The CITT/ICTS Mentoring Network

• About the Mentoring Network

• In-house Assistantship Program (Closed)

• Group Mentorship Pilot Program (Closed)

About the Mentoring Network

The purpose of the Mentoring Network is to connect members seeking peer support in developing, maintaining, and furthering a career in entertainment technology.

Whether through short-term programs or the Mentor/Mentee Directory, the Mentoring Network aims to provide students as well as emerging and seasoned professionals from all areas of production for the live entertainment industries with unique opportunities to forge new connections, share knowledge, and foster growth and professional development in their discipline.

⇒ VIEW THE MENTOR/MENTEE DIRECTORY (Restricted to memberships in good-standing). Members whose names feature on this list have expressed interest in being a Mentor or Mentee, or both, in their Member Profile. Browse the Directory to find people who share the same interests and make new connections today!

Participants in the Mentoring Network shall read and abide by the provisions outlined in the CITT/ICTS Member Code of Conduct and Harassment policy. The Mentoring Network recognizes the right of all persons to participate without prejudice due to gender, age, race, creed, or sexual orientation.

The late Robert Vernon moderating the Mentorship session at Rendez-vous 2017. Robert has been instrumental in the founding of the Mentoring Network.

In-house Assistantship Program

This Program ran from October 2022 to March 2023 and is now closed.

As part of Canadian Heritage's Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund (CPAWRF), CITT/ICTS received funding to offer an Assistantship program to professional workers interested in pursuing careers in the technical or production fields of the performing arts.

Through the In-house Assistantship Program (IHAP), recent graduates or experienced independent workers (working contractually and/or working part-time for an organization) seeking to change directions or advance in their careers had the opportunity to create their own paid assistantship to shadow a professional in a host organization, venue or production to learn that professional’s job functions.

IHAP funded individual, self-created training assistantships in which professional arts workers interested in careers in production and technical theatre are able to build their own short-term training programs in which they shadow a more senior production professional within a theatre workplace (i.e. in a working theatre venue, or with a theatre production).

To develop these individualized programs, the applicant had to work with the mentor and the host venue/company/production to generate a goal for the program, a plan to accomplish that goal, a clear and achievable schedule, and budget that will pay the applicant a living wage and cover any associated costs for the duration of the program.

This program has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

Group Mentorship Pilot Program

This Program ran from August to October 2021 and is now closed.

The Group Mentorship Pilot Program was a collaboration between the CITT/ICTS Mentoring Network and the Professional Development and Mentorship Project (PDM Project)*.

The program was meant for professionals looking to make a career shift to a new role in their professional discipline or hoping to make a significant transition to a brand new career inside or outside the live performance production and technology sectors. Or embarking on some career exploration for which they need guidance and insight.

This one-month mentoring experience was open to all emerging, mid-carreer or mature Canadian professionals of any age working in the live performance production and technology fields and looking to make a shift in their careers, focusing on career exploration, development and transition in order to help professionals build a career, make strategic choices in their professional paths, and explore transferable skills.

In example:

Maybe you are a stage technician who wants to migrate toward a team managerial position and wants to explore the competencies and skills needed;
Maybe you are looking for ways to expand your contact network so that you can work in other performing arts disciplines;
Maybe you feel stuck, in a rut, and want to look at new work opportunities or a parallel career that broadens your skills set and supplements your income.

About the program:

The cohort will have access to 3 seasoned professionals with varied experience and expertise in the live performance production and technology fields;
This group mentor/mentee experience will be a combination of collective learning and guidance with opportunities for more individual attention;
This is a free pilot program for the live performance production and technology professionals in Canada;
The cohort will consist of 4 online sessions, 1 per week, lasting 1 hour each, mainly in the evening (EDT);
Mentees must commit to attending all four 1-hour sessions.

* About the Professional Development & Mentorship Project (PDM Project)

The Professional Development & Mentorship Project (PDM Project) is a pilot program created in partnership between The AFC, AFBS, and Dancer Transition Resource Centre, with the aim to enable our communities of arts professionals to acquire career development skills and tools to help them through the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare them to face the new post-pandemic future in our work sector. Learn more about the original program here: https://afchelps.ca/pdmproject/.

This program was made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.