500 Festival And Booking Pros Set To Attend Interactive Festival Forum

Networking at IFF 2019.
Sytske Kamtra – Networking at IFF 2019.
The creative people working in this business are finding ways of continuing to do business online.

The first virtual edition of the International Festival Forum, renamed Interactive Festival Forum (iFF) for the occasion, will welcome more than 500 leading festival organizers and booking agents, Sept. 2-3. 
Organizers also expect 65 guest speakers as well as performances from 30 emerging artists during six hours of agency livestreams from Paradigm, UTA, X-ray, Primary and ITB. 
The iFF conference programme includes a keynote interview with former WME head of music Marc Geiger, in conversation with Goldman Sachs’ Lisa Yang. 
Representatives of Glastonbury, Primavera, CAA, Festival Republic, AEG, Live Nation, Paradigm, Roskilde, WME and more have confirmed their participation in the sessions, which are going to cover industry topics including ticket prices & artist fees, force majeure & refunds, virtual festivals, the lost year of artist development, corporate upheaval, sustainability, risk, insurance, and more.
“This year’s edition has the strongest line up of speakers and sessions of any IFF,” said conference co-founder Ruud Berends, adding, “And with networking and deal-making such a key focus of the new virtual format, it’s going to be an extremely productive moment for the festival business to come together.”
Co-founder Greg Parmley told Pollstar, “It’s not just that there’s more to discuss than at any other time in the history of the business, but there’s enormous enthusiasm about getting festivals back on track in 2021, and iFF has always been a key calendar date in that process.” 
Anyone still interested in signing up last-minute can do so here.