles ...

The product is being developed by Lynch2, the company responsible for designing the top reviewed websites since the Orchestra Website Review was launched in 2004. In the spirit of full disclosure, I've been working with Lynch2 since the summer of 2007 developing the product and to ensure that it contains all of the necessary elements to provide users with the tools they'll need to make sure they comply with all of the necessary elements included in the Orchestra Website Review criteria. The ultimate result is a product that is ideally positioned to maximize an organizations ability to generate revenue and increase awareness via their online presence.

In short order, the end result of this new blueprint product will be launched by the MSO. Consequently, given my direct involvement in the development stages of their new website, it was appropriate to remove them from the 2007 Orchestra Website Review.

In order to develop a better understanding of Lynch2's new offering and how the MSO became the first organization to launch this product, the principal figures from the MSO, Lynch2, and I conducted several conversations to document the timeline and discuss their respective viewpoints on the project's development to date.

Start At the Beginning
After the first three Annual Orchestra Website Reviews, it became clear that Lynch2 was emerging as a leader in the orchestra website designer field. At the same time, their approach to constructing a successful website was straightforward and delivered an intuitive, user friendly product; all while seamlessly integrating Tessitura, one of the most comprehensive arts marketing enterprise solutions available.

All of this made me wonder if it would be possible to create a product where orchestras of all budget size could benefit from Lynch2's accomplishments without having to dedicate several months of time and six figures worth of resources. Essentially, would it possible to create something which would give orchestras the ability to enhance their online presence and sell more tickets without breaking the bank? Fortunately, the answer wasn't far away.

Shortly after moving to the Chicago area in 2006 Andi Bordick, NSO Website and Multimedia Manager, suggested that I contact Stephen Lynch since I now lived less than 30 minutes away from Lynch2's office in Bartlett, IL. A few weeks later, Stephen Lynch and I met for lunch to discuss their orchestra website work and the conversation eventually led to the idea of creating a template style product.

What ensued was one of those moments where working in this business is just a lot of fun. Numerous sketches on a paper tablecloth and several aha moments later and it became clear that creating a product capable of enabling orchestras to create significantly better websites was only a few months away.

After establishing an almost instantaneous rapport with Stephen, work with Lynch2 continued over the next several weeks on product details; at the same time I was looking for an orchestra which met the criteria for serving as the ideal candidate for this new product. Fortunately, the organization which met all of the criteria was right in our back yard: the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

I initially approached the Stephen Duncan, the MSO's Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, about the idea of making his orchestra the first group to implement this new product.

"Groups like Nashville and Chicago have raised the bar for [orchestra] websites in a very short period of time and utilizing those connections has been a healthy influence when considering where the MSO needed to move," said Stephen Duncan. "I was already familiar with Drew so when he approached me with the idea during the summer I thought it was something we should investigate right away."

Shortly thereafter, representatives from Lynch2, the MSO and I conducted a conference call to talk about what the MSO was looking for and if Lynch2 was able to deliver what they needed.

"We had recently hired a full time Web Facilitator, Nellie Bednarek," said Sarah Maio, MSO's Director of Marketing. "Nellie was able to open our eyes to things we weren't able to see before. We consider ourselves a top-tier orchestra and the website wasn't reflecting that; it was difficult for patrons to use and it simply wasn't competitive. As such, we were looking to this product to give us the level of internal control we needed to solve those problems."

Everyone involved left that teleconference with positive feelings and the MSO immediately started into their due diligence process before committing to the next stage in the process.

"After talking to Kevin Giglinto from the CSO, a real authority on this issue, I was sold on his recommendations about Lynch2," said Stephen Duncan.

Nellie Bednark and Sarah Maio echoed Stephen's comments.

"We've been approaching this project with an open mind to learning from our colleagues in the industry," said Nellie. "We talked to people from across the country about what worked for them and what didn't and we carefully examined best practices."

"We had lengthy conference calls with our counterparts in Nashville," said Sarah. "After talking to them and seeing the sort of stunning web pages their counterpart to our Web Facilitator is creating, we developed a good feeling about Lynch2 and their eRube product. Drew's involvement in the project gave us the level of comfort and confidence we needed to fully explore this option."

As a result, representatives from the MSO's marketing department went to Lynch2's offices for a personal look at eRube and gather more information about Stephen Lynch and his team. The results were very positive.

"Above all, our goal is to have a user-friendly site that's functional for patrons, musicians, board, and staff," said Nellie. "[Lynch2's] staff appears to be well-versed in all the functionality that our organization needs and eRube appears to be a very versatile content management system that offers orchestras an exceptional amount of functionality."

Following that meeting Sarah Maio realized that Lynch2's experience integrating Tessitura into websites without busting budgets would be a valuable component to designing a new website.

"Knowing that integrating Tessitura with someone who has a great deal of experience is something that influenced our decision," said Sarah. "The fact they can work within our budget and time parameter is a very strong factor."

Stephen Duncan noted that the Lynch2 wasn't concerned with approaching their in-person meeting with any sort of hard-sell tactic, saying "Lynch really listened to our problems."

Following that meeting, Lynch2 drafted a formal proposal and Statement of Work and once the MSO's internal structure approved the project, work began in earnest. As of now, the project is on track to have the new MSO website launch in the beginning of November, 2007.

What The Product Does
To begin with, toss out any preconceived notions this might be a static one-size-fits-none template where all an organization can do is plug static content into rigid form fields. Instead, right from the earliest planning stages it was determined that one of the core elements would be Lynch2's eRube exclusive site building and content management tool.

I learned about eRube shortly after the first Orchestra Website Review in 2004 and since then, every orchestra which uses eRube has had nothing but good things to say about how versatile a tool it is for users with little to no training but powerful enough for users who are fully versed in writing their own code.

Stephen Lynch describes eRube as a site creation and content management tool that enables users to have direct control over their website. Users are empowered by becoming part of the building team, allowing their organization to take control of the website's design and content.

"A lot of other systems build the site and then decide what to content manage but eRube is more than just a content management system," said Stephen Lynch. "For example, users can change content on pre-designed pages but they can also create new pages on nearly every level of the website. This allows users to create content and pages, including flash headers, that will automatically update based on the most recent events."

Another example of how much control and personalization users will have is the ability to import existing color schemes used in print and online material or create an entirely new palette. Users can create new pages in any level navigation category with each new page automatically carrying over the basic layout and design you've already established. Not only is this a handy tool to create long term content but a flexible way to easily create pages for temporary events (think tours, subscription sales pushes, educational events, and summer seasons). Users can even upload photos, video and audio clips, press kits, pdf press releases, and more at any time (think creating musician bio and pics as they are completed/updated, according to your schedule).

One more thing I almost forgot to mention, you can have a new website up and running in a matter of a few months plus you don't have to take your current website offline until the new site is fully tested and ready to go.

The other outstanding feature of this product is its ability to fully integrate Tesitura into every component of the website. Current Tessitura users already know how involved it is to integrate such a powerful and complex piece of arts enterprise software into an existing or redesigned website. As such, Lynch2's experience places them in a very unique position within the business to streamline that entire process by building off of the very stable, successful platform they've created in past orchestra website products.

Fortunately, being a Tessitura user isn't a requirement to take advantage of this new product although a non-Tessitura version will not be available until after the inaugural MSO project is complete.

One final element of the project is every orchestra that purchases this product automatically receives my direct support during every stage of the process. Not only does the product already enable every orchestra to include all of the elements needed to create an effective website, I'll be along at every stage of the process to ensure each stage progresses smoothly. 

That means I'll be available to review all of your current and new content for every necessary element needed for creating an effective website that maximizes revenue and awareness. I'll also be available to make sure you don't get swamped during the process and serve as a liaison between your organization and Lynch2 (especially useful if you don't employ a full time web professional).

Conclusions
This new product (both Tessitura and non-Tessitura format) will come with a flat-fee pricing (something I'm certain every Finance Manager and COO will appreciate). Since users can create internal pages and content as often as they like, customization is nearly unlimited. At the same time, the product's flexibility allows users to develop unique components in conjunction with Lynch2's engineers on a fee-based structure; after all, partial and complete customization will always be the best solution for some organizations. 

In the end, this product is an ideal solution for any orchestra that is tired of having a website that doesn't adequately project their level of professionalism and feel stymied by a lack of individual control. Better yet, this product allows them to solve those problems without breaking their marketing budgets.

As the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra project concludes and their new website is launched in the beginning of November, additional details about this product will be made available in subsequent articles. In a sense, this article serves as a preview of things to come and to get organizations thinking about where they want their websites to be by the end of the 2007-2008 season. Consequently, this product will allow the entire orchestra field to move forward in the quality and effectiveness of their websites in a one quantum leap. In short, this is exactly the web design product the business has been waiting for.