Fri Nov 20, 2020

The annual Indie Week Canada conference has come to a close and attendees showed their support by rating the sessions with 5 star reviews giving approval of the new, fully virtual approach.

Indie Week 2020 (Virtual) brought together music industry, artists in globe-spanning fashion, garnering a 5-star review and created a new way of offering all the ways of communicating in a stellar way.

Indie Week Canada began in 2003, founded by industry icon Darryl Hurs who created an event that had Showcases that invited artists to travel from around the world to perform in front of industry professionals. Indie Week has been known as the premiere emerging artist festival in Canada where it had a schedule of five days and nights of music, showcases, the Indie 101 conference, Official VIP Launch Party, Indie Week Awards show and more.

In the past, Indie Week has always taken place in downtown Toronto, Ontario, the center of the Canadian music industry and one of North America’s biggest music markets, giving artists not only got the chance to showcase in front of industry professionals but they were also invited to participate in the Indie 101 conference featuring panels, mentorships, B2B meetings, demo listening sessions, Tech Day, Health & Wellness, industry mixers with over 350+ Delegates.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the Indie Week Team went thru cancelling this year’s live event to booking it then cancelling again, taking on the idea of doing Indie Week 2020 – Virtual Edition and pulled together one of the best events online with only a three month production schedule to make it work.

Speakers representing known companies such as Downtown MusicCD Baby, SongtrustChartmetricMIDEMMoment FactorySide DoorBandcampBandzoogleCMRRAShow.coSOCAN, and many more were brought together as the music industry discussed the future of the business, international markets, how to find success in music during the pandemic, and much more. Through the online platform, attendees and participants connected with one another to make fruitful business connections and build a supportive online community.

Indie Week Canada began in xxxx, an event that had Showcases for artists to come from around the world to perform in front of industry professionals. Indie Week has been known as the premiere emerging artist festival in Canada where it had a schedule of five days and nights of music, showcases, the Indie 101 conference, Official VIP Launch Party, Indie Week Awards show and more.

In the past, Indie Week has always taken place in downtown Toronto, Ontario, the center of the Canadian music industry and one of North America’s biggest music markets, giving artists not only got the chance to showcase in front of industry professionals but they were also invited to participate in the Indie 101 conference featuring panels, mentorships, B2B meetings, demo listening sessions, Tech Day, Health & Wellness, industry mixers with over 350+ Delegates.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the Indie Week Team went thru cancelling this year’s live event to booking it then cancelling again, taking on the idea of doing Indie Week 2020 – Virtual Edition and pulled together one of the best events online with only a three month production schedule to make it work.

More than 1000 participants experienced the conference online that brought together topics of diversity and equality in the music industry, educational components on how to grow audiences and monetize music online as well as high level presentations on building strategy.

When Indie Week came to a close the online platform statistics included;
357 049 sponsor impressions,  over 7000 messages facilitated, 575 participants in meet-ups, and 82 community boards created. Moving online allowed that networking to go global,
as 40 countries were represented by the attendees and speakers of the conference.

Darryl Hurs (Founder of Indie Week Canada) had this to say about Indie Week 2020, “I’m very pleased with the results especially during this time and this being our first online conference of this size. My expectations were surpassed and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with many mentions of this being the best conference attended online this year.”

Special kudos to the amazing Indie Week Team for making it all happen:
Darryl Hurs (Founder of Indie Week)
Katia Montesano
Zach McEwen-Jones
Cameron Carpenter
Matthew Kennedy
Sara Davidsen
Abigail Smudsky
Maeve Badger
Eryn Roberts
Cristina Nikolic

Indie Week Canada pledges to continue to build the international community that was established through the conference, through its weekly free online sessions every Tuesday Called Indie Weekly which aim to inform and entertain members of the music industry. More online conference sessions are planned for 2021.

Indie Week Canada focuses on creating quality connections, meaningful business and extensive networking opportunities in order to provide music industry representatives and artists with the tools and professional development they need to enhance their careers. Contact info@indieweek.com for more info.

For more about Indie Week visit:
indieweek.com/