When it comes to programming Western Australia's premier music conference WAMCon, the responsibility primarily falls on the shoulders of West Australian Music (WAM) Industry Development Officer, Claire Hodgson.
“It's a really interesting process actually because it's kind of chicken and the egg,” Claire laughs.
“There are ideas that I find across the year and sometimes it's sparked by a conversation with friends about a particular aspect that I personally feel is really interesting and needs to be talked about more publicly.
"Other times it's from articles, or it's from the speakers themselves that they could be a specialist in one area and have an immense amount of knowledge to share.”
For Claire, the big fish she's hooked for this year's conference is none other than legendary UK DJ and trendsetter Don Letts, who will be delivering the keynote address. “The keynote speaker, Don Letts, he's a music history icon,” Claire says.
“He got all the UK punks into reggae back in the '70s and as far as I hear he's an encyclopaedia when it comes to music knowledge.
“He still DJs a lot, even though he's into his 60s now, and he's also a radio presenter on BBC as well in the UK, so an amazing, interesting individual who has a lot of commentary on the notion of race in music, and obviously he was instrumental in creating this amazing scene where people from the reggae scene who were maybe of African or Caribbean descent were hanging out with skinny white boy and girl punk-rockers.”
WAMCon 2018 presents another full programme of presentations, workshops, panels, masterclasses and more with local, national and international industry representatives as part of 2018 WAMFest.
In order for WAMCon to cover the wide berth of issues and topics affecting the music industry, Claire says she puts particular emphasis on curating a line-up of speakers that offer varying perspectives and experiences for the audience to consider.
“It's very much about desegregating those conversations and diversifying the perspectives that are coming through on every single panel,” she says.
“It's not always possible, but I do always make sure there's female representation on every panel, ideally 50-50 representation – not always possible, but we try.
"Then looking beyond that as well: different cultural perspectives, different heritages, and also genres and ages because age is one thing that gets missed a lot in these equality conversations, and it's a huge factor in the industry.”
Seeing the WA music scene as a fertile breeding ground for some of the country's best emerging talent, Claire says her most pressing concern when programming the Con is making sure bands and artists have all the support they need to make the most of their careers.
“For me, ultimately, it's about creating really interesting, diverse conversations that are very much about equalising and balancing through having all those perspectives instead of just one perspective all the time; and mixing it up and having fun as well – it's meant to be a good time.”
