ILMC 28 opening session line-up completed

After last week’s announcement that Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino will be joining The Open Forum: The bosses level session on Friday 4 March for an exclusive Q&A, the International Live Music Conference (ILMC) has announced the rest of the line-up for ILMC 28’s main opening session.

Following his debut last year, Live Nation president of touring (and one of the UK’s 500 most influential people) Phil Bowdery return to the chairman’s seat, co-chairing the session with ILMC’s Greg Parmley. Joining them for a high-level discussion on the key issues in the international live music business will be Australian music business legend Michael Gudinski (The Mushroom Group/Frontier Touring), Superfly co-founder Rick Farman (Bonnaroo, Outside Lands), CAA co-head Mike Greek (One Direction, Sigur Rós, Sam Smith), Red Light Management’s UK MD James Sandom (Bastille, Kaiser Chiefs, The Vaccines) and ITB’s Lucy Dickins (Adele, Mumford & Sons, Jamie T).

Also announced this week is a new Saturday afternoon session, which takes place in the ILMCs main room from 14.00–15.15. Chaired by Okan Tombulca (eps), the session will review safety and security at our shows in light of November’s terror attack in Paris and other incidents last year. Show Safety: Health points will examine the repercussions of the events as venues review their security procedures; cancellation and terrorism clauses in contracts face scrutiny; and borders are tightened. What changes have already been implemented and, ultimately, how much more can be done? Guest speakers include chief inspector Aidan Gibson of the London Met Police’s counter-terrorism division.

An invitation-only event for live music professionals, ILMC takes place from 3-6 March at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London. The conference always sells out in advance, with 1,000 delegates in attendance, and other sessions already announced this year include workshops with Google, YouTube and Twitter; and panels on festivals, venues, ticketing, loyalty, show safety & new technology.