Summer Roth is the Director of Marketing, Communications and Guest Experiences at Scottsdale Arts. Is the job a challenge? You bet it is! Scottsdale Arts is a multidisciplinary nonprofit in Arizona whose portfolio includes the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale Public Art, several outdoor stages and amphitheaters at the Scottsdale Civic Center and the annual Canal Convergence — a 10-day, large-scale public art festival.
Summer Roth
“Day to day,” she says, “I lead our full marketing function — website and digital, advertising, PR, communications and content, and design, along with our guest experiences team, which runs ticketing and the other roles where staff are most directly interacting with patrons. Because Scottsdale Arts spans a museum, a performing arts venue, public art, a festival and education programming, a big part of my job is making sure all of those touchpoints feel like one coherent organization to the guest, even though the audiences and the content behind each one are pretty different.”
She adds, “I love the puzzle of figuring out how those pieces reinforce each other instead of competing for attention, and then watching that translate into real experiences for guests.”
The Challenges and Rewards
Of course, the day-to-day tasks for Roth are many and there are multiple hats to be worn. I asked her if “compartmentalization” was her biggest challenge. She preferred a different word: “Prioritization, if I'm being honest. When you're marketing five distinct programs with five distinct audiences and one team, everything can feel urgent all at once. The harder, and more important, work is staying disciplined about which initiatives actually move the organization forward versus which ones just feel productive in the moment. I'm also navigating the classic nonprofit tension of balancing bold, ambitious strategic bets against limited resources, which means a lot of my job is building the internal case for why an idea is worth the investment before I ever get to execute it.”
So, when things go right, the feeling of triumph is that much sweeter to an INTIX pro like Roth. She confesses to especially loving the strategic work of “connecting the dots.” She also acknowledges that there is something especially energizing about working somewhere the audience is genuinely eclectic. Roth explains, “The same organization can host a light art festival on the canal and a contemporary art exhibit and a classical seated performance. Figuring out how to speak to all of those audiences authentically never gets old.”
Wise Counsel
Roth brings more than a decade of marketing experience, beginning at cultural nonprofits including the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) and the Arizona Science Center. She later moved into agency work, developing strategy and digital experiences for such national and international clients as American Express, The Nature Conservancy and Smashburger, along with consumer brands including Amika Hair and Tarte Cosmetics.
Not surprisingly, she received numerous pieces of advice in her journey along the way to Scottsdale Arts. Does any bit of past wise counsel stand out in her mind? She answers, “It's less a single piece of advice and more a trait I've had to consciously nurture: curiosity. Constantly asking ‘Why do we do it this way?’ and ‘What do patrons actually like about us?’ and ‘Can we make this better?’ and ‘How could we think about this differently?’ That instinct has taken me further than almost anything else.”
Roth continues, “The other half of that is not being afraid to fail. I know that sounds terrifying when you're a nonprofit working with small budgets and limited resources, but putting something new out into the world and learning from it is invaluable . . . arguably more valuable than getting it right the first time. The key is not abandoning something the moment it stumbles. Ask why it didn't land, what you can actually learn from it and whether it truly failed or just needs more time. And alongside that, develop a real sense of when to lean in and keep pushing on an idea, and when to let it go.”
Of course, this being our Women in Ticketing series of member interviews, our favorite question to ask interviewees is “What advice would you give to any young woman reading this just starting out in the ticketing/live event business?”.
Roth thought for a moment and then came up with a terrific answer: “Learn the business side, not just the creative side. It's easy to get pulled toward the parts of this work that feel exciting — e.g., campaigns, design, the big public-facing moments — but the people who really shape these organizations are the ones who understand the revenue model, the audience data and the operational realities underneath all of it. Get comfortable in rooms where budgets and strategy are being discussed, ask to be there even when it's not required and don't wait for permission to think like a leader.”
One other piece of advice she had was to build a wide network across departments early. Roth says, “The best ideas in this industry usually come from connecting dots between areas that don't normally talk to each other, and you can't do that if you've only ever worked in one lane.”
Looking Ahead
I had the immense benefit of interviewing Summer Roth right at the end of this year’s first half. Looking ahead to the second half of 2026, is she generally optimistic, pessimistic, or a bit of both about the rest of year ahead with regards to live events and why? Not surprisingly, she answered, “I'm optimistic! Live event venues and presenters are well-positioned for where the market is headed, as long as they're strategically prioritizing the patron, the visitor and the guest experience. What we provide are experiences, and the constant question has to be: ‘What makes a great experience, and how do we make it memorable?’”
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