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ILMC 18 - Comments

How could it fail? Chairman Claudio Trotta rang the Lutine Bell, but we didn't go down - in spite of Harvey G's rabble-rousing attacks on both the old pro performers, including myself, who play (audaciously) new songs at Live concerts and then on young promoters who "sit in the basement on their computers".

Then the pointed questions, like "If a promoter were to be losing money on one of your shows, would you offer money back?". That had me performing a mime gesture to indicate words to the effect of "That's a bloody tough one - it is business after all!". But these matters are best sorted between artist/manager and promoter on the night, and privately. I say nothing, but play with a straight bat at all times.

Enjoyed the conference, my first ever, and the banter that went with it, and will happily return for a replay anytime.

With good thoughts, as ever,

Steve Harley

Heather The ILMC has been a great place for me over the last seven or eight years. I've heard so many people say that this years ILMC was one of the best in recent years, and I thoroughly agree. The sessions I attended were all worthwhile and thought provoking.
Many thanks for a great weekend.

Heather McGill

Congratulations on the ILMC again.
Albie Park

Really enjoyed yesterday. Thanks as usual.
Ed Bicknell

Being a first year delegate at the ILMC=18, as you can imagine I was very overawed by the whole thing.

While watching the "Meet the New Boss" panel a topic was discussed, which I felt very strongly about. However, for fear of stuttering, stumbling and generally thinking I'd say something very stupid, I decided not to raise my (by then very) clammy hand.

The topic that I felt so strongly about was regarding the positive and negative issues surrounding people that work in the industry who have studied the music business. One of the panellists even went as far to say that he would NEVER employ a person that has studied the business, simply because.... Well they had studied it!!! He had no other answer!

I have a degree in Music Industry Management and Live Production, I graduated 2 years ago and when I attended the interview for the job that I am now in, I knew what a contract was, I knew what a guarantee and split deal was, our own Ben Challis taught me the legalities of the business (which everyone agreed over the weekend, is a lot more a part of our everyday business than ever before!) How can this not be a positive!

I'm not denying that experience is valuable, but as was discussed many times during the course of the weekend the business is now much much more structured than it ever has been. These courses help to teach the basics and more.

I'm only 23, I have completed a 3 year degree course, worked for Mean Fiddler as Festival Production Assistant, promoted shows at the Underworld (Camden) and at my university, have taken part in extensive research into event safety and crowd behaviour and even worked as a microphone runner at the ILMC 16! I think all this is a huge achievement for a person of my age.

All this began from a love of music, and not knowing how to become a part of the industry. This wonderful course has helped me to understand exactly what it was I wanted to do with my passion for music and to push my passion into the right direction.

You may be wondering whom the interview was with and whom I now work for, the person that decided to take a chance on me and to pass on his mountain of knowledge and experience is your very own ILMC spokesman Carl Leighton-Pope!

In conclusion, I'd like to add that Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (where I studied) now have a database of 400 ex-students that work within the Music Industry and further more 2 of us that graduated in 2004 were both delegates at this years ILMC, myself and Gary Kett who works with Jamie Cullum!.
Kind regards,

Vicky Karababa

Just another big thank you for the effort and another amazing year. It is astonishing the amount of business one is able to do in those few rooms in 3 days. My head is still buzzing and I have a pile of contact cards no-one will believe.
Carel Hoffmann

Well done once again on an incredible job. You always succeed to surpass everyone's expectations each time.
Mary Telemachou

It was really a pleasure being there at the ILMC 18 this year. Being my first time, I must say that I took with me a lot of knowledge and confidence.
Sheila Okonji

Thanks for the extremely informative & entertaining weekend.
Esa Koivio

Thank you very much for a nice weekend at ILMC and all your efforts making this happen again.
Lauri Laubre

Hope you are feeling human. I am only just so god knows what you must feel like ! Thanks as ever for my favourite weekend of the year. I think there was a real buzz among the newer delegates this year - which bodes well.
Andrew Leighton-Pope

Thanks for a great weekend at the ILMC. We found it both interesting and enjoyable.
Andy & Mitch

It was nerve-wracking on the panel but I enjoyed it.

Roland Gift

I thought ILMC 2006 was very impressive. It looked as if you had record numbers attending thanks to you and your team's hard work.
Denis Vaughan

I attended the ILMC for the first time and would like to thank you very much for hosting such an amazing event.
Marc Bernegger

It was a laugh.
John Giddings

Just a quick note in order to thank you for the great work done this year again! I think that the ILMC should happen twice a year instead of only once. I spoke about this to many people and they all agreed. So little time for so much to do...
I am looking forward for the 19th edition.
Serge Grimaux

Just a quick thank you. As always it was a great weekend - and the more I play the delegate the more fun it is! Here's to next year.

Kim McCarthy

Thank you to you & all the ILMC team for your hard work, the ILMC 18 has been very interesting & efficient. See you for ILMC 19.
Joss. Ishii.

The Arthur is proudly displayed on our window sill next to our other awards, quite humbling really!
Tina Waters

I did actually enjoy it tremendously and could have gone for an encore!

Wayne Forte

Thank you for inviting me to the ILMC again. As we tried to at one time have Jazz as a feature at the ILMC, I would like for you to consider it again. The reason for me stressing this is the recent focus, especially in cinema, on this genre of music with films like 'Good Night and Good Luck' and 'Capote'.
Dennis Armstead

I think ILMC is a great event to see everyone at least once a year.
Since you asked for ideas at the opening session, I do have a couple of small suggestions:
  • It might be good to arrange a cool (free of charge) party for Friday or Saturday night instead of only the bar & all kinds of smaller events. I think right now the conference lacks one social event which EVERYONE would attend.
  • I would hire radio frequency jammers and stop people from using their blackberries. It was just ridiculous how many people sit in the conference hall and are in their thoughts all the time dealing with e- mails instead...
Peeter Rebane

The Sunday Supplement panel was more as useful and the music business should maybe have a more detailed look into this business with non-music or sport events, which is obviously better in handling sponsors and partners from other industries. It's also obvious that the music industry can learn a lot from the marketing of the non-music events.
Therefore I recommend to use this panel for a bigger crowd.
Henning Togel

The Arabian Night was a great evening and I still dream of that belly dancer - we have taken world wide representation!!!:-)
Thomas Ovesen

It is the first time we have been involved with ILMC as a sponsor but what a great night it was - representing a region so diverse as The Middle East left us with no option but to approach the theme from a humoristic angle and good the same...the ILMC delegates still around Sunday evening wouldn't have wanted anything else I am sure! - we'd love to work with the ILMC team on future events!

As always a lot of the ILMC business is done outside of the panels but that is what you can expect when so many industry people, colleagues and competitors, get together. As we no longer need to introduce ourselves or our region we use the weekend to catch up with business partners and discuss upcoming projects and collaborations - in the future perhaps the Emerging Markets panel structure should represent specific topics/type of business issues rather than an overall geographic area - even within our region there is a big difference in issues relevant to local promoters, club promoters, cultural festival organizers and regional promoters operating in multiple markets so if our region together with other regions are still labeled Emerging Markets perhaps we can at least separate some of the various issues on a panel level?

Thomas Oveson - Mirage Promotions (UAE)

The Arabian Night bash was not only fun it was also a great opportunity to create better awareness of the infrastructure available - and meet the people with interest in - the Middle East. The region, as often associated with the broader political issues, is nevertheless one of the fastest growing emerging markets.
For the touring management, the recent record attendance of 23,000 premium price ticket buyers for the Robbie Williams concert in Dubai showed that the numbers can begin to stack-up. Interest from the production/venue support companies was significant and not so surprising given the opposing seasons. There's business to be done out here and people are beginning wake up to that fact.
Peter McCann, Gearhouse LLC (UAE)

I was amazed by all of the 'talent' that the delegates brought to the Delegates Jam stage. Even though I don't recommend to most that they quit their day jobs, I am looking forward to helping each delegate reach his/her musical potential and encourage any song requests, etc to be e mailed to:peter@americantalentagency.net

Peter Seitz, ATA

The Delegates Jam seems to be getting bigger and better each year, with some of the singing and dancing getting more dubious as each year goes by. You can always gauge the singing by the man on the FOH desk's wincing face and rapid knob twiddling. In all seriousness it's a great event to be involved with and people seem to like the Rock-it awards each year for the various categories, which is great! So, see you all next year, all being well.
Matt Wright, Rock-it-Cargo

And finally, it was gratifying to read in the following announcement from the Australasian Performing Right Association that one of our humble Arthurs had brought so much pleasure Down Under...

"Michael Chugg WINS prestigious European ILMC award for Best Promoter In The World! As far as international honours go, this one is at the top. Australian concert promoter Michael Chugg has this week picked up the award for Promoters' Promoter at the prestigious International Live Music Conference held in London.

This is fantastic recognition for an Australian who has been working tirelessly in the music industry for more than forty years. Michael Chugg said,

"I'm really humbled by this award from a group of my peers I respect immensely. The event this year was great fun, exceptionally well staged and I do think the ILMC is the best music industry conference in the world.""
Wear your award in good health, Chuggie - you deserve it!