Event News
Which aspects in particular of the Scottish scene do you think are doing really well?
DM — Scotland is absolutely thriving when it comes to electronic music with promoters like Terminal V, Riverside Festival, FLY and Colours to name a few putting on absolutely huge events in Edinburgh, the list of sizable and well attended events is endless in Scotland just now and we need to add to this with education and to give people a better understanding of the industry. We feel that we can complement the scene by introducing a substantial conference that the country can be proud of for years to come.
MD — The after’s, it’s all about the after’s!
In all seriousness when we done our homework we discovered that Scotland currently has one of the fastest growing scenes in the world for electronic music and this is largely down to promoters such as Terminal V, Colours & Fly with their incredible events, and long may it continue!
Conversely, which aspects need more work? Are these addressed at SEMCON?
DM — For us we feel we need to bring everybody in the scene together which is another reason why we have introduced SEMCON, there are so many different genres, promoters, producers and DJs over the country and we feel we can give them the vehicle to network properly and get more out of the industry that we all love, we are also big advocates of equality and diversity so we will be discussing this at length also.
MD — We feel that more work needs to go into education, equality, diversity and opportunities to compliment our thriving scene and help drive it forward.
There’s a plethora of talent in Scotland that we know if given the tools and knowledge they can go on and bolster an already impressive scene.
Tell us about some of the key speakers you have and what they will bring?
DM — Without giving too much away we have such a great range of speakers from Defected discussing their last 20 years in the industry with MD Wez Saunders leading a team from HQ, We have some Scottish legends speaking about the history of electronic music in Scotland, In the Record Bag with some of the industries very top DJs and we have all the industry leading brands like Beatport, Soundcloud, Pioneer DJ, Denon DJ, Anjunabeats, Void Acoustics to name a few on stage discussing a wide variety of current subjects.
And which brands are doing demos? What skills can people expect to leave SEMCON with?
DM — We have Pioneer DJ demonstrating the brand new DJM-V10, Denon DJ, Akai Professional, Beatport and Cubase all showcasing new products in the masterclass suite as well as new DJ website brand Vibecast which we are quite excited about. Point Blank Music School will host their own room proving a full 2-day crash course on what they do best and it doesn’t get much better than that.
How important is involving the local scene and brands, DJs and producers? How have you done that?
DM — This was very important to us as we really want to stick to our roots whilst also offering access to the worldwide brands and artists. We have a wide range of Scottish speakers, artists and brands including legends like Graeme Park, Mallorca Lee and Jon Mancini through to relative newcomers Hannah Laing and Mark MacKenzie who are earlier on in their career. We have local lads from Skapade Studios hosting a beginner’s course to Production and Djing and our official after party hosts are Sub Club so we feel we have really connected with the local scene and the response dealing with everybody has been really, really positive.
MD — It’s hugely important to involve the local scene as these guys are the bread and butter. The local events are often the first places that young clubbers experience and go on to have a massive influence on how that individual and their friends would like to spend their nights out. If the local scene is buzzing then this only fuels the wider scene to ensure that their events also reach the expectations of the clubbers.
We have included a few of the people we see contributing enormously to the local scene in a number of ways and have them lined up on various panels and workshops throughout the conference and they may even make an appearance at the after parties!
www.semconference.co.uk Derek Mcnee
Mikey Duncan
in association with
www.venue-insight.com
March 2020
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