Event Preview: MIPCOM

Laurine Garaude, the director of the television division at Reed MIDEM, shares with World Screen Weekly some of the highlights of this year’s MIPCOM, set for October 8 to 11 in Cannes.

The number of buyers slated to attend MIPCOM is forecast to be up some 6 percent this October to more than 4,400, led in large part by gains in the number of executives from digital platforms attending the convention.

“We’re expecting 500, maybe more,” says Laurine Garaude, the director of Reed MIDEM’s television division. “We have 100 new VOD buyers.” The digital buyers include major players such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube—as well as companies from Turkey, South Korea, Germany, Greece, Russia, China and more.

The rising importance of sales to non-traditional, nonlinear platforms is in line with the overall theme of MIPCOM this year: “disruption and opportunity in the global market.” And despite—or perhaps even because of—rapid changes in the market due to technological advancements and the new opportunities they present, more companies are heading to MIPCOM to shop their wares. “Exhibition [space] is on track to being sold out,” Garaude says.

As always, the convention has lined up a top-notch slate of keynote speakers for its Media Mastermind series, among them Harvey Weinstein, One Three Media’s Mark Burnett, A+E Networks’ Nancy Dubuc, Google’s Robert Kyncl, Condé Nast’s Dawn Ostroff and Hulu’s Jason Kilar, among others. Also slated for a Media Mastermind keynote is Emilio Azcárraga Jean, the chairman and CEO of Grupo Televisa, who has been named as the MIPCOM Personality of the Year.

MIPCOM this year has also upped its emphasis on emerging markets, with sessions on the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. The Country of Honor, meanwhile, is Canada, with some 230 companies from the market due to attend. “Canada has the fourth largest delegation of participants at MIPCOM,” Garaude says. “The goal is to highlight the dynamic production market and the quality programs in all genres from Canada.” The Canada sessions will include panels on co-production and experimental media, as well as networking opportunities and matchmaking events.

Based on feedback from previous MIPCOMs, the event this year is stepping up its focus on closed-door summits where senior-level executives can foster new relationships. In addition to a digital media summit, there will be one this year about women in media, produced in conjunction with Lifetime. One hundred female executives in global entertainment will be invited to the lunch. In addition, MIPCOM is partnering with Telemundo Internacional and TVN Chile for the LATAM Global Dealmakers Networking lunch, which will feature a keynote by Adriana Cisneros, the vice chairman and director of strategy of the Cisneros Group of Companies.

These closed-door sessions, Garaude says, offer “increased networking and thought leadership at MIPCOM.”

Another highlight is the Content Trendsetter Awards, presented by World Screen in association with MIPCOM. The honorees, Rogers’ Malcolm Dunlop, Network Ten’s Beverley McGarvey, TV 2 Norway’s John Ranelagh and Channel 4’s Gill Hay, will take part in the Acquisition Superpanel: What Do Buyers Want?, in which they will discuss what they look for in new content in a session led by Anna Carugati, the group editorial director of World Screen.

For more on the MIPCOM lineup, click here.