#UNCON27

Un-Convention 2011 in its third year will see a potent mix of industry experts from around the world. It will encourage dialogues, discussions and debates between India and the international industry experts to help the Indian independent music scene move forward in the right direction. As one of the only events in the independent music industry that brings insight and years of experience from the global market into India.

Presented by British Council, Un-Convention is put together with the intention of bringing down a panel of UK-based music entrepreneurs to create awareness within the Indian music industry and to offer networking and A&R opportunity to Indian musicians and entrepreneurs.

What is Un-Convention?
Un-Convention is a global grassroots music and creative community – that meets physically and virtually to share ideas; discusses and debates cutting edge issues around music, technology and creativity; and facilitates members engagement with their peers.

The community is driven by a not-for-profit initiative that sees opportunity for the grassroots in changes to the way that music is being produced, consumed and sustained. Un-Convention understands that the most interesting stuff happens on the margins. We don't mind the mainstream; we just don't find it relevant. Un-Convention doesn't believe in 'do it yourself'. We believe in 'do it together'.

How big is Un-Convention?
Un-Convention has happened 24 times around the globe in three years and has another 20 events planned for 2011/12. Un-Convention happens over five continents and in cities from Swansea to Sao Paulo. Un-Convention annually involves 1,500 artists and bands, 16,400 participants, 36,000 gig goers and 140,000 people online. Of those attending Un-Convention, 40% of people are from disadvantaged backgrounds. It happens in some of the most amazing spaces including The Roundhouse, Auditorio Ibirapuera, and Salford Lads Club; and as part of some incredible festivals like Primavera Sound, Eurosonic and MICA.

November 19
11.00 am to 12:30 pm
Workshop on ‘Making the Festival and How Not to Run a Music Festival’ by Gina Hewitt
What are the essential elements of planning a music festival right first time? This workshop covers all from ticketing, budget management, calendar planning, show advancing and artist liaison, media management, on-site communications, scenario planning, customer experience to crowd management.

13:30 pm to 15.00 pm
Open dialogue on ‘Promoting to Promoters’ by Rob Challice with Jon Slade and Tom Baker
What do agents and promoters look for when looking for bands to work with? What level do bands need to be before they need the services of an agent?

November 20
11.00 am to 12:30 pm
Open dialogue on ‘Being Entrepreneurial with Music’ with Dave Haynes, Adrian Cooke and Joe Vesayaporn
How to develop businesses and careers in music, and a discussion of a case study from the current UK music industry.

13:30 pm to 15.00 pm
Open dialogue on ‘What Makes a Perfect Festival?’ with Richard Russell, Ruth Daniel and Natasha Haddad
Richard Russell with Ruth Daniel and Natasha Haddad will talk about what makes the perfect event, festival or club night, how do you make money in such a competitive market, how to build a live event from conception to delivery.

International panellists at Un-Convention 2011

Ruth Daniel
Founder, Un-Convention
Ruth Daniel is a serial entrepreneur with several music businesses. Ruth is Director of independent record label, Fat Northerner Records; MD of Un-Convention delivering 24 events around the world; and Director of TourCore. Ruth has produced festivals for Community Arts North West, major international academic events for The University of Manchester including events in Kosovo and DRC. Ruth is a major music force in the NW, having worked in music for over 10 years. Considered an ambassador for the area. Ruth’s newest venture is a major commercial festival in England’s North West working with Primavera Sound, The Eden Project, Warehouse Project and Ear to the Ground. Ruth was short-listed for UK Young Music Entrepreneur 2008 and 2010; on the Courvoisier Future500 list and is a Woman To Watch 2010 (Cultural Leadership Programme).

Rob Challice
Co-founder, CODA Music Agency
Founded in 2002, Coda is a London-based booking agency representing artists in Europe and beyond. Coda’s roster includes Billy Bragg, Bon Iver, Beirut, Yo La Tengo, Stornoway, Port O’Brien, Deer Tick, Warpaint, GIVERS and Kings of Convenience. Rob has over 25 years experience in the music industry as agent, promoter and festival organiser. Rob runs Summer Sundae Weekender festival and is a board member of the Association of Independent Festivals.

Gina Hewitt
Festival, gig, event organiser
After nearly failing to graduate from university, she managed to score a venue manager job at Manchester Academy and went on to spend five years freelancing at music festivals and live events all over the world (including SXSW, In the City, V Festival and Snowbombing) as well as organising her own gigs, parties and club nights. She has spent time working at Skinny Dog Records (the independent label founded by Elbow's Guy Garvey and I Am Kloot's Peter Jobson) and has been involved in the last two UnConvention events in the UK.
Recently, she has started a completely new career at product design company Beep Industries, but cannot imagine a life without rock ‘n’ roll.

Jon Slade
Founder, Elastic Artists Agency
Elastic Artists Agency is a London-based live music agency founded by Jon in Summer 2004. Elastic represents the live interests of over 150 international artists in the UK, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Their key business asset is their bespoke Agency Management System, which has been developed over the past 3 years, and has recently been introduced across the whole company. Jon was shortlisted for the 2009 UK Young Music Entrepreneur Competition and recently participated in a two-week tour of the Polish Music Industry.

Natasha Haddad
Programmer, The Great Escape / Mean Fiddler
Natasha works for MAMA Group across various divisions within the company as a promoter booking tours, stand alone shows and media and brand partnership events. Core to her role is booking the Great Escape Festival, which in just 6 years has established itself both as the leading event in Europe for showcasing new talent from around the world, and as one of the most exciting events on the festival and convention calendar. Working with media such as Channel 4, Mojo, Uncut, The Fly, NME, Music Week, DrownedinSound and Last.fm - brands like Red Stripe, Karen Millen, Levi's, and Gaymers - and labels Modular, Wichita, Arts and Crafts and Moshi Moshi, Communion and Heavenly, amongst others has helped to cement The Great Escape as an exciting and influential metropolitan event attended by 15,000 music industry professionals and fans.
Previous artists include - Sufjan Stevens, DJ Shadow, The Maccabees, Laura Marling, Bon Iver, Mumford and Sons, The XX, Groove Armada, Chase and Status, Friendly Fires plus thousands more. Speakers have included Daniel Ek (Spotify Founder), Nathan Lovejoy (Limewire), Anthony Volodkin (Hype Machine Founder) Eric Garland (Big Champagne) and Seymour Stein (Sire Records), Francis Keeling (Vice President, Digital, Universal), John Niven (Author), Nick Kent (Journalist), Paul Epworth (producer) Simon Fox (CEO, HMV) as well as endless networking opportunities, parties and fringe events.

Tom William Baker
Founder, Eat Your Own Ears
EYOE was set up by Tom Baker in 2001, and has grown steadily since then. We programme unexpected but complementary line ups at our events with the hope of bringing together different groups of music fans, creating new audiences and delivering inspiring music to all. Eat Your Own Ears has made a reputation for identifying potential talent, and building the live profiles of the emerging artists it promotes. As such, EYOE put on the first London shows for Animal Collective, Bloc Party, Battles, Franz Ferdinand and many Mercury nominated acts such as Florence and the Machine, The Horrors, The xx, Metronomy and Anna Calvi all of whom have gone on to become extremely successful and in some cases household names. This year we have promoted sold out shows for 3 of the 2011 Mercury nominees, Metronomy, Anna Calvi and King Creosote & Jon Hopkins.
Tom Baker also programmes 3 festivals: Field Day, Underage and The Apple Cart. Field Day, which has just celebrated it's 5th year has gone from strength to strength, with the number and caliber of acts expanding every year. Past headliners include Wild Beasts, Mogwai, Phoenix, Foals, Matthew Dear andJustice. The festival now has 6 different stages, and a Village Fete area where festival goers can try their hand at sack racing, tug of war, egg and spoon and other traditional games, or maybe buy a cake or a cup of tea.
Underage is the first outdoor festival exclusively for 14-18 year olds, with no grown ups allowed. . Some of the bands on the bill are also underage, and the festival works closely with Youth Music, and Tower Hamlets’ Community Music (CM), who also both host stages. Previous acts include M.I.A, Crystal Castles, Santogold, Mystery Jets, Florence and the Machine, Laura Marling, and many more.
The Apple Cart enjoyed a very successful first year this year. Blending Music with Art, Comedy, Magic and more, this family focussed festival has something for everyone. The line-up this year included acts like Tim Minchin, St. Etienne, Badly Drawn Boy, Chilly Gonzales, James Yorkston and many more.

Dave Haynes
VP Business Development, SoundCloud
Dave Haynes is VP Business Development for SoundCloud, a cloud-based music platform that allows music creators and professionals to easily distribute, share and stream audio over the web.
With over a decade’s experience in the music industry, Dave currently works at the forefront of the latest trends in digital music. As well as his work for SoundCloud, he is the organiser of the OpenMusicMedia and Music Hack Day events that take place across the world.
In 2010 he was listed as one of UK’s Young Music Entrepreneurs and is also a frequent speaker at various events from TEDxCardiff to SXSW in Austin.

Adrian Cooke
Festival Director, Norwich Sound & Vision, Director, Portmanteau
Adrian is Festival Director of Norwich Sound & Vision – an annual music and media festival and conference which gives a showcasing platform, as well as professional development and networking opportunities, to emerging artists from the East of England as well as national and international performers.
He also represents the region on the UK Music Industry Development Association.
In addition, Adrian the head of a sync licensing company, Portmanteau, who represent a wide range of domestic and international artists, record labels and publishers to licence their music to Films, TV programmes, Video Games and Advertising campaigns around the world.
Adrian has also served time in the retail, distribution, artist management and venue management areas of the music industry and still runs an independent record label , and a publishing company.

Joe Porn
Music glue
Music Glue is a free to use online marketing and e-commerce solution for artists, managers, promoters and venues, providing all the tools required to engage modern internet savvy fans that expect to interact directly with their favourite artists.
Music Glue have spent over 5 years working within the live entertainment industry perfecting their revolutionary solution that is certain to shape the future of the industry forever

About YCE Awards Programme
Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) is the British Council’s flagship programme that identifies and connects innovative international entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative sector. This prestigious programme has been running for over five years in 50 countries around the world, with many resulting projects and an active alumni network connected to the UK and each other.
YCE awards are run annually through competitions around the world, selecting winners to represent the best of the creative sector in participating countries. The winners travel to the UK for a shared programme of international peer networking, taking part in a major trade event and a series of meetings with UK experts, industry contacts and investors. The awards are run in four creative sectors: Music, Design, Fashion, Screen, Performing arts, Media and Publishing. To know more about YCE programme for India log on to http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-arts-yce.htm Read less