Glenn Wilkinson of Reactive Vision attended the Australian International Documentary Conference from 1 to 4 March 2011.

Another successful year at AIDC maintaining existing relationships and developing new contacts. 

Karina Astrup of House of Gary attended MIPDOC and MIPTV from 29 March to 8 April 2011.

• ARTE France has reported that they have to be much more careful programming now since they are under a lot of pressure with all the new digital channels in existence. They have lost approximately half of their market share.
• Germany already has so many documentary channels that their market has remained relatively the same.
• For foreigners working with ARTE France you need to team up with a French company in a co-production relationship, France also has a very particular system so its good to have a local on board this way to navigate your way through this.
• The International broadcasters have repeated the message to please try and get a deal with your national broadcaster in your home territory before you come to them.
• For a series pitch, broadcasters are now asking to see pilots before they commission the full package.
• Broadcasters said there is a definite strong appetite for Islam stories or from Islamic regions – especially with the current Middle East/North African Arab Uprisings. Also the International audience really wants to see some politics in the stories.
• Broadcasters mentioned again how important it is to offer the TV hours not just feature length cuts as the feature length TV slots are so few compared to the hour.
• Broadcasters warned against ‘Wikipedia’ pitch proposals – they said they see this too often and don’t like it.

Gil Scrine of Antidote Films attended the National Screenwriters Conference from 16 to 18 February 2011.

In summary, I would say that this conference is a delight in that it is not a market-oriented affair and the emphasis is on collegiate sharing of information and swapping of yarns and  invaluable insights that one would never find at a market event.

Veronica Fury of Fury Productions attended the Australian International Documentary Conference from 1 to 4 March 2011.

Overall this was a very successful market with a lot of interest gleaned in new and developing projects.

Trish Lake of Freshwater Pictures attended the Australian International Documentary Conference from 1 to 5 March 2011.

Joost Den Hartog and his team once again delivered an excellent AIDC to the local and international documentary community. Panels covered a broad range of subjects from development, financing and programming by agencies and national & international broadcasters, to production technology (e.g. 3D) and technique (how to interview a psychopath), as well as formats and platforms (including transmedia & mobile), and marketing and distribution.

Peta Ayers of Visionquest Entertainment attended the Australian International Documentary Conference from 1 to 4 March 2011.

I kicked off the conference at the Science Exchange seminar. Two separate projects were pitched, then discussed by various commissioning editors including Karina Holden of ABC, Christine Reisen of Arte France, Laura Annalora of National Geographic, Cathy McCarthy of BBC Open Universities and Michael Allder of CBC. The resulting discussion was a great insight not just into the pitching process but also into the market focus of each broadcaster.

Bianca Keeley of BK Films attended the Australian International Documentary Conference from 26 February to 5 March 2011.

In addition to AIDC itself I also attended the Documentary Directors Master-class day that was a combined event between ADG and AIDC. The session with Lisa Matthews "Dramatisation for Documentary" was particularly interesting and informative.

Throughout the conference I attended the "Commissioning Editors" sessions where I gained valuable information about what's working for their channels, what they are looking for, and what they are not looking for. I also held various meetings pitching my slate to the relevant Commissioning Editors.

Carine Chai attended the National Screenwriters Conference from 16 to 18 February 2011.

For a "baby writer" who has only just got a foot in the door, the National Screenwriter's Conference was an eye opener in how to kick that door open and build a career in our fascinating and sometimes challenging film and television industry.  Three days of wall-to-wall sessions, networking events and social gatherings did much to force even the most reluctant of writers out of their shells.  I have to admit, for someone who can be a bit of a wallflower at these events the conference highlighted to me that writing for film or television is not an isolating experience.  Screenwriters from all over Australia converged to discuss the state of the industry, market trends and new ways of storytelling.  Despite the sometimes passionate debate on panel discussions, there was such a positive collegial atmosphere amongst the writers and a sense that everyone is in it together to make better stories.

Clare Thomson of WildCard Media attended the Australian International Documentary Conference from 1 to 4 March 2011.

Overall AIDC 2011 was inspiring and extremely useful. I gained much from attending and while I didn't have any immediate successes, longer term benefits will result. There is no substitute for listening to broadcasters and their current needs, and getting first-hand insight from writers and producers who are making important and inspiring programming. It was great to catch up with other producers both from Queensland and interstate and talk shop. Thanks again to Screen Queensland for making it a possibility.

Annie Holden of Annie Holden Productions attended the Australian International Documentary Conference from 1 to 4 March 2011.

The main aim of attending AIDC was to generate interest that will lead to investment commitments in the series Mining: It's a She Thing.

I also wanted to find a co-production partner in Canada for The War Gene as the story has relevance to both countries.

I also took the opportunity to meet with Screen Australia and show them vision and provide an update on the development of Marble City, in which they invested development funding.

Social Experiment is a formatted series idea that I had previously sent to SBS and Peter Newman specifically asked to meet with me to discuss it.