Virtual Networking Breakfast: Represent and Advocate announced
Published 16 July, 2020
We're excited to announce our next edition of VMDO Virtual Networking Breakfasts. On Wednesday 29 July 2020, you’ll have the opportunity to meet the people championing the Australian music industry and the various businesses, workers and creatives within it.
We'll take a specific look at a number of industry bodies and trade associations: Australian Festival Association (AFA), Australian Live Music Business Council (ALMBC), CrewCare and Songlines.
Join our panel of industry representatives as they discuss how they work to amplify collective voices within the sector. The discussion will be moderated by Helen Marcou AM, Bakehouse Studios.
Panellists:
Robbie Bundle, Songlines (Co-CEO)
Howard Freeman, CrewCare (Founder)
Julia Robinson, Australian Festival Association (General Manager)
Stuart Watters, Australian Live Music Business Council (Founder)
For more information on our Virtual Networking Breakfast visit:
www.vmdo.com.au/virtualnetworkingbreakfasts
Date:
Wednesday 29 July, 9am
Via zoom.us
Panellist bios:
Helen Marcou AM (Moderator)
Bakehouse Studios
Manager and Co-founder
Helen Marcou AM has spent decades at the coalface of music culture. Alongside her long-term partner Quincy McLean, she co-founded grassroots movement SLAM (Save Live Australia’s Music) and Melbourne’s Bakehouse Studios. In 2019, she was recognized with an ‘Order of Australia’ for her contribution to music and the arts. Helen was an inductee to the Victorian Women’s honour roll in 2017, a recipient of the Sidney Myer performing arts facilitators award, one of the ‘Power 50’ of Australia’s most influential people in the Music Industry 2018 and 2019. A curator, speaker, mentor and agitator.
Howard Freeman
Crew Care
Founder
Howard has been working in the music industry for over 50 years. In the 1960's he launched into his career working on the door at venues his father ran. During the 1970s and 1980s, Howard worked as both a Tour or Production Manager for bands such as Sherbet and Dragon, and gradually progressed to major world tours. From the 1980s, and into the 1990s he toured with numerous acts including AC/DC, INXS, Midnight Oil, Jimmy Barnes, Prince, The Rolling Stones to name a few, and was the Production Manager for Big Day Out for 20 years.
Stuart Watters
Australian Live Music Business Council
Founder
Stuart is an established business development manager specialising in content and intellectual property licensing with a proven ability to envision creative and innovative growth pathways for organisations that lead to tangible results. Over the past 20 years, Stuart’s rare combination of technical acumen and end to end relationship management skills have coalesced into a refined negotiation and sales technique that is consultative, meticulous and trustworthy. As a leading Australian music industry innovator and advocate, Stuart conquered the first wave of digital disruption, and is well equipped to help clients come to terms with the challenges and opportunities of digital. His continuing leadership in this space is the foundation of his extensive national and international industry and government networks.
Robert Bundle
Songlines
CEO
Robert Bundle is a singer-songwriter and musician who has been writing and performing music for more than 35 years. Robert is the CEO of Songlines, Victoria’s peak Aboriginal music body. It is a not-for-profit organisation which has supported Aboriginal musicians since 1996 by providing professional development programs, performance opportunities and administering a range of festivals and events. Songlines holds some of Victoria’s largest Indigenous music events; providing a valuable contribution to Indigenous social and economic development through the arts by promoting ownership, cultural pride and unity. Their dedicated youth program is a seeding ground for tomorrow’s Indigenous art and artists. Songlines artistic aim is to promote, support and present contemporary Indigenous music, arts and culture and to stimulate dialog around the role of Indigenous arts in Australian culture.
Julia Robinson
Australian Festival Association
General Manager
Julia Robinson, General Manager of the Australian Festival Association (AFA), has nearly 20 years’ experience in the festival industry. Working behind the scenes at iconic events including Big Day Out, Sydney Festival, Field Day, Dark Mofo and Vivid, she loves watching festivals come to life from site plan to gates open. Julia was also Venue Manager and licensee of a 1500-person capacity music venue in Sydney for 5 years, understanding the critical balance of the music ecosystem. The AFA formed late in 2018, and Julia advocates on behalf of its members for the shared interest of the Australian Festival industry.