Speakers List

Adriana Šnajder (fakat., HR)

Adriana has been actively “in the business” since 2008. She has worked in various production and execution sectors (stage, backstage, tech, organisation …) of various music (and non-music) live events and festivals in Croatia (Terraneo, InMusic, Fresh Island, Super Uho, Outlook, Dimensions, Zagreb Calling …). Currently, she’s an Executive Producer/Event Manager at fakat. – a Croatian agency for everything in connection with live events and production. She’s an adrenaline-driven multi-tool with a Super Sack who enjoys the chaos of live events. They have a wild, unpredictable dynamic, full of various possible outcomes that all lead to one singular goal – a perfect finale.

Aliki Evangelinou (artist manager, GR)

Aliki started working in the music industry as a hobby, helping in the production of her friends’ DIY shows in Greece. Later, she joined an Athens-based indie label (UWF) that focuses on the development of local artists on an international level. She worked there in various areas of the music business, such as tour production, booking and artist management (Theodore), while building experience at music showcases (MforMontreal, Reeperbahn, Eurosonic, Linecheck and more). Today, she manages Berlin-based artist Melentini/The Running Blue Orchestra and works closely with No Clear Mind and Ocean Hope (Hush Hush Records).

Andraž Kajzer (MENT Ljubljana, SI)

Andraž is the Artistic Director of MENT Ljubljana – a three-day showcase festival and conference taking place in the Slovenian capital since 2015. His previous experience includes serving beer, painting walls, running an indie label, editing a print magazine, editing a webzine, making a documentary about free music, being a music journalist, trying to be a music critic, promoting gigs, running small international tours and working as a sound technician.

Andries van Wieren (3S Music Management, NL)

Andries started as a drummer in a Slayer cover band. After receiving his M.A. in Jazz Drums at the Conservatory in 1997, he toured the world with the Philadelphia-based supergroup Sister Sledge and the Dutch reggae group Luie Hond, among others. With the strong belief that he could get talented people onto international stages, he started 3S Music Management, which has launched successful international careers for artists such as the Amsterdam Klezmer Band, Dope D.O.D., Michelle David and the Gospel Sessions, and My Baby. 3S Music Management is an artist management company with agency services. For their artists, they find new ways and opportunities to release their music and to promote them via a vast international network of useful partners. Working with a small amount of acts in a wide variety of genres gives them the flexibility and strength to operate successfully.

Anuša Pisanec (Druga Godba, SI)

Anuša is a Slovenian anthropologist and music journalist. She covers the music of the Global South for one of the oldest independent non-commercial radio stations in Europe, Radio Študent. She’s the Acting Director of the Druga Godba festival, which will celebrate its 35th edition this year. As an anthropologist, she has worked in developmental and humanitarian aid initiatives in West African countries and Haiti.

Barbora Šubrtová (Metronome Festival, CZ)

Barbora has been the Programme Director of the Metronome Festival in Prague for four years now. Metronome is one of the biggest festivals in the Czech Republic and the only major one in the capital. It has booked stars such as Massive Attack, The Chemical Brothers, Sting, Iggy Pop, Kasabian, David Byrne and many more. Barbora has worked in the music industry from 2007, in many roles and positions within the music industry and event organisation – from the production manager to programming assistant, marketing manager and spokeswoman, and now back to programming, which has been her long-time goal and which satisfies her the most. She has a true passion for music, which has been an inseparable part of her life since forever.

Bob van Heur (Le Guess Who?, NL)

Bob is a co-founder and the artistic director of the Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht. He’s also the founder of the 24HourDrone events in Hudson, New York, and the programmer for Beaches Brew Festival in Ravenna. Over the last 15 years, he’s served as an agent for artists such as SUUNS, Julia Holter, Black Mountain, Destroyer, Selda, Sudan Archives, White Fence, Oblivians and many others. Now he’s stepping down as an agent and focusing on the festivals, new projects and representing a select group of artists.

Claire O’Neill (A Greener Festival, UK)

Claire is Co-founder of A Greener Festival (AGF), Creative and Aerialist with Arcadia Spectacular, and organiser of the Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI). Her 2006 research led to the formation of AGF, which has since assessed 500 events worldwide through the Greener Festival Award, trained 100 assessors, and founded GEI in London. Claire leads the AGF consultancy for clients such as the Royal Horticultural Society and Westminster City. As part of Arcadia, Claire covers various roles, from agent, show manager, creative producer to sustainability manager, plus Aerial Performer on the 50-tonne Spider stage at Glastonbury and international tours. Her career has included Label New Media and Licensing Manager, General Manager of the Association of Independent Festivals, and varied festival management roles.

Didier Gosset (IMPALA, BE)

Didier is the Communication and Membership Manager of IMPALA, the European association of independent record labels, based in Brussels. IMPALA’s mission is to grow the independent music sector, return more value to artists, promote cultural diversity and entrepreneurship, improve political access and modernise perceptions of the music sector. An avid fan of music, Didier also runs Black Basset Records – a record label born out of the desire to put a spotlight on aesthetics with no media attention –, writes for The Word magazine, and has recently launched a new radio show in Belgium.

Dom Gourlay (Drowned in Sound, Gigwise, UK)

Dom has been writing for Drowned in Sound since 2001 and also regularly contributes articles to Gigwise and Under the Radar, among many others. He also promotes shows in his home city of Nottingham and has curated stages at festivals such as Handmade, Focus Wales and Spacefest. He has also deejayed both in and around his native city and at numerous festivals, including Rockaway Beach, Liverpool Psych Fest and Focus Wales. He’s open to most genres but especially a fan of anything aggressive, experimental, confrontational and loud!

Elif Tähtinen (Music & Media, Lost in Music, FI)

Elif is the CEO of Music & Media and Lost in Music, the most prominent music industry gathering and new music festival in Finland, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2019. Elif’s pursuit of the new and exciting in music has led her to Charmenko as a talent buyer and agent, and Slush Music as its director, among other things. At Music & Media, she combines a few of her favourite things – music, people and dining – and works on a comprehensive conference experience. At MENT, she’ll be looking for new encounters, new music and crazy ideas for Music & Media’s 30th anniversary party.

Eva van Netten (Welcome to the Village Festival, NL)

Eva is the programme coordinator of several festivals in Leeuwarden in the northern part of the Netherlands. She runs the four-day summer festival Welcome to the Village and a winter festival in the centre of the city called Explore the North. Welcome to the Village is a pop culture festival for performing arts, visual arts and innovation. Explore the North is a city festival for music and literature and everything in between. At night, she plays a lot of really loud grungy guitars with her band BlackboxRed, which has toured Europe quite a lot. Last but not least, she drinks black coffee, thinks socks are an important part of one’s outfit, and can get totally caught up in live shows – both on- and off-stage.

Gordon Masson (IQ Magazine, UK)

Gordon, a former astronaut and stunt driver, has been a journalist for 30 years, specialising in the music industry since 2000. When he’s not saving the Amazon rainforest or rescuing kittens from trees, Gordon is Editor of IQ Magazine. Prior to his barefoot ascent of Everest and epic swim across the Pacific Ocean, he was Live Editor at Music Week and International Editor for Billboard. Prior to moving to London, Gordon spent two years in Washington, D.C., working in the space and satellite industry, while in the early 1990s, he was a reporter for a number of newspapers in his native Scotland.

Hannes Tschürtz (Ink Music, AT)

Hannes is the founder of the music agency and label Ink Music in Vienna, which books and promotes more then 400 shows/year in Central and Eastern Europe and focuses on artist development. Teaches Music Business, is a wellbooked speaker for music business events and a board member of the Austrian Music Fund. Writes articles on the music business for magazines and papers and is the co-owner of a ticketing start-up (NTRY Ticketing).

Ingrid Kohtla (Tallinn Music Week, EE)

Ingrid is the Head of Communication and Programme Curator of the international showcase festival Tallinn Music Week and the music festival Station Narva. She’s a seasoned music journalist and events promoter, focusing on championing the underdog, and has also worked as a TV producer (MTV Baltics, Estonian Public Broadcasting channels). She’s also lectured at the Estonian Academy of Arts about pop culture and music journalism, specializing in the state of the post-subcultural realm in the metamodernist era.

Ivan Cepanec – Tegla (teacher, musician, SI)

Ivan is the drummer in the metal bands Dickless Tracy, Eruption and Glista, the editor and active writer of the Profanity webzine, the host of the Metal Detektor show at Radio Študent, where he occasionally also works as a member of the music editorial office, and the moderator of the Špil Liga High School League of Bands. In his free time, he’s a primary school teacher of history and the Slovenian language.

Janika Reuter (FACTORY 92, DE)

Janika has been with Hamburg-based PR agency FACTORY 92 as an International Relations Coordinator since July 2018. Besides holding a master’s degree in Management of Creative Business Processes from the Copenhagen Business School, she has rich music industry experience, including stops at Trickser Tonträger, ListenCollective and Danish creative conglomerate B Group. She has worked with everything from booking and production to promotion and PR, and is now responsible for the coordination of FACTORY 92’s international projects, such as showcase, conference and export office missions.

Jeff Stempeck (Spotify, US)

Jeff manages artist involvement in Spotify’s direct upload program for the Independent Label Support team. Prior to this role, he ran marketing campaigns for a wide range of artists over the past three years as part of Spotify’s Music team.

Julio Gómez (Sinsal Festival, ES)

Julio is a sound researcher. His relationship with music began in the late 1980s, collaborating with various mass media as a critic. In 1994, he moved from journalism to music programming. In 2000, he established the music promotion company and record store SINSALaudio. The company organized the first Sinsal Festival in 2003, an event specialising in unknown music acts. The Sinsal Festival has received national and international recognition, for example the Award for Best Small Festival in Spain.

Katerina Cvetkovska (Password Production, Taksirat, MK)

Katerina is a philosophy graduate and as such, the only job she could get was messing around with everything she’s not supposed to mess with. So she started from what she likes the most: music, writing, dancing, New Year’s greeting cards. For nearly a decade now, she imagines that’s what she does at Password Production, working on PR, event/digital marketing and copywriting. Like many comics characters, she doesn’t possess any superhuman powers; she makes use of intellect, detective skills, technology and physical prowess. Her favourite type of music event: conferences (!?). Weakness: lacking in musical talent. Alter ego: musician.

Kerstin Saathoff (Google, DE)

Kerstin joined Google in 2011. Most recently, she scoped out the role of EMEA News Innovation Program Manager. As part of her job, she closely engages with news publishers. Her passion for innovation and news leads to her spending more time with colourful sticky notes than with most of her colleagues. She facilitates workshops on “Creative Skills for Innovation” and is a proponent of more creative confidence in the professional world. Previously, she was a technical account manager for Google Ad Manager and Ad Exchange partners. In her life before Google, she also engaged in some small-scale music blogging activities, so she is delighted to have the opportunity to join the MENT Conference.

Laura Hofman (King Sepi, Roodkapje, NL)

Laura is a venue programmer, freelance promoter and the owner of King Sepi Productions. She came to the Netherlands from Finland, where she studied classical music, to be a chef and a photographer. Truly starting from the bottom by cleaning a reggae bar in Finland, she has built her way up to artist catering and organizing shows at Roodkapje in Rotterdam and European tours for Finnish bands. She didn’t become a musician or a concert photographer, but her background in classical music, her years in the punk and metal scene and her crush on good pop songs help her to discover new music from different genres, which is also her greatest passion in life. She has been organizing shows in Rotterdam for the last six years, focusing on showcasing the finest blends of European underground and connecting the bands of the DIY scene.

Laura Kriefman (Hellion Trace, Keychange, UK)

Laura is the award-winning director, producer and artist behind Hellion Trace. With over a decade of experience delivering interdisciplinary projects worldwide that fuse music, movement and technology, she has been awarded numerous international fellowships including: Questlab Artist in Residence with Wayne McGregor, 2018 Mozilla XR Studio Fellow, PRS Female Innovator in Music (keychange.eu), 2016 INK Fellow, 2015 WIRED Magazine/The Space Creative Fellow and a 2011–2012 Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow. She has been a speaker at INK, WIRED, ReMIX, SxSW Interactive, World Science Fair (New York), TEDxRoma, TEDxDanubia and TEDxLondon.

Lina Ugrinovska (Password Production, MK)

Lina is a passionate consumer of art and a huge fan of problem solving. Educated as a musician and raised in the music industry, she started working at Password Production in 2010. She experienced a great breakthrough while working as an agent for Georg Leitner Production in Austria, delivering a brand new international roster to the agency. At the age of 26, she was selected as one of “The 10 New Bosses of 2016” by ILMC London and IQ Magazine. The initiative on mental health care in the music industry is a topic she started developing and working on in different forms, such as mentoring sessions, panel discussions and other ways of promoting it, starting in 2018 at several international conferences. Lina is responsible for handling International Booking at Password Production. At the same time, she’s focused on important issues in the industry as part of the “new generation”.

Magda Chołyst (Artist in Bloom, PL)

Magda is a certified artist coach, educator and process designer. Her company, Artist in Bloom, offers unique services dedicated to artists and managers who seek help in building bridges between bold creative ideas and concrete actions within the music industry reality. Her coaching models, workshops and lectures have been presented at, among others, MENT Ljubljana, International Music Fair Co jest Grane, Budapest Showcase Hub, Inne Brzmienia Festival and Spring Break Festival. She’s a partner of the Outbreakers’ Lab run by HOTS, where she’s in charge of the educational processes for artists.

Magdalena Jensen (Chimes, PL)

Magdalena is the co-founder of Chimes. She has worked as a consultant on export for Polish bands (Smolik/Kev Fox, BRODKA, etc.), on import for international bands (Úlfur Úlfur, PLK, etc.), and with several brands (Le Bureau Export, Converse, Hennessy). She works as an artist manager and consultant, and is the co-founder of the European Music Managers Alliance (EMMA). Chimes represents The Orchard in Poland. Magdalena is a Polish-American who has lived in Warsaw for more than 12 years, and currently divides her time between London and Warsaw.

Maja Starčević (EXIT Festival, RS)

Maja was the best in her class as a nuclear physician, but had the good fortune to be able to turn her pastime and love of music into her primary occupation. In the beginning, she was involved in discovering new talents, then over time became the Main Stage Booker for EXIT Festival, which has been crowned the Best Major European Festival several times. For many years now, Maja has also been active in organizing numerous other eminent festivals all over the Balkans: R:evol:ution Festival (Romania), Dev9t (Serbia), Festival 84 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Sea Star (Croatia) and Sea Dance (Montenegro).

Mariusz Herma (beehype, Polityka, PL)

Mariusz is the founder of beehype, a music website run by 100+ music journalists from all over the world and featuring the best acts from their local scenes. He also works at Polityka, the leading weekly magazine in Poland, as the editor-in-chief of the magazine’s mobile app.

Márton Náray (SoundCzech, Nouvelle Prague, CZ)

Márton has been working in the cultural sector for 20 years, as a record store manager, a festival programmer (Sziget Festival, Babel Sound, European Music Day…) a booking agent, a project manager for a governmental music export agency (Music Export Hungary), a city program manager, a conference organiser (regiON, SoundQuest, Overhead), club promoter, tour manager, musician, radio presenter, and of course as a music addict. He currently works on connecting the Czech music sector and facilitating new projects as a director of the newly launched SoundCzech / Czech Music Office, and as the conference director of Nouvelle Prague.

Marko Maršićević (Marsh Creative Production, Kontakt, RS)

Marko boasts 28 years of professional experience spanning the region of the former Yugoslavia. As a freelancer, he’s worked for various media outlets – Radio B92, Vreme, PGP-RTS, Saatchi & Saatchi and others. His portfolio contains hundreds of advertisements and events, as well as more than 30 festivals throughout the region. In 2011, he founded Marsh Creative Production, specialised event production company, and Marsh Open Space, a unique and innovative multipurpose hub in Belgrade specifically designed for diverse micro-events and group co-working. He’s chaired the Board of Directors of the Belgrade Summer Festival and served as a member of the Board of Directors of Belgrade’s Dom Omladine. Since 2016, he’s a Co-Founder of the Indigo Festival of Contemporary Ideas in Ljubljana, since 2017 a Co-Founder of the Kontakt Conference, which puts a special focus on regional festivals, and since 2018 a Co-Founder of the Institute for Creative Industries Arteria Creative Network in Ljubljana.

Markus Linde  (Thag’s Agent, DE)

Markus has been running his synch-agency imprint Thag’s Agent for 15 years. With a long professional history in the record business, publishing and artist management, he draws from experience and knowledge, as well as from a love of music. Thag’s Agent has brokered music placements in national and international advertising campaigns as well as films, with services including rights research and clearances. Markus is also a speaker at international conferences and a consulting contributor to workshops and seminars.

Maša Pavoković (MashupMash, SI)

Maša has been working in the creative and music industry for the last ten years. She started as a TV presenter on MTV Adria, followed by MTV Adria Online Editor and a radio presenter. Since then, her work has taken her into PR and the editorial field. She’s worked as an editor and researcher for several primetime shows on national television, and she’s been a PR manager for state-of-the-art productions with the best DJs in the world. She’s also closely connected to the local music scene. Since 2013, she’s coordinated the Špil Liga High School League of Bands at Kino Šiška. Recently she’s become involved with artist management, concert promotion and helping young artists to develop their music careers. Currently, she manages Magnifico and Koala Voice.

Matjaž Manček (Kino Šiška, MENT Ljubljana, SI)

Matjaž has been active in the music world since 1996 as a musician (various noise rock, free improv and experimental groups and projects), radio activist (music editor and DJ at Radio Študent; in 2001, he launched the Klubski Maraton project at Radio Študent; from 2001 to 2007, he was one of the coordinators of Crossradio, a network of independent radio stations from the former Yugoslavia), club DJ, organizer and producer of local and international music events (rx:tx Records editor in 2004 and 2005; in 2005, he founded Kataman Music Action and was in charge of its activities until 2009). Since 2009, he’s been the Music Programme Manager at Kino Šiška. He’s also a co-founder and project manager of MENT Ljubljana.

Michał Hajduk (Adam Mickiewicz Institute, PL)

Michał, an alternative and jazz music expert, has created and developed a strategy for the alternative music sector, and co-organized a number of events and conferences in Poland and around the world. He’s actively working in introducing international cultural exchange. In various fields in the music business, Michael plays important roles as an event and concert organizer under the label “Don’t Panic We’re From Poland” for leading global showcases and conferences such as SXSW, CMJ, Culture Collide, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Reeperbahn Festival, C/O Pop, Eurosonic Noorderslag, Primavera Pro, Waves Vienna, Tallinn Music Week, Berlin Music Week, Jazzahead, WOMEX and Zandari Festa.

Mira Lu Kovacs (musician, AT)

Mira Lu is a singer, guitarist, songwriter and lyricist who works and lives in Vienna. She’s mainly known for her semi-acoustic songwriter/pop project Schmieds Puls (winner of the 2016 FM4 Award), with which she has released three full-length albums so far. She started an intense collaboration with the critically acclaimed jazz/electro-improv band Kompost 3 called 5K HD; they released their first album “And To In A” in 2018 and played at MENT that same year. Mira Lu also dedicates her time to other projects in different genres. Besides writing and composing, she is a curator, vocal about her political views, and a member of cultural committees such as the Viennale (Austria’s film festival) and local music funding programmes.

Natasha Padabed (More Zvukov Agency, DE)

Natasha is an agent, festival programmer and music curator, currently living in Berlin. She works as a program director of the oldest Russian contemporary music festival, the Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF), the experimental and dance electronic festival Electro-Mechanica, and the world music festival Ethomechanica in Saint Petersburg. Shortly after she moved to the Netherlands in 2000, she launched the More Zvukov Agency, booking mostly Russian artists around Europe and overseas. She also works as a curator of Russian music programs abroad (Russian Days at HKW Berlin, the Russian Beats showcase at the Sónar Barcelona festival). In 2014, she was one of the seven “samurais” of the WOMEX jury team.

Nikola Jovanović (Kontra, RUNDA, RS)

Nikola is the founder of Kontra, a Serbian record label and publishing company. With over 15 years of experience in the music business, he’s one of the key figures of the Balkan music industry. He’s the founder and former CEO of Lampshade Media. He also works at SAE Institute Belgrade, where he’s the Head of Communication and teaches Music Business. He was the Talent and Music Manager at MTV Adria from 2009 to 2017. He’s organized over 300 concerts in Serbia and the neighbouring region. He has an M.A. in Sound Design and Music Production and is the Vice President of the newly established Regional Association of Independent Record Labels – RUNDA.

Nina Dragičević (City of Women/Musica Femina, Topographies of Sound, SI)

Nina is a composer, sound artist, writer, the artistic director of Topographies of Sound Symposium Festival (ŠKUC, Ljubljana) and a program collaborator of the Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture – City of Women (Ljubljana) within the framework of the European project Musica Femina (2018–2020). In 2018, she received the Knight of Poetry Award in both the Jury Selection and People’s Choice categories, as well as the Recognition Award for Outstanding Scholarly Achievements by the University of Ljubljana. In the same year, she was a finalist of the European Broadcasting Union Palma Ars Acustica Awards for her sound piece Parallellax.

Nina Hudej (Pritličje, Warrego Valles, SI)

Nina is a musician who has, since the release of her solo album “Disclaimer Null” (2015), been co-shaping and intensively exploring the bypasses of club and experimental electronic music alongside musician NinaBelle in the Warrego Valles project. Their debut album “Botox” (2018) goes beyond genre limits and enters the field of more contemporary club styles. In 2018, Nina was selected as one of artists of the European SHAPE platform. She’s also a promoter and curator of niche music events that have featured numerous unique and inquisitive electronic music artists. She’s the programme coordinator of the Monokel lesbian club and a co-shaper of the Pritličje cultural centre, a mentor and a human rights activist, critical of misogyny and cis- and heteronormativity. All of the above, not always in that order and usually in several roles at the same time.

Nis Bøgvad (Copenhagen Picture Music, DK)

Nis has worked in all aspects of the music business, building up 27 years of experience as a music professional, from multi-platinum selling songwriter, recording artist (EMI) and producer to head of A&R (EMI Music), creative director (Music Sales Group), executive producer on national TV and music supervisor. He has synched music to more than 150 commercials, TV series and films. He’s shared his knowledge at A&R Worldwide/Musexpo L.A., Midem Cannes, Sync Summit Paris, Spot Festival Denmark, Les Arcs European Film Festival, Sync Summit Helsinki, Berklee Global Career Summit and countless others. He’s also among the founding partners of Europe in Synch, organising training workshops around Europe.

Nuno Saraiva (Lusitanian, WHY Portugal, PT)

Nuno, who has over 20 years’ worth of music industry experience in Canada, UK and Portugal, has worked in publishing as well as at record labels, artist management and international project consulting. He’s the founding director of Lusitanian Music Publishing, the first Portuguese one-stop of its kind in Portugal, signing Portuguese authors/composers as well as sub-publishing international catalogues for Portugal. He’s the founder of SCL-Agency, a Lisbon-based music management and consulting company. He’s also the international publishing consultant for Altafonte Music Publishing, a Madrid-based publisher active in several Latin American countries as well as the U.S. He’s also the founding president of AMAEI, the Portuguese Indie Label Association, a Board Member of IMPALA and EMEE – European Music Exporters Exchange, and the Executive Director of WHY Portugal, the Portuguese music export office.

Paula Poštolková (Nova Cvernovka, Sharpe, SK)

Paula, originally a filmmaker who studied film production in Bratislava and Helsinki, fell in love with the music industry back in 2011 when she started to work as a stage manager for the major Slovak festival Pohoda. Since then, she has been involved in most of the Slovakian independent music scene events, festivals and productions. In 2016, she joined the newly-established LALA Slovak music export office initiative and became the Production Manager of the new Slovak showcase festival Sharpe, which takes place at the Nova Cvernovka cultural centre, where she leads the cultural program department.

Peter Åstedt (Live at Heart, Musichelp, SE)

Peter has been working in the music industry for over 30 years. He started his own record label, Dead Frog Records, at the age of 15 in 1990. He uploaded his first mp3 in 1995. Today, he works for Musichelp, which is an umbrella company for several different music companies with publishing, distribution, management, and supervision. He also works as Senior Advisor/international booker for the Live at Heart showcase festival in Sweden. Songs he has worked with have over a billion streams on Spotify alone. He also writes the music blog http://www.musichelpblog.com.

Peter Baroš (SIGIC, SI)

Peter is the Secretary General of SIGIC – Slovenian Music Information Centre, the central information point for Slovenian music, musicians, musical professionals, and current musical events and activities. He studied philosophy and sociology of culture and graduated in the field of Phenomenology of Music with a thesis titled “Musical Performance – Listening, Ideology, Repetition”. From 2010 to 2014, he was a consultant for music at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist who plays in the Slovenian groups Zaklonišče prepeva and Malamor.

Raphael Pleschounig (Acoustic Lakeside, AT)

Raphael is a strong believer in differentiation and the importance of thinking outside the box. A very strong passion for music and disappointment about the local event scene convinced Raphael and a couple of close friends to start the Acoustic Lakeside festival in 2006. From the very first day, the plan was to create something that is unique and valued as an alternative to the classic festival prototypes that dominated the market back then. Today, the festival sells out on the spot without announcing a single performing artist, year after year. The festival is organized by an unsalaried society of over 300 friends who share the same ideology and vision and are eager to preserve them for future generations. Apart from his volunteering festival engagement, Raphael’s full-time job is developing and strengthening international brands across industries together with roughly 300 creatives at the KISKA design company in Salzburg.

Renato Horvath (Eastaste, Budapest Showcase Hub, HU)

Renato is the Managing Director of Eastaste.net, a sync and music marketing agency; a co-founder of Budapest Showcase Hub (BuSH), where he’s mainly responsible for the conference programming, formats and strategic partnerships; and a music video content enthusiast (the former producer of BalconyTV Tel-Aviv and Budapest, and currently the Newkidsfromthebloc channel). His most recent start-up venture and major excitement is Banding.app, a matchmaking service for bands to exchange gigs all over the world. He’s been working at the crossroads of the music, film, and advertising industries since 2005.

Rod Jones (Idlewild, The Fruit Tree Foundation, UK)

Rod is a founding member, guitarist and songwriter with Scottish band Idlewild. He also works as a music producer, studio owner and Mental Health in Music consultant and practitioner. Over the last 10 years, he has been active creating and curating music events to raise awareness for mental health in Scotland. This resulted in him founding the Fruit Tree Foundation alongside fellow Scottish musician Emma Pollock to release a collaborative studio album of songs written by various Scottish musicians to further promote mental health wellbeing. He has recently developed a workshop method using songwriting as a tool for mental health and communication. He’s a member of the Musicians’ Health Advisory Board for Help Musicians UK. In 2016, he launched the Post Electric Studio in Edinburgh alongside German mixer Kris Pohl, where he currently also works as a music producer and songwriter.

Ross Miles (Scorched Asia, CN)

Ross is a booking agent, artist manager and music promoter at Scorched Asia, and the driving force behind Wooozy.cn and the Wooozy Dimension stage at the Concrete & Grass Music Festival. He has over 12 years of experience at the frontlines of underground music around the world, and over half a decade in China. Ross moved to China in 2012, and has worked to build Scorched Asia into one of the most significant names in pan-Asian touring and management. His tours have included artists such as Julia Holter, Tricky, Mumdance, Princess Nokia and Machinedrum – a repertoire spanning an eclectic range of genres and styles, but always (always) good music by artists at the top of their game. Ross also represents a number of exciting young Chinese artists, including club pioneers Howie Lee and Scintii, and has taken the emergent sound of young China to festivals and showcases in the Europe, UK and beyond.

Sergey Saburov (Hyperboloid Records, RU)

Sergey is a co-founder of Hyperboloid Records alongside Pixelord and Acid Mafia, releasing online bass tunes by producers from all over the world, defining the sound of now. He’s a well-known promoter/DJ in Moscow and other major Russian cities. A long-time advocate of grime, garage, juke and other resonant styles, he makes sure the noise endures – over the years and across borders. He has toured the EU, China and the US as well as all over Russia with his label mates, and is part of Boiler Room’s recent documentary “Future Shift” about the Russian post-internet scene.

Stefan Reichmann (Haldern Pop, DE)

Stefan is a founding member and musical director of the Haldern Pop Festival. Haldern Pop also encompasses a label, a bar and a “day off” hotel for artists stranded between Paris and Berlin or Amsterdam and Cologne. The festival organizes things in a dimension that corresponds to the size of the village it’s headquartered in, not to the percentages of an investment banker. Haldern Pop represents hospitable transit between the mosaic of regionality and multifaceted internationality. Remarkable and strange, and therefore existential. Stefan believes music has the capacity to enthrall, and that is what connects us. Listening. The quiet revolution.

Szabolcs Czeglédi (Bánkitó Fesztivál, HU)

Szabolcs Czeglédi is active in the Hungarian music scene as a festival booker, artist manager and promoter representative. He’s the booker of Bánkitó Fesztivál, a 4000/day capacity festival which has a strong trendsetter effect on the Hungarian underground market (2018 headliners: Suuns, Iceage, Acid Arab, Shigeto). He also books international tours for Hungarian bands (Middlemist Red, Platon Karataev) and works as a promoter representative for Sziget Festival and Budapest Promoter.

Tanya Makarova (RUSH Initiative, RU)

Tanya is an artist/industry relations specialist at RUSH Initiative (a non-profit, non-governmental music export organisation, promoting the most promising Russian musicians), the conference director of Moscow Music Week Festival (since 2018) and a music consultant at STEREOTACTIC in Moscow. Having a specialist degree in History from the Russian State University for the Humanities, she has worked as an artistic and programming director at some of Russia’s top electronic, alternative and contemporary music venues and festivals, such as Solyanka Club (2013–2015), ЭМА (2015), Krugozor (2016), Superslet Festival (2014), Present Perfect Festival (2017, 2018) and more.

Thomas Heher (Waves Vienna, AT)

Thomas has been active in the cultural sector since 1996 and currently works for several companies as a music business and marketing consultant, as well as a music and film curator. He developed the concept of the Waves Vienna music festival and conference, and is, as the director of the festival, in charge of programming and marketing. Previously he worked as the Chief Editor of the pop culture magazine TBA and co-founded the pop culture magazine The Gap and the literature magazine Volltext. He also used to run the Viennese record label P.A.M. Records and collected lots of experience while promoting concerts, readings and film screenings.

Tisa Frelih (Department of Neurology, UMC Ljubljana, SI)

Tisa is an audio engineer, psychologist, and neuroscientist. At the age of 12, she decided that working in the music industry would become a compulsory part of her life. In high school, she ran away to Canada where she fell in love with sound design – a field that optimally combines and challenges both artistic as well as technological skills. During her successful journey through a musical career as an audio engineer in the company of renowned bands such as Siddharta, Laibach, and Juno Reactor, her inveterate curiosity ran into the phenomenon called synesthesia. Discovering the secrets of the human mind and getting a BSc became the next big step. Not leaving music behind, she now sees psychology as a mix of science and art, which can be produced into an unlimited range of genres, from classical music to jazz, metal, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Tomek Waśko (Go Ahead, Spring Break, PL)

Tomek has worked in the music business since 2008. He’s the head of marketing at Go Ahead, one of the biggest concert agencies in Poland, as well as the founder and promoter of Enea Spring Break, the most important showcase festival in the country.

Tony Duckworth ([PIAS] Poland and Eastern Europe, PL)

Tony has been a music professional since 1981, having worked in various areas of the industry – music distribution, sales and marketing, digital, label management, etc. In 2004, he moved to Poland where he established his own sales, marketing, PR and distribution company. In 2009, he joined forces with Mystic Production, the leading independent music distributor in Poland. In 2015, he was appointed General Manager of [PIAS] Poland and Eastern Europe, where he oversees label and distribution functions across 12 territories. Based in Warsaw, the office offers services to labels such as Play It Again Sam, Harmonia Mundi, Jazz Village, World Village, Bella Union, Sub Pop, Secretly Canadian, Mute, Partisan, Heavenly and Transgressive, to name but a few. [PIAS] Poland and Eastern Europe also has its own recordings arm, releasing Polish acts such as Brodka, BOKKA and Tęskno.

Urszula Andruszko (Radio Wroclaw Kultura, Firlej, PL)

Urszula has been a journalist at Radio Wroclaw Kultura since 2015, hosting radio shows on world music and the independent music scene. As of 2017, she collaborates with the Centre for Artistic Activities “Firlej” in Wrocław and develops international collaborative cultural projects (i.e. Polish Jazz 1918–2018). She has collaborated with Academic Radio LUZ in Wrocław, Asymmetry Festival (2012–2013) and Brave Festival (since 2008). She graduated in Psychology and in European Diplomacy at the University of Wrocław. In 2016 and 2017, she participated in the EVS programme, volunteering with the Wings of Hope Foundation in Sarajevo, in the project “Raising Awareness of the Needs of Disadvantaged Members of a Post-war Society”. Her interests and focus areas in work and research include trauma psychology, art therapy, independent culture centres, grassroots culture, and culture as a means of social change.

Viva Videnović (URGH!, Strup, SI)

Wesley T. A’Harrah (Music Ally, UK)

Wesley develops and delivers Music Ally’s training on a global level, with clients including all of the major record labels, numerous publishers, independents such as Beggars Group and Domino, brands such as Red Bull and Spotify, Facebook, and other media and entertainment organizations and agencies. Music Ally’s training is centred on highlighting the best digital tools and industry trends to help companies continually develop the sharpest strategies. Wesley contributes to Music Ally’s Sandbox Reports on digital marketing tools, trends and opportunities, and is the founder of multiple start-ups across publishing and influencer marketing spaces.

Žiga Drofenik (Universal Publishing Slovenia, SonicTribe, SI)

Xiaodong Shen (Mentha & Partners, FR)

Xiaodong, currently based in Paris, set foot in music business world by bringing new and exciting Chinese talents to Europe (Re-Tros, Duck Fight Goose…). He then launched his touring agency Mentha & Partners, providing Asian representation for international artists. With more than 100 shows booked at major music festivals and reputable venues and clubs across Asia per year, his agency now takes cares of more than 20 artists for their live performances in Asia. As a promoter in mainland China, he has also done multiple tours there, including a sold-out tour for Brooklyn indie rock band Beach Fossils. Apart from his expertise on live music touring and production, he’s also involved in the French Miracle Tour, a newly created project that brings young and fresh French artists to Asia.