Hugh Phillimore and James Cobb of event management company Sound Advice shared a wealth of experiences at a seminar at this year's Confex exhibition. Around 100 delegates listened as the pair recounted the challenges they faced when launching the Cornbury Music Festival in 2004.

Phillimore explained how they took a niche market idea; created a quality family festival in a country house setting for an ABC1 audience and succeeded. He then covered how they had approached booking the artists before handing over to Cobb, the event's production manager. Cobb covered everything from the early planning stages (as to avoid many potential challenges), writing risk assessments, securing licensing for a new event, to targeting and marketing the new event, through to managing the suppliers and the event itself.

Artists confirmed for this July's Cornbury Festival include Elvis Costello, Amy Winehouse and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. It is also rumoured that Joe Cocker will be making an appearance.

www.soundadvice.uk.com