Alan Holt is International Manager for the New Zealand Music Commission. The New Zealand Commission is a Government-funded agency committed to supporting NZ music businesses. The New Zealand Music Commission international office undertakes projects and partnerships aimed at exporting NZ music and assisting music businesses in working internationally. Prior to joining the New Zealand Music Commission, Alan was the General Manager and buyer for Global Routes Distribution, owner of two clothing stores – Bunny Boutique and the New Zealand branch of the Beastie Boys affiliated street-wear label X-Large – and for most of the 90’s worked at New Zealand independent label Flying Nun Records. In his spare time Alan is writing a book about the history of Flying Nun Records and performs/records as one half of experimental music group White Saucer.

Sanjeev Bhargava, Founder Director of SEHER, one of India’s premier cultural and entertainment organizations, has been advising various agencies of the government of India on culture, directly working with several Indian government ministries and others. He has served on the Central Advisory Board of Culture (CABC) of the government. of India and has been on Expert Committees on Art and Culture formed by the Parliament of India to oversee the work done by top government-funded cultural institutions throughout India. He has advised the Office of the President of India on cultural events at the president’s house from 2012 to 2017, as well the Office of the Chief Minister of Delhi from 2002 to 2007. His inclination in the world of arts and his deep interest in classical music led him to set up SEHER in 1994. SEHER has single handedly changed the cultural profile of India by establishing several thematic annual festivals such as Ananya (festival of dance), Bhakti Utsav (festival of sacred music in India), the SAARC Bands Festival (one of India's biggest rock festivals), Delhi Jazz Festival, and Udaipur World Music Festival (India’s only world music festival, which is now one of the biggest music events held in India). In 2017, Bhargava SEHER was selected by the government of India to do India’s first ever ASEAN India Music Festival as a run-up event to the ASEAN Summit hosted by the prime minister of India in January 2018.

Yuthana Boonorm or Ted has worked in Thailand's music industry for more than 30 years, best known as the founder of the Big Mountain Music Festival, the biggest music festival in Thailand, if not in South East Asia. He is the most renowned director in Thailand and has built national reputation by participating in numerous festival projects, including the Big Mountain Festival, the Genie Fest, and the Hodoong Project and others.

Shawn Choi came to New York from Seoul in 2004, and moved from studying performing arts administration at New York University to working in development, marketing, and presenting at Flushing Town Hall (2007-present). Choi longed to build stronger ties between the Korean traditional and contemporary music scene and American audiences, which inspired him to found his own agency, SORI (2016-present). Choi has been an instrumental figure in raising awareness of Korea’s diverse and unique performing arts scene in the U.S. and Canada. SORI is a New York City based artist agency specializing in Korean world music and its mission is to introduce powerful works of Korean music to a global, culturally curious audience in North America. SORI's works include programming, producing, booking and touring as well as artist branding and marketing services. SORI artist roster includes Ak Dan Gwang Chil, Black String, Coreyah, Joe Kye, Kim So Ra, Lee Heemoon & Prelude, NAMU, and NST & The Soul Sauce meets Kim Yulhee. Learn more: www.sori.nyc

Professor of Musical Arts, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer and teacher. Professor of the Academy of Music in Cracow and director of the Cross-Culture Warsaw Festival. Since 1984 she has studied the unique techniques of playing European and Asian instruments. She has traveled to India, China, Korea, Japan and the Middle East. In 1994 she reconstructed two Polish forgotten string instruments, which have not been preserved to present times – Bilgoraj suka and Plock fiddle. The artist has given concerts all over the world for the past 30 years. During her 5-year stay in Japan (1997-2002) she presented Polish traditional and classical music in the biggest music venues. On number of occasions she presented the reconstructed instruments and Polish folk tunes and melodies at the Imperial Court of Japan. She has composed and performed with world-famous artists: Yo-Yo Ma, Boris Grebenshchikov, Gil Goldstein, Gonzalo Rubelcaba, Ian Gilan, Branford Marsalis, Kayhan Kalhor, Hossein Alizadeh and others. She has released over 26 albums, many of which have received international awards. In 2010 she opened the first in Poland Faculty of Ethnic music at the Academy of Music in Cracow. Since 2011 she has created unique projects featuring the Polish traditional music performed with Egyptian, Tunisian, Algerian, Pakistani, Senegalese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Irani and Indian musicians in Asia and Africa. In 2014 she published a book Traditional Knee Fiddles with prof. E. Dahlig-Turek. In 2020 she made 21 films about ethnic instruments from all over the World and published first in history manual for beginners playing forgotten Polish knee-position fiddles. She received many national and international awards.

As the CEO of Beatsomeone Corp., Kim Yong-hwan is serving music contents of music creators such as K-Pop composers and beatmakers at home and abroad. He has 13 years of professional experience in entertainment new business and marketing such as Cube Entertainment director, sidusHQ team leader, and YG Entertainment. It has been selected as a music technology company by the Korea Creative Content Agency after passing the Young Entrepreneurship Academy of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency.

Furat Qaddouri is one of the most well-known Qanoun player in the world specialized in Iraqi maqam and world music. The love Furat carries for pop and jazz, encouraged him to present the Qanoon in a different and unique way. Due to his participation in several international festivals, which enabled him to mix and incorporate rhythms of various cultures specifically with Jazz & Latin tunes. Furat’s musical compositions extend beyond being strictly a commercial approach, his music rather takes a deeper and more expressive style to continually enhance and develop the Iraqi Maqam (a 400 year old genre of Arabic Music found in Iraq). In 2012 Furat Qaddouri founded a Music Center aimed at teaching music instruments, ballet and arts to children, young adults and adults who are enthusiastic about learning a new instrument. He then founded Sharjah World Music Festival two years after the opening of the music academy, a leading music festival in the UAE. Jazz at the Island Festival then followed in 2018. A music festival dedicated to all genres of jazz music. Finally Furat founded Real music – Dubai. a foundation and organization aimed at developing the local musical scene, through cross-cultural and cross-genre exchange, by booking talents to introduce in the Middle East, mainly in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Also, creating and organizing sensational concerts, and establishing awareness about the different genres and cultures in music industries worldwide. Mainly done by organizing international Music Festivals and networking exhibitions, in which musicians and singers can present themselves to organizers and agents in the market.

James Minor is the Head of SXSW Music Festival, which is celebrating its 34th season in 2021. SXSW Music is the largest music festival of its kind in the world, with 2,000 acts from 66 foreign countries performing at 90+ venues in 2019. Minor has a diverse background, with over 20 years in the industry, having worked in artist management, tour booking and managing, as well as talent buying and management for noted venues in both Austin, TX and NYC. He is a known advocate for up and coming talent and has spoken around the world at conferences including Primavera Pro (Spain), MU:CON (South Korea), Golden Melody Awards (Taiwan), MIDEM (France), Waves Vienna (Austria), ADE (Amsterdam) and was the keynote speaker at Pop-Kultur Berlin.

Isabel Soffer has been at the forefront of global cultural programming in the USA for more than twenty-five years. She is co-founder and co-director of globalFEST, Inc, a non-profit organization serving the world music community since 2003. gF moves world music into the center of the performing arts field in the Unites States through its annual groundbreaking festival each January, a touring fund, an award ceremony, a national tour, and stage curation. She is also founder of Live Sounds, a company that produces, creates and curates concerts and festivals of diverse music and dance traditions from around the world in New York and across the country. Her innovative programming aims to encourage and cultivate ancient traditions, as well as to highlight musical styles at the intersection of old and new.

Becc Bates, Director for Creative Industries within the Innovation and Science division of Department for Innovation and Skills. Becc is responsible for the development and delivery of strategies that stimulate growth in the creative industries, and, the facilitation of coordinated support for organisations and Statutory Authorities: ​SA Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival, JamFactory, Music Development Office and St Paul’s Creative Centre​​. Becc was instrumental in the establishment of the state’s Music Development Office (MDO) which brought together the arts and industry areas of the State Government to recognise music as an industry as well as a creative endeavour. In addition, Becc drove the development of the St Paul’s Creative Centre. Programs delivered by the MDO facilitate pathways to support emerging musicians and include initiatives that encourage creative collaboration, and export market development. The MDO is one of the three Executive Partners, along with the Adelaide Festival Centre and the City of Adelaide, working to meet the obligations of Adelaide’s designation as a UNESCO City of Music. The St Paul’s Creative Centre is an industry development initiative in the form of a co-working and creative industries precinct, located in the heart of Adelaide. St Paul’s is a semi-curated space which provides an environment for complementary creative businesses to co-exist, bringing together a mix of students, community groups, funded arts organisations, not-for-profits and commercial start-ups. Prior to this, Becc was a partner in a music management company and worked with many artists in; career development, business development, strategic direction, tour management and international contract negotiations.

Alex has been a part of the Piranha Arts team since 2004 where he assisted the Conference department. Since then, he was working as the Head of Showcases and is now the Director of WOMEX. As well as being a musician himself, he graduated from Berlin's Humboldt University with a degree in social sciences on migration networks which included a one-year stop over at Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Emma Cho is a programming director of Asia-Iberoamerica Cultural Foundation, located in Bogota, Colombia. For 20 years, she has introduced more than 100 Asian artistic groups, including National Ballet and National Contemporary Dance Company of Korea, Kim Deok Su Samulnori, SPAC and Sankai Juku of Japan, Beijing Cultural Center of China with CPAA productions etc. She organized Korean Contemporary programs, Asian continent arts festival ‘Hola Asia’, 200th anniversary of Independence of Colombia event, Korea-Colombia FTA commemoration event, Korea Stand at the Bogota International Book Fair, etc. In the field of art education, she organized programs for children and adolescents who have lost educational opportunities due to the Colombian civil war and have been exposed to crime and prostitution. In addition, she has introduced the methods of School of Body of Colombia(eCdC) in Korea since 2008. Asia Forum is to provide a place for expert panels from Asia and Colombia to diagnose Colombian cultural industry and discuss strategies for the cooperation. Currently, she is planning cultural contents and digital technology exchange programs between local governments in Korea and Colombia.

Piotr Pucylo is an international music industry professional with over 20 years experience working as a producer, booker, project coordinator, promoter, journalist and was the co-founder and longtime artistic director of legendary Polish world music label – Orange World. In 2005, he co-founded GLOBALTICA World Cultures Festival – now one of the biggest and best world music festivals in Poland – he is programming and artistic director of this exceptional event. He is also founder of the Polish Showcase Day – an event promoting Polish artists in the international arena. Regularly invited as a jury member, mentor or panelist during important festivals, competitions or other events – he was jury member of ApaMM twice – in 2017 and 2018. In 2018 he became one of the so-called 7 Samurai – a member of the prestigious group of international professionals responsible for the selection of artists taking part in the world’s largest world music fair – WOMEX, which took place in Las Palmas. Piotr is also a graphic designer, with ethnic patterns and world music the main themes appearing in his works, his graphics and designs have gained worldwide reputation for their cross cultural atmosphere.

For many years Danka van Dodewaard was acquainted with world music program of advanced music theatres and venue's like RASA, Melkweg and Korzo. At the moment she is the artistic and general director of Amsterdam Roots Festival, an international, multidisciplinary festival that introduces exceptional and current music styles as well as other disciplines, like circus, dance, spoken word and talks about roots & identity related subjects. Amsterdam Roots shows the different faces of our global society through this fascinating diversity.

I am working for CJ Cultural Foundation, the only Korean corporate foundation to support young and talented artists in the pop culture industry. I am especially in charge of TUNE UP, a primary business of CJ Cultural Foundation that is discovering and supporting new indie Korean musicians. I am also managing Youtube "azit live," an online platform and stage to promote new musicians and their music nationally and globally. It has been consistently introducing various music through unique production styles and stage designs which is undoubtedly one-of-a-kind.