Jacqie Blue MacKay

Festival Programming

• Work along side the Executive & Artistic Director and artists to develop performance schedules, ensuring seamless event execution for the Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa Winter Jazz Festival's show schedules and off season events.
• Championed diversity within the organization by actively recruiting underrepresented talent for both on-stage and off-stage roles.
• Curated diverse musical programs, enhancing festival offerings and audience engagement.
• Evaluated artist submissions, selecting top-tier acts that aligned with festival vision and audience preferences.
• Negotiate with artist agencies and management.

Contract Management and Payments

• Contract all artists performing at the Ottawa Jazz Festival and Ottawa Winter Jazz Fest.
• Send all executed contracts to agents and artists, and follow up with each artist/agent until contracts are fully executed.
• Manage, organize, and prepare all artist payment details for festival's accountant.
• Managed budget allocations for artistic initiatives, optimizing resource use while maintaining quality standards.
• Assist artists with Canadian tax waiver application process. Follow up with international artists until tax waiver application has been received and achieved.

Festival Coordination

• Compile and organize all artist technical riders, stage plots and backline requests for the Production Manager.
• Artist Transportation - Collect all artist pick up and drop off details from over 100 artist groups. Organize daily transportation spreadsheets for the transport team, as well as a daily pick up information kit for artists.
• Artist hospitality - Organize and prepare daily hospitality lists for each day of the festival. Shop for all items and then distribute to each green room/artist trailer.
• First point of contact for all Main Stage artists at the summer festival. Acts have included: Aretha Franklin, The Roots, Sarah McLachlan, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Rogers, Steve Miller Band, Elvis Costello, Steve Martin, David Byrne & St. Vincent, Feist and many more.
• Book and manage all artist hotel accommodations at multiple festival sponsor hotels.
• Prepare artist kits that include local info, restaurant vouchers and festival details for all artists.

Team Management

• Identify organizational staffing needs and then attract, interview, select, and onboard qualified candidates to fill those positions
• Train new Artist Liaison team every year through the JCP program.
• Oversee and manage team prior to and during event(s)
• Established an inclusive work environment that fostered creativity, teamwork, and open communication among staff members.

Media/Marketing/Web

• Gather all artist promotional materials and organize items for the Media and Marketing team.
• Website - build artist pages for festival's website. Add promo material to their pages. Experience with WordPress.
• Resize artist photos for Ottawa Jazz Festival website, Instagram and Facebook using Photoshop.
• Proof all marketing materials before they are sent to the public.
• Social Media - Have assisted with the Ottawa Jazz Festival's social media posts, writing and design. Designed and posted Instagram marketing materials for the Winter Jazz Fest and summer festival in 2019.
• Assist with poster distribution. Poster street collars and various local businesses.
• Have knowledge in Google Suite, MS Office, Word, Excel, FileMaker Pro, Outlook, and Photoshop. Arts administration and data entry skills.

Operations

• Stage, set up and layout furniture in artist trailers to make them accommodating for artists on site.
• Clean artist trailers/green rooms after artists depart from venue(s).
• Assisted with décor concepts for the festival's annual benefits.
• Festival set up and tear down for all events.
• Book venues for off-season events.
• Coordinate venue tours for staff.

Grant Applications

• Brainstorm new programming ideas for future festivals.
• Input data, collect materials needed and upload grant applications for Ontario Creates (OMF) and Ontario Arts Council before grant deadlines.

• Assisted in booking Canadian and International theatre productions for the festival. Negotiated with artist agencies and management.
• Knowledge and interest in all aspects of artistic direction including strategic artistic planning, event planning, marketing, production, booking venues, contracting, theatre industry and budget management.
• Trained teams to work in the artist green room tent on festival site.
• Facilitated communication between artists and festival management to address needs and concerns.
• Festival set up and tear down; clean up and heavy lifting.
• Decorated the dining tent for opening night of the festival.
• DJayed many opening nights of the festival.

• New analysis that provided clients with copies of media content for specific news programs featured on APTN, CBC and CTV networks. Entered data into client database system for media monitoring purposes.
• Time management, attention to detail, completed tasks with tight deadlines.
• Effective organization abilities.

• Answered all incoming calls, organized paperwork, data entry, and filing
• Ordered all office supplies for company.
• Sales Coordinator in the computer hardware resale department which included researching product for resale, pricing, quotes, purchasing and resale.
• Experienced in providing and coordinating administrative services for management and coordinated meetings.
• Used QuickBooks Pro software for client's estimates, purchase orders and invoices.
• Data entry for all staff timesheets for payroll purposes.

• Customer Service Skills – Ensured client's orders were recorded and delivered with accuracy and speed.
• Supervised co-workers and trained new employees.
• Ensured customers satisfaction and maintained strong client relationships to ensure repeat business.
• Tracked all time-sensitive packages to ensure their arrival at their intended destination. Skills in this position include multi-tasking, reception, and driver reports.
• Worked in mailroom area, sorted mail for different customers renting mailboxes within company.