Venue:
Novotel London Bridge, Room 2
September 10, 2025
10:00
-
10:45
With rising artist fees, shifting consumer habits and intensifying competition, many music festivals are facing financial pressure. This seminar will explore how two festivals are looking to leverage their brand and diversify to thrive in the modern market.
Chaired by Beth Morton from UTA, the conversation will spotlight two standout examples. Nick Bonard is CEO of Montreux Media Ventures, the media arm for Montreux Jazz Festival, which has set a gold standard for diversification by leveraging its UNESCO-recognised audio-visual archive for a rich digital output, as well as outstanding licensing deals and global expansion of the Montreux brand.
Sia Farr is CEO and Founder of Theory Eleven Entertainment, producer of OFFLIMITS Festival, the flagship open-format music festival launched this year in Abu Dhabi. Its inaugural edition delivered in collaboration with Miral and DCT Abu Dhabi, welcomed over 30,000 attendees and featured global acts including Ed Sheeran, OneRepublic, Faithless, and Kaiser Chiefs.
United Talent Agency
Beth Morton is a music agent at leading global talent agency UTA, based in theLondon office. She represents a diverse roster of artists including Dylan Gossett, Stephen Wilson Jr, Joss Stone, LocalNatives, Natalia Lafourcade, Midland, Ichiko Aoba, Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram,and many more. Prior to joining UTA, Beth was an agent at Neil O’Brien Entertainment as well as on the programming team for Kew the Music and Greenwich concert series. Beth started her music career at All the Worlds, a JV with Universal Music Group. She was part of the core team that developed and produced F1 Rocks (an entertainment and concert series that ran alongside F1 Grand Prix races), and launched the inaugural Singapore F1 Rocks concerts which featured top-tier performers such as Beyoncé, among others.
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Montreux Media Ventures
Nicolas Bonard is the CEO and Co-Founder of Montreux Jazz Festival Media Ventures, where he develops innovative media strategies for the world-renowned music brand.
A veteran of the global media industry, Nicolas has held leadership roles at VICE Media Group, Discovery Communications, MTV Networks, and NBA Europe, and co-founded Screen Opus, a content financing company.
He brings deep expertise in content production, digital transformation, and brand monetization, and currently sits on the boards of HED Technologies SA and Kapaw Media.
Theory Eleven Entertainment
