Conference Speakers

Songwriter, Ireland.
Autumn 2012 saw the worldwide release of Irish songwriter Adrian Crowley’s sixth album, I See Three Birds Flying, a follow up to 2009’s Season of the Sparks which won the prestigious Choice Music Prize for Irish album of the year. I See Three Birds Flying was also nominated for the Meteor Choice Music Prize. his third nomination for the annual, highly prestigious award. Since recording with Steve Albini in 2001, the Malta born/ Galway raised musician released three albums on the New York label Ba Da Bing! He consequently toured extensively in the USA receiving attention from the likes of The New Yorker, Alternative Press and most notably in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine when Ryan Adams named Crowley as one of his favourite underground songwriters around at the time.

Songwriter with The City Fathers, Ireland
Carol Keogh has written and performed with a variety of bands since 1995. More recently she has blossomed as a solo songwriter with The City Fathers. In 2012 recording funds were raised through a successful crowdsourcing campaign on the Irish service FundIt.ie. Her diverse career stretches back to The Plague Monkeys, Ken McHugh’s Autamata project and the follow-up album ‘Short Stories’, including the song of a Dublin Christmas ‘Liberty Bell’, subsequently covered by the Dublin Gospel Choir. She also worked with The Tycho Brahe on the ‘This Is’ and ‘Love Life’ albums.

Dave Harrington debuted on the Irish Radio scene in December 2000, while still an Applied Science student in the Dublin Institute of Technology, landing a weekend show on East Coast FM. With drive, ambition and a love for radio, Dave soon took on the reigns of East Coast FM’s Breakfast Show, leading the show to the number one position in the region. During this time he was also promoted to the position of Assistant Programme Director. Recognising his raw talent and fresh style, fledgling Dublin youth station Spin 1038 prominently featured Dave in their daytime schedule, where he successfully drove the mid-morning show to unprecedented JNLR radio ratings success.

Seeking new challenges and experiences Dave made the move to Dublin’s Q102, taking on the role of Executive Producer of their newly launched flagship Breakfast show. In late 2008, securing the daytime afternoon slot, Dave returned to his first love – on air presenting. Since then Dave has delivered his trademark charm and charisma to legions of Dublin’s Q102 listeners and is proud to present the most listened-to show on the UTV-owned station. In addition to his radio and voiceover work, Dave shares his knowledge of the radio and media industries as a Tutor at National Media College, Dublin.

Gigstarter, Ireland
Donal co-founded Gigstarter as a crowdfunding tool for planning and funding tours. Described as the Kickstarter for gigs, the web tool is a way for concerts to be crowd funded by fans. Donal is also creative director at production company Scanarama.

One of Ireland’s most accomplished contemporary singer/songwriters.[1] McEvoy composed the song “Only A Woman’s Heart”, title track of A Woman’s Heart, the best-selling Irish album in Irish history

McEvoy’s life as a musician began at the age of four when she began playing piano. At the age of eight she took up violin. Upon finishing school she attended Trinity College, Dublin where she studied music by day and worked in pit orchestras and music clubs by night.
McEvoy graduated from Trinity with an Honors Degree in music, and spent four months busking in New York City. In 1988 she was accepted into the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra where she spent four years before leaving to concentrate on songwriting.

Reekus Records, Dublin, Ireland
Elvera Butler founded Reekus Records in 1981, while Ents Officer at UCC as a vehicle for alternative Irish music, launching the careers of bands such as Microdisney, The Blades, Aslan and Sweet Jane. Throughout her career in the music industry she has been fiercely passionate about nurturing and developing the artists on the label, and more recently has been expanding the publishing arm of Reekus, securing synchs in top international TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Wife, Ugly Betty, American Idol and Skins. In Ireland music by Reekus artists has been used frequently in shows such as RAW and Kitchen Hero.

Director, Straywave, Dublin Ireland, London, United Kingdom
Manage Straywave’s assets – digital output, content development and branded entertainment divisions. Oversaw the development of Fade St., a groundbreaking multi-platform non-scripted youth series which was Irish national broadcaster RTE’s first cross platform hit. Delivered Irish broadcasting’s first product placement funded success story Celebrity Salon for TV3. Served as Irish Exec Producer of MTV’s broadcast of Kings Of Leon live in Slane Castle Exec. Produced ‘Being Sam Holden’ for Setanta Sports Global which had ground-breaking seed funding from 888 Poker.com. Conceived and developed Style Nation’s Beauty Spot on-line show and national tour for Diageo. Conceived and developed the sold out Futurproof conference series on Social Media, Content and Mobile.

CEO & Founder @ Music Gateway
Having spent the last 26 years in music, Jon has fine tuned his business skills & signed numerous crossover records. Starting out as a DJ and opening a record shop in 1991. 70+ releases, 2 albums & 3 labels shortly followed.

With his wealth of independent experience behind him, Jon’s new venture Music Gateway is a unique global business platform www.musicgateway.net. The site has already received wide support across the industry and provides a streamlined, functional project management tool for all the creative roles during the recording process.

Kelly McErlean is the MD of National Media College, Dublin.
Founded in 2000, NMC is an award-winning college with a proven track record in developing graduate and post-graduate programmes for local and international delivery. NMC has successfully developed eLearning and on-site contracts for international broadcast organisations (Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt) on behalf of the European Broadcasting Union, Geneva.
Kelly regularly lectures on new media technologies and is an Associate Lecturer at the Bradford Whistling Woods International Film School.
He has won several awards including a Golden Spider Award and a Digital Media Award for film and photographic works. He holds a PhD in Visual Culture from National College of Art & Design, Dublin.

WholeWorldBand was founded by Kevin Godley – originally drummer, singer and songwriter of the hugely successful Art Pop band 10cc and later multi-award-winning director of music videos for artists such asU2, Bryan Adams, Paul McCartney, Blur, U2, Lou Reed and countless
other successful acts.
Kevin’s vision was of a system where artists and fans could collaborate together to create new music tracks and video mixes that could be shared and enjoyed worldwide – hence the name ‘WholeWorldBand’.

Cornernote Studio, Dalkey, co Dublin
Larry Hogan is a music industry professional with more that 25 years experience. In that time he has toured extensively as a solo and session musician playing and recording with such bands as The band, George Hamilton the third and Kila. He is currently composing and producing music for television, video games and various artists and runs the Cornernote studio in Dalkey, co Dublin . Larry also lectures at Windmill Lane, Pulse College in sound design and game audio.

There are few people in the industry who appreciate (or admit) that busking is one of the most important tools a performer can use to earn a living doing what you love. It is Nick Broad’s mission to change this, by celebrating and supporting buskers worldwide. He has filmed and interviewed buskers in 40 cities in 30 countries on 5 continents; built a quickly growing network of buskers in 250 cities in 55 countries; coordinated and co-produced busker festivals; launched a QR code service giving buskers a way of getting PayPal donations in the streets and linking their in person and online audiences; and started the first large-scale, latitudinal study into busking policy around the world.
www.thebuskingproject.com supported by Tullamore D.E.W Irish Whiskey

Ovie Etseyatse is a 21 year old filmmaker, musician and entrepreneur from Naas, County Kildare. He was born in Nigeria and lived there until the age of 12 when his family migrated to Ireland where he grew up. These two different cultures are evident in his cinematography, and give his videos a blended cultural artistic presence, being able to go from one extreme to the next.

Ovie is a self taught director, cinematographer, editor, colorist, singer, songwriter and graphic designer, and as the artist got older he sought to improve and to a greater extent perfect his skills in all these areas.

Since then Ovie has gone on to study Moving Image (Digital Cinematography) at the National Media College in Dublin, where he will begin his masters degree in October 2014, and is currently the youngest established director in Ireland. If one were to combine all the views of the videos directed by him it would boast over 2 million online hits. After a mere 3 years in the industry this youthful newcomer at the age of 21 is now a pioneer of cinematography, breathing fresh life, and artistic originality into the field. With over 50 videos in his portfolio that were 100% created by him, Ovie is now ready to take the next step in his career and build his own production company

Patrick Geoghegan is Digital Marketing & Content Manager for MUZU.TV. Patrick’s responsibilities include driving digital marketing campaigns to reach music fans throughout MUZU.TV’s major European territories. Patrick has managed unsigned initiatives along with liaising with major and indie labels on a day-to-day basis. MUZU.TV is an independent music video platform which holds the largest legal collection of music videos. The video catalogue is licensed by all major record labels Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music, independent music labels and niche music content owners. Content includes concerts, music videos, lyric videos, interviews, music documentaries and lots more. MUZU.TV also power music video solutions on 100s of sites and platforms including Microsoft Xbox, Samsung, Sony, LG and PhilipsSmart TV’s along some of the largest sites in the world including: Last.fm, The Guardian, Mail Online, The Telegraph, Bild.de, NME,Rolling Stone, Metacafe and many more. MUZU.TV generates revenue through premium advertising solutions; Artists, labels, broadcasters and all music content owners get a revenue share of the advertising revenue generated from plays of their videos on and off the site.MUZU.TV supports fair trade for music.

Rodney Orpheus was born in Ireland and started in the music business in the late 80s as lead singer of The Cassandra Complex, who rapidly became one of the leading lights of the burgeoning European electro-industrial scene. He relocated to Hamburg and became a well-known producer in Germany as well as working with legendary music software company Steinberg on the ground-breaking Virtual Studio Technology system, which has become one of the foundations of modern music technology.

Rodney moved on to work in the UK as European Pro Audio Manager for DTS Surround Sound, as well as production duties with artists such as Sisters of Mercy, Future Sound of London, LTJ Bukem, and many more. After a stint as Lecturer and Course Leader in Computer Games Design and Music Technology at Stroud College, in 2012 Rodney moved back to Ireland to work for American music technology firm PreSonus as European Marketing Manager.

He has recently taken up the position of VP of Business Development for disruptive iOS music video startup WholeWorldBand. Between all that he has found time to write two successful books and he continues to record and tour with The Cassandra Complex. He is a frequent speaker at music technology conferences around the world.

BMG Chrysalis, UK
Rupert is an English songwriter and record producer having produced albums for artists including Tina Turner, Howard Jones, Bob Geldof, Thompson Twins, Stevie Nicks, Underworld and Rush among others. He is currently a consultant with BMG and A&R adviser to youbloom.

Steve started in the music industry in 1975 while at Liverpool College of Art as a
writer and bassist with the band Deaf School. He went on to recorded three albums for Warner Bros Records with Deaf School, followed by two albums with The Planets. He entered the world of music publishing in 1985 as Professional Manager with Chappell Music in London (later Warner Chappell) and was appointed General Manager of Go! Discs Music in 1988. There Steve worked with The La’s and Norman Cook’s Beats International. He joined Island Music as General Manager in 1990 and was associated with The Beautiful South, Massive Attack, Pulp and Irish artists such as U2, The Cranberries and Gavin Friday.

In 1995 Steve branched into movie music supervision. His feature film credits to date include: Mission Impossible, Welcome to Sarajevo, Twin Town, The Debt Collector, Tara Road, How About You, The Flying Machine and Parked.

TV credits include: The Young Persons Guide To Becoming A Rock Star, Bachelor’s Walk, The Clinic. Steve Lindsey is managing director of Elevate Music, a Dublin based music publishing company. Elevate currently represents works by writers such as Cathy Davey, Aslan, Westlife, The Henry Girls, The Flaws and IFTA Award winning score composer Niall Byrne. Steve also sits on the boards of IMRO and MCPS Ireland.

Sulinna Ong started her career in the tech industry working as Online Producer for Sony Electronics, working on AIBO, the first consumer-grade AI robotics project. She then moved on to the music industry, becoming International Marketing Manager at SonyBMG in London, where she won the 2006 Best International Marketing Campaign Award from UK Music Trade publication Music Week for Il Divo’s debut album (over 6 million units sold internationally).

After SonyBMG, she moved into management of UK chart-topping act Kasabian, which led to her being asked to become Director of International Marketing & Artist Development at Live Nation Artists and being involved in one of the early “multi-rights” entertainment business models working on deals with superstar artists Madonna, Jay Z, and Roc Nation. In 2008 she set up her own management company, overseeing the careers of Fun Lovin’ Criminals and Huey Morgan, repositioning Huey into a successful career as a broadcaster. During this time she also acted as a marketing consultant for major acts such as The Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand. Since the end of 2013 Sulinna has been Head of Marketing for revolutionary new music video startup company WholeWorldBand, founded by legendary director Kevin Godley. The company recently won the BUMA Music Meets Tech Award at leading music industry conference Eurosonic for the most innovative technical advance in the industry.

Nick Kelly’s “rich robust voice and delicately woven lyrics” (Irish Times) first came to prominence when he was lead singer and songwriter with acclaimed Irish band The Fat Lady Sings. After 10 singles, many hundreds of celebratory live shows and two much-praised albums on EastWest / Atlantic, Nick split the band in 1994.

In 1997, he released his first solo album “Between Trapezes”, on his own defiantly independent Self Possessed Records label. This album, the pressing of which was funded by a direct appeal to his fans, was described by Hot Press Magazine as “album of the decade”. In 1999, Nick won the accolade of Male Solo Artist of the Year at that year’s Irish Music Critics Awards.

In 2005 Nick finally released his second solo album, and, despite the long hiatus, proved that he had not lost his ability to fuse powerful words with celestial melodies. “Running Dog” was lauded by Musician as “exquisite” and by the Evening Herald as “a poet’s soulful challenge to the senses”. “Running Dog” was subsequently nominated for “Irish Album of the Year” at the inaugural Choice Music Prize.

In recent years, Nick has also begun writing and directing films with conspicuous success. In 2008 his second short “Why The Irish Dance That Way” was one of just nine short films selected by New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for Shortfest: Outstanding Films from the International Festivals.

His third short screenplay “Shoe” won First Prize at the Vail Film Festival and Second Prize at Los Angeles’ Champion Screenwriting Competition in 2009. The finished film “Shoe”, directed by Nick, was released in September 2010 and was subsequently shortlisted for an Oscar in the Live Action Short category of the 2011 Academy Awards.

In 2011, Nick staged SEE:HEAR for the first time. Incorporating both a live musical performance and screenings of his short films, this 90 minute stage show seeks to demonstrate the many links Nick sees between his work in music and film. SEE:HEAR has been programmed by a number of leading arts venues and events across Ireland, including the Electric Picnic and the Galway Film Fleadh.

In 2012, The Fat Lady Sings reformed to play a blistering set at the Electric Picnic.

Former Choice Music Prize nominee Valerie Francis is a multi-instrumentalist singer and songwriter from Dublin. Her debut album ‘Slow Dynamo’ received much critical acclaim on its release, including Album of the Year in the Independent, while the video for her song ‘Punches’ won IMTV’s video of the year and was famously blogged by KanYe West. Having completed a M.Sc. in Trinity College Dublin, Valerie is back working on her second album. Tipped to be a significant departure from her first, it features all new and cross-genre collaborations.

Garnish School of Sound, UK
Alex is a London-based songwriter and producer. He is a classically trained pianist and has spent years analysing the theory behind hit songs. He has scored a #1 UK hit with All Saints (Black Coffee) and has worked with many other artists worldwide, selling 5 million records in the process. He is currently a tutor at the Garnish School of Sound, and a youbloom Music Awards judge.

Vince has been collecting and recording traditional Irish music for more than forty years, some of his collected works are now housed in the National Archive of the National Irish Music Organisation Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. He has produced and presented “The Blackberry Blossom” a radio programme of traditional Irish music and song on NWRFM. He has recorded and broadcast from New York and London. Currently Vince produces and presents “Cois na Tine” a programme of traditional music and song on Ocean FM. He has researched and produced three one hour recordings of the music of the travelling people grant aided by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

A singer of traditional songs he has toured and performed with the Merchant Group in Ireland, USA, Hong Kong and Australia. He has managed the Comhaltas Tour of Ireland and the Tour of Britain. He has researched and delivered papers on The History of the Irish National Anthem, The Origin and Development of Irish Traditional Music and Keening, A Celebration of Death.

Until recently Vince was the Development Officer for Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in the North West of Ireland and was instrumental in the development of branches of the organisation as far afield as Argentina and Finland.

Jeff Burns is the manager of Irish/European band Caruso and also manages Caruso’s lead singer and songwriter Shane O Fearghail solo career.

Since 2010 Jeff, being involved in the business side of Caruso,
has guided Shane and Caruso through the production and release of two albums & six singles with the third album in production, by building relationships in the industry with publishers, music supervisors , record labels and producers.

Along with Shane, they have set up Sad Opera, to sync and license Caruso Music. This in turn has, through networking, has brought other artists and genres into the Sad Opera for licensing and syncing of their music.

Jeff is a successful business man in his own right and also manages a social networking event group. He sees sync licensing as an ever growing market for musicians.