Laura B. Whitmore founder of Mad Sun Marketing, Organizer of the first annual Women’s Music Summit joins me on Get the FUNK Out!

Laura B. Whitmore and Orianthi NAMM 2013

If you missed Laura B. Whitmore on today's show,
you can listen here.

Laura B. Whitmore is a graduate of Hofstra University with a B.S. in Music Merchandising and an M.B.A. in Marketing. As the marketing manager for Korg USA for 20 years, she was instrumental in marketing, PR and artist relations for the iconic Korg, Marshall, and VOX brands. She was also editor of Korg’s ProView Magazine. Prior to that, she worked in the Direct Marketing department of CBS Records.

In 2008 Whitmore left Korg USA and founded Mad Sun Marketing, a boutique agency that specializes in marketing, PR, artist relations, event production, graphic design, and more for music and audio companies. Past and current clients of Mad Sun include 65amps, Academic Superstore, Acoustic Amplification, Agile Partners, Colby Amplifiers, Dean Markley USA, Jammit, Korg, KVRaudio, Muse Research, Music First, NewBay Media, Notion Music, Peavey Electronics, SIR Entertainment Services, SIR Stage37, SoundTree, Sterling Audio, and more.

A singer-songwriter herself, Whitmore is the creator of the GuitarWorld.com featured blog series, Guitar Girl’d. Whitmore has hosted and moderated several workshops and panels at events such as NAMM and SXSW on the topics of marketing, PR, apps and music making, songwriting, and more. She is the co-host of a new open mic series as part of the West Coast Songwriters Association in her town of Lafayette, CA.
In 2012 Whitmore launched The Women's International Music Network, better known as The WiMN. As the umbrella organization for a variety of events, and a blog, news feed and event info site, The WiMN's mission is to promote and unite women in the music and audio industries.

As the first official event of the organization, Whitmore hosted the first annual Women's International Music Network breakfast and the She Rocks Awards, which took place during the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA, on January 25, 3013. The event honored industry luminaries such as producer/songwriter Holly Knight, guitarist Orianthi, Tish Ciravolo from Daisy Rock Guitars, Mary Peavey of Peavey Electronics, Laura Taylor of Guitar Center, and more.

Whitmore organized the first annual Women’s Music Summit in 2012, which took place in Upstate New York. She is currently working on the 2013 Women’s Music Summit, which will be hosted at Musician's Institute from July 26-28, 2013 in Hollywood, CA.
Find out more at thewimn.com and mad-sun.com