Case Study: Music promoters take centre stage at ILMC.

Organising an event that has been running for 20 years, and whose audience has 'seen it all before', needs careful planning and a creative touch, as James Thornton discovers.

THE BRIEF - The International Live Music Conference (ILMC) is the place where concert promoters from 65 countries get together to discuss industry issues, view some of the latest live talent, and network. Last month's get-together at London's Royal Garden Hotel marked the event's 20th anniversary (and the ninth year the venue had hosted it) and so it had to impress a 'been-there, seen that' audience, according to ILMC conference producer Alia Dann. 'As time has gone on, and delegates have stayed in the business, a lot of them have got to know each other so we need to do a lot more than provide networking,' she says.

In order to best do this, Dann adds that she needed a programme combining the right mix of opportunities to discuss industry issues, alongside a social programme that would win over people …