After two successful US conferences, Making Vinyl heads to Europe for the first time. The B2B conference will celebrate vinyl’s rebirth on May 3 at the legendary Hansa Studios here, where David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, U2, R.E.M. others recorded LPs.
Produced by the Colonial Purchasing Cooperative, Making Vinyl is fueled by the comeback of a physical format pegged for instinction, but now reemerges as a deluxe product that has seen double-digit growth for more than a decade.
Attended by first 300+ from 16 countries, the initial two conferences featured top executives from the world’s top pressing plants, as well as newcomers in the market, and other professionals throughout the vinyl value chain, including mastering, plating, packaging, raw materials suppliers and machinery vendors.
“We had a hunch that we were onto something with a B2B conference devoted to vinyl’s comeback, and the outpouring of comments that it’s been the best business conference they’ve ever attended has been especially gratifying,” says Making Vinyl executive producer Bryan Ekus, president of Colonial Purchasing, which is collaborating with the MEDIA-TECH Association on the Berlin event next spring.
MEDIA-TECH will kick off the event on May 2 with “The World Physical Media,” a conference focused on optical media and other entertainment distribution formats. That evening at 6 p.m. the two organizations will co-host a welcome party, and on May 3 Making Vinyl will take over with a full-day specialized program. “The Colonial/MEDIA-TECH partnership is symbolic of the current end-to-end collaboration and cooperation in setting best practices for the vinyl pressing industry,” Ekus added.
Making Vinyl will return to the U.S. in mid-October 2019.