JUST what Dublin needs: an international music biz convention which reflects the city's newfound status as a major player in the industry. Only trouble is, In The City is not an Irish invention, but a thing of Mancunian manufacture, and Dublin is only getting the loan of it for 1996. If a good time is had by all, however, then there's a good chance that the organisers might even let us keep In The City for another year.

Britain's biggest international music convention comes to Dublin on Saturday September 7th and stays for five days, bringing more than 2 000 music business executives, A & R people, lawyers, agents and promoters from the UK, Irish and international music industry along with a large contingent of bands, DJs and dance acts plus a number of prestigious guests from both sides of the artist/industry divide.

Crammed into five days will be enough panel discussions, seminars, symposiums, live bands showcase gigs, dance acts and DJ nights to fill the busiest exec's calendar for a whole month and that's not taking into account the serious amount of schmoozing and partying which has become an integral part of the convention.

The whole shebang will be happening in Dublin's Temple Bar area, and In The City will be utilising such places as The Temple Bar Music Centre. Arthouse, the Irish Film Centre and The Clarence; meanwhile, various city centre venues like Whelan's, The Mean Fiddler. The Tivoli and the Da Club have scheduled special events of their own.

For many UK delegates the fifth In The City will be a big change, because it'll be the first time the convention has been held outside its Manchester home base. Founded by former Miss England. Yvette Livesey, and Factory Records boss Anthony Wilson in 1992. In The City has quickly grown to challenge the stature of other international music conventions like MIDEM in Cannes and the New Music Seminar in New York - and according to Tony Wilson, its live music line up has now surpassed that of many of its rivals.

So why move to another town when everything seems to be getting nicely established in Manchester? And why pick Dublin as the location for what's recognised as an essentially British event?

"That had been the plan from the beginning," says Wilson. "We'd always planned to take it to another British city when the clientele start to get bored, it's a good way of keeping the edge. OK, Dublin is in another country, but it's a hotbed of music within our world. Both Glasgow and Dublin were candidates for hi The City, but both Yvette and I were attracted to the sheer dynamics of Dublin, so we went with it."

It was probably the dynamic persuasion of Temple Bar Properties which convinced Tony and Yvette that In The City would work well within this small, self contained part of the city. "We'd heard a rumour that In The City was thinking of moving," says Una Carmody of Temple Bar Properties. So I got on a plane to Manchester and attended last year's convention, met up with Paul McGuinness, and the two of us then pestered Tony and Yvette to come look at Temple Bar."

"First off, it's a convention, so you need places for panel discussions and seminars," explains Tony. "And between the Arthouse and the Music Centre, we found lots of buildings that would suit us. "Secondly, Dublin is a wonderful social centre. It's a great nighttime city, but it's also tight, like a village. I've always said we'd never hold JTC in a place like London, but Dublin - well, that's a very large capital Y, capital E, capital S. YES."

"Yvette and Tony had said from the start that the social aspect was an important element of In The City, says Una Carmody. "There had to be an enormous bar for schmoozing where everyone in the convention could gather, so they're taking over the whole downstairs area of The Clarence, including the hexagonal bar. People do a lot of business at hi The City, they have lots of meetings, and the Clarence will be essential in that respect.

So who exactly will be schmoozing in Temple Bar this weekend, and will it make any difference to the future of music? According to Tony Wilson, the majority of delegates will be from the UK music industry, which is good news for any go getting Irish exec or young Irish band who wants to get on Top of The Pops. There'll also be around 300 delegates from the US, many of whom have been attracted by the new location, and about 50 from Continental Europe, so the market is wide open.

"What we'd like to achieve each year is to provide a service, give the people the best three, four, five days we can give them," says Tony. "We want it to be the most entertaining week possible, physically and cerebrally. They can talk about music all day, and then listen to it at nighttime. We've got 165 British and Irish bands playing, and when you add in the 54 unsigned acts who will be showcasing, you've got more than 220 live bands over five nights. There are also 70 major dance acts and DJs. It's like an urban Glastonbury."

The live line up includes top UK acts like Galliano, Super Furry Animals, Billy Bragg and The Wedding Present, along with well restricted Irish artists like Gavin Friday, Brian Kennedy, The Divine Comedy, Compulsion and Scheer. Big names from the world of dance will include Carl Cox, LTJ Bukem and Metalhead, and panel discussions will be attended by music industry bigwigs like Jazzie B of Soul II Soul, Ed Bickell, manager of Dire Straits, and Clive Davis, bead of Arista Records in the U.S. Burning topics for discussion include "The end of counterculture - does music really matter anymore?", "Britpop - does it mean a toss in Europe?" and "They think it's all over, it is now - when and why they drop a band." Although most of the panels deal with UK and international issues, a couple of them are specific to Irish music, e.g., "Ireland's blueprint for the future" and "Selling Irish music".

IN the past, In The City has showcased many unsigned bands who have gone on to greater things, including Oasis and Elastica. This year, claims Tony Wilson, up to 50 per cent of In The City's new acts can expect to walk away from Temple Bar with some kind of deal in their back pockets. Kula Shaker and Placebo were signed after last year's convention, and both bands are now two of Britpop's hottest tickets.

But what about next year will In The City decamp to Dublin once again, or will it scurry back home to Scallytown? Will it venture north and give Glasgow a bite of the cherry, or will it strike out even farther afield, to Europe or America? Tony's not making any promises yet. "We'll either stay in the British Isles or do something crazy like go to L.A."