During the daytime -- for the price of a Whopper -- you can sit on Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue, admiring some Miami’s finest. You can’t help but admire their long, toned legs and exquisite sense of style. Not surprising since many are actual runway models.

At night, the city thrives with the thumping of club music and the glow of neon. This is especially true during the Winter Music Conference, an event where the beat and the booze become fused in a funky union of sensual experience beneath the stars and inside of the bars.

At WMC, the DJs are the stars and their turntables are where the magic happens. You’re as likely to party with some of the performers as you are with mere mortals because the streets and the clubs are full of those who’ve come to be seen and heard.

Sure, there are industry panels and workshops during the day. But Miami during WMC is mostly about the night and the beat. The relentless, thunderous beat… The heat and the bare flesh… Beautiful people with beautiful bodies… This place is like Vegas without the gambling, like New Orleans without the blues.

With this trip sponsored by our friends at Travelworm.com -- the travel service for those who want to vacation like rock stars -- I find myself at the Winter Music Conference for the first time since 2004. My mission this week has been simple and clear: Search out and find the very best in the dance music genre then bring it home to share with the rest of you in the weeks and months ahead as Savvy profiles the artists who are worth your time. It’s hard to pick out the stars from the spectators here, but usually the more colourful and outrageous the hairdo, the more likely someone is part of an act. Not a circus act. 

I’ve spent this week with my eyes and especially my ears wide open. There’s a real indie flavour in the air and a hunger to put bodies in motion.

What I’ve heard this week at WMC is a message of independence for the artists; an appeal to become savvy about marketing themselves rather than chasing that traditional golden cow of being signed to a major record label or hoping for a Billboard chart-topper. Today’s world presents a lot of challenges for musicians but also great opportunities, especially for those who yearn to call their own shots and control their own process.

Among other things, I’m on the prowl (yes, I suppose that’s an okay way to put it) for so-called Divas to feature. I’m not referring to spoiled, temperamental Aretha-wannabes, but rather those performers whose talents are matched by their sex appeal, earning them special attention here at Savvy. In the club music scene in particular, style matters.

That pretty much sums it up. In South Beach during WMC, lifestyle – having fun – is what it’s all about. Look for articles profiling some of the hottest entertainers in the club music scene starting this week.