June 13, 2007
The Producers Conference, London, UK Access to Music/British Academy of New Music.
Electronic music is loved around the world, but in the UK it seems embedded in the culture. This was obvious at the Producers Conference in London where Reason users made their way to the British Academy of New Music (BANM) facility in Stratford.
It was fascinating to see people from different walks
of life at the event. Some were students and hobbyists, others were
musicians in the industry, and a few were professionals who came straight
from the office wearing suits. This was an intriguingly diverse crowd,
coming together to feed their passion for Reason.
To accommodate the sizable group, the presenters were separated into
different areas of the facility, and during the three-hour event, James
Bernard, Ben Davies, Kurt Kurasaki, and Danny McMillan (right picture)
simultaneously lectured to rotating groups of 15 to 30 people.
A secret stash of the coveted Reason 3.0 football jerseys were discovered in
the UK. These were distributed and worn by the BANM staff. The yellow clad
team greeted arriving participants and passed out gift bags containing
Reason souvenirs, including a Producers Conference note pad and pen. These
items proved useful as people took down notes, traded email addresses, and
passed around links to websites.
One classroom was set up with Reason workstations, each outfitted with a
MIDI keyboard controller and a set of headphones. Between sessions, users
could sit down and practice some of the techniques they absorbed during the
lectures. Several people were lurking in these rooms right up to the end of
the conference, which came around rather quickly. This was certainly one of
those evenings that could have gone longer into the night.
