We had a great day at the State of Play conference on Wednesday 21st Sept organised by our own Fi Mason for SOUNDEXCHANGE the music development agency for Essex. The panel in the morning was particulary interesting. It focussed on the national State of Play – a sketch of the national music landscape as seen from the perspectives of PRS Foundation, Arts Council England, Youth Music, UK Music and the National Skills Academy Creative & Cultural.Of real note for Music Works was Rob West of NSA.He spoke about the need for training and development to be relevant to the music industry to make sure that we have a workforce that is equipped to meet the needs of the modern industry, whether on-stage, back-stage or back-office. It’s all about timely and relevant interventions: creating the right sort of learning environments and experiences at the right time and delivered by people inside the industry who’s experience and knowledge is current. Music Works is about just that.

The day was also a fabulous networking opportunity and lots of good connections were made. The music industry needs more events like this which span commercial and subsidised sectors, the live scene and education. The conference started with a statement that “today we’re starting a conversation about music in Essex”. Good call SOUNDEXCHANGE.