Every year the near entirety of the dance music industry descends on Amsterdam to attend ADE. With networking opportunities aplenty, ADE is sure to play a major part in laying the landscape for your upcoming year.
We have put together a few key pointers to make sure you're prepared. Whether it's your first time or you're a seasoned ADE veteran, we have put together a list of our key pointers to make sure you make the most of your time in the city.
1. Set your base
There are few things that waste more time than travelling from venue to venue for short meetings. Decide on a location for your meetings and try and stick with it, make people come to you. There will be high-value meetings that are an exception to this rule, however, the more meetings you can push to the same place the more time you can spend getting down to business.
There are the obvious ticketed venues such as De Brakke Grond, The DeLaMar Theatre and Melkweg, however, not all of your meetings may have tickets so you may wish to consider a few of the following too, The Andaz, Cafe De Doffer, The Grand Theatre or may of the cafes around the Leidseplein square such as The American or Dan Murphys, this will give you quick access to the main venues should you need it.
2. Go with a game plan
It's easy to get caught up in the madness of ADE and lose track of why you're there. Set yourself clear goals of what you want to achieve from the conference. Whether this is to meet certain people, open the dialogue with a certain artist or meet companies to help you with running your label and promoting your music, it is key to have a focus on what you want to achieve.
3. Follow up with your meetings
Drop your meetings a quick message the day after letting them know you will follow up properly the week after. People are understandably busy at ADE and will be meeting lots of people, therefore, you want to ensure you make an impression. A short email after your meeting can go a long way to cementing that relationship.
4. Not every meeting has to be a new contact
In this digital age where we work out of our inboxes, it's not uncommon to work with someone for years and never meet them face to face. Use ADE as an opportunity to reinforce your current relationships.
5. Don't double book
If you organise a meeting, make sure you are able to attend, other peoples time is just as precious as yours. If you are overbooked and you need to bump some meetings, do it ahead of time and give plenty of notice.
To avoid double booking, you can use our handy Event Scheduler tool here.
6. Review in a few months and adapt your game plan for next year
Review your time at ADE at set intervals, such as 1 month, 3 months, 9 months. You may still be having discussions and pushing your business forward as a result of these meetings for months after ADE is over. Set certain time frames for review the success as per point 2.
This way you will be in good stead to adjust your game plan for next year.