The 15th Hard Working Class Heroes festival, which takes place 28–30 September in venues around Dublin, will include an international conference of speakers from festivals, agencies and the media. 

Organised by First Music Contact, the conference’s line-up will this year include New Yorker staff writer John Seabrook, who regularly covers music and technology, and whose most recent book The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory analyses what makes a pop hit. 

Also speaking at the conference will be international festival bookers such as Casper Mills – music programmer for SXSW with responsibility for booking British and Irish emerging acts – and Evelyn Sieber of Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival. The line-up will also feature Lisa Hresko of A2IM (the American Association of Independent Music), representatives of management agencies ATC and CODA, Adam Ryan from The Great Escape festival, Oskar Strajn from Eurosonic Nooderslag and more.

Tickets to the both the conference and live events costs €55, while tickets for the conference cost €25. Bands with an FMC Breaking Tunes profile (used to apply to play at the festival) can attend the conference for free. 

For further details, see https://goo.gl/9bTHar.