Combating Social Isolation and Walking the Talk: Music Tectonics Reinvents the Online Conference (October 26-28, 2020)

Every year when the Music Tectonics Conference happens, we face a crisis. Last year it was enormous brush fires the day before our event, forcing us to find a new venue across town within 24 hours . This year it's a worldwide pandemic. Maybe we should have named the conference something else. This year I've put as much thought into how you will experience the conference as I put into our conference content.

While this year, we again selected some of the most compelling thinkers and doers in music innovation, attacking some of the most relevant topics in music and tech, we reinvented the conference experience from the ground up. Here is what we are doing in Music Tectonics 2020 to walk the talk:

PUT ONLINE NETWORKING IN SPATIAL CONTEXT. You know what sucks? All the obstacles of group video chats. One person's face is frozen. Mouth breather won't put their mic on mute. And we keep talking over each other because of Internet latency issues. So we are having our opening and closing parties in an avatar-based virtual venue called Degy World. You get to dress up your avatar like in a video game. Turn on your mic and start exploring! When you see someone you will see their name badge and as you get closer you can hear them talking and they can hear you. (So if someone is annoying you, just walk away! You can't do that on Zoom.) And there are no latency issues with conversation. Express yourself with accessories, gestures, dance moves, and more. So just like in real life where the fun is in expressing yourself, in this avatar-based platform you can have fun being you while getting business done. Try it! It's worth the effort of downloading the client and putting on some (virtual) pants.

ONLINE CONFERENCES SHOULD NOT BE ONE TO MANY. When the pandemic hit, everyone just took their existing programming and plopped it on Zoom. That was engaging for about ten minutes. But organizers did not account for the fact that sitting still listening -- maybe typing in the chat -- does not allow for the creativity and relationship-building that happens IRL. Music Tectonics will have 15-minute networking breaks between every session, where attendees will be magically matched with another attendee for a timed 5-minute one-to-one video chat. When the chat is over, hit the Connect button and you have just exchanged LinkedIn profiles. What if the chat sucks? Just hit End -- "Next!" -- and you will be matched with another colleague.

"Yup, the networking thing works a lot better than on live events. Much less awkward and you can do it completely sober!" 

- MT Launch Event attendee

If you have never done this on video, it is way more like a video game than traditional conference speed dating. It's like pulling the level on a slot machine and all of a sudden a human shows up with a smile -- someone interested in the same music and tech innovations as you -- ready to meet, become friends, and do business together. The serendipity of this experience will change your pandemic conference vision for life.

GET A ROOM! Beyond the serendipity of our speed networking feature, Music Tectonics 2020 allows you to invite any attendee to a one-on-one video chat spontaneously at any time. Spot somebody on the attendee list you've always wanted to meet? See an old friend who now works for that company you've always wanted to do a deal with? In seconds you can issue a spontaneous video chat request. Plus we have an Expo Hall with 20 amazing innovative companies and when the conference goes live, you can visit their digital booths, have a spontaneous meeting via video or text, get a quick demo, or sign up for more into.

"The future of the Internet is video and the future of video is interactive."

- Ari Evans, CEO of Maestro

EXPERIENCE DIGITAL MERCH AND MIXED REALITY. At the conference we have panels on digital merch, mixed reality, and social video. Instead of simply talking about these things, we launched this Instagram Filter that allows you to create a Story with your own virtual Music Tectonics badge. If you haven't used an IG filter, you really oughta try this one so you know what our speakers are talking about!

OWN YOUR DATA. We used Audience Republic to launch our conference with a competition. Future conference attendees logged in with email, mobile, and socials to enter to win VIP and standard badges and to enter our startup pitch competition. The more sharing an entrant made the more points they got. The more entrants we got, the more qualified leads we got for re-targeting.

For two decades as a music publicist, I always felt that I needed to walk the talk. If I was telling artists to own their data, I wanted to do the same, not just hand our relationships over to another platform. (That's why we launched the Music Tectonics community app.) If I was advising clients to treat their stage performance as part of their art, I was showing up on stage in crazy pants, representing my brand of "business crazy" at industry conferences. Why would I do anything differently for our annual celebration and gathering of innovations in the music industry?

"Well done, Dmitri, breaking the mold.

Very impressive."

- MT Launch Event attendee

GREAT SPEAKERS AND COMPELLING TOPICS. Oh and by the way, we also have the best line up of music tech innovators in the industry talking about the most compelling topics of the moment. But that's not what this article is about.

Find out more and register for the conference here.

Not enough? Ok, take this $20 discount instead.

Oh you want to be a VIP? Take this $50 discount. See what I did there?