THE NEXT GREAT PERFORMANCE
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Learn new skills and explore new ideas to support you in your day-to-day role and help you advance your career through WAA’s professional development programming. Sharing critical core knowledge, new approaches, and innovative strategies, learn with and from your peers and hear from experts in the field. Professional development offerings include panels, workshops, and a pre-conference symposium. Learn more about our different professional development formats and topics below.
Explore your individual path along one of WAA^LA’s thematic Journeys.
JOURNEYS
From networking opportunities to conversations and panels, the Professional Development program at WAA^LA is designed to inspire and strengthen your professional practice. In 2025, each programming activity is part of a Journey that speaks to a different path through the sector. These pathways provide thematic signposts throughout the schedule, helping you achieve career goals and make the most of your WAA experience.
Each conference activity speaks to at least one of these five Journeys:
The Presenters Way: Discover the next great performance for your season.
From “Dance Success Stories” to the American Composers Forum’s “Anatomy of a Composition”, along with the popular Pitch NOW live pitch session and the Ditch the Pitch networking event, there’s so much discovery to be made.Down to Business: Business strategies for effective presenting and touring.
NAPAMA’s “Making Artistic Cents” supports the journey to ensure fair compensation is part of the package, while the Advisory Board for the Arts explores new revenue sources, funders gather to field your questions at the Funders Fair, and more.Community Connections: Build an equitable and thriving community.
CIPA offers an essential and, unfortunately, timely “Producing Diverse Work in an Anti-DEI Climate” session, while Contra-Tiempo's WAA Academy session “Movement for the Movement” brings participants in direct contact with key social-justice work being done locally.Design the Future: Explore ideas and models that can change the world.
“Reports from Second Responders” explores the role of artists in times of crises, while Black Arts @ WAA’s Afrofutures in the Arts WAA Academy session attempts to balance past wisdom with the urgency of progress to shape new models.Root and Restore: Practice mindfulness and self-care for the journey ahead.
Wellness for Creatives provides a fresh perspective on artistic endurance and mental well-being; Building Community, Resilience and Hope in a World on Fire will leave participants engaged, inspired, and cared for.