DX: I know that you spent time at Def Jam during its early days. I recently spoke with a label rep there about the difference between publicity and promotions. Are there clear-cut lines between job titles in the industry outside of recording companies?
Mary Datcher: Well you know it’s funny cause we get stringent in our terminology in this business. Promotions in the terminology of the record structure would be considered radio. But when you really break it down… I remember when I was working at Def Jam as a little pup back in the day, we were still dealing with Columbia/Sony. We were the black sheep under the Columbia structure. Columbia had their Mariah Carey and their Celine Dion and their Fugees. They really had the crème de la crème of artists at the time. Def Jam was this Hip Hop, street, raw, kinda imprint type of label that they had just to make sure that they had a touch in the street. But they weren’t really taking us seriously. Our staff had to think beyond radio. Everything that Russell [Simmons] laid his hands on Def Jam was what we were part of. So if we had Def Jam comedians in our marketplace, we were responsible for making sure that they were taken to and from the venue. Or making sure that they were picked-up from the airport. We utilized Phat Farm to make sure that we serviced our deejays to make sure that they were trend influences for us. We took it beyond radio. We even had to take care of college. Whereas the average radio promotions director now doesn’t even deal with college; they just deal strictly with commercial radio. So when you talk about promotions, this is what separates what was going-on back then and what is happening now. Promotions is whatever outlet of exposure for your project. This is what keeps your job intact. When radio fails, you find other ways in which you can create a story for them to recognize your project. That’s promotions.

DX: What was your motivation behind starting the Chicago DJ Summit?
Mary Datcher: The Chicago DJ Summit was motivated when I was leaving corporate America. I worked for a major marketing field company called Kevin Bergin Associates (KBA). KBA was probably the top field marketing company in the country during the late '90s. We really grabbed the nightlife community through our programs with through Camel, through our luxury-on premise programs like Audi, and Cadillac and Oldsmobile and some of those particular key brands. I was taking what I had learned from the music industry and applying it to corporate America and making sure that the interpretation between corporate America and urban America was properly communicated. And I did a god job at that, but like always, I got bored.

I saw the need and the power of deejays. And I’m like “Wow this is my backyard.” At the end of the day, Chicago probably has the largest market of deejays next to New York and the Bay area. And the deejays are so segregated that they don’t communicate among each other. So I thought, “Why don’t we apply the same tactic that the Winter Music Conference does for the Dance community in Miami but not just focus on dance; focus on Hip Hop, focus on World music, Reggae, the whole-nine." That was the motivation for the Chicago DJ Summit, to really focus on community. Supporting deejays, allowing people to experience the nightlife. I made sure that if you had that badge, you had access to at least 15 different venues for free. What I learned was that deejays, in their own mind, feel like they are Hollywood. Although they have a silent respect for each other, but they don’t want to publicly show that respect. So we didn’t really have the numbers that we really wanted with the Chicago DJ Summits, because nobody wanted to come out and support one another.

So I just decided to step-back and see what the plan was. The plan was you want to bring into the marketplace what people don’t have access to. That is what I really realized about my backyard. You can’t change things overnight. But you can gradually spoon-feed people. Even if they’re eating grits, sell it so well that they feel like they are eating macaroni and cheese. That’s how Global Mixx gradually came to be, was really studying and researching the marketplace not only in my backyard but outside of my backyard.

I was also inspired by Rene McLean, the creator of the Mixshow Power Summit. I think that Rene has done an excellent job over the last eight years doing what he does. I think that its’ unfortunate that the labels don’t have the revenue streams like they used to to continue to support conferences and summits like he did. He really inspired not only me but a lot of other people that are now focusing on these types of retreats to do what we do. If it wasn’t for Rene McLean, a lot of these conferences or retreats or summits wouldn’t exist. And if it weren’t for the Miller Londons before him or the Sydney Millers before him or the Jack Gibsons before him…I think we all take cues from each other. Instead of disrespecting or down-grading we should just support. I don’t [put] down any other conference that exists. If anything it helps motivate and shoot a whole-different adrenaline into this industry. Continued on page 3 »