2002
Back to the Future
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
July 17-20

According to evaluations provided by the delegates who attended the 26th Annual Conference and Theatre tour in the Twin Cities, the event was a success. It afforded the more than 200 theatre representatives, service providers and individuals the chance to visit landmark theatres, attend the premiere of an independent film and take professional development sessions from some of the field’s best practitioners.

About the 2002 conference:

• It earned over $113,000 in sponsorship support.
• More than 200 delegates registered, including some 35% first-time attendees.
• Conference-goers were treated to the American premiere of a major independent motion picture, Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity, winner of the Grand Prize award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
• The pre-conference Great Minnesota and Wisconsin Theatre Ramble took delegates to visit the Mabel Tainter Memorial Theater (Menomonie, WI), the State Theatre (Eau Claire, WI), the Sheldon Theatre (Red Wing, MN) and the Historic Paramount Theatre (Austin, MN).
• Tours during the main conference included the Highland, Grandview, Fitzgerald and Palace Theatres in St. Paul and the Heights, Uptown and Suburban World Theatres and Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Uptown Minneapolis. A tour of the Hennepin Theatre District took us to visit the Orpheum, State, Shubert and Pantages Theatres as well as the Hennepin Center for the Arts. We also made a special visit to the Guthrie Theater.
• We offered 28 professional development workshops, including a pre-conference seminar called Maximizing Revenues: Research & Strategy and four plenary sessions.
• Canadian architect Bing Thom and Guthrie Theater Artistic Director Joe Dowling were guest speakers.
• We hosted a very successful Meet the LHAT Service Providers cocktail reception as a lead-in to the first-ever LHAT Casino Night.