08/14/2026
Join us on Monday, September 14th at Villa Maria College’s Recital Hall for the Western New York Creative Sustainability Summit! Hosted by Emily Best, filmmaker and CEO of Seed&Spark, the leading crowdfunding and creator education platform. This event is FREE for all. Light refreshments will be provided. Register here: https://luma.com/6j4td1g5
Brought to you by Film Neighbor Network, Get Fokus’d Productions, Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center, and VonSchmals Productions.
3:30pm-4:00pm: Registration & Networking
4:10pm-5:25pm: Workshop 1: Crowdfunding to Build Independence
This class lays out the steps toward a successful crowdfunding campaign for any creative endeavor, as well as a career-long action plan most likely to create a lasting, flourishing, direct relationship with an audience. Attendees learn how to find their audience, structure their crowdfunding campaign, pick the right goal and incentives, and much more.
Class taught by filmmaker and CEO of Seed&Spark, Emily Best.
5:45pm-7:15pm: Workshop 2: Six Steps to Build Your Own Film Distribution Playbook
Now more than ever, distribution is in the hands of the makers, which brings both tremendous opportunities and challenges. This session breaks down six clear steps to developing a distribution playbook for filmmakers for your project to have the greatest chance of accomplishing your goals, and offer distribution tips, tactics, and, most importantly, the economics for every window from theatrical through VOD and beyond.
Class taught by filmmaker and CEO of Seed&Spark, Emily Best.
7:30pm-7:50pm: Local Creative Resource Discussion
We want to hear from the Western New York creative community regarding resources they could see helping them in their respective fields. There will be surveys present throughout the event that can be completed during breaks between workshops to provide us with this information.
Discussion led by Kalmia Strong, Executive Director of Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center.
Flyer by Hanna Woltz 🎨
