More Summit Meetings

As the outdoor festival season draws to a close, the conference season starts to rev up with three major European gatherings taking place within a week of each other.

Manchester’s three-day In The City runs October 5-7 and. The Summit opens in London October 8-9 and Popkomm opens in Berlin October 8-10.

In The City, which is at The Midland Hotel and has showcases in several Manchester venues, has announced that culture secretary Andrew Burnham MP and legendary former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham will be among the keynote speakers.

The acts playing the showcases are still being announced, but last year the 16-year-old conference and mini-festival had The Courteeners, Scouting For Girls, The Wombats and Noah And The Whale on the lineup.

The Summit, which is run by Live UK magazine and is in its second year, would have had more competition in London if it weren’t for the demise of Music Week’s Live & Direct.

Live & Direct also debuted last year but the conference, which was very closely modeled on ILMC, attracted fewer than 200 paid delegates to the one-dayer at St Mary’s Church, Marylebone.

Although the government has decided against framing laws to control the secondary market, a number of issues remain in that sector. See Tickets managing director Nick Blackburn, Seatwave MD and founder Joe Cohen, viagogo chief Eric Baker, The Ticket Factory business development manager Peter Monks and We Got Tickets MD will tackle these at The Summit’s “Golden Ticket” session October 9.

The other panel topics already finalised include “Critical Mass,” a discussion on whether the economic downturn will lead to a drop in concert attendance.

Stuart Galbraith, whose new company Kilimanjaro has had a decent first year in the festival business, will be discussing whether the U.K. market has been saturated to the point that next year will see a widespread downturn.

Other panelists for the session, which is called “Fields Of Gold,” have yet to be named. This year’s Live UK Summit is at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Portman Square.