Event Review: MIPCOM

CANNES: World Screen Newsflash offers up a review of the key highlights at MIPCOM, which ended today in Cannes.

The volcanic ash that disrupted MIPTV was a distant memory as 12,400 executives descended upon Cannes this week for MIPCOM. With days of (mostly) sunny skies (but when it rained, it poured), deals aplenty and a more celebrities on site than ever, the event wraps tomorrow on a high note. Laurine Garaude, director of the television division at Reed MIDEM, notes, "What is the theme? It’s an intangible. It’s the energy. There’s buzz. It reflects renewed confidence, renewed optimism."

The numbers are up for the year, Garaude noted, including a 4-percent rise in the number of buyers and in the number of exhibitors. "We have over 80 new companies," she added.

The celebrity lineup this year provided much for attendees to talk about; the list includes, among others, Elisabeth Moss and Jon Hamm for Mad Men; Luke Perry for Goodnight for Justice; Eric Balfour and Emily Rose for Haven; Andrew Lincoln and Sarah Wayne Callies for The Walking Dead; Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick for Hot in Cleveland; Sarah Jessica Parker for Work of Art: The Next Great Artist; Oliver Stone for The Untold Story of the United States; Gene Simmons for Gene Simmons Family Jewels; and Robert Redford for the Sundance Channel. "We think this [reflects] the importance of the international market to the overall revenue mix. Studios and top players have been actively investing in promoting their talent in order to help support their international partners, to make those stars and those shows known internationally."

Another theme of the market was the importance of co-productions, a key topic explored during the Producers’ Forum, organized in association with World Screen. The flagship event for Producers’ Forum was the Format Superpanel: Formulas for Success. Attendees filled up all the seats at the session, moderated by World Screen’s group editorial director, Anna Carugati. In it, FremantleMedia’s Rob Clark, Shine’s Alex Mahon, Banijay’s François de Brugada, Endemol’s Tom Toumazis and Embassy Row’s Michael Davies discussed some of the key issues facing the format industry, including the quest for the next breakout hit and the role played by social media.

Using next-generation platforms to build and exploit your brands was indeed a major topic of conversation during the format session, as it has been at panels and workshops throughout the week. Formulating new business models for today’s content market was among the issues explored by Jon Feltheimer, CEO and co-chairman of Lionsgate. The 2010 MIPCOM Personality of the Year, Feltheimer delivered a keynote address on Tuesday and later participated in Q&A session with World Screen’s Anna Carugati. The content industry is changing every day, Feltheimer said. "We need to build new economic models that accommodate the new entertainment paradigm…. We have to take risks and be willing to make mistakes. We need to create new relationships with people who install telephone lines and build mobile networks, with people like billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, 26 years old, who connects millions of people through bits and bytes. And, when we speak to them, we need to monetize these relationships… and the problem is we don’t know how." At the end of the day, Feltheimer continued, it’s still about great content. "The something for everyone approach usually leads to nothing for anyone… If you make good content, you’ll find plenty of users, as long as you don’t limit yourself to old models." He added, "Let the creative process work its magic. Our job is to bring the storyteller and the audience together."

MIPCOM’s organizers, meanwhile, have built a business on bringing content producers, sellers and buyers together. And while those three groups remain the core focus of MIPTV and MIPCOM, these events have welcomed a broader array of executives over the years, from advertisers to next-media gurus. Their role at the markets is set to be even greater at MIPTV, where Reed MIDEM is introducing the Connected Creativity Forum, in conjunction with GSMA, the organizers of the Mobile World Congress and the Mobile Asian Congress. Taking place April 5 to 7 during MIPTV, the new event is being billed as the first conference and exhibition specifically designed for the global entertainment and technology marketplace. "Convergence is happening now," said Anne de Kerckhove, entertainment division director at Reed MIDEM, noting that the event will feature a Connected Entertainment Experience Hub where the latest technology and interactive content will be showcased.