Iceland Airwaves, Iceland Music, Business Iceland, and Reykjavík Music City proudly present the exceptional lineup for this year’s IA Conference.

As in previous years, the conference runs alongside the Iceland Airwaves festival, taking place on November 5th and 6th at Sjálfstæðissalurinn (the historic former Nasa venue). The conference has established itself as Iceland’s premier music industry event, with organizers focusing on a diverse and forward-thinking program. It is an essential gathering for both Icelandic and international music professionals—serving not only as a platform for education and strategic dialogue, but also as a vital space for building connections.

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Tickets Available Here>>

Below you will find the program highlights announced today, with more events and participants to be revealed in the coming weeks and months. We recommend that those interested sign up for the Iceland Music newsletter to receive further updates directly to their inbox.

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Flights, Freight & Festivals: It’s Not Easy Being Green

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Flying people, artists and gear to an island is not exactly sustainable. But for festivals in remote regions, staying connected to the world is part of the job. This panel digs into the hard truths, practical fixes and uncomfortable compromises behind greener live music: from routing and production to audience travel, accountability, and what meaningful progress actually looks like.

• Julie Runge Bendsen (Pomona Firma) will be moderating this panel. She's a grant specialist focused on sustainability in the grassroots culture across the Nordic region.
• Vasil Gjuroski (Tromsø World) runs three festivals near the north pole and is very familiar with the green challenges that come with running events in remote places.
• Ege Heckmann (Green Producers Club Denmark) will bring his extensive knowledge on the matter, having championed environmentally responsible practices in the cultural sector for many years.

More speakers to be announced!

Live and Kicking: What’s Next for the Live Sector

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Just when the live industry thinks it has found its rhythm, the beat changes. Costs are rising, audience habits are shifting, the biggest players are getting bigger, and the gap between blockbuster success and the rest of the market keeps widening. For independent promoters, venues, festivals, and artists, making the numbers add up takes more work than ever. So where does live music go from here? This session looks at the pressures shaping the business today and asks what the live industry might look like by 2030.

• Nathalie von Rotz (The Great Escape) is Event Manager at The Great Escape and oversees the festival’s planning, partnerships and delivery. She previously worked across record labels, venues, artist management and Swiss Music Export.
• Paul McQueen (Primary Talent International) is a booking agent who represents a diverse roster of electronic and live artists and helps develop their touring careers around the world.
• Gordon Masson (IQ Magazine) will be moderating this panel. A journalist for more than 30 years, he has specialised in music industry coverage since 2000, writing and editing for publications including Billboard, Music Week, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and IQ Magazine.
• Juke Konrad (EBB Music) is a booking agent who represents international artists while advocating for greater diversity, inclusion and accessibility within the music sector.
• James Minor (former SXSW) served as VP of the SXSW Music Festival from 2011–2025, overseeing programming, international strategy and partnerships for one of the world’s leading music platforms.

More speakers to be announced!

Showcase Festivals: Why Do We Do This to Ourselves?

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Behind every showcase festival smile is someone quietly wondering what life might have been like with a normal job and regular sleep. For decades, showcase events have helped artists travel, careers start and industries connect. But in a crowded calendar, a harder economy, and a time where many showcase festivals are shrinking, changing, or disappearing altogether, what value do they still offer? Who are they really serving, and what makes a showcase festival worth the trip today?

• As Artistic Director, Jordi Casadesús Coromina (Mercat Música Viva Vic) helps shape one of Europe’s most established showcase festivals, connecting emerging talent with industry professionals.
• Founder and Director Richy Muirhead (SAMA Events Ltd, SAMA | PITCH SCOTLAND) oversees the Scottish Alternative Music Awards, PITCH Scotland and a range of festivals, showcases and export programmes.

More speakers to be announced!

From Local to Global: Against the Odds

Some places seem to produce more than their fair share of remarkable artists. Iceland knows the feeling. Across smaller markets and far-flung corners of the world, artists continue to find audiences far beyond their borders. What is their secret? Is it infrastructure, culture, community, timing, mythology, or something harder to explain? This panel explores how music breaks out when the map, the market and the odds are not exactly on your side.

• Mia Min Yen (Woozi Studio/Taiwanese Waves) founded Woozi Studio in 2016 with a mission to bring Taiwan’s original music to the global stage. Through the Taiwanese Waves series, international showcases and touring initiatives, she helps artists build careers beyond Asia.
• Head Of New Music & Booking Agent Rob McGee (One Fiinix Live) represents international talent and leads the agency’s A&R operations.
• This panel's moderator Will Larnach-Jones (London Records) is SVP Marketing at London Records, overseeing campaigns across the London Records and Factory Records catalogues. He previously worked with Iceland Airwaves and has a background in artist management, public relations and A&R.

More speakers to be announced!

Discovery at Heart: Festival programming with purpose

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The festivals that last have a point of view. Behind every distinctive lineup are programmers willing to take a chance on an act before the consensus catches up. In an era where booking policies increasingly reflect commercial logic over curatorial instinct, this session asks whether discovery is still at the heart of festival programming, and whether a festival's booking policy is its most important artistic statement.

• Lead Booker Ariane Mohr (Reeperbahn Festival) oversees and shapes the music programme of one of Europe’s largest club festivals. She joined the festival team in 2018 after studying Cultural and Popular Music Studies.

More speakers to be announced!

Anybody in There? Human Curation in the age of the algorithm

The algorithm decides what we hear. The platform decides what we see. And yet, radio is surging across every age group, music content creators are building devoted niche audiences, and the microblog is having its moment. Something is fighting back.

Not all attention is created equal, and the most exciting music communities right now are being built in the margins and on purpose. This session is about authenticity as strategy, gut instinct under financial pressure and why human curation is on the rise.

• Matthías Már Magnússon (RÚV) is Head of Music at Iceland’s leading radio station Rás 2. Before moving into broadcasting, he worked in A&R and artist management.

More speakers to be announced!

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