The writing on the wall at 211 Cedar St. could shape the future of the local music scene.

DRC/Al Key

NX35 Music Conferette business director Chad Nichols, left, and Chris Flemmons, creative director, stand in their office Thursday on Cedar Street in downtown Denton. The music event is set for March 12-15 at venues across the city.

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Musician Chris Flemmons has been pacing before a wall-sized whiteboard, filling its grids with shows, venues and times for the upcoming “NX35 Music Conferette” at the event’s office near the Square.

Flemmons, of the band the Baptist Generals, said the idea for the conference grew out of several years of NX35 afternoon music parties showcasing Denton artists during Austin’s South by Southwest Music and Media Conference.

The name — North by 35 — plays on SXSW’s moniker and Denton’s location in relation to the capital city. The local, smaller-scale conference is happening March 12-15, just before things get under way in Austin.

Since Denton’s live music scene was featured in Paste Magazine and The New York Times last year, it was time to do something to showcase local talent, Flemmons said.

“There’s been more attention on Denton now than there ever has been” for music, Flemmons said. “There’s momentum behind Denton’s profile.”

Flemmons, along with Chad Nichols, the event’s business manager, and volunteers have been working on the four-day conference since last summer, he said.

NX35 will feature more than 100 music acts and panels at nine venues in downtown Denton. Presentations will include a talk by jazz critic Harvey Pekar, better known for his American Splendor comic book series.

“This isn’t just about selling beer; this is about making a better way of life and promoting the Denton music scene,” Flemmons said. “You want to help lend something to the environment and continue to grow.”

Although there are still a couple gaping holes on the whiteboard for the March 12-15 event and there have been hiccups, Flemmons said he’s happy with the event’s progress. He says he’s spent some 20 hours a day obsessing over it and volunteers have spent countless hours working beside him.

But it’s all worth it in the long run to make Denton a music destination, Nichols said, and city officials agree.

“They’re eager for us to succeed and brand Denton as a creative center,” Nichols said. “It will stand out from other communities. The music scene is not something you can duplicate. This is something that makes Denton different.”

Officials like Mayor Mark Burroughs and Kim Phillips, vice president of the Denton Convention and Visitor Bureau, have voiced their support of the project.

The city recently started receiving calls from around the world after last year’s media attention, Phillips said.

Denton is being recognized as “the new happening place” for new music, Phillips said. “NX35 was established to bring that point home,” she said.

And now the potential for attracting visitors and potential residents could bring creative industry to the area, she said.

“It’s not just a festival — it’s really designed to attract those movers and shakers in that industry,” Phillips said. “I’m talking about talent scouts, record labels and professionals that make things happen in that industry.”

The visitors bureau has received a formal hotel room booking through its Web site, which offers special hotel rates for the conference, she said.

“If the event is successful, it will create room nights [at hotels] and it’s doing that, but to what degree, we are not sure,” Phillips said.

Although hotel room dollars help determine immediate success, the long-term success of the event is more important, she said.

“The more people that discover us and embrace the idea of Denton as a hotbed for the music industry, [the more] they will come here on their own,” Phillips said. “It’s an investment in the future and image that we’re selling to the rest of the world. It’s an undiscovered gold mine.”

This wouldn’t be the first time indie rock spawned development, said Michael Seman, who’s both a research associate at the University of North Texas Center for Economic Development and Research and a member of the band Shiny Around the Edges, which is playing at the conference.

Seman’s research on growth in Omaha, Neb., shows how a town’s support of an independent music community can help revitalize development.

“It shows what can happen when your city or town has a thriving indie rock scene — if it’s identified and helped in any way by city officials,” Seman said. “At the very least, you would probably have a growing nexus of a music scene that would help spawn more shows and bigger shows that would result in greater tax revenues.”

When artists like Japanese rock band Boris play here, rather than in Dallas or Fort Worth, Denton sees a significant increase in business activity as people from around the region bring their spending power to town, he said.

“Denton’s music scene is definitely going to be a catalyst for economic growth in Denton over the next 10 years,” Seman said. “Whether that development is urban development, I don’t know — that remains to be seen — but there will be economic growth.”

It’s too soon to tell what the future holds, but the Denton music community has some good things going for it, said Dan Mojica, proprietor of Dan’s Silverleaf, one of the venues for NX35.

Denton musicians are just as talented as those in Austin and routinely bring in fans from both Dallas and Fort Worth, he said.

And unlike at Austin venues, fans can see artists perform and then hobnob with them after the show, Mojica said.

“We have a really good thing going on here,” he said. “It’s like a family scenario.”

Although Denton has seen its share of festivals and fairs, there’s never been a four-day conference undertaking like this one, Mojica said, and NX35 will likely attract Denton residents, hard-core fans and music professionals.

Scott Porter, whose band Record Hop is playing at the conference, said he hopes Denton’s sound doesn’t get lost amid the mass-marketed music.

“It’s a strange time for everyone” in the music industry, he said. “It was so much different three years ago and even more different three years before that.”

Where music is made doesn’t matter as much as it used to, he said, but Denton’s wonderland of music would be difficult to replicate anywhere else. That could lead to an encore performance of the conference.

But either way, Flemmons’ work will have paid off, Porter said.

“If it doesn’t fall at Denton’s feet, at the very least, he ... changed the way a few people look at the town,” Porter said. “I don’t know what the goal is, but if the goal is to bring more attention, he is definitely pulling it off.”

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com.