I met with Richard ( who has by the way been a massive support for the last few months on just about every level) and Kristina the other week to discuss which bits of their huge and varied knowledge we could most usefully focus on in this 35 minute session. I may have mentioned earlier that we have decided to scrap the Q and A after the sessions in favour of break outs. Essentially each of the speakers will go to a breakout space and delegates can choose which one they would most like to have a deeper conversation with. Q and As are so often no more than an opportunity for less shy delegates to introduce themselves (more…)

more photos here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/btween/

We just had a session from Mark on the power that blogs have been having on the bigger media players and how they are trying to deal with it. Will old media die? Of course not but they may change to become aggregators….

Claire from Pact gave us a potted history of the inetrface between new media and TV…

Mint Digital showed us their Buried Alive web site and TV show. An archive type site that allows viral mechanisms to let old content bubble up and be rescued by the public. This is also tied to a TV show that then emerges from the archive. They also have Bloom Box a UGC concept. Bloom box is a reskinnable web app that allows you to create content….Great Stuff. http://www.bloombox.tv/

therefore lots and lots of content is community based but grounded in TV….

Frank has just launched a competition for delegates to come up with ideas as to how the museum might engage with audiences, via it’s archive of photos, film and television content, in the next few years. This should exploit all the emerging media that is around, web 2.0 and the like. Interesting brief. It would be great to get any ideas posted on here and then maybe go through them live tomorrow.

Great animation content from Will Simon’s Clickwheel.net. Check it Out. Richard talked about teh fact that pod/vod casting is opeing up the business oppos that Puttnam talked about. Sarah went through what the Beeb is doing in this arena.

Steve has invited us to the networking event tonight? Whoo hoo! Free booze… Fiddian from Soda has just got up to talk. Soda rose from the ashes of the Middlesex Uni centre for electronic arts. They love play, learning and art through technology. Talked about SodaPlay 2.0 - based on an integrated community but from a learning point of view for teachers pupils and general users. Also sodaplaymobile… Soda aim to be self sufficient from IP within 3 years.

Andy Pickles - Jive Bunny himself…believes you can do things all yourself. But you can create some IP and keep selling it. Made points about needing talent and harnessing creativity for commercial gain, not just for creative purposes. He believes that education wil be their core revenue within 3 years.

Hugh talking through what a company is….firms reflect their owners, investment can be in projects or businesses. Investors seem to be interested in potential high growth businesses. All investors are different. key is to a. know your business and b. know your investor c. know your stage in business. Investment community is very traditional, wants to make shit loads of cash and u to deliver what u promise and show real sales and scalability.

Richard talks about; reduce risks, wheres the income going to come from, why would anyone want the content, how easy can you make it to get to market, work up a buzz. Showed made for mobile film as example of invested in company. This proved that the company could ‘do it’ therefore were a safe investment bet.

Jay talked about needing good management team, spark, have an investment themselves, and real industry experience. VC’s want one or two winners who pay for the other failures…similar in a way to Hollywood and as Jay pointed out Google.

Jem talked abouit the changes in BBC New Media - the 25% quota and the newer open processes for small and big partners. How UGC is also being encouraged. Backstage, innovation labs etc. Rarely comission end to end projects but they do comission both large and small - £10 million pot of cash.

Questioner pointed out that the process itself is expensive. Couldnt the BBC set up an ‘awards’ panel to give out money for new projects to reduce the cost. Defence is that the BBC has to have formal processes because of the scale ofthe BBC and for the sake of transparency. Producer sells direct to operator, billing aggregators, revenue shares, all platforms. Billing aggregators are key as they are cross pltform, can deliver content and avoid operators.
Jake from Orange talked about distribution and retail as being the way the mobile companies work rather than as comissioners. Portals, revenue share, wholesale price levels, and it is NOT TV i.e. they are not building channels. They operate quite differently - as aggregators/publishers maybe. The obvious stuff sells at the minute, sport, music, TV. Prodcuers need to consider unique IP, interactivity, community, cross platform.

Adam from Channel 4 said VOD is the big thing at 4 this year. UGC is also central to talent development, the .com site as a destination and a move towards ‘fewer but bigger’. Showed examples of using blogs, archive, feeds and UGC to do things such as creating their own news stories. the CH4 .com site has grown fast but has a reach of around 11%. Much more video is appearing on the site, more magazine content (50% of returning users consume magazine content). They are looking for high impact stuff (fewer but bigger). Looking for an interactive narrative and large cross platform formats.

Questioner asked…how they worked with international partners? Orange do but others dont largely…