Independent Venue Week (IVW) launches a new one-day event, Independents Day in partnership with Harman

15 August 2019 - Press release

The team behind Independent Venue Week (IVW) launches a new one-day event, Independents Day in partnership with Harman, in London on Tuesday 20^th August 2019. 

Created in response to recent requests from participating venues to be able to meet up with other venues, promoters and partners, the day brings together IVW stakeholders from different sectors of the industry as well venues from around the country. This gives them the chance to meet and share ideas about how to get the most out of IVW during the week as well as across the year, as IVW develops more programs. 

Taking place all day at 229 The Venue in London, Independents Day will see a host of speakers and panels covering a range of topics including a dedicated panel on venue funding with Arts Council England (ACE) who will specifically be discussing details of their new £1.5 million Supporting Grassroots Live Music (SGLM) fund and what people can apply for. ACE will also be hosting a number of one-to-one sessions where venues and promoters can discuss in more detail their own applications with ACE relationship managers for this vital new fund. 

“HARMAN regularly works on largescale installations internationally, like the Tottenham Hotspurs arena here in the UK. The technology and learnings from those big projects trickle down into our broader product development so everyone can benefit. At HARMAN, our vision is “to make life more connected, entertaining, personalised and productive”. With Independent Venue Week and their Independents Day, we’ve found the perfect partner to help us connect with smaller entertainment spaces and support them to deliver best-in-class live entertainment experiences for their audiences.” Michelle Downey, EMEA Marketing Director, HARMAN Professional Solutions 

Other partners include other existing IVW partners such as Arts Council England, CD Baby, The FAC, Marshall and The Musicians Union. 

“By getting together face-to-face, venues and partners will have a greater chance to learn more about the workings of IVW from the core team and those venues who have taken part for a number of years.” says IVW Founder Sybil Bell. “Having Harman as our headline partner is a real boost to the sector and those who come to Independent Day can see up close the incredible range of kit they have and the amazing offers they can offer IVW venues. This is incredibly timely given the ACE SGLM fund”. 

“We have one-to-one sessions during the day with ACE for those wanting to find out about how the new SGLM works and the wide range of activity they can use the fund fore, as well as with agents. For many venues, dealing with agents is often confined to email so being able to put a face to a name and forging a more personal relationship is really important.” 

Independents Day also offers the chance for venues & promoters to speak to those venues who have been part of IVW for many years, to share their experiences with those who have joined more recently. It will be especially useful for those venues off the natural touring circuit e.g. in smaller towns & villages speaking directly with agents about routing artists tours away from major city centres ahead of the spring touring season. 

IVW’s regional and national reps will also attend to offer support for venues and promoters and share ideas with other reps from around the country. A small number of IVW Venue Reps (Formerly Venue Volunteers) will also be supporting as part of their ongoing industry development. 

Announcements will be made on the day including supporting venues with best practice policies in partnership with The Boileroom, Guildford.