Who Brian Is & His Businesses
Brian Conroy has spent over 40 years performing on stage, film, and television. His extensive career includes professional singing, recording, and touring throughout the UK and Europe, as well as working as a performer and entertainer as a Redcoat at Butlin’s. This rich performance background has given him a deep understanding of the arts, both on and off stage, which helps shape the way he teaches, mentors, and inspires students and adults.
Since 2012, Brian Conroy, alongside his wife Louise, has spent his time running a highly successful performing arts school that provided a range of opportunities for children, adults, and families. Their first venture, West Oxfordshire Performing Arts Academy (WOAPA), offered a wide range of classes for all ages and abilities and grew into a hugely successful academy over 12 years.
After selling WOAPA to a former customer, Brian and his family launched The Conroy Collective, a company focused entirely on adults. The Conroy Collective provides music, singing, and performance opportunities for adults of all skill levels, combining learning, social engagement, and performance experiences. Brian’s children, Tom and Edward, both WOAPA alumni, both went on to train professionally after getting relevant qualifications and now bring professional expertise to The Conroy Collective, mentoring participants and teaching instruments, voice, and performance skills.
The Challenges Brian Needed Help With
During WOAPA, administration was a major challenge. Brian recalls:
“Before Class Manager, everything was done by hand. I had spreadsheets, printed invoices, and piles of paperwork everywhere. Invoicing alone took hours: writing by hand, printing, folding, sending, and tracking who had received them. It was an endless cycle.”
WOAPA often had multi-generational students, as unlike other performing arts academies, WOAPA hosted lessons, clubs, and opportunities for both adults and children. Creating complex data that most traditional class management software couldn’t handle efficiently. Balancing paperwork, teaching, business management, and family life with two young children was overwhelming and limited growth opportunities.
Manual systems also introduced errors, slowed communication, and took far too much of Brian’s time, not ideal.
Why Brian Chose Class Manager
After researching a range of alternatives, Brian found most software penalised for growth, charging more as they added students, venues, or teachers.
Class Manager offered fixed pricing, a clean and intuitive dashboard, and all the features needed to manage a complex performing arts business. Brian and WOAPA were among the first to sign up for Class Manager back in 2019, and were able to communicate with Matt, founder of Class Manager, to ensure that the software was able to work to their needs.
Previously, Brian had even considered creating bespoke software, but it was far too costly. However, upon finding Class Manager, he found it gave them everything they needed in one system, and it just worked.
How Class Manager Has Helped
Class Manager transformed administration for WOAPA and, later, Brian’s newer venture, The Conroy Collective. At WOAPA, it streamlined registrations, attendance, invoicing, and communication, replacing endless spreadsheets and paper-based processes. This allowed Brian to dedicate more time and energy to growing the school into the well-known, successful academy it became.
With The Conroy Collective, Class Manager supports a growing, adult-focused program that began with just a single singing group. That group’s success quickly led to the creation of additional adult choirs and music groups. The collective also offers guitar groups for adults who may have played in the past but hadn’t had time to practice due to work, family, or life commitments. These groups focus on learning new songs, jamming, and even performing at local events. Together, the choirs and guitar groups provide a range of creative and social opportunities for adults.
One of the standout experiences for members is participating in Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, a tradition that has been running for almost 150 years. The Conroy Collective has taken part for the past 11 years and coordinates travel, rehearsals, and training for around 150 of its members. It’s a fantastic opportunity, and means that their customers can say they’ve sung at the Royal Albert Hall, a feat not shared by many people…
Workshops and lessons are tailored depending on experience: newcomers receive comprehensive preparation, while returning participants join later in the rehearsal cycle to focus on final ensemble rehearsals. Class Manager handles registrations, payments, and communications, ensuring the entire process is seamless and well-organised.
Communication Made Easy with Class Manager: Brian’s Favourite Feature
The email functionality is one of Brian’s favourite features of Class Manager. Not only can he see who has received and opened messages, but he can also send targeted emails to specific participants, filtered by class, name, or custom tags. This is particularly valuable for organising Handel’s Messiah, where some members sign up for full rehearsal schedules while others only attend one or two sessions. Managing all of these communications manually would be complex and time-consuming, but Class Manager makes it straightforward and stress-free.
“I can email participants and see who has opened messages. Which is a fantastic feature.”
Before, Brian had a lot of emails remain unsent, or ‘bounce back’, but now, everything is smooth, seamless, and easy. By giving Brian precise control over communications, Class Manager ensures participants are always informed, reduces confusion, and significantly lightens the administrative load.
What’s Next for Brian & His Business
With WOAPA successfully sold and The Conroy Collective thriving, Brian and his family are focused on expanding adult performance and learning opportunities. They continue to offer choirs, instrument lessons, ensemble performances, and social music-making experiences.
We look forward to seeing where the Conroy Collective goes next!
“Class Manager helped to lift the administrative burden. It lets me focus on running the business and sessions, while making everything look professional and organised — inside and out.”
Follow The Conroy Collective on Facebook and Instagram, or see what they get up to on their YouTube page. Want to see how Class Manager can help you, like it's helped Brian? Book a demo with our team.
