Adélaïde Deffond (FRA)

Universal Music France
Head of International A&R

Adélaïde Deffond is the Head of International A&R at Universal Music France, she is the key contact for A&R discussions between France and other territories. She is scouting unique acts from all genres and from all over the world, being especially interested in artists with global potential. Her work is also focused on developing organic ways to break French artists on the international scene, coordinating international collaborations, global production camps, digital B2B A&R seminars & more!

Alex Bruford (GBR)

ATC Live
Managing Director / Booking Agent

After 10 years touring internationally as an artist, Alex started work as an agent at Reprise Agency in London.
Alex founded ATC Live agency in partnership with ATC in 2011, and the company now represents 350 artists including Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Metronomy, The Lumineers, Mac DeMarco, Black Pumas, Big Thief and books tours worldwide.
Alex was voted Agent Of The Year at the 2017 European Festival Awards and ATC Live recently announced a partnership with new US agency Arrival Artists to facilitate innovative worldwide solutions for artists.

Allison 'Allie' Shaw (USA)

Manic Monkee
brand strategist | producer/talent buyer/artist manager

Allison Shaw (Allie) is multi-faceted and experienced music industry professional. Allie’s passion for music prompted her to create boutique firm Manic Monkee which specializes in festival operations/talent buying, artist mgmt, brand partnerships and strategic business development for music/tech/brands. Allie started her music career while still in college writing for MTV/Vh1. She thenstarted national/international music magazine Hyperactive and Hyperactive Music Conference and Festival and served on the New Mexico Music Commission. Allison was the Director Of Live for TV personality Rachael Ray/Watch Entertainment and co-creator/producer/ talent buyer for Rachael’s Feedback party during SXSW. She got the absolute privilege working with one of the coolest hip hop bands ever, as head of brand development for Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee's Public Enemy. Her love for bringing music discovery to fans found her working on multiple festivals as talent buyer including Moogfest, Tarfest, Sunstock Solarfest, Santa Fe Muzik Fest. She currently is the producer/talent buyer for Pure Imagination Festival in Arizona and producer/talent buyer for the annual Whole Foods showcase at SXSW. She also currently sits on the Board of Directors for Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.

Amelia McCloskey (GBR)

AM Licensing // AM Studios
Founder / CEO

AM Licensing is an experienced sync company from England. Their placements include for example the Netflix series Luis Miguel and Monarca as well as the US film Endless. AM Licensing has been nominated as Music Supervisor Of The Year.

Anika Mottershaw (GBR)

Bella Union
A&R and Project Manager

Anika Mottershaw is A&R and Project Manager at Bella Union where they have worked for the past twelve years. Anika started at Bella Union after moving to London, dropping out from university and meeting label founder Simon Raymonde at the gigs they were going to. Not long after this Anika became Label Assistant signing their first artist in 2012.

Anika now works as A&R and is Project Manager, working closely with the label’s artists. Outside of the label Anika is a huge fan of literature and film and loves to get involved in creative endeavours as often as possible.

Baptiste Sallibartant (FRA)

Kitsuné Musique
Director / A&R

Originating from Bordeaux in France, Baptiste Sallibartant is the Director and A&R of French record label Kitsuné Musique. Curator at heart, Baptiste has always been on the lookout for promising bands and producers to help them start their career and work their way up through a unique development to become unmissable artists of tomorrow. His entrepreneurial philosophy has also helped him work on the ongoing development of Kitsuné Musique as a brand, driver of the success of many acts featured on the many compilations of the label.

Catherine Wharton (USA)

Paramount
Director, Creative Music Strategy

As part of the Creative Music Strategy team at Paramount, Catherine music supervises shows, themes, promos and digital content for their global brands including MTV, VH1, P+, and Showtime. Previously, Catherine worked in trailer music at marketing collective Jax with notable campaigns including Game Of Thrones and To All the Boys I've Loved Before, and on the sync team at Warner Records pitching artists from Dua Lipa to Muse for film and TV opportunities. She got her start in music at NBCUniversal Television after studying Documentary Film at Chapman University.

César Andión (ESP)

Live Nation Madrid + Spanish Wave
PR, Talent & export

35 years plus in the industry from local artist management in 80s, record label distribution in the 90s (Sub Pop, City Slang, Crammed, Lookout, Epitaph, Crypt, etc) joined Iguapop live concerts promoting company in 90s,merging into Gamerco in Barcelona in the 2ks and LN Spain since 2006. PR, Talent & export for Live Nation Madrid. He is head of The Spanish Wave Showcase export programme, Mad Cool Pro, Director at Andalucía Music Forum, Dcodelab in Dcode festival, Kid Nation project and lecturer at LN Live Music Master at UCM.

Chris Ibbs (GBR)

Creative Artists Agency
Music Touring Agent

Chris is a music touring agent at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency. Chris joined CAA in 2014 having previously worked at Ministry Of Sound and Primary Talent International. His current roster of clients includes Charli XCX, Adam Lambert, Dylan, Maya Hawke, Eve, Natalie Imbruglia, Jodie Harsh and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Fabio De Marco (ITA)

DNA Concerti // Porto Records
Booker // A&R

Promoter and Booking agent for DNA concerti, representing Mac DeMarco, Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Sleaford Mods, Slowdive, Arab Strap, Parquet Courts, Kurt Vile, The Notwist, Timber Timbre and more acts. Owner, A&R director, at Porto Records. Owner, art director for Rome Psych Fest.

Geoff McGovern (USA)

Ground Control Touring
Booking Agent

Geoff McGovern is a booking agent at Brooklyn, NY based agency, Ground Control Touring, where he has worked since 2015. He currently represents 20+ critically acclaimed artists including Black Country, New Road, Fiddlehead, Thou, Torche, PVA and Dummy for exclusive North American booking. Geoff resides in Philadelphia, PA where he began his booking career in 2008 organizing and promoting shows for local + touring artists.

James Minor (USA)

SXSW Music Festival
Vice President

James Minor is the VP of SXSW Music Festival, which is celebrating its 36th season in 2023. SXSW Music is the largest music festival of its kind in the world, with 1500 acts from 54 foreign countries performing at 75 venues in 2022.
Minor has a diverse background, with over 25 years in the industry, having worked in artist management, tour booking and managing, as well as talent buying and management for noted venues in both Austin, TX and NYC. He is a known advocate for up and coming talent and has spoken around the world at conferences including Primavera Pro (Spain), MU:CON (South Korea), Golden Melody Awards (Taiwan), MIDEM (France), Waves Vienna (Austria), ADE (Amsterdam) and Pop-Kultur Berlin (Germany).

Jana Recmanikova (GBR)

Festival Republic
Talent Booker

Jana started her career in live music 5 years ago at Festival Republic working her way up from personal assistant to talent booker.
Currently busy booking the biggest festivals / events in the UK - Reading & Leeds (200k cap combined), Finsbury Park shows (40k cap per show day) and shows at Gunnersbury Park (25k cap).

Moody Jones (USA)

EMPIRE // Everybody Knows
SVP, Digital & Creative // Founder

Moody Jones is an entrepreneurial entertainment executive and artist who thrives on creating new rules and executing unique concepts. Currently, he’s the SVP of Digital & Creative at EMPIRE – an independent distribution company and record label pioneering the future generation of the music business. He’s worked on campaigns with A-list artists XXXtentacion, Snoop Dogg, Aaliyah, and more. Moody also operates his own marketing agency – Everybody Knows – a creative collective and has featured Brent Faiyaz, JLO, among others. Before EMPIRE, the Hits Noisemaker helped build Wavo as GM, where he was instrumental in scaling its media buying and data-driven music marketing business.

Oskar Strajn (NLD)

ESNS – Eurosonic Noorderslag
Booker

Oskar Strajn is one of the bookers of ESNS – Eurosonic Noorderslag, Europe's largest live music industry event based in Groningen, the Netherlands. He works closely with the Music Moves Europe Awards, the yearly music awards given during the festival every year, as well as the ESNS Radar & Analytics project manager. In the past, Oskar has worked as radio dj, journalist and event promotor.

Patrik Larsson (SWE)

Playground Music
A&R

A&R at Playground Music, the biggest independent music company across all of Scandinavia, focusing on developing acts across a wide range of popular music genres.
Patrik has been in the music biz close to 30 years now and was one of the original founders of the company back in 1999.
He had a period away from Playground working as a consultant and manager on a local and international level plus doing loads of lectures/panels/workshops locally and worldwide.
Patrik was part of the board for both SOM (the umbrella organisation for all indies) and Export Music Sweden during several years. In that role Patrik was instrumental and key in developing the now established Manifest on Tour concept.

Rich Walker (GBR)

4AD // Dalliance Records
Strategic Director

Rich Walker is strategic director for UK indie giant 4AD. Having worked for the company for over 20 years and cutting his teeth as a publicist for the likes of The White Stripes, M.I.A., Peaches, Scott Walker and Grimes, Rich now oversees the label’s rich and varied catalogue. Alongside his day job, Rich also runs the tastemaker label Dalliance Recordings, with friend and artist manager Matt Brown (Daughter, Wilsen). Recent artists on the label include Gia Margaret, Francis of Delirium and HighSchool – the last two they also manage and both are playing Reeperbahn this year.

Sat Bisla (USA)

A&R Worldwide // MUSEXPO
President & Founder

Sat Bisla is the President & Founder of A&R Worldwide / MUSEXPO, and is a leading influencer to the global music business. He’s had an extensive career as an independent A&R working with Arista, Atlantic Records, BMG, Capitol, Columbia, Concord, Epic, EMI, Interscope, Island, RCA, Warner Records and others. He’s discovered and helped sign countless acts who have gone on to worldwide success.
Sat also created, and ran the global A&R Network for Clear Channel Radio and Clear Channel Entertainment (now Live Nation).
Sat hosts the worldwide radio show Passport Approved, which has aired on over 80 radio stations including KROQ Los Angeles, KNDD Seattle, KNRK Portland OR, Q101 Chicago, Flux FM Germany, Radio Doble Nueve Lima, Peru, , Xfm Kenya, Kenya, Radio 1 in India and many others.

Sharyn Goldyn (USA)

The Sun Rose
Booker

Sharyn Goldyn, from Los Angeles, has worked every job in the industry from being a booking agent to artist management for both indie developing acts as well as mainstream acts like The Black Crowes at Red Light Management. For the last five years, she has been the curator for School Night— the go to live music series in the United States for new music discovery. School Night where artists like Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, Yungblud and many more all started their careers early on. Now, she runs The Sun Rose, the best new intimate music venue in LA where Dave Chapelle, Jeff Goldblum, Nicole Scherzinger etc, have already graced the stage. She has huge interest in cultural diversity and booking international acts in the United States.

Simeon Pranger (NLD)

Treetop Agency
Founder

Simeon Pranger is the founder of Dutch booking agency Treetop Agency, celebrating their 7,5-year anniversary this summer. Treetop represent an eclectic roster of 50+ artists from 17 different countries. Next to booking, Simeon is the manager of Dutch upcoming artists Bony Macaroni (Redfield Records) and Roofman (Clouds Hill).

Sindri Àstmarsson (ISL)

Iceland Airwaves // SENA
Head of booking & programming // Director

With background in management, radio and as a DJ, Sindri has been a part of the Icelandic music industry since he was 14 years old. In 2012 Sindri turned to management and until 2018 he ran Mid Atlantic Management. His first management gig was managing Icelandic rock stars KALEO until they moved to the USA after signing their first major deal. Sindri has since been involved with a number of major label deals and worked with some of Iceland’s biggest names in music. In 2018 Sindri turned away from management after taking a job at Iceland Airwaves and its parent company, SENA (Iceland’s biggest concert promoter). At Iceland Airwaves Sindri works as head of booking and programming. His other work for Sena includes being the head of their Corporate events team and has lead the work of moving into Esports.

Teri Nelson Carpenter (USA)

Reel Muzik Werks
Founder & CEO

Ms. Carpenter is currently the President & CEO of Reel Muzik Werks, LLC.  An innovative full service Independent Music Publisher that specializes in Global Writer/Publisher Administration, Licensing & Clearance and Music Supervision for all Media. Her executive experience includes a background in performing rights management at BMI in Film & TV relations and overseeing the global music business for Fox Family Worldwide and Music Production & Administration for MGM. Ms. Carpenter’s experience in the creation, protection and monetization music copyrights is well known and has earned her the highest level of respect worldwide.
Ms. Carpenter has been responsible for either score music and/or placements of songs in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol II”, “Spiderman: The Homecoming”, “Conjuring 2”, “Puss n’ Boots”, “A Handmaiden’s Tale”, “Big Sky”, “Versace: A Crime Story”, “America’s Got Talent”, “Dancing with the Stars” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” just to name a few.
Reel Muzik Werks has many accomplished artists on its roster with its most current success from their client the artist “A-Wall” who was just received his first certified Gold Record for the song “Loverboy”.
Ms. Carpenter serves as President of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) LA Chapter and recently served as the first AIMP National Chair.  She is also the Executive Vice President of the Independent Music Publishers International Forum (IMPF).  Her leadership on various boards of global music organizations is extensive and she is a much sought after speaker for conferences and events worldwide.