From future skills and cyber-pop talents to underground revival – TMW Creative Impact Conference announces the new batch of topics and speakers | Tallinn Music Week

From future skills and cyber-pop talents to underground revival – TMW Creative Impact Conference announces the new batch of topics and speakers

The tenth edition of the new music and city culture festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW), unveils the next batch of speakers for Creative Impact conference. The two-day conference, taking place on 6th and 7th April at Tallinn Creative Hub (Kultuurikatel) will focus on the future of music, new economy, better cities, and design thinking. TMW 2018 Conference + Festival Pass is available for €250 until 12th March (from 13th March  €295) at TMW web store.

Future skills, civic initiative, gender politics and sustainable development will be the commonly occurring keywords of TMW jubilee edition’s conference along with its four lead topics – the future of music, new economy, better cities and design thinking.

In a technology-centered world, soon we’ll only be as good as the skills we possess. Therefore it’s reassuring to hear from those who have a pretty good view on how we can expect the future developments to form. Kathryn Myronuk, a leading expert on exponentially growing technologies and one of the founding members of Singularity University at NASA Research Park, is to open the discussion on the future skills and learning. Kathryn Myronuk will appear at TMW in collaboration with Latvia’s Digital Freedom Festival.

Kathryn Myronuk

How to stay competitive in an increasingly digitized world? Hyper Island’s Anna Hagensgård will introduce new ways of thinking and learning within Ideation and Concept Development workshop – a process for groups to work creatively and collaboratively to generate creative ideas.

Is humankind heading towards a bodyhacking augmentation and transhumanist future? Scott Cohen, the co-founder of Cyborg Nest will introduce North Sense – a little gadget about to prompt the evolution of human ability.

As the industry’s understanding of Big Data matures, we are entering the next data learning cycle. Recently the Data revolution has been implemented at the forefront of sustainable development in order to solve problems revolving around climate change, water security, poverty and gender equality. In collaboration with Estonian Roundtable for Development Cooperation, the TMW conference is aiming to clarify how to use Big Data in solving humanitarian and development problems.

Where’s the underground revival now and what’s the essence of significant nightlife? During the last few years, a number of phenomenal nightclubs and other central hubs have been shut down in metropolitan areas all over the world. A discussion about the future of club culture will be held between club reps from Georgia’s famous Bassiani techno club to Serbia’s DIY cultural space Drugstore Beograd.

But how to sustain development and make a change when you have nothing? Ruth Daniel, a cultural producer, activist and CEO of the multi-award winning organization In Place of War will tell us how to help the community and grassroots organizations in some of the most challenging contexts in the world – in places of conflict and areas of suffering.

Ruth Daniel

How to stick to your guns in today’s music industry and maintain the ability to keep signing the next big band? Louder Than War’s John Robb will find it out in conversation with the co-owner of the iconic independent music group Rough Trade Jeanette Lee who has played in Public Image Limited and managed bands from The Cranberries to Pulp.

How to battle gender stereotypes and inequality within the music industry? It takes the high art-humour sensibility and wit of US-based Estonian producer, writer and environmental advocate Maria Minerva aka Maria Juur to tackle such burning topic.

In connection with the international Keychange Project which aims to empower women to transform the music industry, Berlin-based music software and hardware company Ableton will have its presence at Tallinn Creative Hub throughout the two-day conference. Ableton Playground will be hosted by electronic music producer and DJ Flore Morfin and feature product stations equipped with Live 10 and Push. Ableton’s Head of Documentation Dennis DeSantis and cyber-pop talent Chagall, a well known Ableton user will also talk about creative strategies for electronic music producers with Ableton Live.

Dennis DeSantis

The conference panels will also delve into what makes cities competitive, clear the status of the long-awaited copyright reform, and analyze the state of cryptocurrencies and new sources of revenue for the digital age. In addition to the creative industry analyses and solution-based practices, the conference also offers inspirational stories by creative minds across cultures and generations.

The president of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid will open the TMW 2018 Creative Impact conference at the Tallinn Creative Hub on 6th April.

The complete programme of the TMW 2018 conference and festival will be published during March.

More info about the confirmed speakers and Creative Impact conference.

Throughout the festival’s nine-year existence, the TMW conference has hosted numerous high-profile music industry experts and pop mavericks, including the founder of Sire Records Seymour Stein, influential managers Simon Napier-Bell and Peter Jenner; acclaimed music writer and cultural critic Simon Reynolds, musicians-turned authors like Viv Albertine of The Slits and Bob Stanley of St Etienne. Since 2016 the TMW conference has expanded from music industry topics towards a wider social agenda, featuring also speakers like the US-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Hamdi Ulukaya, gene researcher Lili Milani, MEP Julia Reda, artist and activist iO Tillett Wright and many other visionaries from different areas.

The core of the TMW jubilee festival taking place from 2nd to 8th April 2018 is music festival by nearly 250 artists from different genres from all over the world and the entrepreneurial conference focusing on the impact of creativity that includes cross-sector discussions on future skills, design thinking, future cities, gender equality and sustainable development next to music industry topics. The TMW city festival offers free city stage concerts, public discussions, a selection of the nicest eateries as TMW Tastes, a specially curated arts programme, Design Market and various activities in the public space.