Secondary Ticketing

Feature Q1 2008hotel atrium at 4am, or just wandering aboutplain naked.“It’s been a series of half-arsed stunts andwell intentioned plans that have beencatastrophes to some extent or another andturned to comedic effect,” Hopewell says.”67Conference producer Alia Dann and Martin Hopewell at ILMC 13Fritz Rau is honoured with a This Is YourLife presentation at ILMC 13A “series of half-arsed stunts” it may be, butthe ILMC today is far removed from its DIYorigins. ILMC 19 was given yet anotherincrease in capacity to allow a record 880delegates in, and this year demand is evenhigher. The event now takes the majority ofthe year to plan and employs several full-timestaff and up to 70 over the conferenceweekend itself.And while some elements of the firstconference remain (such as the semicircularseating at conference sessions to create aforum involving all delegates), others havegradually found a natural home on the agenda,such as Carl Leighton-Pope’s Talking Shop,which continually draws the biggest crowd ofthe weekend, and Ed Bicknell’s Sundaymorning Breakfast Meeting.And by retaining its invite-only policy, ILMCmay not be the best known of all musicindustry conferences, but it’s widely regardedas the most important, and one attended bythe upper tier of industry figureheads.“I’ve been in the business for 35 years andI’ve never been to Midem,” says HermanSchueremans. “In order to be efficient, I needto go to ILMC every year, like the Christians goto Rome, and the Muslims go to Mecca.”“It’s part of your life all year, it’s not justsomething that happens for a few days,” saysAustralian promoter Michael Chugg. “It’sbecome part of the industry worldwide.”“If you’re in the live music business, youhave to go to the ILMC,” adds Bernard Batzenat Azimuth.If there is a criticism of the ILMC, it’s thatthe words spoken during the conferencesessions sometimes don’t materialise intoaction. “If we decide something we shouldstick to it,” says Jackie Lombard. “If they justtalk about it, then they leave the room and it’sover, what’s the point?”But while Lombard is not alone in herthinking, Hopewell points out: “It’s not anassociation in its own right, it’s a discussionand social platform. I came to see it as aprocess of osmosis so that ideas werediscussed that feed back into the industry, andeventually become common practice throughconsensus. If enough people agree with what’sbeing set and adopt those ideas, it becomesthe norm.”ILMC 13 proved too much for someThe Three Terrors at the Italian Sunday Night Dinner:Claudio Trotta, Franco Mamome & David ZardOne of Pollstar's ILMC supplements Tim Parsons and Stuart Galbraith win at ILMC 12