Speakers 2019 Wednesday | Pollstar Live! 2019

Wednesday 2019 Speakers

Tuesday, February 12

Wednesday, February 13

Marcie Allen

MAC Prsents

BIO

Rosa Asciolla

Spotify

BIO

John Bollen

Mobilitie

BIO

Billy Brill

Executive and Consultant

BIO

Justin Burleigh

Ticketmaster

BIO

Lizzie Daniel

MAC Presents

BIO

Mark DiMaurizio

KOREPlanning & Insights

BIO

Michael P. Downing

Prevent Advisors

BIO

Ismail Elshareef

Ticketmaster

BIO

Arthur Fogel

Live Nation Entertainment

BIO

Kathryn Frederick

Ticketmaster

BIO

Helen Glengarry

Venues Wellington

BIO

David Goldberg

Adviser

BIO

Kevin Grove

Oak View Group

BIO

Gogi Gupta

Gupta Media

BIO

Andrew Hampp

1803 LLC

BIO

Kevin Hartz

Eventbrite

BIO

Julia Heiser

Live Nation

BIO

Waco Hoover

XLIVE

BIO

Bozoma Saint John

Endeavor

BIO

Brian Kaplan

EM.Co

BIO

Ron Kaplan

Paradigm Talent Agency

BIO

Khalid

Artist

BIO

Sandy Khaund

Ticketmaster

BIO

Paul Korzilius

Oak View Group

BIO

Kacie Lehman

MAC Presents

BIO

Jim Lewi

Red Light Ventures/Starr Hill Presents

BIO

Steve Machin

FanDragon Technologies

BIO

Shiv Madan

Blockparty

BIO

David Marcus

Ticketmaster

BIO

Corrie Christopher Martin

Paradigm Talent Agency

BIO

Michael Martin

Effect Partners and r.Cup

BIO

Pam Matthews

IEBA

BIO

Debbie McWilliams

Scottish Event Campus

BIO

Louis Messina

Messina Touring Group

BIO

Biasha Mitchell

Eventbrite

BIO

Gail Mitchell

Billboard Magazine

BIO

Annika Monari

Aventus

BIO

Jeff Nickler

OVG Arena Alliance

BIO

Andrew Parsons

Ticketmaster UK

BIO

Fabrice Sergent

Bandsintown

BIO

Kevin Shivers

WME

BIO

Max Smith

Future Beat

BIO

Stacy L. Smith

USC Annenberg

BIO

Courtney Stewart

Right Hand Co

BIO

Nancy Tarr

Well Dunn

BIO

James Taylor

Wembley Stadium

BIO

Peter Tempkins

HUB Entertainment

BIO

Dan Teree

Ticketfly

BIO

Alan Vey

Aventus

BIO

Rob Wilmshurst

SeeTickets.com

BIO

Rosa Asciolla is Spotify’s Head of North America, Artist & Label Marketing. In this role she leads the team that works directly with artists and managers supporting, empowering and educating the creative community about Spotify and how to navigate the digital landscape and its impact on the music industry.

Originally from Virginia, Rosa attended Loyola University New Orleans where, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, she worked with a non-profit assisting in rebuilding the city and reinvigorating its musical heritage. Here she cultivated a passion for music leading her on a path to Spotify.

At Spotify, Rosa works across teams to foster relationships and build feedback loops between Spotify and the artists. Through her advocacy, Rosa has advised on projects centered around putting tools in the hands of artists. Coupled with these tools, Rosa works closely with artists’ teams to guide them on optimal utilization of these tools to connect with their fans and building a greater following. Consequently she has helped mold and propel the careers of many artists.

Along with the broader Artist & Label Marketing Services team, Rosa has been integral in creating Spotify’s first artist-focused website, which established transparency around the streaming business model and allows artists to maximize their global presence to Spotify’s 180 million users.

A key player and innovator in the fast-paced and changing digital music landscape, Rosa's rapid career trajectory is an example of the contributions that young and innovative women can make in an enabling and forward-thinking environment.

John Bollen serves as Chief Digital Officer at Mobilitie and he brings over 25 years of technology experience to the position. John has worked for various start-ups in the Silicon Valley as well as for multi-national corporations such as NBC Universal/General Electric. John is responsible for creating and executing the long-term strategic plan to evolve Mobilitie’s digital capabilities across all client/customer touch points. He has substantial experience in the field of information technology, specializing in digital strategy, construction, and guest experience design. His most recent employment comes from MGM Resorts International where he worked as the Senior Vice President & Chief Digital Officer to help implement the world’s largest hospitality Wi-Fi system.

John received his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from University of California, Santa Barbara and Master of Business Administration from University of San Francisco.

Billy Brill is a highly accomplished Executive and Consultant with more than 40 years of success in the entertainment, interactive media, and casino booking industries. Leveraging extensive experience booking talent across the country and handling the crisis management issues that come with the job.

Today, Billy’s passion is working with Native American tribes and their casinos to book a wide variety of entertainment. Billy currently books Agua Caliente Casino, Thunder Valley Casino, Pala Casino and a number of other casinos around the country.

Justin Burleigh serves as the Chief Product Officer for Ticketmaster. Justin’s team focuses on building innovative products that help Ticketmaster’s clients fuel their business and service their fans. Justin is a well-known industry expert who has a long history of leading enterprise disruption. He has previously led mobile, emerging technology and security transformation strategies for some of the largest companies in the world. Additionally, he advises several cloud & mobile companies on product and roadmap direction.

Lizzie Daniel has over 17 years of sales, media, marketing and management experience orchestrating global branded content partnerships, sponsorships, experiential marketing programs and strategic digital initiatives for the world’s leading brands. Prior to joining the MAC Presents team in 2018, she served as VP of Marketing at CMA, leading a team of 10 to drive the growth of country music around the world through strategic industry initiatives. Previously, Lizzie was VP of Brand Solutions at Tinder/Match Group, Luxury Advertising Sales Director at Editorialist, and Advertising Director at Rolling Stone. Earlier in her career Lizzie held positions at Gannett, iHeart, DreamWorks Records & Universal Music Group.

Mark DiMaurizio serves as Vice President, Strategic Consulting at KPI (KOREPlanning & Insights). KPI offers strategic technology advisory services and staffing to integrate, align and maximize strategies into positive ROI tactics resulting in incremental revenue and productivity.

Prior to KPI, Mark spent 10 years at Comcast Spectacor; most recently as SVP, FanOne Marketing and also served as VP of Technology Solutions for the Wells Fargo Center hosted sports properties (Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Soul and Wings). Prior to Spectacor, Mark was also with the NBA as Director of CRM and Team Technology for six seasons where he consulted with all NBA teams on CRM, Marketing Automation, and related technologies and processes. Prior to the NBA, Mark was with Arthur Andersen Business Consulting for 5 years in their Media and Entertainment group where he consulted with such companies as the NFL, Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times, CBS, and King World Entertainment.

Michael P. Downing brings 35 years of experience to Prevent Advisors. Most recently he served as the Deputy Chief, Los Angeles Police Department and Commanding Officer, Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau where he led five operational divisions: Major Crimes, Emergency Services Divisions, Metropolitan Division, Air Support Division, and Emergency Operations Division. These divisions include the Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Section, Criminal Investigative Section, Organized Crime, Surveillance Section, Hazardous Devices Section, LAX Bomb K-9 Section, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), Mounted Unit, Dive Teams, Emergency Preparedness and Response.

He has worked with the New Scotland Yard's Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command SO 15. Deputy Chief Downing has testified before Congressional sub-committee’s relative to intelligence, homeland security, information sharing, and prison radicalization. In April 2010, Chief Downing served as a member of the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council working group on developing a national strategy for countering violent extremism.

In October 2009, Deputy Chief Downing was appointed as the Interim Police Chief for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Deputy Chief Downing is an active member of the Leadership in Counter-Terrorism (LinCT) Alumni Association, working with alumni from the FBI’s LinCT Program to develop a global enterprise of networked counter-terrorism practitioners from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Deputy Chief Downing has also worked with the Department of Justice and State Department, traveling throughout South America, Africa, Turkey, Poland, India, and Kenya to transition large national police organizations into democratic civilian policing models and overlay counter-terrorism enterprises on top of cities. His work in counter-terrorism has taken him to Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, Kenya, India, France, Afghanistan, and Iraq; all to examine smart practices and build a network of practitioners.

Deputy Chief Downing attended the University of Southern California where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration in 1982 and completed POST Command College in 1997, the FBI’s Leadership in Counter-Terrorism (LinCT) in 2008, the Post Naval Graduate Executive Program in 2009, and the Senior Management Institute for Police at Boston (SMIP PERF) in 2012. He is currently a Board Member at the George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security Institute.

Ismail Elshareef has been heading up consumer products at Ticketmaster for a bit over two years. During his tenure, the company launched the Verified Fan program, simplified the fan experience and consolidated it onto a single platform, and put the groundwork for rethinking the onsale experience. Prior to running consumer products, Ismail launched Ticketmaster’s Open Platform and Public APIs to jumpstart product innovations built on top of the Ticketmaster data. Ismail has over 15 years of executive experience in entertainment, automotive and government fields both in the US and in Europe.

Over a storied, 37-year career, Arthur Fogel has earned his reputation as a fierce ally to some of the biggest names in music, working behind the scenes to build worldwide tours that are among the most memorable and highest-grossing in history.

In June 2018, Arthur was awarded the Order of Canada, one of the highest honors of achievement given by the Canadian government.

Fogel personally oversees many of Live Nation's largest tours, connecting artists with millions of fans around the globe. In 2018 alone, he promoted Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s OTR II Tour, U2’s eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour, Justin Timberlake’s Man Of The Woods Tour, Phil Collins’ Not Dead Yet, Live! Tour, and Sting & Shaggy’s The 44/876 Tour.

Highlights from Fogel’s impressive career include:

• Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s OTR II Tour, which performed 48 shows across 15 cities in the UK & Europe, as well as 24 cities in North America. Over 2.1 million fans attended OTR II, which grossed over $256 million, a 132% increase from the original OTR Tour in 2014, making OTR II one of the highest grossing tours of 2018.

• U2’s 2018 eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour, served as a sequel to 2015's iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour. This was on the heels of U2’s 2017 Joshua Tree Tour, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the seminal album’s release. The Joshua Tree Tour’s attendance was over 2.7 million fans across 51 dates, including a record-breaking turnout in São Paulo, Brazil, with four sold out stadium shows and 280,000 attendees. The overwhelming demand made the Joshua Tree Tour the top grossing tour of 2017. Fogel also produced the band’s renowned 360° Tour, the most successful tour in history, with 7 million tickets sold and $735 million gross, in addition to the band’s successful PopMart, Elevation, and Vertigo tours.

• Beyoncé’s THE FORMATION WORLD TOUR captivated stadium audiences across the globe and was the highest grossing tour of 2016, with over 2.2 million tickets sold and over $256 million gross.

• Lady Gaga's sold out JOANNE WORLD TOUR wowed fans in 2017 and became the #5 top earning tour of 2017. Fogel has a long-standing relationship with Gaga; he also produced The Monster Ball tour (2009-2011), the highest grossing tour for a debut artist in history; the Born This Way Ball tour (2012-2013), the 2014 ArtRave: The ARTPOP Ball tour, and her 2015 tour collaboration with Tony Bennett.

• Sting’s 2017 critically acclaimed 57th & 9th World Tour sold out all tour dates in North America, Europe and South America, visited Asia and festivals throughout Europe. Fogel has promoted Sting’s tours for the past 15 years, including the celebrated Police Reunion Tour, one of the top 10 grossing tours in history, with 3.3 million tickets sold.

• Madonna’s last six world tours, including the most recent chapter of her touring career‎, Rebel Heart World Tour, and the icon’s 2008/2009 Sticky & Sweet Tour, which became the highest grossing tour in history by a solo artist, grossing over $400 million.

Other artists Fogel has promoted include Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Rush, Bette Midler, and Bruno Mars. He was also David Bowie’s tour promoter for 25 years.

His achievements have been recognized throughout the music industry with honors and awards including: awarded the Order of Canada (2018), induction to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (2017), inclusion on Billboard Power 100 list for the last six years, the TJ Martell Entertainment Visionary Award (2014), and Pollstar Promoter of the Year (2007). He was also the subject of the acclaimed documentary, Who The F**k Is Arthur Fogel – a backstage view into his career in which U2 front man, Bono, calls him “clearly the most important person in live music in the world.”

Fogel began his promoting career in 1981 with Toronto-based Concert Productions International (CPI), where he promoted artists and tours across Canada. In 1986, he was appointed President of the Concert Division at CPI, a position he held until 1995. He subsequently became President of The Next Adventure (TNA), a global touring company formed by the principals of CPI. In 1998, following the acquisition of the company by SFX, he oversaw the global touring division. In 2002, SFX was acquired by Clear Channel Communications, where Fogel ran the Global Touring division. In 2005, the l

Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick is an Executive Vice President at Ticketmaster, a division of Live Nation Entertainment, leading Growth and Insights. Under her executive leadership, Ticketmaster connects over 100 million passionate live event fans to music, theater, and sporting events through robust CRM and digital marketing programs. Kathryn has evolved the Marketing and Product organizations to enrich the fan engagement experience with best-in-class technology platforms and business-critical product insights. In her role, she serves to bring together data, technology and the magic of live events to acquire, inspire and engage fans. Prior to Ticketmaster, Kathryn held a number of senior roles leading digital transformation at brands such as Yahoo, Modern Luxury Media and Pricegrabber. She is an advisor and investor in a number of early stage consumer technology companies, and participated in the 2016 White House Summit of the United State of Women. She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. Kathryn lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two little princesses, was an avid foodie (pre-kids) and is known to partake in games of chance.

Helen Glengarry is the Head of Performances for Venues Wellington, the company who manage New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, key performance venues; TSB Arena, St James Theatre, Opera House, Michael Fowler Centre, and Shed 6.

With over 15 years’ experience in venue management within New Zealand, Helen has worked across arena, convention centre, concert halls, stadia and theatre venues.

Her experience includes overseeing more than 350 performances, and 400,000 ticket holders per year, working with national performing arts organisations, music promoters, theatrical producers, sporting and exhibition organisations.

A highlight of her career was delivering a Robbie Williams concert, with Chugg Entertainment, at Wellington’s historic cricket ground the Basin Reserve. A venue which had never been used as a live entertainment venue in its history.

David Goldberg is currently an adviser to multiple private equity firms working directly with portfolio companies in the live entertainment and ticketing space as well as opportunities in these and other verticals. Current engagements include ticketing companies in India and China.

As an operating executive David is an experienced public company and startup CEO, board member, and adviser with extensive experience in ticketing, entertainment, sports, and gaming. David previously co-led Ticketmaster as one of three members of the Office of the CEO. At Ticketmaster he handled all aspects of sales and marketing, M&A/corporate development, strategy, and international business.

Kevin Grove joined OVG in 2017 after serving as Vice President of Event Programing for Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of BB&T Center and the Florida Panthers. Grove has over 30 years of experience in the venue management, concert promotion and advertising industries.

Prior to joining Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, Grove was Vice President and Assistant General Manager for Hicks Cedar Park, parent company of Cedar Park Center (Now H-E-B Center) and the Texas Stars hockey club in the Cedar Park suburb of Austin, TX. While there, he led the event booking and marketing departments and shared business operations oversight across all departments as part of the executive management team. Grove also managed a consulting partnership with the Dallas Stars operated Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco, TX.

Prior to joining the Hicks organization, Grove worked in the advertising industry with Carol H. Williams Advertising and GlobalHue, both leaders in Multicultural Advertising. During his time with these companies, Grove directed integrated marketing campaigns, with a focus on entertainment partnerships, on behalf of major clients including General Motors and the Chrysler.

After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University, Grove began his career at Michigan based Brass Ring Productions which was among the highest grossing promoters of live entertainment in the U.S. at the time. During his 15 years at Brass Ring, he worked in a variety of roles including business operations, business development and talent buying.

Gogi Gupta is the Founder of Gupta Media, a digital marketing agency that specializes in media buying, creative design and technology solutions. Headquartered in Boston, Gupta Media proudly employs more than 50 people.

A graduate of Cornell University, Gogi started his company over 12 years ago, with the goal of creating a better way to buy ads online. As digital advertising has evolved to include mobile, video and social media, among other things, Gogi and his company have been at the forefront of maximizing advertising effectiveness for clients in a number of different industries.

In 2011, Gogi launched smartURL, a global redirect service that automatically send users to the right place based on their location and device. It has revolutionized and streamlined the process of digital marketing, particularly in the music industry, where smartURLs are frequently used by major artists to announce their new albums to the masses.

Gogi is passionate about the ability of data and technology to power solutions that make marketing more efficient and more effective. He has shared his passion and wisdom at industry events for Apple, Sony, Billboard and others.

Gogi lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife and three daughters. He is an avid sports fan, holding season tickets to the Red Sox while also remaining loyal to the Bills and the Sabres from his former hometown.

Andrew Hampp is a brand partnerships specialist, copywriter and journalist who founded consultancy 1803 LLC in 2018. Andrew currently works with clients including Variety Media, Nielsen Music, Killian & Co., War Child USA and Reset Bioscience in a wide range of capacities to help them achieve their goals with the music and advertising industries.

Prior to forming 1803 LLC, Andrew spent three years with MAC Presents as VP-Brand Strategist where he focused on helping blue-chip brands and A-list artists build industry-leading music strategies and experiences. His work on Citi’s No Kid Hungry partnership and surprise performance with Andra Day was recognized by the Clio Awards in 2016, while MAC’s sponsorship deals with Citi, Bud Light, H&M and Honda for Chance The Rapper’s Magnificent Coloring Day Festival took home a Billboard Touring Award that same year.

As a journalist, Hampp is a frequent contributor to Variety, Billboard, Pollstar and led the writing and editing of Nielsen Music’s Year In Music reports in 2017 and 2018, among other special projects. He spent four years as senior correspondent and associate news editor at Billboard, and five years at Advertising Age, including two as L.A. bureau chief. Andrew has been quoted for his expertise on the business of music by Rolling Stone, USA Today, NPR, Forbes and Adweek, among many other publications, and he has contributed columns to Vulture and Entertainment Weekly. He has also appeared as a speaker on NBC’s Today, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, CBS Sunday Evening News, CNN, Bloomberg and CNBC, among many other TV and digital news outlets.

Kevin Hartz has served as an early-stage investor and advisor to a number of transformative companies, including the likes of Airbnb, Pinterest, Skybox Imaging, Trulia and Uber. Additionally, Kevin was an early adaptor of bitcoin, making his first investment in 2013. He is an early investor in numerous crypto/blockchain hedge funds, including Pantera Capital, Scalar Capital and Polychain. Kevin is also the Chairman of Eventbrite, an innovative ticketing technology company he founded in 2006 with Renaud Visage and Julia Hartz, who is currently CEO.

Julia Heiser oversees Live Nation’s Digital Marketing team: the Digital Media Team, Live Nation’s Social Channels, Touring Promotions, Creative Production and all Ad Technology. Under Julia’s leadership the team handles the launches for over 130 tours, Festivals and Vegas Residencies. In the evolving digital media world, Julia and team must be nimble in expanding the arsenal so that the fan in all of us never misses another show. This task has grown evermore important in Live Nation’s touring business, as stakeholders expect more direct to fan access than ever before, while fans demand the most fluid connectivity to the live event experience as possible. Ad tech. Content Creation. Rallying the troops. Digital & Social Strat/ Innovation. Moving at the speed of light because the tour announce is moving up to yesterday... Whether pitching managers, agents or the creators themselves, the mission is always rooted in maintaining perpetual creativity.

Waco Hoover is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the live event and media industries across the music, sports, festival, esports, healthcare and tech sectors. A strategic and passionate leader, Mr. Hoover has been involved in numerous start-ups, capital raises, acquisitions and divestitures.

Mr. Hoover is the co-founder of XLIVE, an organization transforming the way live events, brands and festivals share expertise, learn and revolutionize experience. XLIVE convenes industry leaders at the intersection of music, sports, film, culinary, beverage, esports, technology, brands and the experiences that culminate at festivals and live events. In 2018 XLIVE was acquired by Informa, the world’s largest knowledge and events business, business intelligence, academic publishing, operating within the knowledge and information economy with over 11,000 employees.

Mr. Hoover is also a managing partner with the MichaelBass Group, an investment firm focused on live event, tech and media properties. The MBG event portfolio includes over 35 live events and media properties across tech, blockchain, healthcare, live events, esports, brand activations and festivals. Prior to his current role he was also the co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Health Technology Transformation, one of the nation’s leading organizations committed to bringing together private and public sector leaders fostering the growth and effective use of technology across the healthcare industry which was sold to the Vendome Group in 2013.

Prior to starting his professional career, Mr. Hoover served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Mr. Hoover graduated cum laude from New York University, holds a MBA from The Florida State University and completed the Harvard School of Public Health’s certificate program in Leadership Strategies for Information Technology in Health Care.

He is a board member of Irreverent Warriors, a non-profit dedicated to preventing veteran suicide. Mr. Hoover is an avid surfer, diver, skier and schedules as many mountaineering trips as possible when he’s not kicking around with his two yellow labs, Cooper and Tucker.

Bozoma (“Boz”) Saint John is Chief Marketing Officer for Endeavor, a global leader in entertainment, sports and fashion. Operating in more than 30 countries, Endeavor is the parent of a number of subsidiaries with leadership positions in their respective industries, including WME, IMG and UFC. Collectively, Endeavor specializes in talent representation and management; brand strategy, activation and licensing; media sales and distribution; and event management.

In her role, Saint John focuses on driving marketing efforts across Endeavor’s growing global network of companies, including Endeavor Global Marketing clients and premium brands.

Over the course of her career, Saint John has earned a formidable reputation as a trailblazing marketing and advertising executive. She most recently served as Chief Brand Officer for Uber, where she was tasked with telling the stories of millions of riders and driver partners across 600+ cities. Prior to Uber, Saint John served as Head of Global Consumer Marketing for Apple Music and iTunes, spearheading campaigns geared towards growing consumer brand recognition, loyalty and equity around the world. She stole the show at Apple’s keynote World Wide Developers Conference when she introduced the new interface for Apple Music. Following the presentation, Buzzfeed called her the "coolest person to ever go on stage at an Apple event.”

Before Apple, Saint John served as Head of the Music and Entertainment Marketing Group at Pepsi-Cola North America, where she drove breakthrough consumer engagement plans for brands across the soda giant’s beverages portfolio by engaging tastemaker-consumers. Prior to Pepsi, Saint John served as VP of Marketing for Ashley Stewart, a women’s fashion brand, as well as managed accounts at advertising agencies Arnold Worldwide and Spike Lee's SpikeDDB.

Over the years, Saint John has been recognized by countless organizations for her work, including: Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People; Ad Age’s 50 Most Creative People; Fortune’s Disruptors and 40 Under 40; Billboard’s Female Executive of the Year; Ebony’s 100 Most Powerful Executives; and Adweek’s Most Exciting Personalities in Advertising.

Saint John was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement in 2014, and she currently sits on their Executive Committee. She was also named a Henry Crown Fellow in the Aspen Institute in 2017, and her philanthropic efforts include serving on the Leadership Council for the United Nation’s partnership with the PVBLIC Foundation, and as a mentor for the Levo League.

Saint John was born in Middletown, CT, but spent her early childhood in Nairobi Kenya, Washington DC, and Accra Ghana, before immigrating to Colorado Springs, CO when she was 12 years old. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English and African American Studies from Wesleyan University (at which she currently sits on the President’s Advisory Council).

Brian Kaplan is a unique and distinguished executive in the music industry. He is currently Vice President at EM.Co, country star Tim McGraw’s management team. The firm is an intriguing collection of business people focused on empowering its artists and partners to make a positive social impact. The team has won a Clio Award for Best Integrated Campaign for McGraw’s massive hit song “Humble and Kind” and also launched and ran McGraw and Faith Hill’s “Soul2Soul” world tour, which became the highest-grossing country tour of 2017. Kaplan increased McGraw’s social media presence and engagement by over 800% and 5.5 Billion impressions since January 2016. The single became one of only two country songs to sell over one million copies in 2016. Kaplan also launched McGraw’s “Humble and Kind” music video in partnership with Facebook and Oprah’s Own network resulting in over 75 million views and created a physical-to-digital campaign for fans to pay it forward resulting in over 3 billion impressions and creating a fan-generated “movement” sharing acts of kindness. The campaign even helped to spawn a New York Times Best Seller book. In total, Kaplan’s oversight of the McGraw socials has lifted McGraw into the top 5 most-talked-about artists on Facebook in any style.

Kaplan began his journey through music as a teenager in New Jersey by starting a DJ business that served local events and won a New Jersey Young Entrepreneurs Award. He then worked in film production in Los Angeles and New York. He attended Rider University and Full Sail University in Florida and then returned to California. He found his way into Geffen/Interscope Records’ Universal Music Group in Santa Monica, where he was first introduced to digital marketing as part of the New Media Department. He worked on many campaigns for artists in all styles, including Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Weezer, Sigur Ros, Lifehouse, Rise Against, The Cure, and Nelly Furtado.

Nashville was Kaplan’s next destination, a music city where he could own a home and raise a family. He transferred to Universal Music Nashville, home of MCA/Mercury Records and Lost Highway records, as Digital Marketing Manager, running campaigns for artists including George Strait, Sugarland, Jamey Johnson, Gary Alan, Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, and others. He then went to The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to take over its Digital Department and assist on exhibit launches dedicated to some of the greats of country music. Kaplan subsequently went over to Sony Music Nashville and ran campaigns for Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks, Brad Paisley, Chris Young, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Jerrod Niemann, and Jake Owen.

Through all of this, Brian Kaplan never lost his fascination with music and the people who create records. He remains an enthusiastic participant in the music industry, one dedicated to both outstanding music and using music as a positive social force. His goals are perfection in execution, constant learning, big ideas that no one has ever done, and making sure everyone on his team emerges a winner.

Ron Kaplan is a senior agent at Paradigm Talent Agency. His clients include Van Morrison, Roger Daltrey, Corinne Bailey Rae, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Joss Stone, UB40 and Richard Marx.

Since 2016, Khalid has appeared on 18 songs that reached Billboard's Hot 100, including three that cracked the top 10. His debut album, 2017's American Teen, was certified double platinum, and he was nominated for five Grammys, including Best New Artist, at the 2018 Grammy Awards.

Khalid has also proven a formidable force on the road, claiming a spot on Pollstar's Year End Top 200 North American Tours with a gross of $8.9 million in 2018. His 2018 tour included a sold-out gig at New York's Radio City Music Hall, with 5,960 tickets sold for a gross of $487,441.

Sandy Khaund is VP of Blockchain Products for Ticketmaster. Sandy came to Ticketmaster as part of their acquisition of UPGRADED, a platform for event tickets using blockchain technologies, where he was Founder and CEO. Previously, Sandy was CTO at InStadium, an ad network of 450+ pro/college sports venues. Sandy was Sr. Director at Turner Broadcasting from 2011-2014, leading the Emerging Technologies office in San Francisco and serving as a founding Director of Time Warner Media Camp, a startup accelerator for tech companies in the media space. From 2008-2011, Sandy was Founder and CEO of Irynsoft, bringing collaborative video-based learning to mobile devices. Before Irynsoft, Sandy was COO at Piczo, a teen social network with over 35M accounts (acquired by Stardoll in 2009). He spent six years at Microsoft as Director of the Community Technologies Team for microsoft.com and has also held positions at Intel, the Boston Consulting Group, and Lockheed Martin.

Sandy has a BSEE & M.Eng from Cornell, a BA in Physics from Ithaca College, and an MBA from Wharton.

Paul Korzilius, a widely respected and successful senior entertainment and sports executive with 40 years’ experience in the business. Paul serves as a consultant to the Oak View Group and continues to work with Bon Jovi now for 30+ years and has been responsible for four consecutive Bon Jovi #1 worldwide tours.

Korzilius was the recipient of Billboard Magazine’s 2013 “Manager of the Year” and Billboard Touring conference of 2016 “Legends of Live” award.

Paul has toured with Queen, Cheap Trick, Billy Squier, Cher, Vandenberg, Skid Row, Scorpions, Debbie Gibson, Don Henley, Boston, among others.

Paul was the GM for the AFL Philadelphia Soul and served as Deputy Commissioner of the AFL.

Paul has served as Producer or Executive Producer on a dozen long-form music TV & DVD- Digital releases productions.

He is also the Treasurer of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation. www.jbjsoulfoundation.org

Kacie Lehman is Senior Vice President of Partnerships for MAC Presents, a leading music sponsorship and experiential agency. In her seven years with the company, Lehman has played a key role in developing global partnerships with culture’s leading brands and artists. She has been instrumental in developing many award winning brand-artists programs including; Chance The Rapper’s brand ambassadorship with H&MxKENZO; Khalid’s partnership with Forever 21; MadeInTYO’s integrated partnership with Sprite; Southwest Airlines’ “On The Rise” program with Khalid; Southwest Airlines’ “Destination Dragons” tour and campaign with Imagine Dragons and Taylor Bennett’s partnerships with Urban Outfitters, Express and Diesel, among many others.

Jim Lewi works on special projects for Red Light Ventures/Starr Hill Presents which include cannabis initiatives.

Prior to Red Light, Jim served as the President of LiveWorks and worked at CAA looking after live events. His past clients include: The HORDE Festival, Family Values, Metallica Summer Sanitarium, Grateful Dead Productions, Linkin Park Projekt Revolution, Woodstock and more. Jim has also founded three business conferences – Aspen Live Conference (music and live entertainment), Music Media Summit (partnered with the Lefsetz Letter’s Bob Lefsetz) and the Aspen High Summit (cannabis meets entertainment).

Steve Machin is a pioneer of the live entertainment & ticketing sectors. Steve speaks about technology and live entertainment at conferences worldwide such as the International Live Music Conference where he chairs the New Technology Committee. Throughout his career Steve has focussed on projects, solutions and services that use new technology to enhance how fans connect with live entertainment. Following senior corporate roles at Ticketmaster Europe and Live Nation, Steve has worked in the independent sector as an entrepreneur and co-founder of a number of businesses - ranging from data analysis of what was a nascent secondary ticketing sector, to a live event streaming company that brought the category of “Event Cinema” to the mass-market across Europe. More recently Steve has moved towards an infrastructure approach to the ticket sector. To that end, in 2012 Steve successfully applied to the internet regulator, ICANN, to operate a high-integrity domain name registry for the ticketing sector under the .tickets top level domain. In 2018 Steve has more turned his attention to blockchain and has joined FanDragon Technologies to bring his industry experience to bear on the next phase of ticketing technology.

Shiv Madan is a co-founder and CEO of Blockparty, the leading blockchain-based event ticketing platform. Shiv leads Blockparty’s business functions, including client acquisition, business development and finance. Blockparty’s platform enables ticket sellers to earn a share of secondary ticket sales, track a ticket in the primary and secondary market, and prevent fake ticket sales. It also provides a reward mechanism that enables ticket sellers to reward fans and influencers for promoting and re-selling tickets. Its technology utilizes digital identity and smart contracts that are unique to blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrency. Blockparty is backed by leading blockchain investor and former Fortress Investment Group partner Michael Novogratz.Prior to founding Blockparty, Shiv was COO at a business of Time Inc’s NME music magazine. He also co-owned and operated a 20,000+ person music festival and college tours, and was founder and CEO of a wearable data startup. Earlier he worked at eBay, Accenture and Lehman Brothers.

David Marcus is EVP, Head of Music for Ticketmaster, where he is responsible for the company’s concert ticketing division, including ArtistCo, which focuses on designing and delivering technology solutions to more than 700 touring artists and their promoters each year. ArtistCo’s products give these artists more control over ticket pricing, onsales, and ticket delivery and unlocks detailed insights into fans. Before joining Ticketmaster, Marcus was Chief Commercial Officer at ScoreBig, the country’s first name-your-own-price ticketing platform. Before ScoreBig, Marcus spent 4 years as Warner Music Group’s SVP, Worldwide Artist Services, where he developed new lines of business for the music group, including global touring, ticketing, merchandising, and e-commerce. Previously, he was SVP, Global Music at Ticketmaster, where he built and led an international team that provided sales and marketing strategy and operational support to touring musical artists. Marcus began his career as an entertainment and intellectual property attorney at O'Melveny & Myers.

As Co-Head of Music, West Coast at Paradigm Talent Agency, Corrie Christopher Martin is renowned for identifying and developing artists. Whether that be alternative rock superstars Imagine Dragons, melodic hardcore favorite Rise Against, or alt-pop/hip-hop innovator K.Flay, Corrie books artists that fans don’t just listen to, but are inspired by. Her current roster also includes Descendents, SWMRS, Sir Sly and rapid up-and-comer Donna Missal.

Corrie has developed Imagine Dragons from an unknown club act to one of the most successful global touring artists of the past decade. In addition to igniting the band's stadium rise, she launched and produced frontman Dan Reynolds’ highly successful LoveLoud Festival, which benefited LGBTQ youth in Utah and raised awareness of the state’s high teen suicide rate. Corrie advocated to see the state of Utah officially declare July 28th as LoveLoud Day. Utilizing existing partnerships, she shepherded Reynolds’ critically acclaimed documentary "Believer" from a Live Nation production deal to a Sundance Film Festival premiere and eventual sale to HBO.

On top of her success in the agency world and with LoveLoud, Corrie is a producer of Riot Fest. Held annually in Chicago, Riot Fest is one of the largest independent festivals in North America. She has been involved in reuniting influential artists such as Jawbreaker, The Original Misfits and The Replacements, to name a few.

Corrie has been included four times on Billboard’s "Women in Music" list, and was nominated for Agent of the Year at the 2017 IEBA conference.

She also serves as a mentor within her team at Paradigm, encouraging young agents to work hard for the artists they believe in. Corrie launched the DAII (Diversity and Inclusion Initiative) Team at Paradigm, ensuring a safe, healthy, and inclusive work environment for all employees.

Michael Martin — a recovering Wall Street Investment Banker — is the Founder and CEO of Effect Partners and r.Cup. He has been an innovator in sustainability and social change marketing almost 30 years, starting with the non-profit, Concerts for the Environment. Michael developed the first-ever, national global warming campaign and produced multiple Earth Day events on the National Mall. He introduced many of the greening practices currently being used in the music industry today. He has worked with over 200 of the music industry’s leading artists including Jack Johnson, U2, Dave Matthews Band, and Mumford & Sons. He has developed sustainability & marketing strategies for brands including Apple, Toyota, UPS, Target, Clif Bar and Live Nation.

Effect Partners is a social change enterprise, inspiring impactful business solutions powered by music, art and culture. His latest venture, r.Cup, disrupts the wasteful single-use plastic cup at live events. r.Cup reduces the environmental impact of live events with a reusable, recyclable, rental cup program.

Pam Matthews is the Executive Director of IEBA. Matthews began her career in the entertainment business at age fifteen as a runner for Mid South Concerts in Memphis. Today, she serves the industry as director of one of its most influential trade associations.

Matthews toured as an accountant for KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, and Judas Priest in the early 80s and was part of the Pace Concerts team that designed, constructed, and managed Starwood Amphitheatre in Nashville. In 1988, Matthews began her twelve-year tenure with The Judds which included the 1991 farewell tour, New Year’s Eve 1999, and a 2000 reunion tour. Matthews was named General Manager of Ryman Auditorium in 2000. During her seven years managing the historic venue, the Ryman received its National Historic Landmark status and rose to prominence as one of the top-grossing theaters in the world. Matthews was named IEBA’s Executive Director in 2013. The 49-year old organization has more doubled its membership under Matthews’s leadership, and its annual conference is a must-attend for the concert industry.

Matthews attended Christ Church College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. She passed the uniform Certified Public Accountants exam in 1989. Billboard ranked Matthews among its “Top Women in Music.” Nashville Business Journal honored Matthews with a “Women in Music City” award that recognizes women who are making an impact in Nashville’s music industry. Matthews has served on the Board of Directors of the Opry Trust Fund, Nashville Downtown Partnership, Leadership Music, Americana Music Association, and on the Music City Music Council’s Leadership Forum.

Debbie McWilliams is Head of Live Entertainment at the Scottish Event Campus. She played a key role in team who delivered the iconic SEC Armadillo and SSE Hydro to Glasgow. She is responsible for the overall management, event booking and content creation for all consumer concerts and live events that take place in Scotland’s largest event campus.

Debbie is Chairperson for the National Arenas Association’s Sales & Marketing Symposium, Vice Chair for the charity Women of Influence in support of Action for Children in Scotland and sits on the committee for the Scottish Music Awards in support of Nordoff Robins Music therapy in Scotland, (The SSE Hydro’s charity partner).

Louis Messina promotes the tours of heavy-hitters such as Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Shawn Mendes, Ed Sheeran, Blake Shelton, George Strait, and Taylor Swift. Over his fifty year career he has worked with acts like the Dixie Chicks, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica. He is known for special events such as Strait’s final sellout show at ATT Stadium The Cowboy Rides Away with over 104,000 tickets sold and Swift’s record-breaking sold out concerts at the Staples Center during her 1989 World Tour.

In 1975 Messina co-founded PACE Concerts in Houston. As the company evolved from PACE Concerts to SFX on to Clear Channel Entertainment, Messina established himself as one of the country’s preeminent promoters. In 2001 he started his own company and began his partnership with AEG Live.

He has received numerous “Promoter of the Year” awards and has been listed as one of Billboard Magazine’s Power 100 and Billboard's Nashville Top 50 Power Players.

Biasha leads Eventbrite’s global music strategy. She combines a deep understanding of Eventbrite’s global music business, built over the past seven years at the company, with more than 20 years working in the music industry at large. She is responsible for identifying global market opportunities, evaluating product-market fit, and driving international expansion of Eventbrite Music. Previously, she managed key strategic initiatives at Eventbrite, including the development and initial launch of Eventbrite’s music solution.

Her passion for working with live music started as a teenager, where she worked in the production office for Bill Graham Presents and later behind the scenes at a number of well-known venues such as the Shoreline Amphitheatre, the Greek Theater in Berkeley and the historic Fillmore as a touring runner for bands that visited the Bay Area. She went on to work with some of the largest and most complex music festivals in the United States, including Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Music Festival, Stagecoach Music Festival, Rothbury Music Festival (now Electric Forest Festival) and Wanderlust Music & Yoga Festivals.

Gail Mitchell serves as Billboard’s senior correspondent covering R&B/hip-hop and other genres in addition to reporting on music industry business news for the magazine and online. Mitchell has moderated panels and Q&A’s for industry organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, the Recording Academy, the Grammy Museum and the Revolt Music Conference. She has also represented Billboard in stories and broadcast interviews for various media outlets including CNN Entertainment, CNN.com, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, NBC’s Today Show, CBS This Morning, CBS News Radio, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, USA Today, E! True Hollywood Story, E! News, TV Guide Network, MSNBC, CNBC, ABCnews.com, BET, PBS, Centric, TV One, A&E, Extra, Reelz, BBC Television and Japan’s WOWOW TV. Mitchell holds a bachelor's degree in communications from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She also serves on the board of LMU’s African-American Alumni Association (AAAA) as well as on the editorial advisory board for the university’s alumni publication, LMU. Mitchell is the 2014 recipient of the Living Legends Foundation’s Media Award and the 2013 recipient of LMU/AAAA’s William L. Strickland ’71 Excellence Award. Her music industry service also includes two terms as a national trustee representing the Los Angeles Chapter of the Recording Academy.

Annika Monari is a co-founder of Aventus, a blockchain-based solution built to prevent ticketing issues like fraud, unregulated touting, counterfeit tickets and scalping at events. Before developing an interest in blockchain and cryptography Annika was involved with experimental particle physics, investigating Higgs Boson Particle decays to dark matter using machine learning in partnership with CERN and gaining experience at the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory before completing a Masters Degree in Physics at Imperial College London. Having co-founded Aventus in 2016 Annika and co-founder Alan Vey launched the alpha version of Aventus on the Ethereum test network, established the Aventus Protocol Foundation to develop and market the open-source Aventus protocol, and led the most successful public ticketing Token Generation Event (TGE) that attracted over 1,300 participants and generated over $15M at the time. The Aventus Protocol was made available on the Ethereum network in April 2018.

Jeff Nickler serves as Senior Vice President of Oak View Group’s Arena Alliance, a group of 28 major market arenas that gain collective leverage through buying, selling, booking, and thinking together. Based in the Los Angeles office for OVG, Nickler’s primary role is to act as an advocate, resource, and partner for the alliance venues and to facilitate incremental revenue for them through new global partnerships and content.

Prior to working for OVG, Nickler was General Manager of BOK Center, a 19,199-seat concert venue in Tulsa, OK. During his tenure in Oklahoma, he booked nearly $300 million in concert business and developed a portfolio of owned and operated special events that attracted 250,000 additional fans to the facility annually. BOK Center was nominated 10 times for “Arena of the Year” by Pollstar, the International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA), and the Academy of Country Music.

Nickler began his venue management career as a Premium Sales Manager with SMG and subsequently was promoted to Special Events Manager, Director of Booking, and Assistant General Manager before being named General Manager. Prior to working for SMG, Nickler worked for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in Miami, FL.

Andrew Parsons is the Managing Director for Ticketmaster UK. In this role, he has responsibility for the strategy and day-to-day operation of Ticketmaster in the UK and is responsible for a staff of more than 500 based across offices in London, Manchester and Glasgow.

Andrew has been part of the Ticketmaster business for nearly 20 years gaining unparalleled insight into the ticketing business with a variety of roles, initially working in customer service during college. After joining Ticketmaster full time, Andrew rose through the ranks of account management into business development, latterly heading up the UK sales team. Before becoming Managing Director, Andrew was the business’ Vice President, Music & Comedy looking after all aspects of clients’ ticketing strategies.

Based out of New York, Fabrice Sergent is a tech entrepreneur with experiences in the music and digital media industries. He has spent 10 years in Europe and equal time in the US, leading 2 start-ups from inception to $100m+ in revenues. Fabrice is also a director of the Mobile Giving Foundation since 2009, serving 800 charities in the US and Canada. Sergent launched his first start-up as Founder and CEO of Club-Internet, one of the very first French consumer Internet Service Provider (ISP). Club-Internet was sold to Deutsche Telekom’s T-Online for €1.2 billion in 2000 with close to one million subscribers when he left the company. He has spoken at prominent music and tech events including Pollstar Touring Conference, Midem, REVOLT Music Conference, DLD, MWC’s 4YFN and the Glimpse Social Discovery Conference. In 2018, Fast Company chose Fabrice as one of their top 100 most creative people in business.

Kevin Shivers is a partner in WME’s Music division, representing leading artists in the hip-hop and urban genre, in addition to athletes and podcasts. His roster includes Brockhampton, Jimmy Butler, Kid Cudi, Pod Save America, Solange and Tyler The Creator.

Shivers joined the William Morris Agency mailroom in 2008, and transitioned to WME following the agency’s merger with Endeavor in 2009.

A graduate of the University of Texas, Shivers currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Outside of the office; he is on the board for the charity Seeds of Africa and The University of Texas at Austin Moody College of Communication’s advisory board.

Max Smith has produced VIP programs for over 4 years for acts such as Post Malone, Future, Migos, 21 Savage, A$AP Rocky, and more. Prior to his time with Future Beat, he managed and produced private and corporate events in Washington, DC and has been involved in booking and talent management throughout the past decade, ultimately putting his full focus toward VIP activations for artists touring both domestically and internationally.

Stacy L. Smith, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at USC Annenberg and the Founder and Director of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (AII), the leading think tank globally studying issues of inequality in entertainment. AII research focuses on inclusion in film, television, digital media, critical reviewers, and all facets of the music industry. Dr. Smith has written over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and reports on media content patterns and effects. Her research examines inclusion in a yearly analysis of top-grossing films (on screen, behind the camera, executive ranks, critics) and in popular music (artists, songwriters, producers). Dr. Smith speaks routinely on issues of inequality. She has given a TED Talk and spoken at the United Nations, the White House, Sundance Film Festival, Promax and LUNAFEST. Dr. Smith’s work was the basis for the EPiX docuseries, 4%: Film’s Gender Problem and she appears in the documentary Half the Picture.

Dr. Smith is the intellectual heft behind the content based research of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (2005-2014) and the qualitative and quantitative research sponsored by the Sundance Institute and Women in Film (2012-2015). Her work has set the national conversation on employment practices on screen and behind the camera in film. Dr. Smith’s research was cited in the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) letter petitioning the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate exclusionary hiring practices behind the camera in film. Senator Barbara Boxer also cited Dr. Smith’s work in an open letter that asked entertainment executives to account for their poor track record hiring female directors. In terms of the popular press, Dr. Smith’s research has been written about in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, fivethirtyeight.com, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Newsweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Wired, and USA Today, to name a few. She has a co-edited essay in Maria Shriver’s book, A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything (2009). In addition to research, Dr. Smith shares solutions on inequality built on research and practices from academia, law, and organizational communication. She introduced the idea of the Inclusion Rider to the entertainment industry via her 2016 TED talk and a 2014 opinion piece in The Hollywood Reporter. With Kalpana Kotagal and Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, she developed and disseminated contract language to interested actors, directors, and other industry stakeholders. In 2015, LA Weekly named Dr. Smith the most influential person in Los Angeles. She also appeared on Billboard’s 2018 Women in Music List.

As founder of Right Hand Co, The Right Hand Foundation, and co-founder of Keep Cool Records, Courtney Stewart leverages a 360-degree approach to all his aspects of his business and philanthropy.

By sharing a similar spirit and vision to his clients and the causes he supports, the artist manager, record label executive, and humanitarian maximizes every opportunity for success from all angles. This ability to align with artists and collaborate closely not only fostered the breakout of five-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated superstar Khalid, but it also cemented Mr. Stewart among the industry’s future leaders recognized on Billboard’s prestigious “40 Under 40” and Variety’s 2018 “Hitmakers” list.

“Success comes from sharing a common vision and goal,” he explains. “When I align with a client or a charity, we’ve got to be in sync and share the same passion and drive. When those two things come together, greatness is inevitable.”

Nancy Tarr is the Executive Director of Well Dunn (a music nonprofit that connects companies and college students (with financial need) with sponsored and paid internships in the music and entertainment industry) and an adjunct lecturer at SUNY Oneonta in the Music Industry department. She worked on over 50 films at Paramount Pictures and was the Music Coordinator on the movie "8 Mile." She also worked at RCA and Arista Records before becoming the Manager of Artist Relations and Government Affairs with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Nancy set out on her own and has been working as an Event Manager and Rights and Artist Manager with Tarr Music Co. Nancy is also a singer/songwriter, has performed in off Broadway shows and was recently seen in the Glimmerglass Festival's production of The Music Man and toured to the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. Nancy's band Dead Girls and Other Stories were featured performers at both the Lilith Fair and the H.O.R.D.E. Festival.

As Senior Commercial Manager of Wembley Stadium, The UK’s largest stadium, James Taylor is responsible for securing all sport and music content negotiating all commercial terms. James is the main relationship holder between the venue and promoters. Wembley Stadium is set for a record breaking Summer in 2019 with 14 concerts scheduled over 6 weekends.

Before working at Wembley Stadium James was responsible for managing a £70m sports CSR programme for Barclays Bank activating their sponsorship of the Premier League.

Peter Tempkins has over 30 years of experience in providing insurance placement and risk management services for all aspects of the music industry, namely concert tours, festivals, venues, promoters, clubs and music industry vendors. His festival clients include The Warped Tour, Outside Lands and Forecastle Music Festival and he is the broker of choice for notable bands including AC/DC, Metallica, and Arcade Fire and works with promoters such as AC Entertainment and Square Peg Concerts.

Peter has spoken on panels and roundtables for Billboard, New York State Bar Association, CLE, IAAM, Performance magazine, Pollstar and Tour Link. He is a results-oriented professional who combines his experience, insurance savvy and client focus to develop world-class insurance solutions. Performance magazine has recognized him as “Insurance Agent of the Year” seven times.

Dan Teree is a world-class entrepreneur and ticketing industry veteran. Most recently, Dan was Co-Founder and President of Ticketfly where he oversaw business development, product, engineering, operations and customer success. Dan was instrumental in building Ticketfly into a major player in the North American ticketing industry. Pandora acquired Ticketfly for $450 million in 20151 in what remains the largest exit in the global ticketing industry. Ticketmaster VP for nearly a decade. M.B.A., Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. B.A., Colgate University.

Alan Vey is a co-founder of Aventus, a fair, secure, and transparent blockchain-based solution for event ticketing that can eliminate fraud and unregulated touting. Prior to founding Aventus, Alan worked at the Deloitte Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, before going on to complete a Masters Degree in Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London. His thesis focused on film rights distribution, working with Bafta and the BBC. Fast-forward to September 2017 and Alan together with co-founder Annika Monari had released the alpha version of Aventus to a test network, established the Aventus Protocol Foundation to develop and market the open-source Aventus protocol, and led the most successful public ticketing Token Generation Event (TGE) that attracted over 1,300 participants and generated over $15M at the time. The Aventus Protocol was made available on the Ethereum network in April 2018.

Rob Wilmshurst started his career in a record shop in Nottingham, UK, 27 years ago from which he co-founded the Way Ahead Group that now trades as SeeTickets.com across multiple territories. Within the group we also have Digitick in France and Paylogic in Holland. The business operates across Music, Festivals, Lifestyle, Comedy, Sport and Theatre. They count Glastonbury, Tomorrowlands, SJM Concerts as top clients.
The business is owned by Vivendi SA and €26Billion Media and Content business which includes Universal Music, Havas, Studio Canal, Vivendi Village and Daily Motion amongst other strategic assets.

Bruce Eskowitz is COO of Red Light Management. RLM is a multifaceted, privately owned artist management company. Red Light has offices in Los Angeles, London, New York, Nashville, Atlanta and Charlottesville. In addition to overseeing all of RLM’s management activities, Bruce manages artists including Lionel Richie, Il Divo, Icona Pop and Mat Franco.

Prior to joining Red Light, Bruce was CEO of North America for Live Nation. Prior to that he was President of Live Nation. He also held various senior level positions with Clear Channel Entertainment, SFX and Pace Entertainment.

10th Street Entertainment President Chris Nilsson has a BA in Economics from Colorado College and an MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business. He is a 20 year veteran of the music business, having begun managing singer-songwriters in the LA Hotel Cafe scene in the early 2000s. Chris has spent the past 12 years under industry titan Allen Kovac’s tutelage where he has been the primary manager for rock icons Mötley Crüe and their founder/bassist/songwriter Nikki Sixx. Over the years, Chris has been instrumental in cultivating and growing acts like Five Finger Death Punch, Breaking Benjamin, Sixx:A.M., Bad Wolves, Papa Roach and In Flames. He enjoys reading the novels of Haruki Murakami, takes Japanese lessons once per week, studies the Spanish guitar, is married to Elizabeth Stahl and has two dogs.