Here’s what to expect!
This free event for musicians and industry professionals will offer resources through panel discussions by the Texas Music Office, national organizations like SESAC & BMI, along with the best of the coastal bend music industry.
The Coastal Bend Music & Film Industry Symposium (CBMFIS) celebrates the people and ideas shaping the next era of South Texas creativity.
This one-day event brings together musicians, filmmakers, producers, educators, and business leaders for a day filled with insight, inspiration, and connection, all centered on growing the Coastal Bend’s creative economy.
CBMFIS gives local talent direct access to industry professionals who share real-world strategies and emerging trends from across today’s entertainment landscape. Through panels, workshops, and networking, attendees gain practical tools to grow sustainable careers and creative businesses.
When the arts thrive, the entire community moves forward!
It is completely free to register. Sign up at the link below and stay tuned for more updates!
Expert speakers from across the music industry will share insights on a wide range of topics across the film and music industry. Industry veterans will also dive into the challenges and opportunities of the evolving landscape for musicians.
Attendees will have the chance to connect with music and film industry professionals and peers to build collaborations, exchange ideas, and foster relationships that can propel their careers forward.
Participants can engage directly with panelists and speakers, asking questions and seeking advice on specific aspects of the music + film industry.
Here are the topics that will be discussed by the panels of industry professionals speaking at the 2026 Coastal Bend Music and Film Industry Symposium:
Start your day right with a light and welcoming continental-style breakfast featuring an assortment of fresh pastries and homemade kolaches, seasonal fruit, and hot coffee. Tea and water will also be available to keep you refreshed and ready for a full day of panels, networking, and creative conversations at the symposium.
Kick off the Symposium with breakfast, open networking, and a quick welcome from the organizers. Attendees will be introduced to Make It Awkward (On Purpose)—a guided networking challenge designed to spark real, cross-industry conversations between film and music professionals.
Talk to strangers. Commit to the awkward. Win things.
You’ve got all day to go all in, and we’ll give out prizes at Happy Hour for the most ambitious cards—and the boldest commitment to the awkward.
Most filmmakers are already working with bake-sale fundraisers, pop-up events, favors from their filmmaking community, borrowed gear, tight timelines, and whatever cash or freebies they can scrape together. Scrappy isn’t the problem. Scrappy without a plan is.
This session reframes budgeting as the foundation of an ambitious film—not just a list of expenses. We’ll cover what filmmakers consistently forget to budget for, why marketing and visibility still matter at the micro-budget level, and how a real budget makes crowdfunding smarter and more realistic.
You’ll leave with a clearer sense of priorities, trade-offs, and how to budget for a film that can actually deliver on your goals.
One band leader. One promoter. One honest conversation.
This is a straight-up talk about the economics of shows—what bands deserve, what promoters risk, and why money is always the fight. Door deals, guarantees, bar sales, promotion, draw, and the unglamorous math behind why so many shows don’t pay what anyone hoped.
No lectures. No sides. Just a real back-and-forth about where things break down—and how bands and promoters can stop fighting over scraps and start building shows where everyone actually makes money.
If you’ve ever played a show, booked a show, or wondered why “a good night” still feels bad, this one’s for you.
This session is a guided conversation with Symposium attendees at a pivotal moment for the Coastal Bend film scene. The focus is simple: what needs to happen next to take this community to another level?
Through live audience input and moderated discussion, we’ll surface what’s working, what’s holding projects back, and what kinds of support or tools would help filmmakers here be more ambitious.
The conversation will also help inform early thinking around a possible Coastal Bend Film Society, grounded in real needs and perspectives from the community.
Not every band needs a manager. Not every band is ready for an agent.
This session breaks down what managers and booking agents actually do, when it makes sense to bring one on, and what you need in place before giving up a cut—straight from agents and managers who’ve been through it all. No hype, no promises, just real talk from the horse’s mouth.
If you’re wondering whether to keep grinding on your own or how to prepare for representation without blowing it, this session gives you the reality check.
Lunch will be provided via convenient boxed meals featuring your choice of an Italian grinder sandwich, a vegetarian Caesar wrap, or a chicken Caesar wrap. Each box includes a side of chips, a fresh-baked cookie, and a beverage—perfect for refueling and getting back to the day’s sessions.
Hard Work, No Ambulance: Creative Safety 101 – 12:30PM
Creative work can get chaotic fast—long hours, heavy gear, extreme weather, stunts, travel, crowds, you name it. This session brings a high-risk industry safety expert together with voices from film and music for a blunt, practical conversation about keeping people safe when the pressure is on.
We’ll hit the big stuff: fatigue, on-set hazards, touring risks, mental health, emergency planning, and what “safe” actually looks like when you’re working with tight budgets and real deadlines. Consider this a fast, candid look at the safety blind spots that can tank a project—and the simple habits that keep everyone standing.
Making a great film is only half the battle—festivals program films that are compelling and prepared. This session brings in festival programmers to share what they actually look for when reviewing submissions, from overall readiness to the technical details that quietly make or break a film’s chances.
You’ll hear real expectations, common deal-breakers, and practical advice to make your film easier to watch, easier to program, and easier to champion on the festival circuit.
If your music is being played and you’re not registered with a PRO, you’re missing money.
This session breaks down how artists get paid beyond the gig—why registering your songs matters, how performance royalties work, and how PROs help you collect income from live shows and public play.
We’ll also look at how AI is changing ownership, attribution, and royalties, and what artists need to pay attention to right now.
Stay after for one-on-one time with PRO reps and music rights pros to ask questions, get registered, and get your music working for you.
This session brings together industry voices to break down where films go after they’re finished — and what it actually takes to move work beyond festivals and into the world.
Panelists draw from experience in studio-level producing, major festival PR, and real-world acquisition to explain how films get positioned, marketed, and acquired — and where deals succeed, stall, or fall apart. They’ll share what they look for, what filmmakers often misunderstand, and how different paths shape a project’s future.
This isn’t about shortcuts or guarantees. It’s about understanding the system you’re aiming for and making ambitious, informed decisions about what comes next.
Marketing isn’t optional—it’s how your work gets seen.
This session is about building a clear, consistent marketing flow that actually works. Whether you’re a band, venue, or festival, branding, messaging, and promotion are the megaphone—and when they’re ignored, momentum stalls.
You’ll hear from local experts who know what works here—what cuts through in our market, what doesn’t, and why the fundamentals still matter. We’ll focus on usable assets, consistency, and planning so your effort isn’t wasted.
If your marketing feels scattered or nonexistent, this session gives you the framework to fix it.
A NEW CHAPTER FOR FILM AND MUSIC IN CORPUS CHRISTI – 4:00 PM
We close out the Symposium with a big-picture look at what’s ahead.
Drew Meyer-Oakes, the new Commissioner of the Corpus Christi Film & Music Commission, joins us to share how he’s thinking about film and music in Corpus Christi—what feels possible, what’s worth building, and how creative communities actually grow.
This session is about momentum, collaboration, and setting the tone for what comes next.
HAPPY HOUR – 5:15 PM – 6:45 PM
Unwind and connect at our Happy Hour Mixer featuring complimentary alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages alongside crowd-pleasing finger foods—including House of Rock’s homemade meatballs, fresh-baked pizza, and fan-favorite pepperoni rolls. It’s the perfect chance to mix and mingle with like-minded creatives, swap ideas, and keep the day’s conversations rolling in a relaxed, social setting.
