Industry news & advice blog

With one of the UK’s leading music industry conventions drawing closer by the day, we caught up with a crucial member of the In The City team, Kevin Moore. He gives us the lowdown about his role, what goes on behind the scenes, and one of In The City’s most exciting developments – The Hive.

What is your role at In The City?
I’m the panel coordinator for the conference. I work with a small team to book all the keynotes and speakers and make sure the topics discussed are as cutting edge, innovative and relevant to the music industry as possible.

How did you become involved with ITC?
I started out at In The City as an intern for the 2009 festival. I was helping out on the conference side of the event and had responsibility for a couple of panels. Luckily for me (and for him I suppose) my old boss moved to LA in January 2010 and I somehow managed to blag my way into taking over his job!

So, give us an insight into a typical working day for you
This close to the event a typical day usually involves a lot of phone calls and emails to the panellists we’ve got coming down to speak at the event. There is a lot of liasing to be done with the event manager at this stage too, determining the logistics of everything we’ve got going on. I always make time to read the music press of the day too. Other than that it’s a lot of tea drinking and listening to some of the best new music in the world!

What tasks and responsibilities do you have?
My main responsibility is to ensure we have a conference schedule that fits well with the industry. We need to have the right discussions taking place at the right time with the relevant people on board taking part in the conversation. 

One of this year's major developments to In The City is the introduction of ITC Hive. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
I’m very excited about The Hive! This is our brand new educational arm targeting grass roots and entry level young people looking to make headway in to the music industry. It will consist of panel discussions, workshops, masterclasses and networking events covering all aspects of the industry from music management to deconstructing the media, music publishing to producing and mastering a track.

It will be similar to the main In The City Conference, however everything will be relevant and more focused towards people starting out in their industry careers. On top of that, anyone who buys a Hive pass has access to all gigs across the whole three days of the festival!

What is the motivation behind this new aspect to the conference?
The motivation behind The Hive is to bring as many creative and enthusiastic young minds together as possible. In The City has always strived to educate and inspire all who attend, however I felt we weren’t doing our younger delegates justice. The future success of our industry will come from these guys and I didn’t think the main In The City Conference was the right platform for them…too much can be swept up in the furore. The Hive allows for these new, innovative ideas to be concentrated together and given the full attention they deserve…I feel we can make more happen that way. 

Share with us the bands playing at this year’s ITC that you're particularly looking forward to

There are LOADS of great bands on the bill this year. Crystal Fighters, No Age, Mz Bratt, HEALTH, Lady Chann, Monarchy, Egyptian Hip-Hop…that’s even before we look at the ITC Unsigned line-up that includes great new bands like D/R/U/G/S, Chad Valley, Labyrinth Ear and Brown Brogues.

All In The City tickets can be bought from the website, detailed below. That’s for The Hive, festival wristbands and full delegate passes.

www.inthecity.co.uk