NATPE Europe Wraps on a High Note

PRAGUE: Today marks the end of NATPE Europe’s four-day run in its new home in Prague, following a successful market that saw more attendees, more conferences and an overall positive sentiment about the relocation to the Czech capital.

Rod Perth, the president and CEO of NATPE, told World Screen Newsflash that he is “delighted” and “very upbeat” about the event this week. The outlook was much the same from attendees, who this year had dedicated screening and market days co-located at the Hilton Prague.

“Budapest is a wonderful city and we had a great experience,” said Perth of the event’s previous home. “We had a lot of very positive relationships there, but all things need to be refreshed at times.”

He said that Prague was the clear choice when looking to relocate the market for a number of reasons, namely its accessibility and the facilities it offers. “Unless something radically changes, we’re back again next year,” Perth shared with World Screen.

This week’s event was more conference-driven than in years past, with a co-production summit on Tuesday and a Celebration of Polish TV Programming luncheon on Wednesday. “We’re trying to be thoughtful about the way we add conferences,” said Perth. “With the co-productions summit, we tried to make it not the same old co-pro conference with [griping] about the fact of getting financing. [Wednesday’s] luncheon was also very successful.” Perth added that there are plans to continue to ramp up the conference segment of the schedule.

Though no official attendance figures were released, Perth said that there were “more exhibitors than we’ve ever had; we had 45 new exhibitors that have never been here before. We sold out every room in the hotel.”

The number of buyers in attendance also had a notable uptick, which Perth said was part of a concentrated effort on behalf of the organization. “We worked so hard on the buyer situation, and we will continue to do that; we’re committed to it.”

As for what’s to come at the next NATPE Europe, Perth said he’d like to see a larger focus on digital. “I think that this region is dying to hear about the impact of the growth of digital in the United States and how they can learn from it; it’s still really in the early stages here [in Eastern Europe],” he said. “What I want to do next year is be able to attract some big, big names from the world of digital. That’s an initial goal that we’ll try for.”