The mentors —
Yvan Boudillet
Vp, Public Policy, Utopia Music
A creative industry and innovation expert with over 19 years of experience, Yvan Boudillet is VP, Public Policy at Utopia Music where he leads the interface with the company’s broad ecosystem in order to foster dialogue, cooperation & education efforts.
Prior to joining Utopia, Boudillet founded advisory company TheLynk, where he contributed to drive innovation within the music ecosystem by enabling connection & collaboration between music organizations or institutions, artists, and startups. Yvan previously held leading roles in digital transformation and management at Warner Music and EMI Music.
In April 2020, he co-founded with 8 partner organizations including Music Innovation Hub a Pan-European remote hackathon and accelerator called #NextStageChallenge, as a way to devise solutions for artists and the music sector during the pandemic.
A regular international speaker (SXSW, Wallifornia, Slush Music, Sonar+D, Midem, Music Inc. India, 4YFN, ISMIR, Eurosonic, Linecheck, Athens Music Week…) and lecturer specialized in the intersection between innovation & creative industries, Yvan has been a prominent voice advocating for inclusive & collaborative innovation across the music value chain.
Vienna Eleuteri
Sustainability and Regenerative Development Senior Advisor
Vienna Eleuteri is a distinguished Anthropologist and Sustainability Scientist.
She has coordinated several international projects in sustainable and regenerative development. Vienna works with governments and communities to introduce sustainable practices and adaptive technologies that reduce the vulnerability to climate change and promote sustainable development.
Vienna is the founder and scientific director of the Waterevolution model, an innovative platform that promotes sustainable scientific-based approaches to support the industrial transition tackling the challenges of a climate neutral, circular economy. It aims to form strong links to the UN Climate Agreement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2030.
Vienna has contributed to establish a new standard in the music industry, transitioning from offsetting to a more current climate contribution system. This involves the innovate Regenerative Contribution Units methodology, integrating environmental and socioeconomic performance to achieve Environmental Product Declaration and net-zero objectives.
Laurent Peckels
Founder, Percussion Tutor
Laurent Peckels is a bass player, app developer and music teacher from Luxembourg. In addition to his engagements in various musical projects, such as theaquaticmuseum.com or the Luxembourg Jazz Orchestra Big Band, his dedication to his craft is evident in his educational background, which includes a Master in Music, a Master in Law, and a Mastère from the esteemed HEC Business School in Paris and Telecom Paris. He teaches at the Maastricht Conservatorium while concurrently studying South-Indian Rhythmical Techniques at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In addition to his musical pursuits, he enjoys blending his passion for technology and music by developing music apps with a team of outstanding musicians and engineers. Some of his notable projects include the well-received ‘PercussionTutor’ and the upcoming ‘FlamencoTutor’ app, featuring Grammy Award winner Niño de Los Reyes
Turo Pekari
Innovation and Business Developer, Music Finland
Turo is a music industry executive and innovation specialist based in Helsinki. He leads international operations, innovation & insights at Music Finland. Turo is also a co-founder of European music innovation network Music Tech Europe. He has 14+ years experience in the music industry and as an expert of digital transformation & innovation for Finnish Govt and EU. Turo is contributing as an expert and coach to numerous startup and music business programs in Europe and he is a frequent speaker at leading global music and tech events.
Damiano Picci
CEO and Studio Director, Velvet Flare
Damiano Picci is the CEO and studio director of Velvet Flare, a creative entrepreneur, and a contemporary digital music composer from Luxembourg. After studying music at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Darmstadt on the topic of conceptualizing and designing musical interactive artificial intelligence based on supervised learning, Damiano Picci founded his first company in 2018. Following an enriching tenure at Galaxy Studios in Antwerp, where he gained invaluable experience in spatial sound and orchestral music, Damiano returned to Luxembourg. His focus shifted towards composing music for dance, theater, and immersive installations. He adeptly merges traditional composition techniques with the design of musical interactive artificial intelligences and generative music systems, continuously bridging the gap between music and coding. Since then, in collaboration with his partners, he has established seven companies that delve into various cultural and media sectors, all the while developing the professional growth of Luxembourg’s creative industries. Owing to his strategic vision and diverse skills, Damiano has executed a plethora of projects, ranging from promoting performing artists to conceptualizing immersive media installations, ensuring every creative niche benefits from his expertise.
Matthias Röder
Music & Technology Strategist
Managing Director, Karajan Institute
Director, Beethoven AI
Dr. Matthias Röder is an award-winning music and technology strategist and director of the Beethoven AI project. He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at The Mindshift, a consultancy on creative leadership and innovation strategy. Matthias currently serves as a board member of the Karajan Foundation and is the Managing Director of the Eliette and Herbert von Karajan Institute. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Mozarteum Foundation. Matthias founded the Karajan Music Tech Conference, a cross-industry event to promote breakthrough technologies in music, media and audio. He is also the founder of the Classical Music Hack Day series. Together with his partner, Seda Röder, Matthias co-founded the Sonophilia Foundation, a non-profit that supports and promotes scientific research into creativity. Matthias has won numerous prizes and accolades for his work, including an Effie Bronce for the completion of Beethoven’s 10th symphony with AI and the Game Changer” Award of the Chamber of Commerce Salzburg. He is a sought-after speaker and lecturer who has taught at Harvard University, the Change & Innovation Management Program at University of St. Gall, and Salzburg University. He holds a PhD in music from Harvard University and is an alumnus of the Mozarteum University Salzburg.
Thais Ruiz
de Alda
Founder and Executive Director, DigitalFems
Thais founded and currently is DigitalFems’ Executive Director, a nonprofit social entity that provides services related to diversity and gender policies to technological companies, public administrations, and entities. She has developed her career in digital and tech scopes since 1999.
Before founding DigitalFems, Thais was Managing Director at Thoughtworks, where besides starting up the company’s operations, she also founded LaT, a technopolitical citizen lab focused on tech sovereignty, privacy, and social digital innovation. She also founded the European Chapter for CAD, Centro de Autonomía Digital and she led the Communication Digital Strategy at Barcelona’s city hall. As the Executive Director and Founder of DigitalFems, she leads projects and provides services related to gender inclusion in technological companies and coordinates different projects such as DatosContraElRuido.org, GenderDataLab, Tecnologas.org, and EllesMusic.
Thais holds a Law Degree and postgraduate studies in Social and Political Theory, and Cultural Public Policies, and studied a Ph.D. in Political Theory and Public Policies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
Thais participates regularly as a speaker and has given talks at Biennal of Thought, Digital Future Society, SharingCities, Institut Català de la Dona, FAD, DecidimFest, Jornadas Derecho Digitales, CCCB, Les Naus. Thais has been mentioned in different media and books. Thais is also a regular mentor to tech projects
Digitalfems is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to boost the presence of women in tech and promote gender design-centric technology. The main areas of activity are workshops, tech gender perspective consultancy, reports and gender data projects. Digitalfems is a regular advisor to governments and companies. To achieve a greater presence of women in technological environments, the organization works with and for companies, institutions, and academia. All of these areas are covered through specific programs or projects that are designed to help women in technology. Its main goal is to achieve accessible technology under ethical principles and be respectful with society diversity.
Pep
Salazar
Director, OFFF Festival
Pep Salazar is CEO at OFFF, a global platform for the creative industry that sets the trends for new imagery in the fields of design, art, and post-digital culture. He is the director of Digital Impact (April–August 2023, Disseny Hub Barcelona), the first large-scale exhibition of digital art in Spain. His professional expertise is closely linked to the creative and digital sector and has led him to become an executive director of the OFFF festival with over 40 editions held in Barcelona and worldwide. He has collaborated with such projects as Sónar, Teatre Lluire, CCCB, Fura dels Baus, L’Auditori, Mobile World Congress, among others.
Aga Samitowska
Music business professional and Web3 consultant
Aga Samitowska is a music business professional and Web3 consultant, passionate about new technologies in the creative industry. For nearly a decade, she was associated with Kayax – an independent record label based in Warsaw. As the Head of Digital Distribution, she was responsible for modernizing distribution in response to the dynamic development of streaming platforms. She managed major Polish artists (Brodka, Nosowska) and initiated the My Name Is New incubator for young talents. She also pursued her curiosity for new technologies in San Francisco, California, working for the venture capital fund Fifty Years. Today, Aga focuses on the MusicTech and Web3 space, offering training and advisory for the creative industry. She gave her first talk on Blockchain and Music in 2017.
Matthias Strobel
President, Music Tech Germany
Matthias Strobel is the President of MusicTech Germany, the Federal Association for Music Technology in Germany, and founder of Wicked Artists, a booking agency for exceptionally creative technology and new media artists. He is Germany’s main point of contact for music technology innovation and his network of entrepreneurs, industry executives, researchers, and his connections to (inter)national policy makers, and media representatives make him one of Europe’s renowned experts in that area.Matthias Strobel serves as a consultant, mentor, and independent manager to help accelerate avant-garde approaches from startups. Determined to further the innovative potential – and thus future success – of artists and entrepreneurs, he uses his experience and leverages his network to help create the music ecosystem of tomorrow. He gives lectures about music technology at Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at the University of New York Berlin and facilitates events on innovation for the music ecosystem to foster the knowledge transfer between visionaries from all intersections of the creative industries.
Georgia Taglietti
Founder & CEO, The ICNAC
Born in Brescia, Italy in 1965, Georgia has worked for Advanced Music / Sónar festival from 1995, as the Communications & Digital Director, developing and implementing the brand message across all communication channels specially on the social networks and international level as well as developing an effective PR & marketing strategy. During the years, Georgia has been actively participating as guest lecturer and speaker to various events worldwide and teaching digital communication and marketing in various masters for Spanish universities and abroad. Currently she is mentoring various start up and companies focused on circular economy, sustainability and non profit activities. Georgia is also a board member of the international women in music platform shesaid.so.
M. Stella Tavella
AI Engineer and Sound Designer, Musixmatch and Italian Music Tech
M. Stella Tavella is a Senior AI Engineering Manager currently working at Musixmatch, with 6+ years expertise in the music-tech field. Her background and main focus is on using artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques for music information retrieval (MIR).
She has an M.Sc. in computer science and engineering, with a specialization in sound and music engineering.
She is also an electronic music producer and DJ, experimenting with music & sound generative models.She is the co-founder of the Italian Music-Tech Community as well as a co-host of The Mix Podcast, a podcast by Musixmatch demystifying the field of music technology.
Sakis
Triantafyllakis
Senior Director of Strategy, Orfium
Sakis is leading various strategic and growth initiatives at Orfium, a global tech leader in music rights management and monetisation solutions. He loves everything about startups, tech and music and has been mentoring various early stage startups. Thanks to his entrepreneurial background, Sakis knows a lot about the challenges, struggles, the highs and lows when starting a venture from scratch . Father of twins, Panathinaikos fan, nothing scares him. He loves music, beer, whisky and good food (not in that order necessarily). Don’t be a stranger, feel free to connect with Sakis on Linkedin.
