Greetings! Before I tell you what we're up to, allow me to introduce "us." The three of us devoting our lives to the CHAT festival right now are:

• Megan Granda, festival director and the executive director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, who is handling programming and sponsorships;
• Jeanine Simmons, festival project manager and program & events coordinator at the IAH, who is handling all event logistics and volunteer coordinating; and
  
• Yours truly, Kirsten Beattie, festival project manager and communications specialist for the IAH. I'm handling the marketing and communications surrounding the festival.
  

For the past months (really for the past 24 months), we’ve been working on carving out what exactly CHAT is and creating the programs that you’ll be able to enjoy when you participate.

For us, the exciting thing about CHAT is just how excited everyone we’ve met with gets when they figure out what we’re doing. It’s not always easy to express the tone of the festival in words on our site—the festival is rather complex, and summing it up as “showcasing the digital resources of the RTP” really can’t express what an exciting program it is!

To be fair, we know that better than you right now, because we have our working schedule with all of our panels and performances filled in. Confirming our speakers is our key priority right now, and that's where Megan in particular is putting most of her efforts. If you visit our “speakers” page, you can see of the guests we’ve confirmed. (There are many, many more not listed yet!) Our goal is to post the schedule prior to the holidays. We'll keep you in the loop.

Jeanine has been tirelessly working on event logistics—everything from finding and confirming venues to working with UNC facilities to prepare for an influx of guests to managing our schedule to securing our host hotel. We’ll make a formal announcement later, but for now we’re happy to inform you that we’ll be working with the Siena Hotel in Chapel Hill. There are no words to express how helpful and gracious they have been.

As for me, marketing the festival is a huge task, which is why this blog has been quiet so far. We’re carving out our marketing plan and working with local and national press to get the word out. We’re slowly building followers on our Twitter account (UNC_CHATfest) and gathering fans on our Facebook page (CHAT Festival). We’ll be counting on YOU to help us spread the word to your peers, colleagues, friends, family, students, professors… the checkout clerk at the grocery store, your yoga teacher… you get the idea.

For now, we’ll try to keep this blog updated 1-2 times a week. Once we get closer to the festival (post-holidays), we’ll start sharing a lot more news through this. So, keep checking in. We’ll be in touch soon!

In the meantime, if you have some thoughts on digital arts and humanities that you’d like to share, leave a comment or send us an email (chat@unc.edu). As we say at the IAH, “Join the Conversation.” Only here perhaps we should say, “let’s chat!”