#MEX21: Speaker line-up revealed for virtual Music Exchange entertainment conference
Music Exchange #MEX21, South Africa's entertainment-economy-invested conference, returns this September for the 11th consecutive year.
#MEX21 will run virtually via the Ticketpro platform from 11 September to 2 October 2021, with a wealth of quality international and local speakers.
Some of the topics #MEX21 will unpack include our streaming reality, the platforms generating engagement (Ayoba) and driving artist’s incomes (SubmitHub), right through to the importance of heritage (MEX Chairman), the state of radio in South Africa (KFM), and just how artists are rebuilding and morphing in response to the pandemic (RJ Benjamin).
Key speakers:
The keynote speaker is Michael Smellie from Australia who will speak about the seven deadly sins of the music business.
Michael’s career in the music business spans more than 25 years. He has worked across five continents as former Global Chief Operations Officer of Sony BMG, Asia Pacific Head for BMG, and Managing Director of Polygram and rooArt in Australia. He is an investor, adviser and board member to many start-ups’ creative businesses in Australia and the United States and is currently the Board Chair of the Music Council of Australia.
Stuart Rubin, from New Zealand, speaks about the importance of the song and looking to legacy for wisdom and inspiration as well as unpacking Elvis 30 Number 1’s and Neil Diamond. At the height of his career, he was Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing for Sony BMG. Stuart’s career in music started in New Zealand in 1976 with PolyGram.
He “crossed the ditch” to Australia and held several senior marketing roles in PolyGram and BMG, before moving to Hong Kong in the 1990s where he became BMG’s VP of International Marketing for the Asia-Pacific region. In 2001 he moved to New York, becoming Senior VP International for BMG. Following the merger with SONY, three years later, Stuart was made Senior VP International of Commercial Marketing.
Gasant Abarder, the author of Hack the Grenade, columnist, and former editor of the Cape Times & Argus speaks to the Cape Town reality for artists and his take on the media landscape in both print and online.
Producer Greg Cutler, an engineer from London, will speak about regarding his relationships with Harari, Hotline and Rabbit, bands that shaped the SA sound.
MEX has welcomed and hosted the likes of composer Dr Trevor Jones, musician and producer Bryan Michael Cox the Orchard’s Ben Oldfield, Mark Murdoch, Mos Def, Tim Renner, Rachel Z, Tom Novy, Karen Zoid, Siphokazi Jonas, Christian Wright from Abbey Road, Arthur and Charles Goldstuck and Moreira Chonguica among many more, all in an impressive lead up to this year’s impressive list of confirmed speakers.
Great speakers at #mex21 going live on sat 11 sept on @TicketProSA platform - people with gravitas and decades of experience incl @GasantAbarder head of @Music_Aust michael Smellie @KFMza station head @StephenWerner publicity guru @melissaconradie and more 11 speakers 11th year pic.twitter.com/US5v0Qma3q
— Music Exchange SA (@musicexchange) September 7, 2021
The #MEX21 speaker line-up includes, but is not limited to:
Michael Smellie – Chairman of Music Australia – Australia
Jason Grishkoff – Founder SubmitHub – USA
Stephen Werner – Station Manager @ KFM – RSA
Stuart Rubin – Former Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing for Sony BMG – New Zealand
Gasant Abarder – Author, and former editor at Independent Newspapers – RSA
Greg Cutler – Producer engineer visionary proud ambassador of SA Music legacy – UK
Melissa Conradie – Music industry specialist, publicist, booker, radio plugger – RSA
RJ Benjamin – Artist – RSA
Sipho Mabuse – MEX Chairperson and Artist – RSA
More names to follow.
#MEX21 will host local entertainment industry thought-leaders and game-changers in 30-to-60-minute presentations on the https://tickets.heroticket.co.za/thero/shops/985c875 streaming platform.
Tickets cost R100 and allow #MEX21 delegates an all-access pass to the full 11-day conference, comprising a series of keynote addresses and international thought leadership sessions.
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