THIS YEAR’S BANFF WORLD TELEVISION FESTIVAL, June 11-14, 2006 at the Fairmount Banff Springs in Banff, Alberta is about getting plugged into the industry.
From the opening day-long session led by Kit Readman and Micki Rogers on how to pitch an idea, to Rick Mercer’s town hall meeting on the landscape of Canadian television on the last day, the festival is all about getting in the know, getting known and well, getting a deal.
“The Festival provides unique opportunities to connect with the industry, create new business and help define future trends,” says the festival’s Director of Content Jennifer Harkness.
The festival, for television professionals, holds seminars, master classes and pitching competitions. It also hosts the newly branded Banff World Television Festival Awards (formerly the Banff Rockie Awards).
Harkness confirmed over 50 senior program commissioners for the International Programming Decision Makers Stream have already committed to participate. The list includes Jeff Wachtel, Executive Vice President of Programming for NBC Universal (US); and Norm Bolen, Executive Vice President for Content at Alliance Atlantis Communications (Canada), among others.
“We’re expecting 150 senior program commissioners,” says Harkness, among 1400 participants. That is also said to be the largest number ever for the festival.
There’ll be big names there. Among them, David Shore.
“We’ve confirmed David Shore,” the writer, creator and executive producer of the FOX Television series, House, says Harkness. He will be leading a master class on “Creating a Hit TV Series”.
“Expect some big names on the feature documentary panels as well,” says Harkness.
The pitching competition includes the Canadian CTV Documart, with 100,000 in development funding as the prize; Ipitch for cross platform projects from digital producers and broadcast partners; and Pitch it that includes children’s programming, drama & comedy, lifestyle and reality.
The awards program includes a new competition category for interactive television programs, namely “multi-platform delivery, variable content streams, website companions and/or viewer participation”.
This year also sees some greater synergies with NextMedia, the international interactive media festival, that’s traditionally held in Banff immediately prior to the festival. This year it will be held on June 9-11.
Tara Blasco Raj is www.cartt.ca’s Western Editor
