The Amsterdam Dance Event together with the Live Dance Music Conference achieved something that many of other music conventions this year had hoped for. Unlike the big players like Midem or Popkomm, ADE & LDMC bucked the downward trend, the specialized business congress maintained their visitor figures and may even have lured even more attendants to Amsterdam this year.
While the 1300 registrants is a better result than expected, a spokesman for the event explained to Vip News that particularly the number of walk up registrants was a surprise. Also new registrants and companies were attracted to the event, making up almost 40 % of the total attendance. The spokesman explained that, in the past, medium and bigger companies used to come to the event with 4 to 5 people, it is now the case that those companies show up with only 1 or 2 delegates. However, the overall figure of 1300 delegates is, considering the current market situation for dance music, an extremely good result.

Probably one of the most interesting innovations by the organisers was the set up of the LDMC as an integral part of ADE. Within this framework LDMC referred to issues of concern for the dance live music business and set up several ‘meet and greet’ opportunities. As in other genres, record sales are declining, and this has caused a certain regressive development for live business. Whilst venues on the club circuit have suffered losses, most of the dance festivals have been doing pretty well this year.
One of the main features of ADE & LDMC was the way the organizers set about encouraging business transaction and stimulating the atmosphere of the events. Besides a well-set agenda for the concert and live program, two large business lounges provided listening stations on every table. During the day most of the these places were in use introducing new products to potential customers.

While the business lounges took on comparisons with dealing in the stock markets, there were other opportunities such as several cocktail & champagne receptions, a business dinner in the Paradiso on Friday night and the Players Lunch on Saturday in the conference building that provided a very pleasant atmosphere for socializing and making new contacts. The spirit of the ancient Felix Meritis building as location for the conference plus very solid organisation and production completed the impression that participants were taking part in a very successful edition of a music convention.

Another factor was the various issues raised at the conference program. Whilst some convention’s panels are overloaded with so called heavy weights representing the big hitters, ADE is different. Well balanced and not confined to topics that have been done to death for a decade or so by now, the ADE conference program focussed on business variations, export matters, and issues for the future. The mixture of young and experienced entrepreneurs on most of the panels resulted in active audience participation; this is something often missing from music conferences. Panels like ‘Football Versus Dance’, ‘What Can We Learn from the Rock Community’ or ‘Shake Ya Booty’ lured attendants into the panel rooms and provided as well as serious information, entertainment and even music. For instance while on the ‘Shake Ya Booty’- Panel, champagne was served, DJ Godfather, one of the panellists played a set of what is hot in Detroit before and after the panel. Also Kurt Thielen, former managing director of Zomba Germany and panellist on ‘Football Versus Dance’- told Vip News, that he was absolutely delighted that for the first time ever, he was able to wear the colours of his favourite football team as part of a panel discussion at a music conference.

Richard Zijlma, General Manager for ADE and LDMC gave Vip News his impressions:

Zijlma: I think we managed to attract at least the same number of registrants, if not even more people to take part at ADE 2003.

Vip News: What was different compared to previous editions of the ADE?

Zijlma: We tried to improve on all levels, which included more venues being involved in the night program and a brighter conference program.

Vip News: What about LDMC?

Zijlma: I am really satisfied that we were able to track down some of the important players of the live music business. This gives us a good base for the future editions of ADE.

Vip News: Did both areas contribute something to each other?

Zijlma: All business starts with the music and the artists and I assume that both industries will collaborate more and more in the future.