SWMC 2009 in Sochi

I was in Sochi in Southern Russia for SWMC at the beginning of February. SWMC (Sochi Winter Music Conference) is Russia's answer to the Miami Winter Music Conference, smaller in scale, but now an essential part of the Russian clubbing calendar - if only to witness the drunken antics of Russia's superstar DJs in a concentrated space :-D

Sochi is a seaside resort on the Black Sea, and was popular as a resting place during Soviet times. These days, it resembles similar resorts in other parts of the world in both positive and negative ways - great weather, nice beaches, fantastic nightlife, a lot of tourist-oriented construction projects, garish hotels, hideously expensive seafront restaurants and more. It's also going to be the site for the 2014 Winter Olympics (snow-tipped mountains are a short drive away), so it's currently the recipient of a lot of government investment. It seems to be thriving, no visible signs of the financial crisis here.

The conference itself was very interesting from a local dance music industry aspect and from a networking point of view. The daytime forums seemed to be little more than self-promotional platforms for the guest speakers, but then this is the norm for music forums (and I do have a slightly cynical viewpoint, and maybe a touch of conference fatigue, having done the rounds of Midem, WMC, Popkomm and ADE during my tenure as A&R at a large indie during the late 90s).

The real action (as always at these kinds of events) takes place in the hotel lobby or during the night-time events. Particularly fun was a vodka and khimkal'naya fuelled get together at the local stalovka, with Agent Smith, Bobina, Denis A and a whole crew of DJs and promoters. I also played a great little party for Dewar's on the friday night, and a short but sweet set at 8Nebo on saturday. Also managed to check out Plotforma, a really cool club on a seafront pier.

All in all I'm definitely up for coming back in 2010, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more and network in what has become one of the major nightclub markets in the world!