Tallinn Music Week conference is broadening the range of topics and moving to Tallinn Creative Hub | Tallinn Music Week
2-8 April 2018 – Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn Music Week conference is broadening the range of topics and moving to Tallinn Creative Hub

The tenth edition of the new music and city culture festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW), unveils the first speakers along the core agenda of its Creative Impact conference. The two-day conference, taking place on 6th and 7th April at Tallinn Creative Hub (Kultuurikatel) will focus on the future of music, new economy, better cities, and design thinking. TMW 2018 is presented by Telia.

TMW 2018 Creative Impact conference will be opened on 6th April by the President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid

TMW 2018 Festival + Conference Pass is available for €175 until 1st February (included).

The previously mainly music-focused TMW conference has looked in depth into the added value of creativity, as a result of which the festival has framed four lead topics for the jubilee edition’s conference, namely the future of music, new economy, better cities, and design thinking. Civic initiative, gender politics, future skills and sustainable development will also be the commonly occuring keywords.

The digitalisation-based new economy has thrown us into global competition, which simply calls for design thinking. Under the leadership of Jane Oblikas, the former CEO of the Estonian Design Centre, TMW has assembled a special design thinking block, featuring both inspiring speakers as well as practices like designing the future vision of Estonia’s easternmost city Narva. Among others, the muscle of design thinking will be trained by Arne van Oosterom, the founder of the DesignThinkers Academy, the internationally acclaimed creative business school Hyper Island, and nudging expert Sille Krukow.

As for the future of cities, the conference will delve into what makes cities competitive and how to measure the quality of public spaces. Among others, speakers on this topic include Elka Gotfryd of non-profit organisation Project for Public Spaces, who has been active in Jerusalem and New York in the fields of placemaking and community planning, and urbanist Teele Pehk, CEO of the Estonian Cooperation Assembly.

A city’s breadth of its arts and nightlife scenes can often be the factors that make urban life exciting and enjoyable. The founder of the non-profit initiative Creative Footprint Lutz Leichsenring along Amsterdam’s first nachtburgemeester – or night mayor – Mirik Milan will speak up against gentrification. The topic will be suitably introduced by Sound Diplomacy’s presentation of the “A Guide to Managing Your Night Time Economy” that will see the light of day during the TMW conference.

Estonia might be the first country to offer cryptocurrency as a way to reward its e-residents. Talking about the possibility of Estcoin and its future plans will be Kaspar Korjus, the managing director of the e-Residency program who leads the Forbes “30 Under 30“ list in the field of Technology and Finance.

As part of the international Keychange Project which aims to empower women to transform the music industry, 60 female musicians and creative industry professionals gather to participate in the special Creative Lab, which runs alongside the conference. The programme is supervised by business management mentor MBE Remi Harris and consultancy specialist Tamara Gal-On.

Music-based panels will also clear the status of the long-awaited copyright reform and the future of the European music industry, analyze new sources of revenue for the digital age and map out emerging markets in Asia and the former socialist states.

In addition to the creative industry analyses and solution-based practices, the conference also offers inspirational stories by creative minds across cultures and generations.

The president of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid will open the TMW 2018 Creative Impact conference at the Talinn Creative Hub on 6th April.

The complete programme of the TMW 2018 conference and festival will be published gradually during February and March.

More info about the confirmed speakers and Creative Impact conference

Throughout the festival’s nine-year existence, the TMW conference has hosted numerous high-profile music industry experts and pop mavericks, including the founder of Sire Records Seymour Stein, influential managers Simon Napier-Bell and Peter Jenner; acclaimed music writer and cultural critic Simon Reynolds, musicians-turned authors Viv Albertine of The Slits, John Robb of The Membranes, and Bob Stanley of St Etienne. Since 2016 the TMW conference has expanded from music industry topics towards a wider social agenda, featurings also speakers like the US-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Hamdi Ulukaya, gene researcher Lili Milani, MEP Julia Reda, a business angel from Silicon Valley Fadi Bishara, artist and activist iO Tillett Wright and many other visionaries from different areas.

The core of the TMW jubilee festival taking place from 2nd to 8th April 2018 is music festival by nearly 250 international artists from different genres and the entrepreneurial conference Creative Impact. The TMW city festival offers free city stage concerts, public discussions TMW Talks, a selection of the nicest eateries as TMW Tastes, a specially curated arts programme, Design Market and various activities in the public space.

TMW 2018 is presented by Telia. TMW 2018 partners are the Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Enterprise and Nordic Hotel Forum.

TMW 2018 Festival + Conference Pass is available for €175€ until 1st February (from 2nd February €250) in the web store.
Conference + Festival Pass gives access to the music festival, TMW conference and delegates’ bars as well as to the database of registered participants.

Festival Pass for €60 (from 11th February €70) and Priority Pass for €150 are also available in the web store.
Festival Pass grants access to all concerts and includes special offers to other festival parts.
Priority Pass grants priority access to all TMW music festival events, including the opening concert and to the delegates’ bars as well as personalised programme recommendations.

More info