CAAMA’s organization of pre-arranged B2B meetings at Canadian Music Week continues to grow in importance and scope each year. This year was no exception. Meetings were pre-arranged with incoming delegations from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the USA, and Taiwan plus more than 20 festival buyers and directors from around the world (through CAAMA’s International Festival Network) and 24 music supervisors through our music and publishing mission. Few if any other associations and international music conferences organize this kind of high-level targeted, B2B international meeting session. Many international delegates in attendance offered their expertise by also participating on panels and mentoring sessions.
B2B Meetings: Germany – Austria – Switzerland
Thirty buyers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were invited to participate in business-to-business trade activities at CMW with Canadian and Ontario delegates. In total, 351 meetings were pre-arranged for 61 participants, including 31 Ontario companies completing 151 meetings. Ontario represented 51% of Canadian participants and 43% of the share of meetings for Canadians. The demand for the meetings with Germany Austria and Switzerland was more than in years past, and more than the current format could accommodate. Consequently, another 127 meeting requests resulted in leads for both sides.
B2B Meetings: Hearing Taiwan
Seven representatives from Taiwan met with 24 Canadians (of which 7 were from Ontario) for a total of 90 meetings.
B2B Meetings: A2IM (American Association of Independent Music) – USA
Forty-five Canadian delegates met with 17 buyers from the USA under the banner of A2IM, for a total of 156 pre-arranged meetings. Fifteen Ontario delegates (or 33% of the participating Canadians) completed 67 meetings (or 43% of all the meetings.)
Synch Summit – Roundtable Pitch Session
Ninety-four participants signed up to meet with 24 music supervisors and synch music specialists, for a total of 2,616 meetings over a three-hour period. These meetings were held in a round-table format and provided participants the opportunity to introduce themselves, discover how the music supervisors worked, exchange contacts and pitch their material to each of the music supervisors buyers. 83% (or 78) of Canadian participants were from Ontario, and 83% of the meeting with Canadians were with Ontario companies.
“Roundtable discussions with the Sync Summit were great. Getting an opportunity to meet and ask questions directly to some of the bigger players in the business was amazing. It has changed our approach to how we pitch our content to the music supervisors.” – Sam Reid, Willow Music (Glass Tiger) (Ontario)
International Festival Network (IFN) – Roundtable Pitch Session
CAAMA hosted the International Festival Network with a large number of foreign festivals and music programmers and talent scouts here to the benefit of Canada and Ontario’s growing talent pool of artists and industry.
The IFN hosted a 3-hour round-table session providing a rare opportunity to secure additional meetings for artists and companies, with some of the live industry’s key major festival players.
Thirty-four Canadian participants (including which 23 – or 68% were from Ontario) signed up to meet with 24 International Festival Network members, for a total of 865 meetings over a three-hour period, of which 575 (or 66%) were with Ontario-based companies. These meetings were held in a round-table format with max 8 people per table and the opportunity to pitch their material to each of the festival buyers.
