Conference

Friday, 31 March
Saturday, 1 April

Co-hosted with Music Estonia at the Russian Cultural Centre and Nordic Hotel Forum.

The two-day conference at the Russian Cultural Centre and Nordic Hotel Forum will bring together key players and change-makers from the music and creative industries, research and development sector, entrepreneurship and politics.

The core agenda of TMW 2017 conference is the creative impact of a shared vision and joint action. Focusing on music and creative industries, the conference will cover topics like sustainable development, diversity and smarter governance, future skills, Artificial Intelligence’s role in the creative process and analyzing traditional media’s influence in a “post-truth world”. Read more about the conference and speakers here.

Check out the conference programme

As Estonia will take over the presidency of the European Union Council in the second half of 2017, topics like the future of Europe as well as the Digital Single Market will shape an essential part of the discussions. TMW will also host larger delegations this year from overseas markets like Canada and Japan – the latter as a part of a joint Finnish-Estonian music export initiative Finest Sounds. More information about this year’s speakers can be found here.

President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid will open the TMW conference at the Russian Cultural Centre on March 31 at 10AM.

Throughout the festival’s eight-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, Petri Lunden, Edward Bicknell and Peter Jenner; artists-turned authors Viv Albertine of The Slits, John Robb of The Membranes, Bob Stanley of St Etienne. Since 2016 the TMW conference has expanded from music industry topics towards a wider social agenda, inviting speakers like the US-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Hamdi Ulukaya, gene researcher Lili Milani, MEP Julia Reda, a business angel from Silicon Valley Fadi Bishara and many other visionaries from different areas.

President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid / Kris Süld

„Coming to the content, what impressed me the most was the sensitively handpicked and designed conferences and talks. Most of them were quite distant from the formal and predictable talks and panels, which we all may experience dozens of times throughout the year without getting inspired. But the topics and panellists on TMW were straight-forward, authentic, challenging, honest, demanding and hesitant of falling in the trap to become posturing.“

Ramin Sadighi (Hermes Records)