Westcoast Songwriter's Conference
The Westcoast Songwriter's Conference[1] is an annual conference hosted by the Westcoast Songwriter's organization.
The conference is usually held in Los Altos, in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
Organization
West Coast Songwriters is a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational organization founded in 1979 in California. It has been headed by executive director Ian Crombie since 1988.
Conference
The annual Westcoast Songwriter's Conference offers educational classes on songwriting techniques, live performance skills, navigating contracts and the legal environment of the music and performance industry. Each attendee may schedule up to 4 song pitching sessions per day with an industry professional.
The conference is staffed by such notables as country writer Steve Seskin, musical director for the Grammy pre-telecast Larry Batiste, record producer and artist development professional Jason Brawner as well as many other industry professionals including.
Each night following the day's events, there are open mics or concerts where the staff perform along with the yearly winners of the WCS songwriting contest. The intent of the conference is to enable individual artists and writers to become part of a community which helps to develop, relationships, craft and business skills.