PANEL: Amplifying Impact: Driving Social Change Through Music
Music has long been a powerful tool for activism, raising awareness, and inspiring change. This panel will explore how artists, industry leaders, and organizations can leverage music to drive social impact and create meaningful movements. From innovative digital initiatives to grassroots advocacy, our panelists will share strategies for using music as a force for positive transformation. Join the conversation on music’s evolving role in shaping culture, amplifying voices, and fostering change.
Featured Speakers:
Kate Gardiner - CEO & Founder of Grey Horse
Kate Gardiner, gave up on her adventurous career in journalism. As media and its environs changed, it became much more apparent that her expertise in crisis situations and storytelling could benefit clients and brands in a whole new way. And so it has. Kate has been an important strategic mind in a variety of globally-oriented communications situations, ranging from an early start covering the BP Oil Spill to the global tragedies that shaped the Arab Spring, Hurricane Sandy and the #MeToo movement. A vibrant public speaker, she has earned awards from a wide range of journalism and news organizations, including: Forbes 30 Under 30, the Radio Television and News Directors’ Association, the National Committee on US China Relations, and the Emmys Committee. She has been fortunate enough to spend much of her life traveling the world - and finds solace riding horses in far-off places all over the world. Kate lives in New York City, Lake Geneva and Miami.
Ramon Perez - Executive Director of Digital Democracy Project
An AI technology executive and military veteran, Ramon founded Digital Democracy Project to address systemic problems in our electoral system which result in hyperpartisanship and widespread voter alienation. He believes that, to achieve better outcomes, we must use technology to give greater control directly to voters.
Emily (Milly) Milton - Ascendance, Director of Programs & Partnerships & Sustainability Manager for Ultra Music Festival
Milly is a globally minded scientist and sustainability professional, passionate about nature-based solutions, circularity and zero-waste strategies. She thrives at the intersections of art and science - using her background in marine biology and ecology, her experiences working in academia, government, non-profit and private sectors, and her passion for the power of music and events as peak experiences to inspire positive change while scaling sustainable solutions.
She is the Director of Programs & Partnerships for Ascendance Sustainable Events and the Sustainability Manager for Ultra Music Festival. Other notable projects include Plastic Free Cities and Sea Youth Rise Up with Big Blue & You, Reuse Denver, and her Commissioner-appointed role on the City of Miami Beach’s Sustainability Committee. She is also the Founder of Waves & Raves, a creative environmental ethos platform through which she develops workshops to engage audiences in nontraditional education at music festivals and beyond!
Moderator: Emily White - Founder & CEO, #iVoted Concerts & Festival; Author & Podcast Host
Emily White is the Founder and CEO of #iVoted Concerts and a Founding Partner at Collective Entertainment in New York City. #iVoted produces data-driven concerts on election nights and during early voting periods that the public enters with a selfie from outside their polling place. White is a Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s SNF Agora Institute with the mission of strengthening global democracy. Through this work White and SNF Agora Institute have analyzed the data on the top trending artists in key locations, whose electoral margins are often decided by the size of a concert venue, to determine which artists increase civic impact the most by comparing fan demographic data with local voter files. #iVoted and SNF Agora are currently developing a tool that shows where any artist increases civic impact the most. White is also an Amazon #1 best-selling author of How to Build a Sustainable Music Career & Collect All Revenue Streams and hosts the #1 Music Business podcast globally of the same name. She’s a 2020 Billboard Woman of the Year, has been on the covers of both Pollstar Magazine and Billboard and has proudly served on the boards of Well-Dunn, Future of Music, CASH Music, SXSW, The David Lynch Foundation Live while additionally serving on The Recording Academy’s Education Committee and Pandora’s Artist Advisory Council.