Pollstar Live! 2010

The inaugural Pollstar Live! conference will debut February 16-17 at the brand new JW Marriott Hotel at L.A. Live.

This event is the successor to the highly successful Concert Industry Consortium’s annual gatherings that have been the industry’s marquee events since 1995.

Pollstar Live! has been designed to maximize the use of attendees’ time with a compact schedule at an affordable price that reflects today’s economic reality.

MORE INFO, INCLUDING REGISTRATION, IS AVAILABLE AT www.pollstarpro.com/live2010.

A SuperSaver advance registration rate of $499 – $200 less than CIC 2009 – is available until Nov. 1. All registrations include admission to all panel sessions, the Opening Reception, a Wednesday buffet lunch, and a ticket to the 21st Annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards, which will take place Feb. 17 at the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live.

The JW Marriott at L.A. Live, the newest luxury hotel in Southern California, will be the headquarters for Pollstar Live! The conference will take over the entire hotel and with more than 800 rooms, everyone who acts promptly should have no problem getting a room.

And here is the best part: All of the hotel’s deluxe rooms are priced at the recession-busting rate of only $169 per night. This rate, which is virtually unheard of for a four- or five-star hotel in Los Angeles, is available only to delegates registered for the conference and who reserve their rooms through the event Web site.

The program for Pollstar Live! will emphasize the need to focus on improving the fan experience as a way of growing audiences. Any industry that takes its customers for granted does so at its peril.

Live music continues to be an important part of people’s lives but it would be foolhardy to think that certain industry practices are not steadily alienating more and more fans without affecting our future business. The goal of Pollstar Live! is to not only shed light on some of these practices but to work toward developing an industry consensus that change is needed.

After 14 years of bringing the industry together, the CIC partnership has been dissolved because of the seismic changes that have occurred since its inception. When it was first formed, the CIC truly represented a broad coalition of the concert industry’s major promoters, agents, managers and venue operators.

Of the 35 original CIC partners, however, only a handful is still active under the same business entity as in 1995. Eight principals have retired, three are deceased and many others have been absorbed by companies in the course of the industry’s decade of consolidation.

We expect to see newcomers and many of the same faces as in past events as we take a fresh look at the future. A number of large companies and organizations will also take advantage of this global gathering to have their own private meetings in the days surrounding Pollstar Live!