If your idea of conferences is a series of worthy seminars, well-dressed folk and endless rounds of coffee and biscuits to take the sting out of the exorbitant price of admission, then WOMEX will be a blessed relief.

Delegates can expect groovy stalls with folks in all kinds of parts of the music industry and delegates that vary from freelance kora players to digital music service specialists. Possibly the greatest concentration of chain smokers left on the planet, these delegates collectively represent the wayward creativity of roots people round the planet.

The daytime bit, as useful as it is for striking unlikely deals with even less likely musical products, fades beside the real reason everyone is there and that is of course the music. Musicians and bands from around the world converge on WOMEX to impress the people who can distribute music in Europe and book bands, make tours happen and so forth. It is perhaps the ultimate global X-Factor but with talent and integrity. The public can roll up in the evening and get a ticket to wander between the halls sampling the bands that may well be filling the bigger cultural venues in around the world in the years to come.

Find out more at http://womex.com/