After a busy first day at the IMS and an evening which was definitely not short of an after-party, whether it be the IMS Legends dinner at Lio where Carl Cox celebrated being 50 years young followed by 'Carl Cox and IMS presents Intech' at Bubbles, the official IMS opening party at Pacha or Skiddle's party at Grial there were undeniably plenty of options for IMS fans to enjoy.
We arrived for the second day at IMS to a surprisingly awake and fresh looking crowd of press and delegate badge holders besides the night befores parties and here we break down the highlights of today's conferences at the Ibiza Gran Hotel.
Ibiza - The year of change
For our first conference of the day we sat in on Ibiza - The year of change moderated by Resident Advisor's Grego O'Halloran. The panel was packed with promoters, club directors, artists and managers all eager to discuss and breakdown the huge changes that 2012 has already seen. This summer will see many new nights land on the island, many of which are the brain children of DJ's themselves. Other events such as the 123 Festival are also a new addition to Ibiza and we are all wondering what that means for the future and how summer 2012 will differ from the last.
Danny Whittle (Pacha Director), Juan Arenas (Space promoter), Pino Sagliocco (Live Nation ES promoter - 123 festival), Tom Preuss (Artist A Life and Desolat manager), Valentino Barrioseta (Amnesia media) and Yann Pissenem (Ushuaia promoter) made up the board alongside Grego for the conference.
This summer there are many new events landing on the White Isle such as Marco Carola's 'Music On' night at Amnesia every Friday and Richie Hawtin's Kehakuma collaboration with 'Enter.' which will be hosted every Thursday at Space. Aside from new nights there have also been some major changes to the party calendar with Swedish House Mafia leaving Pacha and deciding not to have a weekly residency on the island and Tiësto's move from Privilege to Pacha on Monday nights.
One of the most exciting, unique and long over due events to come from the 'Year of change' is the 123 Festival and the chairman of Live Nation Spain, Pino Sagliocco discussed in great depth why it should be a welcomed change and what to expect from it. It is not everyday that Elton John meets with the world of EDM and collaborates to produce electronic remixes of some of his world famous tracks.
'I believe that on the 2nd July the world is going to see something so different in a rock star (Elton John) as they present themselves in an electronic light.'
- Pino Sagliocco
Described as a 'revolution that is always moving' by Ushuaia promoter Yann, it is obvious that Ibiza is constantly changing and embracing the progression of EDM and Pacha's Danny Whittle confirmed that 'new things have to happen or we are in trouble'. So, the introduction of new nights and big events such as Ibiza 123 Festival is not only inevitable but they are also greatly needed for the sake of EDM and clubbers alike.
Media makers club 18-30
The second conference that we have chosen to discuss was that of the young rising stars within the business and who IMS refer to as the 'Media makers'. The board consisted of five under 30 year old self made businessmen; SBTV founder Jamal Edwards, UKF founder Luke hood, The audience/ founder Luke Barnes, Isra Garcia of IG and Youth army and Yourvine creator Liam Negus-Fancey.
With the youngest chap on the panel being Luke Hood at 19 it was no surprise that social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook were mentioned as these guys are the prime audience for these networks. So, it was very interesting to hear what these teens turned entrepreneurs now thought of social media in relation to the success of their business and career.
Isra mentioned how some companies use the social networks in the wrong way just to be involved but the overall consensus of the discussion was that these platforms a great link between businesses and artists. Jamal Edwards said that the social networks have helped him get in touch with many artists and he has even employed people through Twitter... 'We should embrace social media now rather than later.' He went onto explain why the number of young business men is on the rise within the industry and that the reason they can and have had such big success, he stated that 'the reason there are a lot of young businessmen in the business now is because we are our consumer so it makes it easier to relate to our audience.'
With millions of views and subscribers between them the young businessmen went onto give a few words of advice and the recurring message from the panel was to 'stay human', 'be real' and 'understand the social platform that you are using as something that works somewhere might not somewhere else.'
IMS also offers these guys a platform to meet the older guys in the industry and they all agreed that 'part of their success is attributed to the openness of those who are more experienced in the industry' and the IMS is great at it bring the two generations together.
Roll on day 3!
