The International Music Summit was started five years ago with a mandate of "back to business." The industry's longstanding annual meeting place, the Miami Winter Music Conference, had seemingly lost its focus, and was mainly viewed as a weeklong excuse for a party. A small group of movers and shakers, who included BBC Radio 1's Pete Tong, artist management specialist Ben Turner and Pacha director Danny Whittle, wanted to create a platform that would mix meeting opportunities with a programme of panels, workshops and interviews. They chose Ibiza as their location, reasoning that the days leading up to the island's club openings would naturally offer a captured audience. Anything up to 20,000 people reportedly visit Ibiza for the summer season's opening weekend.

Visiting the IMS half a decade later, it's difficult to view the event as anything other than a hit. The presence of industry-leading companies and brands—Spotify, Shazam, SFX, Native Instruments, Beatport and William Morris were all present this year—has made the IMS a key stop-off for those involved with or interested in the mainstream dance market. Those who go in for less commercially driven sounds would likely have tired of the continual references to EDM and the US market this year, but there was plenty of general interest music discourse to chew on. Regardless of your music preference, interviews with Nile Rodgers, Sven Väth and Bob Lefsetz were both entertaining and informative. The burn Residency has also come up in the wake of the IMS, with young DJs from across Europe competing for a chance to secure residencies at some of the island's most popular nightspots. And even if you didn't want to shell out for an IMS pass, the Ibiza Gran was a fantastic place for people watching. With this in mind, we hung out at the three-day conference and its nightly afterparty with a camera in hand, grabbing the views of some IMS delegates as they hobnobbed in the sun.

Jean Michel Jarre

It's a great honour to be here. I really like the idea of this kind of informal [event], I feel like I'm at home. It's a very cool and informal way where I can meet with people. There are so many established artists or beginners or producers or media, but all part of the same family. Electronic music is probably the most popular style of music today, but also it's still probably the last underground movement, which is not in your face, it's a bit remote to the public eye. I love this situation, as long as you are in a sense not entirely understood or perceived, and it's what I really appreciate in the IMS stuff. At the same time, it needs more understanding from the [wider] audience and if I can contribute to that I would be happy, and it's the reason why I accepted to be an ambassador for this.

Eats Everything

I'm here because I've remixed the official IMS anthem, and I've basically had a very surreal day meeting Nile Rodgers and sitting next to him and playing my record to people. It's been an amazing, but very weird day today. Initially the IMS anthem was going to be Groove Armada… and then at the last minute they pulled out. Nile Rodgers got this panicked phone call saying, "We need a record." (He's heavily involved in the IMS.) So then all of a sudden, I'm talking to Nile Rodgers on the phone, and I'm like, "What the hell is going on here?" I'm really happy with the track. I've played it a couple of times and it goes down really well.

Idris Elba

The IMS is, first of all, a wicked weekend with everyone that's in the dance industry making networks, connecting, putting stuff together. As a DJ that is more and more emerging into this world, it's important that I come here and connect with the people that actually hold this industry together. I'm not a celebrity DJ, I actually want to be taken seriously, and so this is the best platform that I've ever been to. I've been to Miami's Winter Music Conference, which is a bit more of a party scene. I've been [DJing] since I was 14, and there was a time in my life when I couldn't make any money as an actor, and all I did was DJ. Making it in New York as a DJ for about four or five years is the foundation for where I stand now. When I tell people that I really am a DJ, and this is what I do, I mean it. [laughs]

Hyena

I'm one of the contestants for the burn Residency, and I'm here to compete to be one of the residents. Basically, three of us are going to be residents for the whole summer, in either Sankeys, Privilege or Cafe Mambo. We have different masterclasses here, for example today with Fatboy Slim. I'm enjoying the masterclasses, and I'm learning a lot. It's only been two days, and it's a little nerve racking, but its definitely a really nice experience. The crossover of people [in Ibiza] is surprising sometimes, because obviously you have your music heads, and you have people that just come here to party.

Danny Whittle

This year has gone amazingly. [But] it's taken a while. We started this in 2008 and it's kind of grown organically, which I suppose is always the best way. There's a good foundation there. It's the first year where we totally sold out delegate badges; we've sold out at all the events; and there's some great people here as well. Last year I think we did about 420 delegates and this year we're nearly at 600. Nile Rodgers is always a highlight. Just even to meet the guy and talk to him, let alone sit there and listen to his stories. I know last year we had him but we saw him in the States and were like, "That was amazing but you finished in 1981." And he was like, "Fuck it I'll come back this year and we'll go through the other 20 years."

Arthur Baker

I came out here and was going to show a rough cut of the 808 film I'm producing but we didn't get enough done to do it. I'd already booked my ticket so I'm just here hanging out—I love Ibiza. I saw Nile [Rodgers] who is an old friend. I heard Jean Michel Jarre and Emmanuel De Buretel's interviews today, which were great. I'm just picking up some things, meeting people and getting some sun, you know? This is my fourth IMS I think and they're great. You meet great people. Ibiza is great. Sometimes you hear more music than others, and this year I haven't really heard any music, or anything that I've been blown away by, but I met some good people. To me this is more about meeting people.