For 64 years, Eastern Music Festival (EMF) has been a beacon for aspiring musicians, transforming Greensboro, North Carolina, into a global stage. With world-class faculty and a vibrant alumni network, EMF isn't just about music—it's about creating stories, fostering cultural exchange, and inspiring excellence. Led by Communications and Media Director Erika Frazier, the festival embraced a bold shift to digital solutions with InstantEncore’s InstantGuide. Learn how this transformation preserved EMF's legacy while enhancing the audience experience and deepening community connections.

Read the full story to see how thoughtful digital innovation can elevate your festival.

InstantEncore’s rebrand is more than just a new look—it’s a commitment to empowering arts and culture organizations with seamless, intuitive tools that elevate audience engagement. Our updated suite includes InstantApps, InstantGuide, and InstantService, all designed to enhance your organization’s connection with your community before, during, and after every performance. Explore how our innovative solutions can transform your digital journey and help you build lasting connections.

This week, the orchestra community will gather at the 2024 League of American Orchestras conference in Houston, Texas. On Friday, ROCO will present a special concert as part of the conference. We recently caught up with Greta Rimpo, ROCO’s Director of Marketing & Communications, to learn more about the concert and how their mobile app and digital program books help to shape the future of classical music.

In August of 2020, Broadway At The Eccles asked if we could create a new feature for their mobile app. Prior to the COVID lockdown, their subscribers received printed vouchers for parking and complimentary water. Broadway at the Eccles needed a way to deliver digital vouchers within the app and measure their use. This inspired us to add Redeemable Tickets to Appscension’s features integrated with Tessitura®.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) returned from lockdown with a hybrid approach to their programs - paid printed programs and complimentary digital programs. We caught up with MSO’s Digital Projects Manager Phil Paschke to learn more about it.

In January 2021, Mirvish Productions launched their mobile app powered by Appscension with Tessitura™ integration. In September of that year, Mirvish introduced audiences to its first digital program book powered by InsideGuide - a new platform for building and distributing digital program parts created by InstantEncore at the behest of Mirvish. By May 2023, the Mirvish app was installed on 89,298 devices with their digital program books receiving 89,248 total monthly unique viewers. How did they do it?

We invited our InsideGuide clients to complete our second annual survey on digital and printed programs. Here are the results.

Between April 2022 and March 2023, Thanksgiving Point's mobile app underwent a remarkable transformation, from an underutilized ticketing platform to a feature-rich and highly popular application. With a redesigned interface and added interactive elements, the app witnessed a significant increase in users. We recently talked with Spencer Gregory, Email Marketing Manager for Thanksgiving Point Institute, to learn why they reinvented their app and how they attracted over 25,000 new users in one year.

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center mobile app TPAC Concierge recently celebrated its sixth anniversary. While some apps may wane over time, this one has really hit its stride. How? They focused on promoting the app as the primary method for ticket delivery.

For part two in this series, we talked with Liana Sanders, Director of Marketing for Young People’s Theatre. In September 2022, Young People’s Theatre (YPT) used InsideGuide to create and deliver their 2022-23 season brochure.

Our client partners have shown us that InsideGuide is a mobile-first publishing platform with uses beyond digital programs. For the first of this two-part series, we talked with Andrew Kracht, Marketing Manager for Livermore Valley Arts. In Summer 2022, Livermore Valley Arts used InsideGuide to send their quarterly member newsletter.

What could we include in a digital program book that we could never include in print? Austin Opera does a great job of leaning into digital nature of their program books. We recently caught up with Chief Advancement Officer Jennifer Basten to talk about their digital program books.

In March 2022, Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) launched a mobile app for their patrons powered by Appscension. We recently caught up with Lauren Sole, Senior Manager of Digital Design & Platforms for MPAC, to see how it’s going with their new app.

Shortly before the venue opened for its inaugural season in August 2021, the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park launched a mobile app to encourage patrons to use digital tickets delivered to their mobile devices. By the end of the first season, the Shell’s app became the primary method for patrons to access their tickets.

In talking about the shift towards digital program books, many arts organizations have questions about the relationship between printed and digital programs. We asked our InsideGuide clients to complete a short survey on the subject. Here are the results.

InstantEncore is excited to announce the launch of InsideGuide - the only digital program book you’ll ever need.

As you begin to welcome in-person audiences again, you may be planning new safety procedures. If you are requiring or considering vaccine or negative result verifications for venue entry, then your app can help!

One of the questions we receive most often is “What are you working on?” To provide more insight into our development we have created a public Roadmap.

San Diego Opera opened their 2020-21 season with a drive-in production of La bohème. How did they deliver supertitles to hundreds of socially distanced patrons in their cars? (Photo by Bruce Stasyna)

How do you make returning to live events in the age of COVID-19 as safe as possible for staff and patrons? Learn how The Atlanta Opera uses the new Health Check Survey feature from Appscension.