News - Current - Recent - About - Feedback
SPECIALISED AND EXPERIENCED SUPPORT IN BUSINESS PLANNING; AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT; OFF LINE AND ON LINE MARKETING; COMMUNICATIONS; PR; RESEARCH AND EVALUATION TO ENABLE YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR BUSINESS AND IDENTIFY AND ATTRACT THE AUDIENCES AND CUSTOMERS YOU NEED TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS. PHONE US TODAY FOR A CHAT 07876 170888.
Great results, personable , high integrity. I simply would not work with anyone else! Clear about what is to be achieved, gets on with the job and is very focused on client needs.
Jane Hogg, Management Consultant.
Our clients run cultural organisations and creative businesses. We work with them to identify and develop practical, effective, affordable strategies to attract and engage audiences, customers, visitors, participants and stakeholders.
CONSULTANCY – Business plans; research; evaluation; audience development; marketing and communications.
FACILITATION – Sessions for board members and staff teams to identify issues and opportunities, develop solutions and strategies.
MENTORING – One to one support for clients to develop business plans, make funding applications, develop and implement strategies.
TRAINING – Practical sessions in business development and marketing from planning to tactics.
Impressive, comprehensive, realistic, do-able; reads like it is written by practitioners not consultants. Well done!
Marketing Director, National Galleries of Scotland.
I have never met someone who made marketing so practical, so very comprehensive, and possible to understand and apply.
Creative Industries business owner, Glasgow.
Training Day - Abigail will be running the next Market(ing training) Day in Edinburgh in September, with another in Glasgow in October and in Aberdeen in November. Book via Cultural Enterprise Office.
Step Up: applications are now open for cultural leaders who want to develop mentoring skills. Visit the Federation of Scottish Theatre's web site for details on free places and an application form. Funded by Scottish Arts Council.
Abigail gave me high quality advice - I left fuelled with drive, focussed, inspired and ready to do anything!
Business Development Client, Glasgow.
The Lammermuir Festival, East Lothian, 10 - 19 September: audience development/marketing mentoring programme.
Glenkens Community & Arts Trust / CatStrand: business plan mentoring with consultancies in retail, catering and fund raising development.
Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, North East Arts Touring and Puppet State Theatre Company: digital development.
Creative Scotland: a development programme for Own Art galleries in e marketing and commerce, with Chris Elvery and CEO.
Creative Scotland: customer development programme to increase public awareness of, and engagment in, Own Art.
Dance Ihayami: audience development and marketing strategy, tactics and tool kit, including a review of the business model.
Puppet State Theatre Company: facilitating board / staff sessions to inform business plan development.
I can’t recommend Abigail highly enough.
General Manager, Edinburgh International Science Festival
I thank Abigail for her encouragement, enthusiasm and lateral thinking which often led to the discovery of crucial information.
Dr Watson, Author of James Duncan of Benmore
Cultural Enterprise Office: places available for Market Day, an interactive day for creative small businesses to develop marketing skills, held 8 times a year.
Wasps, Y Dance, Indepen-dance, Dance House, Iron Oxide, Mischief La Bas: Brand development workshop for a new facility, Briggait, Glasgow.
Arts & Theatres Trust Fife: audience research programme and workshops in customer segmentation and branding for a new audience strategy.
Dancebase Catalyst Project / Cultural Enterprise Office: 1:1 marketing advice sessions for Plan B and Errol White Company contemporary dance companies .
Audience Development / Scottish Arts Council: a report assessing the impact of grants received by 25 client organisations for organisational development.
Catherine Wheels Theatre Company: an audience development strategy to grow audiences in 100+ communities / venues across Scotland.
CatStrand / Glenkens Community & Arts Trust: an audience development strategy to launch the CatStrand, a new arts, enterprise, community and tourism centre in New Galloway; a successful funding application for a one year audience development post; and an evaluation of the project.
Centre for Contemporary Arts: a Board and staff session to determine future artistic and business planning priorities.
Creative Arts Business Network, Borders: a training day for creative businesses to develop programmes and customers / audiences.
City of Edinburgh Council: a session for CEC staff and 5 Edinburgh art gallery directors to review emerging development opportunities.
Cultural Enterprise Office: a facilitated day to enable partners to assess the Artists as Leaders pilot programme and plan future programmes.
Cultural Enterprise Office: 1:1 advice sessions and training days in business development and marketing for creative individuals and businesses.
Cultural Leadership Programme: a programme to research arts governance models, meeting leaders in Edinburgh, York, London and Newcastle.
Duff House: a research programme for Duff House management and partners Aberdeenshire Counci, Historic Scotland and National Galleries of Scotland.
Dumfries and Galloway Council: PR programme increasing visitors to Spring Fling open studio event with 100 artists and makers across South West Scotland.
Dumfries Theatre Royal Trust: a public televised meeting to gather the views of 100+ individuals on the future of theatre provision in Dumfries.
Edinburgh Art Festival: a facilitated day to support the Director and Board to determine aims, objectives and strategies for a new three year business plan.
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop: a business plan development and change programme for a new multi-million pound centre.
Edinburgh Science Festival: a mentoring programme and staff sessions to re-focus vision / mission and develop a branding / marketing strategy.
Education Department / Scottish Arts Council: a feasibility study into an Arts Award for Young People, with consultants Jane Hogg and Scotinform.
EKOS / Glasgow City Council: a marketing strategy as part of a business plan and funding application for Radiance: Glasgow's Festival of Light.
Family Friendly Initiative: Marketing Performing Arts to Families on-line guidelines for the Family Friendly web site.
Fife Contemporary Arts and Crafts: a mentoring programme and staff workshops to support the development of an audience development strategy.
Imaginate: a branding / communications strategy for new arts development agency and parent company of Scottish International Children's Festival.
National Galleries of Scotland: marketing advice and steward briefings on the development of NGS's first family friendly marketing campaign.
NEAT: a review of governance, management and marketing and a marketing strategy for the north east arts promoters' development agency.
Publishing Scotland: a marketing seminar for authors, editors, printers and designers with 7 activities to develop their business.
Re:Create: a facilitated meeting to review the audience development initiative between Stills, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and Edinburgh Printmakers.
Scottish Poetry Library: a facilitated day with staff and Board to identify and scope future development priorities.Stills Centre for Photography: a staff mentoring programme and the development of an engagement strategy 2010 to 2013.
Visual Arts Department / Scottish Arts Council: a review of Own Art, the contemporary art buying scheme.
WASPS: vision, mission, aims and management model for The Briggait, a new visual arts and dance facility in Glasgow.
West Lothian Youth Theatre: a consultation programme and the development of a creative brief to re-brand the organisation.
In 2004, after 20 years working as a practictioner in a range of senior arts management positions in Scotland, Abigail became an independent consultant. Since then she has worked with over 50 clients - creative businesses, companies and organisations: large and small, rural and urban, venue based and touring, not for profit and commercial, across all art forms.
Abigail is a Specialist Advisor and Trainer for the Cultural Enterprise Office; a member of the Association of Coaching and the Arts Marketing Association; and an Associate of tourism consultancies The Market Specialists and TEAM. Abigail is also a Director of Stills, Scotland's Centre for Photography.
Previous positions include Communications Director Imaginate; Marketing Director Scottish International Children's Festival; Events Development Manager Edinburgh Tourist Board; Head of Marketing Royal Lyceum Theatre Company; Press Director Unique Events; Marketing Manager Traverse Theatre.
Abigail has been a member of the Theatrical Management Association Marketing Advisory Committee, a board member Boilerhouse and the Volunteer Co-ordinator of Edinburgh's consortium of arts organisations, festivals and visitor attractions, The Capital Group.
Abigail is a graduate of Chelsea School of Art and the University of Wales.
Most recent
The quality of the presentation was excellent. Both Abigail and Chris are obviously expert in their fields and their expertise shone through. The range and depth of topics covered was most valuable and the level of detail was pitched just right.
Digital development workshop run by Abigail Carney & Chris Elvery for Own Art Gallery owners.
I attended a one to one session with Abigail Carney this morning and I should like to pass my thanks. It was most informative and the actions we agreed should help my business enormously.
Business Development Client.
Consultancy
Abigail was a real asset to the Company, her delivery has always exceeded our expectations, her commitment and expertise has been excellent. Abigail's warm personality makes her feel like she's one of the company, and never a "faceless consultant".
Paul Fitzpatrick, Producer, Catherine Wheels Theatre Company.
I want to reiterate what I said when I first read the plan: it is impressive, comprehensive, realistic, "do-able" and reads like it is written by practitioners not consultants. Well done!
Martin Reynolds, Marketing Director, National Galleries of Scotland.
Abigail provided invaluable support to ESW’s Director in writing our Business Plan and running workshops with stakeholders to identify priorities and objectives. It was essential that the Plan demonstrated how we would develop a new building, manage change and maintain our core business. Following the work, funding was approved by the Scottish Arts Council.
Irene Kernan, Director, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
Facilitation
The event has certainly achieved the aim of getting the project back and high on the public agenda. It more than matched my expectations.
Chairman, Dumfries Theatre Royal Trust.
Thanks for the session and your summary. Both educative and enjoyable; it should be bottled.
Gill Khosla, Board Member, Glenkens Community and Arts Trust.
Our directors were delighted with how much they achieved in the time available under your guidance and felt that you led the group though the issues successfully and succinctly.
Suzanne Jeffries, General Manager, Benchtours.
Thanks very much for the session on Friday - it was exactly what we needed. I liked your super-focused style and the sprightly pace enabled us to air views but not get bogged down.
Deirdre Mackenna, Director, Stills.
Coaching and Mentoring
I found Abigail extremely astute in assessing what my needs were. She is a fantastic facilitator in the way she made me think about my projects, and drew out information I didn't know I had from me! I left fuelled with drive, focussed, inspired and ready to do anything. She delivered high quality advice which broke down the daunting task I had in front of me and made it seem so much more possible!
Coaching Client.
I can’t recommend Abigail highly enough. Due to her involvement my ability and confidence have improved significantly and the organisation has also seen tangible benefits. On a personal level I have found Abigail to be extremely supportive and positive which has helped me through a period of change, I feel better equipped to deal with the greater responsibility that I now have.
Mentoring client, Edinburgh International Science Festival.
Training
A fantastic day! Greater impact and relevance than a four year marketing degree ... Abigail's experience was invaluable.
Creative business owner and Market Day participant, Glasgow.
I have never met someone who made marketing so practical, so very comprehensive, and possible to understand and apply. Abigail brought a refreshing and focussed approach . . . with ideas and thought provoking questions to stimulate our understanding. Her expertise also fed into the workshop and she used a variety of approaches to get people to interact with one another. I had such a buzz during the session and I left feeling inspired.
Market Day participant, Glasgow.
Thank you for facilitating such a stimulating and engaging seminar yesterday. I thought you pitched it exactly right for the group attending and the feedback certainly confirmed that.
Vanessa Garden, Publishing Scotland.
I found the whole thing absolutely brilliant - the organisation, the venue and, of course, Abigail's splendid presentation. She really knows her stuff and has such a lovely engaging presentational style. The event came at just the right time for me, and I can't say how grateful I am. Definitely a 10 all round!”
Sue Palmer, author, Toxic Childhood, Seminar participant, Publishing Scotland.
Advocacy
As is often the case, it was really one indivdual who lit the spark and carried the torch by championing the potential of Hogmanay in Edinburgh. That individual was Abigail Carney, who was then Public Relations Manager at Edinburgh Marketing, the forerunner to Edinburgh Tourist Board. Abigail recognised the tourism and wider civic PR potential of Hogmanay and persuaded Edinburgh District Council, Edinburgh Lothian Council and Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise of this potential. These agencies combined to commission a feasibility study into what was then called The World Hogmanay Celebrations, Edinburgh with the aim of enhancing the city's image as a European international capital, as a city of arts and celebrations and as a city of world quality.
Douglas Ritchie, Director, Edinburgh Tourist Board speaking at the Millenium Conference, EICC, Edinburgh