Banff festival a power centre for media
The marketing pitch to attract attendees to the Banff World Media Festival certainly makes the event sound like a dream for producers looking to get into the competitive world of TV and digital media.
More than 1,500 top executives from TV, digital, advertising, media and technology will be on hand, representing 21 countries.
In 2011, 70 per cent of attendees started or confirmed new business deals. Each year, that adds up to more than $500 million in new deals being struck over four days in the Canadian Rockies.
Yes, it’s a festival. There’s screenings. There’s a red carpet. There’s even an awards show. It’s all nicely nestled in the opulent digs of Fairmont Banff Springs.
But for most, the Banff World Media Festival this week will be a place where creators meet power brokers, where advice is dispensed by savvy veterans, where new models for TV and digital media are hatched and, perhaps most importantly, where deals get closed.
“We really want to be that business hub,” says Ferne Cohen, the festival’s executive director. “Where people have to be.”
In year’s past, stars such as Ricky Gervais, Lisa Kudrow, William Shatner, John Cleese and Howie Mandel have walked the red carpet.
This year, broadcaster Larry King is scheduled to be on hand. He’s going to be receiving a lifetime achievement award on Tuesday evening at the annual Banff World Media Awards, or Rockies.
Golden-touch sitcom producer Chuck Lorre, the man behind Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly, will receive the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award on Tuesday. He will also be among the industry heavyhitters offering master classes or lectures. Jeanne Beker, longtime host of Fashion TV, will receive 2012’s Canadian Award of Distinction, which has gone to Howie Mandel and Kim Cattrall in the past. But the festival’s new programs this year aren’t exactly the sort of thing that would excite the paparazzi. The focus will be on industry insiders, not star-watching. Banff Comedy will officially be launched and will now sit alongside Banff Non-Fiction and Banff Kids and Animation as a separate stream of programs for those involved in comedy programming. Another new initiative will concentrate on examining new opportunities for advertisers to integrate their brands into content, rather than just run ads when the program airs.
There is also a focus this year on international co-productions, official programs to establish Banff as the business hub for financiers and producers from different countries to meet and discuss projects.
“It’s establishing Banff as a conduit between all these territories,” Cohen says. “With the economy as it is and with the world shrinking as it is and with digital media content being everywhere, there’s a lot more interest in the States, Europe, Brazil, China all about hooking people up from different territories. Rather than these informal meetings that took place already all over Banff, we’ve set up designated face-to-face sessions and designated panels.”
Cohen says Banff’s ability to give newbie producers some face time with power brokers, or with people like Lorre and other successful television creators, makes it an exciting event for the industry.
“I’ve been told time and time again from board members, delegates, sponsors, everybody involved, that it’s sort of the inspirational, creative, master classes that they get from Banff that sets it apart,” Cohen says.