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- Sat 3/29 :: From the Ground Up: Building a Lasting Music Career Hosted by Jessie Osborne
Sat, Mar 29
From the Ground Up: Building a Lasting Music Career Hosted by Jessie Osborne
SheCollective is bringing a powerhouse panel to the festival, offering real talk on what it takes to sustain a career in music. No cost to attend, but a festival wristband is required.
What You’ll Get:
• The foundation of a lasting career – defining your sound, handling the business side, and staying relevant.
• Navigating the industry – breaking in, building relationships, and avoiding common missteps.
• Sustaining creativity – staying inspired, handling rejection, and maintaining longevity.
• Audience Q&A – ask the pros your burning questions.
If you’re serious about making music your career, don’t miss this conversation.
SheCollective (SHECO) is a community initiative based in Auburn, Alabama, dedicated to empowering and connecting women in music. Launched in late 2024, SHECO aims to create a supportive environment for female musicians, fostering collaboration and inspiration. The collective offers resources, networking opportunities, and events to help women advance in the music industry.
*no cost, festival wristband required
*Limited seating.
PANELIST:
Jennifer Steele
President & CEO, Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (FL)
Co-Producer & Founder, 30A Songwriters Festival
Jennifer has dedicated her 25-year career to the Arts as an actor and singer, professional theatre manager, non-profit executive and fundraiser, festival and event producer, Arts advocate, and founder of events and programs that have received national and international acclaim.
Jennifer’s career began as a Theatre student at Valdosta State University (GA), acting and working as a box office/business manager and as an intern for the Lowndes-Valdosta Arts Commission. After a time with Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts as a Development & Special Events Coordinator, she moved to Northwest Florida to co-found the Seaside Repertory Theatre, the area’s first professional theatre company. For seven years, she served as Managing Director while also performing in plays and musicals, including in the title role of Always, Patsy Cline, as Cathy in The Last Five Years, Germaine in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and other roles both on and off stage. After a ten-year hiatus, Jennifer revisited the stage in 2019 to play Haley in a sold-out run of the one-woman show Bad Dates at Emerald Coast Theatre Company.
Since 2008, Jennifer has been at the helm of the Cultural Arts Alliance (CAA), Walton County’s Local Arts Agency that fosters creativity through the inclusive and collaborative advancement of the Arts. Under her leadership, the CAA has created and scaled programs and services that serve and impact the community, from arts education and funding to public art and exhibitions to small and large-scale events. Some of the CAA’s music-focused programs include the “Beyond Bars” Prison Songwriting Program at Walton Correctional Institution, founded with songwriter Caitlin Cannon, and the 30A Songwriters Festival, a major fundraiser for the CAA that Jennifer co-produces with her husband, Russell Carter.
Jennifer was the 2023 recipient of the Pinnacle Award, which celebrates outstanding women making contributions in NW Florida, and the 2016 Van Ness Butler, Jr. Hospitality Award, which recognizes excellence in travel/tourism marketing, promotion, and contributions to Walton County. The CAA recently won the 2024 Walton Area Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit of the Year Award. Jennifer is a former co-chair of Americans for the Arts’ Private Sector Network Council and served on Visit Florida’s Culture, Heritage, Rural, and Nature committee.
Many of the CAA’s signature programs developed under Jennifer’s leadership have received recognition in numerous national and regional publications, including TIME Magazine, National Geographic, Southern Living, 850 Business Magazine, Emerald Coast Magazine, and on a nationally televised segment of Empowered Hosted by Meg Ryan, which will air in April 2025. Learn more at CulturalArtsAlliance.com and 30ASongwritersFestival.com.
Jennifer Bohler
Jennifer Bohler is a music business professional who currently works in the industry as a music publicist and industry consultant. Since Fall 2019, she has also served as an adjunct instructor in Music Business Studies at Auburn University. In 2024, Billboard Magazine included AU’s Music Dept in its prestigious Top Music Business Schools list.
A two-time CMA Publicist of the Year, Bohler spent the majority of her PR career as Reba McEntire’s personal publicist, under the auspices of the artist’s company, Starstruck Entertainment. She has served as VP of Publicity for MCA/Universal Records and consulted on artist Clint Black’s artist-friendly label, Equity Records. Through Equity, she helped manage media strategies for artists Little Big Town.
Bohler has also worked as an artist manager and helped guide the career of country artist/author/speaker Jimmy Wayne. In 2016, Bohler was recruited to serve as a Production Consultant for the documentary The Last Songwriter, produced and directed by award-winning producer Mark Barger Elliott. In 2017 and 2018, two UK-based companies brought the executive onboard as their Nashville-based consultant: the Black Deer Festival (London/Kent) and Conducting Country (London).
A graduate of Auburn University’s respected journalism school, Bohler began her music business career in Nashville as a reporter with music trade publication Cash Box Magazine. Within just more than a year, she became that publication’s youngest ever Nashville Editor. Shortly thereafter, Bohler went on to serve as Entertainment Tonight’s Nashville Associate Producer, as well as a freelance writer for a number of national publications, including People Magazine.