Amsterdam Dance Event successfully premiered its first three day-edition of ADE Aruba during Electric Festival (Sept 3-7) in Aruba, welcoming 350 music professionals and journalists who visited Q&A’s, lectures, panels, workshops, studio sessions and networking sessions at the first ADE hub outside of The Netherlands.
After a small pilot in 2013, ADE has expanded its involvement within the Electric Festival and organized a full electronic music conference (Sept 4-6) ADE style, with a stream of panel discussions, workshops, Q&A’s, studio sessions and tropical networking moments that brought together music professionals from all over the world, zoomed in on both local, regional and international trends in the electronic music industry, presented some exclusive moments with some of music’s biggest stars and connected the Dutch Caribbean roots with today’s popular electronic music.
Below you can re-cap our daily wrap up’s for more detailed content information on the successful first edition of ADE Aruba:
Day 1
The first day of Electric Festival and ADE took off today with the Play My Demo: Demo Pitch with Dave Clarke, Maarten Vorwerk and Claude Zdanow (CEO Stadium Red). The panel engaged with the audience by taking demos to play one by one – as they gave constructive criticism and advice to the producers. DJ Chuckie officially opened up the ADE Aruba conference welcoming attendees and panelists after which Wayne Marshall (Harvard University, US) opened as a keynote speaker about the Dutch Caribbean roots of modern day club music Part 1, starting off with a history dating back to 1986, giving examples with musical and video clips of how the culture emerged.
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| Maarten Vorwerk's Producer Master Class |
Jason Hardi (Muzik) talked wearable technology – the future of social media sharing – introducing a new line of premium headphones, which connect to your social media via Bluetooth, enhancing a new experience.
Wrapping up the conference for the day was Toine Bastiaans of Fanfiber. Fanfiber brings merchandise and fan deals from the best artists, athletes, celebs and brands in the world. Toine discussed fan engagement, giving tips on how to attain it in a successful and effective manner.
This evening the Get Nutz Pool Party at the Renaisance hotel took place with Nutzbeatz, Sky Blue, Sensato and Jasmine V. Dave Clarke sailed away with his catamaran for the Up Close & Personal party. Confessions Nightclub hosted the Voyeur party with Mitchell Niemeyer, The Partysquad and Fellow.
Day 2
Day 2 of the ADE Conference started with the Aruba Roots & Electronic Beats, documentary and workshop with Fellow, Datapanik + special guest Vicente Ras - one of the Tambu artists from the documentary who is part of the inspiration. Moderated by Wayne Marshall – Technomusicology Professor (Harvard University, US). A short documentary was shown to highlight where Fellow’s musical inspiration comes from. Fellow interacted with local Aruba artists to learn about the culture and how music was created from the Tambu (Drum) and other local instruments. Exploring the history of the island and its 3 rhythms was Fellow’s inspiration for finding a new sound. The presentation then ended with a musical performance from Fellow & the local musicians.
Today’s conference also covered From local to global: building an international career from scratch – with the panel of managers (Reek) Sky Blu, Ryan Narain (Chuckie) and Jream (Jasmine V). Conference attendees also dropped in for the Brands that make you dance: how to create a powerful brand, Looking for Latin and Caribbean beats for new US tv-series and a TRAKTOR workshop with ENDO.
International fitness and glamour models Valeria Orsini and Amanda Cerny took over the panel for Meet The Social Media Stars. The social media mavens shared their pro tips on how to build your social media presence.
Day 3
The final day of the ADE conference included a full scheduled program for the afternoon. Conference participants gathered in the Crystal Theatre as they sat in on the Stadium Red NYC pop-up studio, hosted by Claude Zdanow (CEO Stadium Red), Sky Blu and Sensato. The Following panel was the Pop Up Studio: Looking for the perfect Hook – hosted by Sam hook.
By boat, the conference then moved to the Renaissance private island - Iguana Beach, where the panelists sat with the jaw dropping background of Aruba behind them. To start off the afternoon on the island, was the panel for The Dutch-Caribbean roots of modern day club music: from the bubbling days to the Dirty Dutch Ways. Speakers included Wayne Marshall (Technomusicology – Harvard, US), DJ Moortje and Fellow. The panel discussed the ways in which today’s music was influenced by the Dutch-Caribbean musical history and how bubbling has played an important role in some of today’s biggest artists inspiration worldwide.
Sara Cooper (Sara Cooper PR) took over as a moderator for a Q&A for the panel – Music Industry Tips: I wish someone told me with Anthony Preston (U.S. producer/songwriter who’s worked with Britney Spears, Afrojack and David Guetta). Anthony gave his advice from his perspective to all aspiring artists and told his unique story, leaving the audience inspired.
A speed-dating session took place with the Meet The Electronic music industry leaders 1-on-1. Conference goers could sit down with the speakers – Ibo Orgut (Q-Dance), Chuckie (Dirty Dutch), Nutzbeatz (Aruba), Marthijn Graafland (ID&T), Anthony Partridge (Warner Music), and Nick Harris (Artist) – where they had a 10-minute speed dating session with the industry leaders.
The final panel of the day and of the entire ADE conference was Agents breaking talent in the Caribbean, how we do it? – This was a Q&A with Sara Cooper (Sara Cooper PR) as the moderator and Coner Sheldon (WME) as the speaker. Coner discussed the importance of believing in your artists and the ways in which the dance music scene is evolving in the Caribbean.
To close out the ADE conference, Saul van Stapele (ADE) took the stage to thank attendees and panelists for the amazing inspiring week, which commenced on the sunny island of Aruba – The island of Electronic Dance Music.
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