Ferns expanding former Banff TV leadership course to international arena

Pat Ferns is taking a training concept that once fell under the Banff Television Foundation umbrella international, with offerings planned for Asia/Australia, Europe and North America. With Doug Macnamara, the former head of the Banff Centre for Management, and Jim Byrd, ex-VP of the English television network at the CBC, he has formed the International Institute for Television Leadership to offer courses to television executives. The curriculum will be based on that developed by Macnamara and previously offered through the Alliance Atlantis Banff Television executive program. Alliance Atlantis provided the funding as part of a regulatory benefit, which has lapsed, so Ferns says that the new institute is forming new partnerships. The Asian-Australian course that the institute will offer in Bunker Bay, Australia alternating with Singapore is being sponsored by Screen West, a state government-supported film and TV development body in Western Australia and Singapore’s Media Development Authority. The high-end course will be limited to about 25 participants, with the first edition under the institute’s banner scheduled for November. Ferns – who oversaw the Banff Television Foundation and its events until its bankruptcy in April 2004 and its subsequent takeover by Achilles Partners LLC (CCR, April 22/04) – adds that sponsors for a North American version of the six-day course will be announced shortly. The North American course will be offered in Banff in January 2006. In Europe, he notes that institute is in negotiations with a European institution he refused to name so that the venture can access European monies. "It will be co-owned in Europe, whereas we own the Asian-Australian and the North American versions," he says. "The curriculum has been very carefully tested so we know what we’re doing in terms of the leadership skills, the inventory, the leadership training that we provide, but we also have international faculty drawn from the industry, who will make it current and relevant to the industry and will pick up the flavour of whatever region we’re in," Ferns notes. The course, which was offered twice a year over a five-year period as the Alliance Atlantis Banff Television executive program, will have up to a dozen faculty. "We had strong demand for the original courses and, of course, we haven’t offered one for the past year, so we’re doing one a year instead of two, and obviously our base will be a much broader one – not just Canada but the target audience is in North America. We think that we’ll be fine," notes Ferns on the North American courses’ chance of filling up. The institute’s first event will be a one-day forum on the coming shake-up in television that will be held May 12 in Toronto. The event, featuring former Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps and others, is being pitched as a refresher course for former graduates of the Alliance Atlantis Banff Television executive program. "It was logical that after Jim and I had left Banff that we continue those discussions. We spoke first to Achilles Media, but they didn’t appear to be interested in continuing that, so we have gone on our own way," he states. Ferns’ ties with Banff on other fronts have also been severed. While he ran the pitch session at last year’s event, he says he won’t be back this June. "I guess I’ve been voted off the island so I will be elsewhere," he states. "I think it’s probably right that Banff acquires a different signature. I wish it well."

Ferns expanding former Banff TV leadership course to international arena

News | 05/06/2005 4:00 am EDT

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