Panelists

Here is the overview of the people who will talk during the conference.

Czech panelists

Jana Alexová

Jana is responsible for the music programming at the Municipal Theatre in Znojmo. As the head of production at Znojemská Beseda, he contributes to the organisation of the Znojmo Historical Wine Festival and other events.

Petr "Kužel" Blažek

Manager, sound engineer, producer, label owner, founder of 420 Production & My Se Ozvem agencies . As a manager he has worked with top artists in the field of world, electronic and pop music. He has a crucial role to play in the success of Mydy Rabycad band, with which he has traveled 20 countries on 4 continents.

He pays the same care with his team to the increasingly respected Aiko, Vesna, Noisy Pots, badfocus, Undo Redo and more. In 2024 he was elected as a vice president of world music managers association IMMF.

Tomáš Foltán

Former PRist and marketer, now music and public news journalist. He gained experience in PR and marketing mainly at the Brno Music Marathon and the Lednice-Valtice Music Festival. Now he works as a music journalist for the online magazine Frontman and also as a news editor at Czech Television Brno and editor of the ČT24 night broadcast. He studied journalism (MUNI), music management (JAMU) and is completing management in culture (MUNI).

Barbora Hančíková

Graduated hydrobiologist, who would only live half a life without life's challenges and sports. If she's not overcoming obstacles on her bike, she's skiing, swimming, running or training others to do tricks on their bikes too. She doesn't know the word can't at work and believes every problem can always be solved.

Miroslav Hasa

Music dramaturg at Sklub in Olomouc since 2017. He started in Prostějov, where he was co-owner of the Apollo 13 music club from 2003 to 2017. In addition, he currently runs Music bar 27 (also in Prostějov), where he organizes concerts mainly by local bands. Every summer, he co-organizes the Na Pohodlí country festival.

Jan Hlaváč

Publisher, label owner, writer, producer and marketer in the field of culture. He heads the Daranus publishing house and is a co-owner of the Creative Booster company, which, among other things, deals with the implementation of special projects for music groups. The company has established several trading e-shops with merchandising. He designs, produces and optimizes merchandising portfolios for music groups and individuals and provides consulting services in the field of sales strategy.

Lucie Janečková

Lucie Janeckova is an experienced lawyer with over 20 years in the music industry, working in areas like record labels, publishing, and Performing Rights Organizations (PROs). She enjoys finding new ways to make things work smoothly, and she wants to bring the role of music supervisor to the Czech Republic. Lucie believes this will help streamline productions and give musicians more opportunities for synchronization. With her strong connections and knowledge of both the business and creative sides of music, Lucie is excited to help the industry grow and create new opportunities for artists.


Jan Jůzl

Co-owner of the Dock Club in Ostrava, where he primarily handles programming. He also organizes the summer event "Pěší zóna Malá Kodaň" (Pedestrian Zone Little Copenhagen).

Kristina Kratochvílová

A music journalist regularly contributing to the cultural section of Deník N and the music magazine Full Moon. She has also published in the music magazine Headliner, the fashion magazine VOGUE, the lifestyle magazine ELLE, the cultural magazine Bigg Magg, the weekly magazine Euro, and its supplement Hipster. She is also the booking agent and manager of the band Good Times Only.

Martin E. Kyšperský

Composer, lyricist, singer, and occasional actor. He has been involved in numerous cultural projects, performed countless shows, and is a four-time winner of the Anděl Award. At the beginning of the millennium, he founded the band Květy, which he still leads today. He also owns a studio where he produces music for other artists as well as for film and theater productions.

Barbora Magulová

For the past 4 years, she has been working as a designer in the Brno studio B team. She studied digital design in Zlín at UTB. She specializes in motion, unique visual identities and the creation of unmistakable campaigns. She likes to use the convenience of AI for her work, this is exactly the topic she will address in a creative workshop called "AI and I" or How to yous AI as an assistant in branding.

Barbora Mikolášiková

The lecturer, doctoral student and practising music manager works mainly at the Department of Music Production of the JAMU Faculty of Music and as a freelancer. He collaborates with the bands Universe B and Emerald Shine. The focus of her doctoral studies is on live performance of music, especially from an organiser's perspective. He regularly consults the portfolios of performers and music ensembles. In her free time, she is an active singer, performs in the quintet Anonymní Metalisti and is the Open House Brno architecture festival manager.

Márton Náray

Márton Náray has been working in the creative and cultural sector for 20 years. During this time he had the opportunity to explore the music industry through a 360° viewpoint, as a record store manager, a festival programmer (Sziget Festival, Babel Sound, European Music Day…) a booking agent, a project manager for a governmental music export agency (Music Export in Hungary and Czech Republic), a city program manager, a conference organizer (regiON, SoundQuest, Overhead), club promoter, tour manager, musician, radio presenter, and of course as a music addict.

Zdeněk Neusar

PR specialist and editor-in-chief at Frontman.cz (online) magazine. As a PR person, he stood behind the success of Czech bands like Midi Lidi, Zrní, Bratři Orffové, Ventolin nebo Dukla. He´s part of the team of Vinyla music award and also Beseda u bigbítu festival (director 1999-2010, now he´s responsible for PR, supervision and dramaturgy). He´s also working for the famous Radio 1.

Michal "Majkláč" Novák

Jakub Nový

Program Director of Prague Music Week, Vice-Chairman of the Union of Authors and Performers (SAI), Chairman of the Czech Music Community (ČOH), as well as an enthusiastic musician and organizer of smaller concerts. He has long been dedicated to educating musicians about copyright law and advocating for the music sector and culture.

Barbora Poláková

Bára Poláková is a five-time winner of the Anděl music awards, which her first two albums brought her. In May 2023, her third album ON/OFF was released. She is the author or co-author of texts and music and co-author of the themes of her video clips. One of them, the clip for the song "2-8-5" was also appreciated by the jury of Music Ally Sendbox in London. Barbora Poláková's official YouTube channel currently has a total of 98 million views.

In recent years, she is more at home on musical than theater stages, but as an actress she appeared in several successful films: Bábovky, Prvok, Šampón, Tečka a Karel, Kvarteto or Krajina ve štín. For the last two, she received a nomination for the Czech Lion. In March 2024, he will then appear together with Lukáš Příkazký in the lead role of the movie Holidays with Brouček. Together with David Hlaváč, she created the title songs "PoloVina" and "Voda" for the film Bábovky and the film Mazel and the Secret of the Forest.


Jiří Pospíšil

For twenty-five years, he has been a promoter of independent culture in Brno. He is the music programmer for the Kabinet MÚZ club, the curator of a vinyl store, and the publisher at Kabinet Records.

Lukáš Rychtařík

Artistic Director of Championship Music
Music publisher and a creative agency

Jiří Sedlák

Since 2003, he has been working as a freelancer in the fields of cultural marketing, advertising, and PR. He works not only on music projects, but also on events related to theatre, new circus, and audiobooks. For twenty years, he managed all communication, promotion, and advertising for the Colours of Ostrava festival and has organized hundreds of concerts, both large and small, including performances by Radiohead and Massive Attack. His current projects include festivals such as JazzFestBrno, Pop Messe, and Cirk La Putyka, as well as Jatka78 and the Audiobook of the Year. In his free time, he enjoys walking, drinking, reading, photographing, and getting plenty of sleep.

Dan Sywala

Music journalist working in the ČT art, ČRo Jazz or Full Moon teams. He has been organizing The Music Digest listening programs for a long time in the Prague club Palác Akropolis and also travels abroad with thematic programs in cooperation with the SoundCzech agency.

He is mainly devoted to interviews, and his most famous guests included, among others, Adam Clayton (U2), Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica), Stewart Copeland (The Police), Richard Kruspe (Rammstein), Andrea Bocelli or Goran Bregović. In 2018 and 2019, when he worked as a culture reporter at Televizi Seznam, Slash, Kiss and Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) also appeared.

Jiří Trubák

He would describe himself as a passionate music lover. He is dedicated to running two music clubs, where he tries to bring unforgettable musical events. His work requires not only creativity but also a lot of effort and diligence to offer the best experience to guests. He started running music events recreationally 19 years ago and professionally 13 years ago at R-klub Chrudim and then Zlutý pes in Pardubice. At this moment, he has organized over 850 musical events as an operator and dramaturg.

Jan Vedral

He is the editor-in-chief of the most widely read Czech music magazine Headliner. He also serves as a chairman of the board of the Czech Academy of Music, which awards the Anděl Music Awards, and is a co-creator of the music series Doupě on CT Art. He is the author of the books Miro Žbírka: Up Close, Incredible Ivan Král, Roy Ellis: Skinhead Boss and many others. As a screenwriter, he worked on the documentaries Meky and Ivan - King of Three Chords. He is one third of the voice of the podcast revue NOTY VOLE and has been an active musician on the Czech music scene for many years. He played the saxophone in the bands The Chancers and All Mad Here, and currently works with the London-based Original Gravity Records.



Ivan Zaťko

Ivan has been raising funds through crowdfunding for almost ten years. It started its journey with a $2 million Kickstarter campaign. Since then, he has managed to implement more than 300 crowdfunding campaigns. More than 2 years ago, Ivan took on the role of Country Manager for Donio, the fastest-growing fundraising platform in Slovakia.

Panelists from abroad

Patrycja Bukowska (PL)

Patrycja Bukowska is a music supervisor based in Warsaw, Poland. She has been working in the industry for over 20 years, starting as a director for Fremantle Media Polska, directing TV Shows such as X-Factor, Idols, Poland's Got Talent. Since 2005 her major has focused on music supervising. She holds over 200 film and TV series credits for her name, including many awarded titles. Her education background from Polish National Film School in Łódź as well as musical background helps her to connect director's vision with composers talent.

Steve Farris (USA)

Steve is a music consultant with a background in music publishing A&R. His consultancy, Steve Farris Music, offers music publishing advice, sync representation/licensing, catalogue optimisation, artist development and mentoring. Steve has carved out a niche in the music business where he supports and advises artists, songwriters, managers, startups and various business owners/CEO’s to achieve their goals.

Steve Farris Music’s services have been employed by the following companies: JUMP European Market Accelerator, BIMM, Faction Music, Sound Czech, Leeds Conservatoire, Scruff Of The Neck, HEMI Music Hub, AKQA, PRS Foundation, MVKA, Access Creative, Jafra Productions, University Of Highlands & Islands, Get Moments, Sync About It and Scratch My Progress.

Darren James-Thomas (UK)

Sebastian Król (DE)

Co-founder of the independent record label and PR agency Backseat, which collaborates with folk, indie, and pop artists from around the world. In 2021, he co-founded the platform Fanklub, which enables musicians to communicate directly with their core community and secure a stable monthly income through the support of their most loyal fans. He is also an active musician himself, and he loves coffee, good people, and literature.

Miha Prebil (SLO)

Miha is the Chief Product Officer at Viberate, a leading music analytics platform providing real-time insights into the industry. With a PhD in Business and over 10 years of experience leading product teams, Miha is committed to using data to empower artists and industry professionals, enhancing transparency and accessibility in the music business.


Arnold Travieso (VE)

Arnold De Vries Van Leeuwen, known in the web3 sphere as Arnold Travieso, continues to spearhead transformative initiatives at the nexus of music and blockchain technology. With a compelling presence as a public speaker since 2021, Arnold is dedicated to empowering musicians with innovative monetization strategies and disruptive insights.

His flagship project, Crypto Musica XYZ, has left an indelible mark on over 3000 musicians across LATAM and Europe through conferences and workshops. Notably, the AMF Conference 22 (Andalucia Music Forum) Organized by Live Nation Spain and MMF Latam NFTs and Smart Contracts 21, events offered invaluable insights into groundbreaking avenues for music industry professionals, guided by exceptional teams of visionaries.

Andra Vasile (RO)

Sync manager and A&R administrator at Global Records, one of the most prominent independent record labels in CEE. Andra has over 12 years of experience in several sectors of the music business including PR and communication, concert promotion, event organising (from music camps to music awards ceremonies and festivals), artist management, booking, A&R and sync. Some of the events include artists such as Placebo, The Hollywood Vampires, Slash, Metallica, etc.. She took part in organising and communicating Michael Bolton’s concert in Cairo in 2016. In the sync area she worked with clients such as Vodafone, Netflix, Sky TV Channel, About You, Amazon or Fashion Days. Andra has been working for the past 10 years as a PR Manager for East European Comic Con and in the last two years has been a part of the Beach, Please! team, the biggest urban festival in Europe, handling the soundcheck schedule. In 2023, she co-founded, together with Adina Popescu, Sync About It, the first 3 day conference and music camp in the CEE focused exclusively on music synchronization, which will take place in 19-21 February 2025 in Bucharest.

Ben Yonas (USA)

Ben Yonas is a Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated music producer/engineer and artist manager. His credits include a diverse range of artists such as Mos Def, Estelle, TV On The Radio, Ledisi, Mickey Hart, Sammy Hagar, and Rubén Blades. He currently manages a roster of artists, including Grammy winner Rizo, Grammy-nominated violinist Jeremy Kittel, Grammy-nominated hip hop duo Los Rakas, and the Latin Grammy-nominated band Making Movies. Past management clients include Grateful Dead drummer, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Mickey Hart and Oakland Hip Hop duo Zion I.

Over the past twenty years, Yonas has developed his production company, Yonas Media. The independent production company is dedicated to supporting artists and their recordings. Yonas Media’s goal is to be a cooperative launching pad for musicians who have an original approach to creating and performing music.


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