Ive had to write this all on an iPad so Im terribly sorry but its all just gonna come out here. The future of A.P.C. As mentioned before, king and I went through a SWOT analysis to determine the possible directions our group may take over the next few years. For those of you who dont know what a SWOT analysis is, it is the first step you take in making business decisions after you know what your objective is and what your product is. Im assuming we are all aware of what these are. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. In this note youll see what we came up with, and do feel free to contribute, debate points, etc. Do you have a cup of coffee or your beverage of choice? Youd better grab one if you dont because this is gonna be a long one. This is what we came up with. A.P.C currently has a range of 20-30 people that float in and out. In this group we have smaller groups within it, that all study their own particular styles of dance. All of us have our own strengths and weaknesses but we wont go into it individually. Any criticisms are to be taken with a pinch of salt and as the entire group. NO HARD FEELINGS SHALL BE TAKEN! STRENGTHS A.P.C is quite diverse ethnically. We have many different cultures from Korea and Singapore to Russia, France and Germany back here to N.Z. This adds reinforcement to the idea that ANYONE can do what we do, given that they (our audience) takes time to learn and practice. It also shows that we can accept each other for who we are and it shows in the dance we do. This may sound a little cheesy, but it gives us brownie points as role models for the children, and the parents view us as serious dancers rather than a gang. A.P.C has numbers. We dont have a hundred people yet, but we have enough people that usually are keen to get down if there is news of a session in town most of the time. When there are performances at primo, I can confidently say there are people that will raise their hands to it. A.P.C gets quite a lot of exposure. Throughout our time busking, people have approached us for interviews to be used in a documentary, an online newsletter, showcases, heck weve even been asked for autographs! Any way you cut it, we are getting noticed. We are getting a lot of eyes on us, and those eyes are usually behind iPhones or DSLRs. People are recording our dances and some are even putting them up on YouTube or Facebook. We also get other dancers join us from watching (Acchi, Martin) We need to harness this energy called undivided attention and evolve the group so that we have a new bag of tricks next time we busk. We have smaller groups within the group. Whether its King and I, Dezhan and HappyFeet, Alex and Anthony or Sam and Leo, we have pairings or small groups that join together. Not that its separate from the whole group but this should be encouraged. You can make small routines up for battles, create better ideas for passing the ball and develop better bonds in the entire group. Plus youll have an easier time making routines for future performances because you know each other so well. Speaking of which, references. With future performances comes word of mouth and potential referees like Q and Tracy. If we show them that we know our shit, then that adds to our rep as a fun yet responsible COMMUNITY, not a crew. Not a gang. A COMMUNITY. We make money that can be saved. Now this is a strength and a weakness. Focussing on saving some of that money will make traveling to certain events lighter on our wallets. It will make buying equipment a lot easier. And we wont have to worry about buying batteries (Justin, please get some more this week! I give you money!) so much. In short, resources wont be stretched so far. We have a wide range of styles. Although it has been geared toward dubstep and animation lately, we have quite a few people that can bboy/girl, pop, lock, boogaloo, house, waack and krump. Its like a funky dance salad. Everyone of us is an important ingredient that would be missed if we didnt have it. Sunday 12th of jan. Acchis last busk. Who felt the energy when he got his top rock on? When Dezhan came in for the first time and got mental on the dubstep, who stopped, stared and had their minds blown?? We all have that fire in our own ways, and we need to show that shit off! This brings us to the next (and final point) Anyone can teach anyone anything. We have gone to Saaka for locking. We can go to Lawrence for salsa and house Anthony for tuts Leo for chest isos and character expression Peter for poppin foundation We can all level up together! ANYONE CAN TEACH ANYTHING TO ANYONE ALL WE GOTTA DO IS ASK!! So thats the strengths weve found so far. Here are the WEAKNESSES Sometimes there is a lack of interest to busk. Its the start/end of the week. Most people are either hungover, studying, working or doing chores. They get a notification on Fb saying to meet up in an hour. Barely anyone can be bothered to come and were left with 2-3 people jamming hard all day for peanuts. Ive been responsible for this a few times. Sorry... Possible solution: If you have a speaker and you want to jam, people need a day in advance. If you dont have it, ask one of the speaker guys to bring it in or pick it up off of them at a time that suits both of you. You can always come to cassette and grab it off me if youre swinging through town late at night for some reason. A contact list needs to be put up on the page so everyone can grab digits. Music dancing latency Often I hear people say I cant dance to this or This music is shit The music is only as uncomfortable to you as you see it. Everyone remembers seeing someone at a club, on YouTube or at an event dancing to something like hed heard it years before you did. Youd most likely wonder how they did that move at that time on that beat. It only comes from hearing lots of weird and unfamiliar music. Also, how do you feel in a battle or a cypher when you get on the floor and youve never ever heard the song before? Lets try get rid of that plaiz!! Possible solution: Im gonna hold a couple of fun jams every now and then at Aotea square. No busking and definitely no music weve heard a million times. The weirder, the more out there, the more challenging to our ears, the better. Lack of a network. We all have Fb, twitter and/or instagram. Lets use them more often with the media we record. We make money that CAN be saved. Its just that as far as I know, we kinda dont. We used a fair bit of funds on costumes for primo, dinner (which we are all entitled to and that aint gonna change) and transport. We just really need to move with the idea of saving. OPPORTUNITIES Social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,Vimeo, overseas social sites. There are so many people looking for funny or cool stuff on the net. Theres always an audience. Why not show them what we do on this little island? Merchandise Now I wouldnt dare go into this territory until we hit 500 NZ followers on the A.P.C page. And once we get that, wed have to design a page for our group that ISNT Fb or a YouTube account. A real page. Once we get there we can rely on Justin for shirt design. Then move to hats. Once we get THERE we can think about pants (where can we get good popping pants with relative patterns/designs on it?) IF we get added revenue from that, we could think about other things like CDs of popping beats that King among other DJs we know would mix. Dvds of workshops and tutorials for the bare basics. For the people constantly asking us to teach them a move or for a lesson. Bearing in mind, this would be way further down the track, just possibilities at this stage. Videos As people see us more often, they will get more curious. With the website we end up making (if and when that becomes a reality) We can then post videos of battles and comps, showcases, workshops, bios (people DO get curious when theyve taken a nibble at the carrot...) and even work that we do outside of the busk. What if we had a video of where the money went for the charity busking sessions we did? Seeing Diana helping out the children on her trip to Cambodia? Seeing the amazing smile on Zeds face as he transferred almost a grand to the red cross appeal for Typhoon Haiyan? This is the kinda shit we need to do if and when we have a website up. YouTube is good now, but it wont cut it forever. Especially with the new content review thing happening. I dont know about you guys but I want this to reach the world. Events Theres a few clubs that do hip hop and funk nights. We need to make our presence known there. We dont need to show everybody up, I believe we need people to see that we arent choreography dancers, but normal people that just happen to be really good at dancing. That way, were a little more recognized when busking. Some of these places include: Ponsonby Social Club, Atticus, Cassette 9, Shadows (on k rd) and Primo. We can do comps as well, whether we jam in the popping cypher at red bull bc1 or do a showcase at something like the hip hop summit. Youth town tend to do bboy sessions and battles. Speaking of which (again)... Festivals. There are culture and christian festivals that attract loads of people that love hip hop. Pasifika, polyfest, parachute... Its as easy as bringing a speaker to an open space, turning it on and pressing play. THREATS Weather We may be frolicking in the sun now but rain is never too far away in Auckland. This poses a huge danger to our speaker/s and whether or not we busk on any given day. The only way to combat this is by finding sheltered spots where we can still do our thing, at least for the speakers sake. Incidents/fights Lately Ive been hearing that a lot of people are walking about, targeting people that they can easily dominate, to rob them, hurt them or intimidate them. If this happens to any of us or if anyone feels unsafe by the loiterers while busking, King and I will act as bouncer. Justin would be the next in line as he also not only looks tough but simply is. If none of us are around and he looks menacing. Just turn off the music and pack up. Misunderstandings Authority. Security will tell you that busking must stop at 9pm. They will also demand a permit if you continue to busk outside 9pm so they can get details off of you. Always bring a permit and stop dancing for money at 9. Jamming is fine and even at Aotea square but if you wanna busk, gotta call it a night at 9. Rival crews We have never come across this, but it may be possible some people could get the wrong idea about us. We just need to remind them its all about the fun, and let them have a go. Randoms Just like before. Encourage them to have a go. If theyre annoying, stop the music and a core member will tell them that theyre being annoying. Thieves Simply have it like this. If you arent dancing, stay near all the gear. To add to these points, weve outlined some resources we have or need to get. We have a Lino. It either needs to be used more often or we need to get another one soon. Having a definite dance space shows that were here for a reason. We have two speakers with an extra one on the way (via King) One is rechargeable. Kings one will be too. Mine isnt. Eventually, I will look into buying a rechargeable battery so we dont have to worry about buying batteries all the time (Thank you heaps for buying them anyway Justin!) Cameras. Julia, Diana and Sam all have digital cameras. We have phones. We need to buy a nice camera by the end of the year. Thats a need. Sponsors. We have none. We need to get some. How will we do this? Signage/flyers. We have none. We need to make some. Finally, we also have HUMAN RESOURCES. We have people that can do things in their spare time to benefit the group and get their names out there too, if it isnt already. Cameramen Julia Chiu Diana Hu Sam Yang Matt Thomson Eden Wharerau Nathan Wharerau And anyone whos willing to hold a camera for a few minutes. Video and soundtrack editors Simons sister Leonid Malkov King Homeboy Nathan Wharerau Choreographers Lawrence Liew Karen Ng Nathan (I guess...) The teachers at city dance Eddie Lo Promo people... We kinda have ourselves to spread the word along with our friends. This is the power of social media I guess... and thats it for now. Go outside, hit up some fresh air and get back to the popping page with any ideas you got.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 08:24:13 +0000
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