The second edition of Wallifornia Music Tech sets the Ardentes festival on fire (ENG)
The second edition of Wallifornia MusicTech closed its doors with the pride to have achieved its goals: increase the content quality and its number of international participants. On one side, the famous festival of urban music Les Ardentes settled in Liège, Belgium, announced its opening sold out. On the other, the professional convention, Wallifornia MusicTech succeeds in its bet: to offer activities worthy of the greatest events of the field (Hackathons, pitch sessions, conferences, Investor Summit etc.)
The acceleration program organized by the investment fund LeanSquare and Universal Music Group kicked-off the convention two weeks before the Ardentes festival launch. More than 80 applications have been received and 10 start-ups have been selected. Fifty international experts and mentors (Universal, Abbey Road, etc.) have advised those start-ups in their projects and perspectives.
30 international VC’s and have discussed of the future of music industry and its investment with specialists such as Benji Rogers (dotBlockchain Media / Pledge Music), Richard James Burgess (A2IM), Trond Tornes (Phonophile), Pieter Van Rijn (FUGA) or Franz Schuller, Indica Records founder and Grimskunk member.
This year, our conferences have been marked by the keynote of Dave Allen, musician and member of the band Gang Of Four and music tech iconic actor (North Music founder, ex eMusic.com, Apple Music, Beats By Dre etc). Allen’s lecture looked at the success keys of music tech innovations but also at the sustainable models of a music business in permanent evolution.
The corrosive and visionary talk of Ted Cohen, founder of the production company The Orchard has also piqued the curiosity of an audience enthusiast and alert.
The second Wallifornia Mustictech in figures:
- 20 keynotes and panels held;
- 750 convention attendees;
- More than 45 international speakers;
- 300 professionals attended the 4 days;
- 30 start-ups came to showcase their projects on our« Start-up Garden » (open to the public);
- More than 3.000 people came to discover the latest music tech.
The laureates of our pitch session (assessed by or speakers) are: Tonik, MusicTraveler, Soundsgood, Soonvibes. Bravo to them!
Our Hackathons, welcomed 80 hackers from 5 different countries. The goal of this « 24 hours coding people » was to generate solutions in order to face the biggest challenges of the current industry (Universal Music, Amazon).
We also want to thank, the facilitators Luan William et Travis Laurendine (organisers du Hackathon du SXSW) and the jury present to evaluates the projects Bill Gagnon, Jose Rodriguez Amazon, Helene Steer (CEO do it kit), Marc Minkman (Paradiso).
We convey our congratulations to the winner of the Hackathon, Sonarsic, start-up orientated in data visualisation of the consumption of recorded and live music.
The Wallifornia Music Tech team wants to thanks especially its beloved audience, speakers, start-ups, partners, (PROXIMUS, ING, AWEx, Province de Liège et Digital Wallonia), media presents and of course the 20 hard worker that made this second edition happen.
