Application Management Software System for Art Festivals, Handicraft Events, and Other Juror Selection Events

I had a conversation with someone that runs an annual art festival. He told me of all the processes involved for his organization as well as for artists. I was surprised to learn of how much was involved with running an art festival but I was more surprised that they were doing all of this in a very manual way. Doing a quick search there seemed to be a couple of solutions but nothing that was a clear cut industry leader. An opportunity exists for someone to start a new business providing a web application or software as a service to automate the processes involved in running art festivals, handicraft events, and other juror selection related events.

Below is the process involved with running an annual art festival in case you have an interest in exploring this niche business opportunity further.

Current Situation:

Process for the Art Festival Organizer

1. Manages a database of artists.
2. Emails the database a link to download a pdf file application.
3. Receives 1000 applications in the mail.
4. Applications include the following items:
a. 5 slides
b. Application
c. Check or Credit Card Number
5. Files all applications and slides.
6. Deposits all checks and processes credit card fees.
7. Manually loads in all 5 slides for 1000 applicants into 5 different projectors to be viewed and judged by the jurors. The jurors give a score of 1 to 10 for each of the 5 slides.
8. Calculates the total scores for all applicants and picks the top 170 artists that will participate in the show.
9. Notifies all 1000 applicants if they were accepted or not.
10. Files all of the applications.
11. Scans in 1 image from each of the 170 artists onto the computer.
12. Resizes each of these images and uploads them to the website along with text and a link.

Process for the Artist

1. Takes photos of artwork. Drives to photo processing store. Pays money to have them converted to slides. Drives back home. Drives back to the photo processing store and picks up the artwork. Drives back home.
2. Fills out the application.
3. Writes a check.
4. Addresses the envelope and puts postage on it.
5. Puts in the 5 slides.
6. Mails the application package to the event organizer.
7. Waits for notification of acceptance.

As you can tell from the steps listed above a web based service would efficiently manage this process and save both the artist and event organizer a lot of time and money.