Speakers 2024

Manager - Black Grape

Adetokunbo T Oyelola is one the most dynamic, creative entrepreneurs in the UK. From managing talent, to running a restaurant, organising concerts to producing radio shows for airlines like British Airways. His clients have won multiple awards, appeared in national press and regularly tour the world. He has organised and promoted successful concerts, festivals and tours around the world, from small venues to arena.

He represents Saxophonist and Broadcaster YolanDa Brown who recently was announced as Chair of the BPI.

Manager - Beatnik Creative

Ali Raymond is a music manager and company director based in London. In 2013 he founded Beatnik Creative – an independent artist management company and boutique record label. He has worked in the music industry for over 15 years within a number of different roles such as a journalist, publicist, A&R and promoter. Today he manages award-winning Arlo Parks, Miso Extra, Lana Lubany and Amie Blu. In 2021 he received the MMF award for ‘Breakthrough Manager of the year’.

In 2022 Beatnik joined the Blue Raincoat Artists family, which includes Phoebe Bridgers, Cigarettes After Sex, Nova Twins, Yazmin Lacey and the Mercury prize winning Ezra Collective.

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.

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, Algiers, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Melin Melyn.

Publicist - kp. communications

Michelle Kambasha is a music publicist, journalist, public speaker and educator. As a publicist, she worked at Secretly Group and Satellite414 and now runs her own agency kp. communications. She is a Mentorship Co-ordinator for Creative Opps, does MarComms at Music Education Council and teaches Diversity in the Creative Industries at BIMM University London

She has been named as Music Week’s Women in Music Roll of Honour (2017), She Said So Alternative Power List (2018) and Keychange Innovator (2023).

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

Sarah is the Founder of music services agency The Library, specialising in various consultancy services including artists development and project management.

Previous to that Sarah worked as an Artist Manager at Beatnik Creative and was instrumental in the career development of Arlo Parks. Additionally, she has worked in a management capacity with artists like Miso Extra and Lana Lubany.