Music Media Summit

It’s about the hang. We’re gonna have a bonding experience. The panels will be good, but it’s about you connecting with me and the other attendees to build relationships that pay dividends in the future.

Lofty goal? You bet! Let’s see what happens!

Every year, for the past 21, in fact, I’ve gone to Aspen, Colorado for Jim Lewi’s Aspen Live conference. Many see it as a boondoggle, a ski trip, but they’ve never been. Spend time on the hill with someone and you get to know them. Most of my social life and a lot of my business life derives from the relationships I’ve made at Aspen Live, and I wasn’t even working it! But when you know someone, they love to reach out and help you, it’s part of being human.

So over Christmas Lewi hit me up to do another ski conference. I wanted to do it in Mammoth, in California, in April. Have you seen how much snow they’ve got there? Most people have never been to the Sierras. They’re staggering. Maybe not as visually impactful as the Tetons, but there are more of them. Mammoth is right on the backside of Yosemite, and if you haven’t been there, that requires a trip too, but Lewi got anxious that people didn’t want to ski in April and he felt it would be better to do it closer to town, so we’re doing it in Santa Barbara.

He’s Mr. Logistics. He’s the one who put it together.

I’m the one responsible for the talent and the interviewing.

So who do we have so far?

Chris Moore. Dedicated cable television watchers might know him from “Project Greenlight,” but in any event, he’s a Harvard-educated movie producer whose latest production is “Manchester By The Sea.” Do you like a depressing movie? I certainly do. Especially when it’s done by Kenneth Lonergan, who made my favorite flick of the twenty first century, “You Can Count On Me.” Lonergan just won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and Casey Affleck won the Oscar for Best Actor and “Manchester By The Sea” was bought by Amazon and Chris told me how hard it is to find material this good and that when he does he has to make it and he’s gonna fill us in on all that.

Second, we’ve got Neil Jacobson. Heard “Blurred Lines”? How about “Uptown Funk”? Neil was the A&R guy responsible for those at Interscope and as a result of this success he’s just been made the new head of Geffen Records. When I sit with Neil it’s so stimulating because he’s not an old fart baby boomer who yearns for the days of yore, he knows how to make hit records today, I can learn something, and he can learn something from me! Our dinners are endless and stimulating and I know Neil will impart wisdom.

And then there’s Jonathan Prince. Global Head of Communications and Public Policy for Spotify. Jonathan’s a bit different from the average streaming music service honcho, you see he comes from politics, not a record label, who knows, it’s he who might someday occupy the White House. But Jonathan is fully versed in the licensing issues and mumbo-jumbo spread about Spotify. He’ll give us the real story re the deals, re the steel wool covering up the truth. He’s a smart guy who sings it straight and you’ll be edified.

The above three are confirmed. There are others in the works, but until they confirm, I’m not gonna mention their names.

And, to tell you the truth, sometimes people cancel. So if you’re gonna sign up wanting a guarantee everybody appears maybe you shouldn’t come. Because maybe you don’t get it. Which is the conference is all about us. The exchange of ideas between the attendees. Working out the issues and getting to know each other, the speakers are just the icing on the cake, although there will be plenty of them and they will be good.

It’s Lewi’s conference, but I’m gonna interview these subjects. My goal is to find out where they came from, which defines where they are now and where they are going to. Where you come from is oh-so-important. It shapes your vision and direction. My goal is to not only find out about the speakers’ business, but what makes them so special as individuals that they’ve had success.

So, if you want to know more, feel free to e-mail Jim Lewi at jim@liveworksevents.com

And, of course, you can reach me at the above address.

This is an experiment, we’re hanging it out there. And when you push the envelope.

Good things can happen.

P.S. Roger McNamee just confirmed he will be a speaker. We’ll dig deep into how he snared Bono to be his partner in Elevation Partners, as well as his friendships with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and his tenure in the band Moonalice…and those years teaching skiing at Killington!