ZURICH: The sixth edition of the International Radio Festival (IRF) 2015 will commence today (26 August) with a bang – after the welcome cocktails at 5.30 hours pm Swiss time, all invited international guests at the venue will be taken around Zurich in a private tram ride and the tram is the best way to explore this picturesque city.

The morning of 27 August will once again bring in the zing to the festival with a conference at 9.30 am Swiss time at the Kaufleuten. The first keynote titled 'Successful Audio Strategies for the Future ' will be by Mark Ramsey / USA. Ramsey is a veteran media strategist, researcher and trend-maker. This will be followed by panel discussions on The Resurgence of Curation, How new radio is changing how we discover bands; and Let’s All Get Along, What the radio industry can learn from the music industry and vice-versa.

The conference will end with the second keynote - The Story of the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival 2015 by Samantha Moy, BBC 6 Music.

In the meantime, various radio jockeys (RJs) from countries across the world will perform their shows live at the venue. IRF 2015 will be held from 26 - 30 August, 2015.

Swiss Tourism played host to a number of invited guests including the Radioandmusic.com team and this year’s winners of the Sounds of India contest – Siddharth Mishra and his producer Aanchal Sethi, who have been put up at the regular IRF hotel – Four Points by Sheraton.

With a day to spare for sight-seeing, IRF’s Indian guests visited Mount Titlis and were pleasantly surprised to find more Indian tourists there than you find in most Indian holiday destinations. Another pleasant surprise was a vegetarian Indian Snack joint that offered standard Indian victuals like Vada Pao, Samosa and Pao Bhaji among other titbits that most Indians are so used – right near the cable car entrance at Mount Titlis.

To say that Mount Titlis with all its sights to see is fantastic would be an understatement. All in all, the first day for the team from India was fun and exciting.

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