Day 2 of Unconvention Brisbane started with a networking sessions. But rather than just chucking us all into a room and seeing what happens, we got paired up speed dating style. This was pretty beneficial for those of us who are pretty shy, and gave us the opportunity to meet a pretty wide range of people.
From there, the Unconvention crew hosted a sausage sizzle for us while winners of the band competition Calais and Freak Morice played a few tracks. The music was of surprisingly high quality considering how young all of them were!
After lunch was the first panel of the day, Music and Media, led by journalist and blogger Andrew McMillen. The rest of the panel was of extremely high calibre, featuring Matt Hickey (Co-editor whothehell.net), Crystle Fleper (Editor, Faster Louder QLD), Chris Harms (Editor, Rave Magazine), Steve Bell (Editor, Time Off), Michelle Brown (4ZzZ), and Matt Rabbidge (Lick It Media). This segment was definitely the most interesting to me because it discussed mixing a passion for music with blogging, journalism, radio, marketing, publicity etc. I loved hearing about everyone’s different experiences in street press and blogging, as well as learning some tips and tricks of the trade.
The next sessions was Music as a Culture, led by Ian Rogers (independent artist, researcher of underground music). The panel featured Andrew Stafford (author, Pig City), Everett True (music critic), Kellie Lloyd (QMusic, Screamfeeder), Andy Bennett (Center for Public Culture and Ideas), Cam Smith ((Founder, Incremental Records / Music blogger, Before Hollywood), Tom Hall (media artist).
Compared to the previous sessions, this one was more interesting than ‘valuable’ per se. The group was there to discuss the value of music within society, but it really turned into a free for all. There was everything from discussions on hair cuts, breaking out into song and important insight into ‘why do you we play music’. There was a quote by Everett True that pretty much summed things up for me, “The only reason I wrote about music was to make sense of my own life.” I’m sure there’s more than a few people out there who could relate to that.
The weekend was an invaluable experience for me. It was enlightening to hear people’s views on the ever changing music scene in Brisbane, and it certainly gave me a more positive perspective on it. If you didn’t get to make it this year, I would highly recommend it for next year.
*Photos courtesy of Andrew McMillen from the Unconvention Twitter feed. Also apologies if I missed out on any panelists, things seemed to get changed around a little bit on the day.
[...] “The weekend was an invaluable experience for me. It was enlightening to hear people’s views on the ever changing music scene in Brisbane, and it certainly gave me a more positive perspective on it. If you didn’t get to make it this year, I would highly recommend it for next year” – Bianca, Music for the Laundromat [...]