REBOOTING CONNECTIONS THE FIRST STAGE OF THE CO-PRO EVENT

Fiction/Virtual Events

  • The first stage of Conecta FICTION Reboot concluded after two weeks of online activities.
  • During the week of June 15-18, many figures of the audiovisual industry met virtually to talk about what the future holds for the sector.

CONECTA FICTION VIRTUAL 2019

Until today, the Conecta FICTION platform was still active so that the accredited members could continue with their meetings, and those who were not able to attend the online sessions and workshops could watch all the programming offered in streaming. The second stage of Conecta FICTION 4 will be held in Pamplona (Navarre, Spain) on September 1st the opening and 2 and 3 the event. It will be a hybrid format that allows virtual participation for professionals who cannot travel from their countries due to the pandemic.

On this edition, 400 professionals participated. Half of them were Spanish, which confirms the desire and need of the Spanish industry to open up to the world. Excluding that number, the participation rate has been similar among the participants from Europe (47%) and America (53%).  In terms of nationalities, Spain, France and the United Kingdom were the three countries with the highest participation from Europe, while the United States, Mexico and Argentina were the countries with the highest participation from America. Regarding the sessions and workshops, the opening session broadcasted from Pamplona (Navarre, Spain) had the highest attendance, with 1460 unique users. This figure, that triples the number of registered professionals was a free open session and indicates a clear interest in knowing what Conecta FICTION Reboot would be like. Other sessions that stood out were Rebooting Co-productions and Rebooting the Talent followed by 60% of the registered participants.

Géraldine Gonard, director of Conecta FICTION Reboot, takes stock of the virtual event: “In this assessment, I would like to thank all the professionals who made this first stage of Conecta FICTION 4 possible. The number of accredited people was very good, technically the online platform (that was self-developed) has worked and, as organizers, we believe that we have been able to honor the trust bestowed upon us by the Government of Navarre and our sponsors. In the last 3 months, the volume of online meetings, conferences, panels, lectures, master classes, etc., has been enormous… perhaps even excessive. That is why creating different content was a very demanding exercise. The virtual networking, agenda and services were also complex exercises. We know that many participants had to divide their time between their tasks, calls, video conferences and the event’s agenda. Honestly, it has been very challenging, but we are happy that saw it through and that Conecta had its space in June. September will be different and we will try to scale up the activities to encourage as many professional meetings as possible, which are quite missed nowadays”.

The central topic of the panels in Conecta FICTION 4 was the concept of “reboot”. Rebooting the industry, talent and co-productions and, in order to recreate the environment of proximity and reciprocity of previous editions, the online workshops called CROSS-TALKS were born.

CROSS-TALKS DIVERSITY: CONECTA WO(MEN) SESSION I–  The first panel, organized in collaboration with WAWA, was moderated by María Elena Useche, President of High Hill Entertainment (USA), and included the participation of Rosana Tomás, Production Director of Dopamine (Mexico), Christian Gabela, Vice President of International Co-Productions of Gaumont (USA) and José Fragoso, Program Director of RTP1 & RTP International of RTP (Portugal). The session I of the CROSS-TALK DIVERSITY introduced topics such as female professional profiles in the industry and the female audience.

CONECTA FICTION VIRTUAL 2019 – CROSS TALKS.

CROSS-TALKS DIVERSITY: CONECTA WO(MEN) SESSION II– Organized in collaboration with WAWA, this panel offered a space to discuss women as protagonists of stories that are breaking stereotypes, and also about opportunities for women in the audiovisual industry. This panel was moderated by Irene Jiménez, journalist at Audiovisual 451 (Spain), and included speakers like Francisco Cordero, Founder and CEO at BTF Media (Mexico), and Paola Suárez, Partner and Producer at Jaque Content (Argentina), who spoke about the social context surrounding the TV series ‘The Cleaning Lady’ and its Mexican remake. Virginia Yagüe, Vice President of CIMA (Spain) also took part and shared some data on the representation of women in the Spanish audiovisual industry, which accounts globally for 20 % of the sector.

CROSS-TALK DIVERSITY: CONECTA WO(MEN) SESSION III. The last panel of the cycle on diversity and women in the audiovisual industry covered the topic of the transformation of the role of women within fiction. It was moderated by Charline de Lepine, producer and screenwriter from Macondo (France), and included the participation of Catalina Porto, executive manager of Caracol TV (Colombia), Diego Piasek, vice president of international development of MHM Worldwide Television Group (USA), and Audrey Kamga, sales manager of ARTE (France).

CROSS-TALK: REBOOTING THE CO-PRODUCTIONS. Was moderated by Rafaella Bonivento, executive producer and consultant of Bonivento Consulting (Italy), and included the participation of Marcelo Tamburri, vice president of Scripted Content Development of Turner (Latam). They opened a debate on the advantages and disadvantages of international co-productions, and the impact of the health crisis on the content of co-productions in future projects.

CROSS-TALK: REBOOTING THE TALENT. Was moderated by Concepcion Cascajosa (Professor of Audiovisual Communication at Carlos III University) and the speakers were Ana Pineda (ALMA Director) and Estíbaliz Burgaleta (scriptwriter). They discussed the legal irregularities screenwriters have to face and how these became more evident when the pandemic interrupted the industry’s production.

CROSS-TALK: REBOOTING THE INDUSTRY. The last day of the first stage of Conecta FICTION Reboot began with this panel, which was moderated by Alex Lagomarsino, CEO and partner of MediaBiz US Corp (USA), and included the participation of Gerardo Brandy, founder of Embarcadero Pictures (USA). In this CROSS- TALK they talked about what awaits for the industry in the new normality. Brandy mentioned that the pandemic accelerated strategies and praised the use of technology which, in his opinion, is the way to adapt.

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