2) Who is our customer?

"Who is our customer patron?"
One of the things that the workbook does is to refers to customers; I dislike the term. Consumers, customers, clients, etc., they are too sterile and sounds like it has a lot of money tacked on to a human. I am just going to use "patron"!! The patron actually consists of two different groups - Primary & Secondary.
Who are our primary patrons?
- Our primary patron in this case would be the students of the institution. Their monetary contributions are why the institute exists, we are here to serve them and their needs
Who are the supporting patrons?
- The supporting patrons would be the rest of the internal Pratt community as well as the surround external Pratt community.
How will our patrons change?
The students, primary patrons, change on a yearly basis; no two years are alike. Enrollment is projected to increase slightly, there for the demand in the variety and number of events will increase. Also, as per Institute strategic plan, there is an increase to incorporate more general education courses which can lead to more performing arts like classrooms and need for performance space. Because the enrollment is projected to increase, so will the diversity of the student body. Additionally technological advances in today's society are evolving at an astronomical pace, this leads to the evolution of new arts and culture experiences and places that they will need to be displayed. Already the trend of "convenience" and "right now" art seems to increasing - performance art among these. Along with the diversifying of students, we also must be mindful that the increased population could include more students that have disabilities and will need greater accessibility to the facilities.
With the realignment that is currently taking places with the Event Services office, it is my belief that the next logical step would be to encourage outside entities to utilize the space. I don't see a great deal of differene between the primary and secondary users. Students will be utilizing it, for the most part, to further their education and build a community within the Institute. The secondary, external community, would be bridging By encouraging use of the facility by professors, employees, donors, you open the facility to external Pratt members. The community already uses the facility occasionally, if it were to become more accessible, I'm sure the number of requests would also increase. Increase use of the facility, will innately diversify the patrons of the facility. As will students, there will be needs that have to be assessed and how to address them to promote the facility's use.
I think that one of the most important things to keep in mind is that overall, the facility must be able to be self-sustaining and therefore MUST bring in a profit to cover its expenses.

There are a bunch of minor questions that are also laid out, but I think I've pretty much covered them in the above! On to question 3!!!