Tallinn Music Week (TMW) has unveiled the first speakers along the core agenda of its ninth conference edition. The two-day conference, focusing on innovation, creative impact and sustainable development, will take place within the weeklong TMW festival in Tallinn, Estonia next spring.
The two-day conference on Friday 31st March and Saturday 1st April in 2017, will bring together key players and change-makers from the music and creative industries, research and development sector, entrepreneurship and politics.
The core agenda of TMW 2017 conference is creative impact of a shared vision and joint action. Focusing on music and creative industries, the conference will cover topics from sustainable development, diversity and smarter governance to future skills.
Debates on topics like “post-truth world” versus “good quality is the new cool” and “the beginning of an end of the rock era“ will also lead to inevitable discussions about technology reshaping the structure of our jobs and speculations on Artificial Intelligence as the hottest producer on the future hit charts. There will be stories of human resilience and creative resourcefulness, as well as eye-opening presentations of scientific discoveries and new artistic expressions. As Estonia will take over the presidency of the European Union Council in the second half of 2017, topics like the future of Europe as well as the Digital Single Market will shape an essential part of the discussions. TMW will also host larger delegations this year from overseas markets like Canada and Japan – the latter as a part of a joint Finnish-Estonian music export initiative Finest Sounds.
Speakers already confirmed include acknowledged musicologists and artists, as well as change-makers from creative and tech industries. The influential music critic and pop culture theorist Simon Reynolds will present his latest book, a definitive reassessment of glam, Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and its Legacy. Lutz Leichsenring, the spokesperson of Clubcommission, a platform joining the underground music clubs in Berlin, will shed light into fight against gentrification of urban space. Alexander Hacke, a bass player and chief engineer of the German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten and musician, filmmaker and co-founder of Love Parade Danielle de Picciotto will talk about discovering new ways of presenting avant-garde ideas and interaction among cultures and generations. The manager of the premier Tuareg music group Tinariwen, Mohamed Aly Ansar aka Manny Ansar will share his experience of keeping his “Festival au Desert” alive in exile after the extremists’ ban of music in Timbuktu. The Finnish singer-song-writer Astrid Swan will reveal the story of her creative recovery after surviving cancer.
TMW 2017 conference also presents Tom Fleming, a strategist of British creative industry and culture policy, Vanessa Reed, chief executive of the UKs PRS for Music Foundation, as well as Kevin Cole, the senior director of programming of the legendary KEXP radio station and Brian Reich, a communication expert and political strategist from USA. The confirmed speakers’ list will continue with the president and executive producer of the Finnish tech event Slush, Nicolas Dolenc, CEO and founder of Estonian-rooted global startup investment platform Funderbeam, Kaidi Ruusalepp, co-founder and CEO of the gaming startup accelerator and pre-seed fund GameFounders, Kadri Ugand, the creator of the global education innovation project HundrED, Saku Tuominen, music entrepreneur and one of the creators of the Sony Centre in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, Tomoyuki Ohsawa, and A&R expert Aya Ohi from Japan, currently the general manager of “everything international” within the Victor Entertainment Group of companies.
Throughout the festival’s eight-year existence, TMW conference has hosted numerous high-profile speakers from international music industry experts to global game-changers from business, civil society, education, science, technology and policy-making. Since 2016 the TMW conference has expanded from music industry topics towards a wider social agenda.
The speakers in 2016 included US-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Hamdi Ulukaya, gene researcher Lili Milani, MEP Julia Reda, business angel from Silicon Valley Fadi Bishara and many other visionaries from different areas. Music industry experts and pop mavericks that have participated in TMW conference throughout the years, include the founder of Sire Records Seymour Stein, influential managers Simon Napier-Bell, Petri Lunden, Edward Bicknell and Peter Jenner; artists-turned authors Viv Albertine of The Slits, John Robb of The Membranes, Bob Stanley of St Etienne, and many others.
The complete programme of the TMW 2017 festival and conference will be published gradually at the beginning of the year.
In addition to the music festival and conference, TMW offers a series of free City Stage concerts, a selection of eateries within TMW Tastes, TMW Talks series, Design Market showcasing Baltic and Scandinavian brands and designs, TMW Arts programme curated by the Estonian Contemporary Arts Development Centre, and City Space activities in cooperation with the interior designers of Estonian Academy of Arts.
Tallinn Music Week 2017 dates:
- 27 March – 2 April: TMW Tastes, TMW Talks, TMW City Space
- 28 March – 2 April: TMW Arts
- 29 March – 1 April: TMW City Stage (free afternoon concerts)
- 30 March – 1 April: TMW Music Festival
- 31 March – 1 April: TMW Conference
- 1 -2 April: Design Market