Speakers 2024

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Officer - The Musicians Union

Dr Diljeet Kaur Bhachu is an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the Musicians’ Union, the UK’s trade union for musicians. Prior to taking up this role in 2023, Diljeet has been a longstanding activist within the union. She also continues to be active as a musician, and has a background teaching in higher education and researching inequalities within music and music education.

VP Music Intelligence - SoundCloud
Co-Founder - Musiio, Angel Investor

With 15 years experience in the industry, Hazel is a music-tech lifer, guitarist and former CEO/Co-Founder at Musiio. She spent time at Shazam, Pandora, Universal and HMV before launching Musiio in 2018 and then selling the business to SoundCloud in 2022.
Hazel travels globally speaking about the value of artificial intelligence integration and digital transformation in the music industry.

Programmes Lead - Tonic Music

Jeordie is the Programmes Lead at Tonic Music, with the role of designing, managing and reviewing the programmes of mental health support tailored for the music industry (Tonic Rider), music fans (Never Mind The Stigma) and music youth organisations (Tonic Futures). Alongside this, Jeordie also contributes to the Tonic Music mental health resources and coordinates the research projects.

Chief Executive Officer - Association of Independent Festivals (AIF)

AIF membership has grown rapidly in recent years and now supports 145 of the leading independent music festivals in the UK. John also Chairs the LIVE Expert Group for festivals and sits on the Advisory Board for Vision:2025 supporting a more sustainable outdoor events sector.
In 2023 John was appointed to the Board of Creative Wales and advises on the Music Sector in Wales.

CEO - LIVE

As CEO, LIVE, Jon leads an organisation representing the UK’s £5bn live music sector with his board comprising representatives from festivals and venues, artists and managers, agents, promoters, orchestras, production and beyond.

Managing Director - Big Life Management

Kat Kennedy is Managing Director at Big Life Management . Her current artist roster includes Kate Nash, We Are Scientists, Liz Lawrence and Skunk Anansie (whom she co - manages with Jeremy Lascelles at Blue Raincoat Management). Kat was selected as a participant in the 2020/21 Keychange programme, as one of three innovators from the UK and was honoured in the shesaid.so Alternative Power List 2021

Founder - Runway

Matt founded Runway in 2020 off the back of almost 10 years at Coda and ATC Live. He is the agent to artists including Personal Trainer, Sleeper, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Melin Melyn.

Agent - ATC Live

Sarah Joy is a London based booking agent at ATC Live and represents bands such as Yard Act, Squid, Nation of Language, The Beths, Blondshell, Billy Nomates, Faux Real, Katy J Pearson and English Teacher amongst others. Before working as an agent, Sarah ran her own label called Babelogue focusing on female fronted bands as well as working on the management team for Neneh Cherry.

Consultant - The Library

During a six-year tenure in Artist Management at Beatnik Creative, Sarah was instrumental in the career development of Arlo Parks. Additionally, she has worked in a management capacity with artists like Miso Extra amd Lana Lubany.
Now as a freelancer, Sarah is developing a Mental Health Coaching business for Artists, and working in Artist Development and Project Management services.