If you were in Austin last week we’re sure you noticed Canada had another huge presence there. On our end, we hosted our annual Canadian Blast BBQ & Showcase plus 5 nights and 4 days at Canada House (located at Friends bar).We couldn’t have been prouder to have such a diverse group of Canadian bands represented on all the shows.
Thanks to the many artists, teams behind them, and especially all of our Canada House daytime hosts including MusicOntario, Alberta Music, SaskMusic, Manitoba Music, MROC, MuchFACT, Light Organ Records, Hidden Pony, New Canadian Music, The City of Toronto and Austin-Toronto Music Cities Alliance. Thanks also to the nighttime presenters at Canada House including Beat Academy, MusicOntario, Breakout West, Canadian Music Week and Halifax Pop Explosion.
Some companies, in the interactive field, kicked off their SXSW at the Canada Stand and were lucky to catch a handful of Canadian Musicians performing on the stand as well. Thanks again to OMDC for hosting a networking meet and greet on the stand. Our music companies participating in our initiative got to bring out their VIPs to the BBQ and meet other industry from around the world – a total of 3000 punters and fans joined our 10 year celebration of the Canadian Blast initiative in Brush Square this year. A special thanks goes to our host with the most, Duane “D.O.” Gibson.
Excellent speed meetings and round table sessions were held over at the British Embassy during two days of Country Connections as well. Thanks to our partners from the UKTI/AIM and Sounds Australia for collaborating to provide these great business opportunities to our delegates. Also, thanks to the MMF Canada for using Canada House for their own networking session as well – all great opportunities for the Canadian delegation to take advantage of in Austin.
A huge thanks goes out to our amazing SXSW team of contractors and volunteers. We at CIMA could not run this event year after year without each and every one of you. Jennifer Price, thanks for leading the charge on our SXSW initiative every year and for all the help from your Upstart Ink team – we couldn’t do this without you. Thanks to Joel & Erin and Creative Controls’ production team, Erin & Rebecca and the eEK Marketing and street team, Cara & Amanda, our publicists from BFM, Marlene on the Canada Stand, Coralie and SOCAN, Carley and the High Beam gang, Hunan and the team at Friends, Brad and Luann from SXSW and all of their team, in particular, our nighttime stage manager, Jessica at Canada House. Thanks to Todd & Stephen on the graphics. A big shout out to team CIMA for surviving another SXSW, especially all of our gang working quietly behind the scenes on one of our biggest events. It’s certainly takes a village!
CIMA gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our Canadian partners and sponsors: Canadian Music Week (CMW), the City of Toronto, Corus Entertainment, the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR), the Government of Canada (through MEC/Canadian Heritage), Harvard Broadcasting, Music Managers Forum Canada, Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC), the Radio Starmaker Fund, and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN).