Day three in Miami: Wake up bright and early feeling fresh and well rested.

Yeah right.

Decide to stroll over the Miami Beach Resort & Spa, which is where the conference headquarters are. In one of the room they were screening Dub Echoes, a documentary about, you guessed it, dub. Interesting, but sitting in a dark room while there's a party outside seems a bit wrong.

Outside there was booming dubstep being spun by Mala, which sounded amazing under the burning afternoon sun. The dubstep continued with Moldy, but started to get itchy for something a bit more uptempo. Outside ran into Hali and Mike Gibbs again, who had great things to say about the Minus party they hit the night before, and were on their way to the Ghostly boat cruise (which they later reported to be a dud).

Over at the other end of the beach wandered around a few hotel pool parties until stumbling on the Stones Throw shindig at the Raleigh. Lots of gritty hip-hop and funk being played there, and some battling breakdancers. Ran into many of the same Toronto characters that were there the day before, as well as Alisha of Soulutions. Nice to escape pounding house and electro for a few hours.

Grab some dinner and then continue my wandering. Stop for a few drinks at a cute little pub where some Miami locals were throwing a drum 'n' bass party for Bassdrive.com. More on the smooth and soulful side than the hard end of d'n'b.

Walk over to Rok Bar, where a crowd is gathering outside for the MSTRKRFT hosted party. Luckily see Jesse Keelor as he's getting there and he escorts me inside. Later someone tells me, "I'm surprised you got in, usually this club only lets in rich guys and hot girls". Considering that the minimum for the bottle service boothes is about $5000, that's not surprising. Steve Aoki played an unannounced set, and seemed peculiarly reserved by his standards. Guess that stage diving doesn't seem quite as appealing when the DJ booth is so high in the air.

Had every intention to hit something else that night, but suddenly it's very late and I remember how early I'm going to have to wake up to make my flight home.

After an afternoon breakfast, I take a stroll on the boardwalk which is where the hotels all back on to. In some areas there will be a huge party in every pool and back patio, making for a chaos of beats as they compete with each other.

Hear a track I like coming from one and walk in. Almost immediately I run into Toronto promoter Thomas Neary, who then points out Social owner Richard Lambert (who apparently I'd run into the night before but barely remember). The DJ is some local Miami guy called Tony G – not amazing, but dropped some decent tracks here and there. The Toronto crew drag me over to the Raleigh Hotel where Calvin Harris is playing with a full band. Big Toronto presence in the audience for this one too – run into LSM (of VND/LSM) again, Fistfight (aka half of the Nacho Lovers) as well as Nav Sangha (co-owner of Wrongbar, Play De Record, and now partner in the Social as well. Oh yeah, he DJs a lot too. It's rumoured he never sleeps).

The Calvin Harris performance was impressive – electro house with rock overtones played by a very tight full band, with live vocals by him. After breaking for some food, I head to Snatch, where the Social are hosting a night. Good music from DJ Mehdi, Annie Mac, Rok One, and of course some hometown talent from Nasty Nav and VND/LSM. Notice Teki Latex from Paris electro hip-hop crew TTC hanging out and grab a photo.

Seems like I should try to get away from Toronto a bit since I'm in Miami, and end up at Shine where David Morales was playing as part of the Def Jam party. Of course end up running into more Toronto there when I see promoter Carl Wint from Mixed Signals Music. Morales is in fine form and I last till closing time, sometime around five. There's actually a party going on pretty much 24 hours a day somewhere in this town, but when you're starting early-afternoon you need to hit the sack at some point.

Well, the disco nap never happened after all. Got a text from Toronto DJ Hali about a Carl Craig afternoon party, so I jumped in a cab to go meet him and Mike Gibbs.

Very quickly I'm realising that I'm not really prepared for this conference. For instance, a common conversation topic has been whether or not to go to the giant two day Ultra festival, which is sort of the centrepiece event of the conference. I knew it was big, but I hadn't clued in that it was 80 000 people big. Looking at the DJ line up though, the majority of the acts that I actually want to hear are playing club gigs around town as well, which seems like a better experience. The Carl Craig gig was outside by a pool in the back of a hotel, which is actually how a lot of these parties are set up. Can't complain about that, except that I forgot to bring a bathing suit, and haven't gotten a chance to get sunscreen yet. Life is hard eh?

Realise that the camera is back at the hotel, but here's a shot Hali took of me and Mike Gibbs.

The party was hosted by the Giant Step label, and took a little while to get busy, but by the time Craig went on there was a decent dance floor going. Discover that drinks in Miami are really expensive.

I decide that I want to check out the Get Physical party at Studio A, and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that I'm on the guest list, as the Embrace Productions people were helping run it - cant seem to escape Toronto. Even though the badge is expensive, it doesn't actually get you in everywhere, so I'm glad that I replied to some emailed invites before leaving.

Hamilton's Junior Boys were among the performers, and were well received, but the M.A.N.D.Y. set was the highlight and main draw. Get dragged by some randoms to a nearby club, but the music was boring, and the lack of sleep makes the hotel look like the better option.

After tons of stress and passport headaches, I'm finally in Miami for the annual Winter Music Conference, and let me tell you, I'm extremely glad to be leaving the snow behind for a few days.

Rock music has plenty of festivals, but if you're into DJ culture, this is the event of the year for the industry. All the big songs of the next year will likely be previewed here, and this is where the world gets a sneak peak of the coming trends for the next year.

Customs wasn't nearly as rough as people had led me to believe, for which I'm quite glad. Picking up my badge was fun - they take your photo for it (mine is awesomely bad, in a good way), and there's DJs playing in the lobby and outside by the pool.

Talk to a bunch of randoms by the poolside bar and get a plethora of opinions on which parties are the ones to hit. Now that I'm actually here I'm starting to get a better picture of the scale of this conference. There's too many official events to be able to attend, but the amount of unofficial events dwarfs that. Circling the skies are planes with banners advertising tonight's options, which is actually kind of helpful, as there's too much going on to keep track of.

I've already run into a few Toronto peeps - LSM of VND/LSM was at the airport in Toronto, and had missed his flight so he planned on spending the afternoon in the bar until his flight. He asked me if I'd seen Toronto based producer Sta yet, but as it turns out, he missed his flight as well. These crazy young producers and their tardiness. While waiting for a cab from the airport in Miami, talk to a few random Torontonians, all of whom were pretty hyped for the weekend.

Beginning to wish I'd arrived a couple days earlier, as I've already missed parties and DJs that I was interested in, but there's no time for regrets, as there's 24 hour a day partying until the plane ride home.

Debating having a disco nap, as I'm running on less than three hours sleep and there's a long night ahead. On the other hand, the pool party down the street is calling...

Above: Ben's hotel

So Benjamin Boles is off to Miami for the Winter Music Conference. Can't say I'm jealous, no. Not with the 25°C weather, sunshine and such.

Not. At. All

So get the scoop on what's shakin' down that conga way and take your scarves off in the hopes some of that warm wind wafts its way North with Ben's reports.