ILMC 31 Buzzing With Business

ILMC – ILMC 31
The Who front man Roger Daltrey and manager Ed Bicknell enjoying one of many laughs

For the 31st time, London became the hub of the international live music industry when ILMC took over the Royal Garden Hotel in South Kensington March 5-8.

Many ILMC regulars agreed that this year’s edition seemed to be buzzing even more than usual. Upon entering the hotel’s giant revolving doors, one was immediately greeted by an intense hubbub that never seemed to subside.

Fittingly, this year’s ILMC theme revolved around all things magical. Hence certain items  on the agenda read “Werewolfing It Down 

Lunch,” “The ILMC Gala Hou-Dinner & 25th Arthur Awards” or “Never Mind the Warlocks Karaoke.”

ILMC – Futures Forum
Dua Lipa headlined the last day of ILMC, which was dedicated to young industry professionals and people who want to set foot in the business

Maybe ILMC head Greg Parmley managed to cast some sort of spell over the 1,100 delegates. He certainly agreed that “there was a great buzz around the hotel for all four days.

“ILMC itself sold out in record time this year, and our new Futures Forum day  for younger professionals also sold out, bringing an additional 200 young executives into the conference for the final day.”

A final day that concluded with a keynote interview featuring Dua Lipa and her father Dukagjin ‘Dugi’ Lipa. The mostly young crowd in the room was hanging on their every word, as did the slightly older crowd during the second high-profile interview of ILMC 31 between Ed Bicknell and The Who frontman Roger Daltrey. This author learned that The Who guitarist Pete Townshend didn’t trash guitars and amps on stage because he wanted to destroy, but in order to create the most extreme sounds imaginable. “We were trying to create the sound of war,” Daltrey explained.

The international importance of ILMC was also recognized by Oak View Group (Pollstar’s parent company), seeing that OVG CEO Tim Leiweke took the opportunity of attending the conference to announce the team that is going to run OVG International out of its London office going forward.

The Arthur Awards, the self-proclaimed live music industry’s Oscars, celebrated its 25th edition at this year’s ILMC. CTS Eventim received the best ticketing company award for the third time in five years and also won in the Promoters’ Promoter category, where Folkert Koopmans, founder and MD of CTS Eventim subsidiary FKP Scorpio, took home the trophy.

Other winners include the Royal Albert Hall (First Venue To Come Into Your Head), British Summer Time Hyde Park (Liggers’ Favourite Festival), ITB’s Lucy Dickins (Second Least Offensive Agent), PRG (Services Above and Beyond), Live Nation’s Selina Emeny (Most Professional Professional), Mad Cool Festival in Spain (New Gig on the Block), CODA’s Claire Bewers (The People’s Assistant), Kevin Jergensen of ICM Partners (Tomorrow’s New Boss) and Cirque du Soleil (Family Show).

The Bottle Award, which is the Arthur’s lifetime achievement award, went to Bryan Grant, founder of Britannia Row.

For years now the conference has been selling out all of its 1,100 delegate passes in advance, and this one was no exception. This year’s edition in particular seemed to be bursting at the seams at times. Parmley wouldn’t reveal anything about potentially moving to another site, though. 

ILMC – ILMC 31
A packed room listenin to the opening panel

And even if ILMC did move venues in its early days, it is now hard to imagine ILMC without the Royal Garden Hotel. The hotel staff and most regular delegates know one another on a first-name basis. As ILMC founder Martin Hopewell told Pollstar last year: “They have become our friends, and they understand us. Most five-star London hotels really wouldn’t get the ILMC. They get it.”