Prof. Dr. Barbara Hornberger is Professor of Musicology with a focus on popular music and digital music cultures at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal. She studied cultural education at the University of Hildesheim, where she worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Media, Theater and Popular Culture. In 2009, she received her doctorate with a thesis on the New German Wave. From 2016 to 2022, she was professor for the didactics of popular music at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. Her main research and teaching interests are transdisciplinary research on popular music, cultural history of popular music, stagings of popular music, didactics of the popular, and popular music in the post-digital age. Photo: Aileen Rogge

Managing Director & Chairman of the Board Berlin Music Commission eG -. Olaf Kretschmar entered Berlin's music and club scene in the early 90s after studying philosophy and completing a marketing apprenticeship. In 1993 he co-founded the "Delicious Doughnuts Research" in central Berlin, followed five years later by the "oxymoron" in the Hackesche Höfe. In 2000, he was involved in the founding of "clubcommission berlin e.V.", where he served as managing director and press spokesman until 2008. In 2007 he was co-founder of the "Berlin Music Commission eG" (BMC). Since 2008 he has been Cluster Manager and since 2011 Chairman of the Board of BMC. In 2009 Kretschmar was the initiator of the Berlin Music Week and one year later chairman of the organizing committee of the 1st Berlin Music Week. From 2010 to 2012, he led the campaign "Music 2020 Berlin," whose primary goal was to prepare and establish the Musicboard Berlin. In 2014, together with many BMC colleagues, he established the Music Business Competence Center, co-founded the Berlin Music Award "listen to berlin: Awards" in 2015 and the Music Business Conference "Most Wanted: Music" in 2014, for which he still serves as General Director. In addition to his work on the BMC board, he volunteers as a member of the advisory board in the umbrella organization of cultural development associations in Germany (DAKU), which was co-founded in 2018, and in the Berlin Jazz Advisory Board. As a member of the presidium of the Landesmusikrat Berlin (Berlin State Music Council), Kretschmar is responsible for the topics of popular music, the music industry, digitization and work with refugees. He is also chairman of the board of the Bundesverband Pop. Photo: Danny Prusseit

Managing Director / Representative for Music and Pop Culture/ Board MW*G / syst. Coach / Author - Managing Director of RockCity Hamburg e.V., co-founder of Bundesverband Popularmusik e.V., founder of Music Women* Germany, co-founder of Clubkombinat Hamburg e.V. and LIVEKOMM e.V., Interessengemeinschaft Hamburger Musikwirtschaft e.V., Live-Musik-Fonds Hamburg, Hamburg hoch 11 e.V., musicHHwomen Network, name giver and inventor of Hanseplatte - Musik von hier and the future congress OPERATION TON. She is a member of the advisory board of the Reeperbahn Festival, in the German Music Council and mentor in the German Cultural Council, representative for music and pop culture Bremen, also author, curator, lecturer, artist + business coach, owner Institute for Professional Art, Querkopf, Trüffelschwein and mother.

Christopher Buschow is assistant professor for "Organization and Networked Media" in the Department of Media Management at Bauhaus University Weimar. He focuses his research and teaching on innovations in the organization and financing of digital journalism and on start-ups in the media industry. Buschow's work has been awarded the Lower Saxony Science Prize and the Körber Foundation's German Study Prize, among others. Photo: Matthias Eckert

Sina-Mareike Schulte studied communication sciences and media and music management in Bremen, Hanover and Porto. During her master's studies, her path led her to the Landesmusikakademie und Musikland Niedersachsen gGmbH in 2019, where she now works as the head of the Musikland Niedersachsen division for the networking and professionalization of Lower Saxony's music scenes. To this end, she works closely with players in the state's music ecosystem to identify current needs, provide appropriate services for the scenes, and jointly drive new developments. One focus is on the promotion of pop culture: as a co-founder of the popNDS alliance, she is committed to establishing pop promotion structures in Lower Saxony. Photo: Matthias Schrader

Johannes Everke studied law, cultural management and theater studies in Constance, Munich and Hamburg. After initial positions at various theaters and opera houses, he moved first to the Department of Culture and later to the marketing company of the City of Hamburg, where he has been working for 17 years on marketing cooperations, digital marketing and also music city marketing. He is currently preparing a doctorate on this complex of topics at the HMTK Hannover.

Matthes Köppinghoff is a music journalist at NDR (NDR Kultur and NDR Blue). In addition, he hosts the show "Champagne Supernova" at the internet station ByteFM. When he is not at a concert or conducting interviews, he lives and works in Hamburg. In addition, Matthes Köppinghoff conducts research on diversity in public broadcasting and music journalistic format developments.