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Federation Of Music Conferences Launched At ESNS
Six of Europe’s music conferences and talent festivals have joined forces to form the Federation of Music Conferences (FOMC). The launch will be made official during ESNS in Groningen, Netherlands, Jan. 19.
By FOMC’s own admission, “the music sector is facing a highly dynamic environment, being triggered to adapt simultaneously to different transformative processes.” To address this new environment, one of FOMC’s goals is “to strengthen the dialogue with the music sector in Europe,” and “to shape EU policies and programs in order to support the sector and to address its challenges.”
The federation receives funding from the EU’s Music Moves Europe initiative.
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The Federation’s founding members are represented by Codruta Vulcu (East European Music Conference, Romania), Robert Meijerink (ESNS, Netherlands), Dino Lupelli (Linecheck, Italy), Fernando Ladeiro-Marques (MaMA, Paris), Detlef Schwarte (Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg) and Helen Sildna (Tallinn Music Week, Estonia).
Meijerink, artistic director of ESNS, commented, “We are aware of the challenges the music sector is currently facing. With this in mind, we invite other music conferences and showcases festivals to join us. Enabling dialogue fosters improvement and innovation and the music sector like other sectors deserves awareness and consideration of its interests.”
Helen Sildna, director of Tallinn Music Week, added, “Music conferences have become an integral part of our industry calendars and it would be hard to imagine music professionals functioning without these annual gatherings. Creating a network of colleagues across Europe is a collective effort to offer an integrated platform to benefit the whole music ecosystem. Our aim is an inclusive process to host and conduct an open dialogue between industry players and policymakers on both national and EU level.”
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A four-year road map designed to foster the dialogue between the music sector and politics includes discussions at various music conferences, the first one of which will take place at Tallinn Music Week 2023, May 11-14. Additionally, the first of two EU level conferences to address policy makers and European stakeholders is planned to go down in the second half of 2023. In addition, a research report with a conceptual definition of the term “Music Ecosystem” will be supplied.
The founders of FOMC will introduce themselves during ESNS in a session on Thursday, Jan. 19.