Greetings everyone!
So the PeerTracks team is back from MIDEM, which took place in Cannes, France June 5th to 8th.
I had been invited to speak on the Digital Disruptors panel and so we decided to make the most out of it and sponsored the Billboard Breakfast honouring Doug Morris.
That decision really paid off!
The logo was everywhere and the entire team (including Taulant from BitSapphire, which acts as our external CTO) had access to all the side events, which are VIP and invite only. Meaning we where mingling with the heads of the music industry for a few days.
The first day we arrived and mostly stayed at our Pod since tons of people kept stopping by and asking for more information.
One of the reason we got so much traffic at our booth is because we had invested in a greeter. She ended up being worth every penny! She basically walked around the entire event speaking to attendees and letting them know there’s a new service out there that lets you retain 95%+ of your sales earnings, pays you instantly and automatically pays out all rights holders… directly (without going through middlemen).
That got people’s attention.
Once at our Pod, we got to explain the entire concept in further detail. The artists really liked the token creation / P2P talent discovery part as well.
On the second day, we attended the invite only, Pepsi sponsored breakfast where L.A. Reid and Frank Cooper spoke.
Once again, the PeerTracks guys were among giants of the business! Eddie got to reunite with some old friends from his days in the music industry. Here he is with Seymour Stein (they one that signed Madonna)
That evening, we were invited to a (you guessed it) invite only VIP cocktail and diner that had a strict (dark suit) dress code. The reason for the dress code being the president of Armenia was there and gave a talk.
Here are Eddie and I with Serzh Sargsyan:
On the third morning, we headed down to the Billboard breakfast honouring Doug Morris that PeerTracks sponsored.
This was also an invite only breakfast and only the big players were in attendance.
Here's Eddie at the breakfast with L.A. Reid and Doug Morris.
Eddie got to speak about PeerTracks before introducing the man, Doug Morris, himself. More then a few people appeared to be wondering “What the hell is this PeerTracks I keep seeing everywhere!?!”
You couldn't miss it haha
Right after the breakfast I had to race back to the Palais des Festivals since I was speaking on the Digital Disruptors panel.
The talk went well, even though it focused a little bit too much on payment for my liking (:
You can watch the entire 50 minute talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ggK95uVZnKsOn the final evening, we went out. All MIDEM attendees got free entry to an Irish pub, which was great since the networking took on a whole other level… Guinness assisted networking.
(sorry for cutting you out Charles! Best pic I could use)
Very fun and very promising since everyone was much more relaxed, open and friendly. The “work hard” part was done, it was “play hard” time for all. And that attitude actually made work (networking) even better.
I personally did not sleep that night. I made my way back to the Airbnb apartment around 5:45 am and was picked up a 6am and driven to the airport for my 8 am flight.
Quite an event!