The inaugural Music Cork industry conference, social gathering and showcase event will bring together a list of professionals from all areas of the music business.

This will include the President of Island Records, Darcus Beese; agents Geoff Meall (UTA), Steve Zapp (ITB) and Josh Javor (X-Ray) who respectively represent the likes of Muse, Biffy Clyro and Coldplay; publishing experts Martin Toher (B-Unique) and Tommas Arby (Locomotion); Kodaline and Stephanie Rainey manager, Ricardo Zambak, and Rob Stevenson, Executive VP of Republic Records who’s worked with the likes of The Killers, Katy Perry, Jessie J, The Weeknd and James Bay. It's a seriously heavyweight affair, which promises to entertain and illuminate in equal measure.

Ahead of the event, we spoke with one of the driving forces behind Indiependence festival, Shane Dunne (pictured second from right), who talks about the why the time was right to head to Cork...

“With the greatest respect to the capital and all its attributes, we wanted somewhere that’s not Dublin because we wanted everything to be within walking distance and where you can almost, for a few days, take-over the city,” Shane reflects.

Having a compact city will no doubt draw comparisons between Cork and the likes of SXSW setting in Austin, or Eurosonic in Groningen.

“We also liked the idea of it being somewhere that most of the speakers hadn’t previously been," Shane says. Part of, say, Darcus Beese’s willingness to come-over is his being able to explore a new city. Another part is the success of Kodaline, Hozier and The Script, and the next generation of acts that we’re showcasing. From an A&R perspective, Ireland’s on fire at the moment.”

Tickets for MusicCork start at €105 for earlybird passes, and €155 for Delegate passes. See musiccork.com for more details.

Stay tuned throughout this week and next as we meet more of Ireland's industry professionals, who talk about why this event has them excited.