The Winter Music Conference is a weeklong electronic dance music event, held every March since the mid-1980s in South Florida. It is aimed at professionals such as artists, DJs, record label representatives (A&R), producers, promoters, radio and the media.
Founded in 1985 by then DJs and Record Pool Directors Louis Possenti and Bill Kelly. The first Winter Music Conference took place at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott in February 1986 with approximately 80 dance music industry insiders in attendance. The event festivities are presented across Miami Beach, and Downtown Miami. The major event is the International Dance Music Awards. The event has major international draw, with around 38% of attendees coming from outside the United States. The conference serves as a platform for several underground and indie artists from over 70 different countries which gather at events and panels; it is also a medium used by several entrepreneurs and consumer electronic companies to present their businesses and technological developments.
The WMC & The Recording Academy began in 1996 a partnership presenting The Producers Forum, a gathering of legendary artists.[2] Waxpoetics Magazine, JBL, and Stanton sponsored the first International Record Collectors Show in 2007.[1] In 2009 the WMC introduced the first annual WMC VJ Challenge at The Miami Beach Resort & Spa with celebrity hosts, judges, and VJs from various parts of the world hosted by VJ Psyberpxie and Felix Sama. The Miami Beach Resort also received the performance of the RoboMusic Demo in which Funkstar De Luxe and RoboProfessor (Henrik Hautop Lund) create live interactive compositions of RoboMusic.
