Banff World Television Festival Gathers Industry Insiders

This year's lineup at the Banff World Television Festival includes gala events and famous names like Oscar-winning writer Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby). But the focus, as always, is on connecting decision makers and content producers while exploring issues and trends in the television industry. The festival, now entering its 27^th year, runs from June 11 to 14, 2006.

“It's always been a great experience,” said Michael Ghent, Western Production Executive for CanWest MediaWorks Inc., who will be attending for the fourth time. “It's a gathering of the top broadcasters and producers in Canada, and a lot of important international players attend. I'm looking forward to the opportunities for networking and socializing.”

Ghent's mission is to share his needs for documentary, lifestyle, magazine, and factual content for the various networks under the CanWest umbrella, including Global, PRIME, CH, MenTV and Mystery. He'll participate in some Face-to-Face sessions, where he'll hear pitches for new content, and will act as a member of the jury for the Pitch It Lifestyle & Reality competition, which offers financial support to winning projects.

“It's the top TV-related event in Canada, and one of the more important ones in the world,” he said of the festival. “As a Vancouverite, it's almost local for me, so it's great to have such a prestigious event in my backyard.”

Andrea Stevens is a television drama and feature film writer who divides her time between Los Angeles and Vancouver, with credits on First Wave, So Weird, Charmed, and Clubhouse. She'll be attending as part of the CTV Fellowship program, and hopes to find some creative and financial partners to help develop one of her ideas for a new series.

“When you talk about the Banff festival to anyone who's ever been there, one word always comes up: networking,” Stevens said. “I've been in the U.S. a long time, so I'm looking forward to the opportunity to develop some professional relationships with Canadian producers, broadcaster,s and development executives.”

Article Author: Diane Kristine Wild

Diane writes about boring things by day, pop culture things by night. She also runs the TV, Eh? website, a compilation of news about Canadian television. Follow her on Twitter @deekayw for more random thoughts.

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