Science, history producers in discussions to coordinate their conferences

Organizers of the annual science producers’ conference and those of the history producers’ congress are in talks to try to resolve a turf battle, and perhaps to somehow coordinate the two events that are running next year on two different continents. This year, the two conferences were held back-to-back in Toronto, making it easier for delegates to attend both. Next year, The World Congress of History Producers will be held in Rome, Italy with RAI Educational as the host broadcaster, and the World Congress of Science Producers is slated for Tokyo, Japan with Japanese public broadcaster NHK as the host. At the close of the World Congress of Science Producers in early November, organizers made the controversial decision to branch out and include history programming in their upcoming conference. Rather than potentially splitting a finite delegate base, the two sides now say they are working toward a resolution that will work for them both. Both conferences used to fall under the domain of the Banff Television Foundation until its bankruptcy last year. At that time, Robert Montgomery’s Achilles Media took over the history producers’ event along with the Banff Television Festival. The science producers had one year left on their contract with Banff, but with the bankruptcy decided to go off on their own. They hired Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival to run the Toronto event (CCR Update, Aug. 19/04). "I can’t tell you much at this point. I can tell you that we’re definitely in discussions with Robert Montgomery and the group there to try to coordinate the history producers’ event…We are trying to get a win-win situation out of it that works for all the delegates and the two organizations," says Paul Lewis, the chair of this year’s science event, and president and general manager of Discovery Channel Canada. "I’m not in a position to tell you much more than that at this point, but we are having good, constructive discussions." Lewis, however, declined to confirm that the science producers’ decision to include a history aspect in their event had been abandoned. "We’re trying to figure it out, and I hate to give you all the options," he tells Canadian Communications Reports. "We haven’t even had the opportunity to talk to our steering committee about what the options are." Lewis says a meeting will be held with the steering committee before the end of the year, and that a final decision will probably be made in January. Montgomery appears to be on the same timetable. Dates for the Rome and the Tokyo events have not yet been confirmed, so there is some leeway. "We’re looking at a longer-term strategy at this point. It’s fair to say we’re doing two separate events this year, but in terms of cross promotion, in terms of trying to plan the events, coming up with some creative ideas – whether it’s trying to get a way to get people to get both (destinations) on one airline ticket – those are the things that we’re looking at," Lewis states. Montgomery prefers to wait to discuss the matter until early next year after decisions have been made. "Both congresses are in discussion regarding future collaboration," he says. He tells CCR that Achilles is proceeding with its event in Rome no matter what. "It’s full steam ahead for Rome," he says. "Our goal is to focus on the event itself." Montgomery is unfazed by the possibility that there could be a competing history event. Asked if he is worried that there could be a competing conference, particularly given that the financial downfall of the Banff foundation has been partly attributed to its decision to take on Newsworld when there was another similar event (CCR, Nov. 8/04), he responds that the Rome event is "not at all" risky. "The issues that the previous foundation had are not really related to us at all," he notes. "It is safe to say that the world is full of companies that run multiple events, and the key is execution. The key is to successfully execute an event, and the history event (in Toronto) was a blockbuster." Montgomery estimates that about 20% of delegates attending this year’s history event also went to the science conference. According to Lewis there was about a 25% crossover between the two congresses. At the close of this year’s event in Toronto, the science producers passed a resolution to encompass history as well, with 99% of delegates voting in favour of it. The possibility of coordinating the two events was also questioned at the history producers’ congress, when a meeting was held to form an advisory board that would guide future history conferences (CCR, Nov. 8/04). When the science producers first announced that they would be adding history, Lewis told European trade publication C21 that the intention was not to directly compete with the history producers’ conference, but that it was necessary to expand the science conference. "There were some concerns expressed about the direction (the history congress) was taking, bringing in people like Conrad Black. The feeling was that it didn’t necessarily keep to the television agenda," he told C21. Black gave a keynote address in Toronto based on his book about former U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt (CCR, Aug. 27/04). Since that time though, the two sides have begun talking and are working toward a January resolution that they say will hopefully suit both organizers and their delegates.

Science, history producers in discussions to coordinate their conferences

Broadcast | December 20, 2004

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