Hey all,
As a recent media graduate, I thought it would be a good idea for me to attend the MPTS festival which is a media production and technology show directed at those wanting to go into the industry, those who are already in the industry, or for professionals to share tips, tricks and advice on different aspects of the media world. I attended back in 2019, and this year it was going to be held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. The session was run on an app called 'hopin' which allows you to create your own profile and sign up for future events! This particular event ran from 23rd February 2021 - 25th February 2021 from 9am until 4pm! As with all events, I try to attend as many of the sessions as possible, so in this blog post I will be simply summarising some of the talks that I listened to on the first day, but to see the full schedule, head over to the MPTS website...or click here (and I will probably be live tweeting along with the sessions as well, instead of making another blog post, so head over to my Twitter feed to see what I've been summarising about the talks so far...
I received from Charlotte Wheeler who was the Event Director, and a brief summary of key features that would be able to use used, including the 'Stage' where the speakers are part of a live discussion, answering questions and also interacting with people's comments during the discussion and also the 'Speed Networking' area which allows you to be randomly paired 1 on 1 with another individual who is currently attending the event, for a maximum of a 10 minute video call before being disconnected (so that's why there was an option to include your name, a short bio and links to some of your social media networks so that people could find you if they wanted to continue the discussion elsewhere after the time was up!
23/02/2021
The first session that I attended was called 'Indies in Lockdown' which brought together 4 media professionals, 3 of whom represent different production companies, to explain how they have coped during the lockdowns and also any new opportunities that were created because of the new working environment.
Jesse Whittock - Insight (Features) Editor was the host, and the guests were;
Danielle Lux - Managing Director of CPL Productions,
Ninder Billing - Head of Specialist Factuals at The Garden Productions Ltd &
Laura Mansfield - Creative Director at Outline Productions
The second session I attended was called 'Best of British: Screenwriting' which was focused on how screenwriting has changed in the last 12 months, whether it affected any opportunities for up and coming screenwriters and to find out how both of the speakers got to where they are today!
Hannah Bowler - Reporter was the host, and the guests were;
Sophie Petzal - Screenwriter &
Sarah-Louise Hawkins - Screenwriter
After lunch I attended a session called 'Is there an elephant in the room? Strictly Come Dancing: Motion Graphics case study' which was simply speaking about the unique way that the show had to be not only filmed, but the different aspects needed from the motion graphics department in order for the show to be successful.
Sadie Groom - Managing Director was the host, and the guests were;
David Newton - Managing Director at Potion Pictures
Joe Phillips - Lead Designer at Potion Pictures
During the first day of events, I also tried the speed networking and spoke to two different individuals. I connected with Daniel Miller, a Camera Operator at QNEW NEWS who explained to me that one of his friends wanted to create a news channel which would be broadcast in Turkey, but in English...and he was talking about how he was thinking og getting different crews together and work out expenses for how exactly they would be able to do that. We managed to use the entire 10 minutes of time to speak ton eachother, and one thing I won't forget was his amazing virtual background which looked like a bar! I also spoke to Tomasz Witkowski who I immediately knew was Polish, just by reading his name, and I explained that when I saw the words 'Co Founder' on his bio, he had achieved something that I wanted to aim towards in the future. He read through my short biography and told me to check out a company called 'Media Monks', as well as approaching Adidas who were looking for recent graduates for potential roles - so this is something I will definitely have a look into! I connected with both of these individuals on LinkedIn so hope to work with them in the future on any projects that they decide to go forward with!
Don't forget to head over to my Twitter to see me live tweeting along with tomorrow and Thursday's show as this was just an introduction blog so that I could write about the first day's talks!