John Watson is the owner and President of both John Watson Management and the successful indie label, Eleven: a music company. Over the last six years JWM and Eleven have helped deliver either gold or multi-platinum albums for every artist on their rosters. John’s biggest local success over recent years is singer/songwriter Missy Higgins. Her acclaimed releases, “The Sound Of White” and “On A Clear Night” were the highest selling Australian albums of 2005 and 2007 respectively and have made Missy one of the country’s most popular and highly regarded live performers.

Glenn Wheatley’s 40 year career in the entertainment industry is centred around contemporary music. His business interests have expanded to encompass sport, film, television, radio, mobile and internet. 

Glenn has played a pivotal role in the Australian contemporary music business, managing and promoting Australian artists locally and overseas including John Farnham, Australian Crawl, Ross Wilson, Pseudo Echo and Delta Goodrem.

In 1986, his record label Wheatley Records produced Farnham’s album Whispering Jack, which remains Australia’s biggest selling album by a local artist. Delta Goodrem's debut album Innocent Eyes is Australia's second highest selling album by an Australian artist giving Glenn the honour of the two highest selling Australian albums.

A direct involvement in radio started in 1980 when he was a founding director of Melbourne based EON-FM (now 3MMM FM). EON FM was the first commercial FM radio station to go to air in Australia.

In 1987 he negotiated a series of acquisitions which resulted in the amalgamation of Wheatley Communications into Hoyts Media.

Glenn played an integral role in the formation of the national Triple M FM radio network.

From 1987 to 1989 he was managing director of the publicly listed Hoyts Media before the sale of the Triple M network into Austereo.

Glenn has been a recipient of the Advance Australia Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Entertainment Industry and the Business Review Weekly Australia’s Business Award for Marketing. He has been a director and part owner of the Sydney Swans Football Club and a board member of AUSMUSIC, Tourism Task Force, the AIDS Trust of Australia and a Council Member for Screen Sound Australia (formally the National Sound and Film Archive). In 1999 Glenn was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame (Masters Apprentices).



 

David Vodicka is the principal of entertainment law firm Media Arts Lawyers and has had extensive experience with almost 20 years practice representing musicians, artists, performers, composers, recording, production, management and publishing entities. He has dealt in all facets of law affecting the creative industries, and has had considerable hands on experience in the music recording and publishing fields as director of independent label Rubber Records and music publisher Rubber Music Publishing. He presently is chairman of the board of AIR (the Australian Independent Record labels association), Vice President of WIN (Worldwide Independent Network), a current board member of MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival) and ARIA (Australia Recording Industry Association)

Luke came to Australia in October 2007, as Digital Sales & Marketing Director for Universal Music Australia, hoping to make full use of digital means to break Australian Artists. He is more than happy to be here, and excited about the prospect of working and breaking artists through digital marketing and retail channels. Plus, he loves the fact he can watch the cricket in his office. Luke was born and raised in Leicester, England. After being lucky enough to get to Magdalen College, Oxford University when 18, he decided that he wished to be neither an academic or be lawyer.

After graduating from the University of Queensland with a degree in Psychology, Brett Murrihy followed his passion for music and began working for Australia's biggest Music Agency, The Harbour Agency. Now as a Senior Booking Agent with over ten years experience Brett works with some of Australia's key artists. With a stable ranging from Empire of the sun to Paul Kelly, Evermore, The Temper Trap, Operator please, Thirsty Merc, Faker and The Panics represents artists both Nationally and Internationally. Brett is also a co-founder of posse.com; a innovative web ticketing company exploding throughout Australia, US & the UK.

Dan Bessant has been a key member of the Australian music industry over the past 15 years and is best known for his role in the launch and rise of the Nova radio network. Dan’s radio career began in WA in 1995. Dan spent over 12 years with DMG Radio Australia and, after a brief stint with his own consulting business, he’s now responsible for the direction and content across Channel [V], [V]2 and MAX for XYZNetworks. He spent 6 years at radio stations around the country in varying roles including announcing, production and as a music director.