TV Fast Train 2012

Free training event for media freelancers TV Fast Train 2012 was a success. Hosted by BBC Academy in partnership with Creative Skillset and other industry partners, the day saw more than 500 attendees attending 24 masterclasses and 160 practical training sessions.

My first Fast Train session was Using Social Media to Grow Your Brand. It was about reaching, building and engaging audiences. It featured my online idols: BBC’s Social Media Lead Dan Biddle; Telegraph Hill‘s Barry Pilling and Twitter Guy Stephen Saul. It was chaired by Sara Brailsford from Atomized. Check out the podcast from the session.

Next session was Where’s the Next Big One? Features and Formats. It aimed to give those who wish to find the next big thing on telly tips on where to start when devising features and format hits. Panellists include Remarkable Television‘s Colette Foster; Bridget Boseley of Outline Productions; Alan Brown of Chocolate Media; Karoline Copping from Channel 4 and chaired by TV exec Anna Richardson. It was interesting to hear their own programme highlights from their careers and programmes that they wished they have come up with. What became apparent was that these shows were or a combination of the following elements: aspirational, relevant to the people and the times we are in, have good talent, good characters, good home take out and some element of jeopardy and pay off. A good narrative would not go amiss!

Then there was Social Media and second screens. Here are some interesting stats:

• Media multitasking: adults using two or more media in the same half hour 79%
• Nearly half of all adults and three quarters of 15-24s access the internet on their laptop while watching TV
• 20% of adults and 40% 15-24s watch TV via internet while watching another television programme on the main telly
• 6% of adults and 17% of 15-24 year olds like to chat about a programme online while viewing it on TV

I really would have loved to have made it to Meet the BBC Controllers. Luckily, there’s a controllers’ session podcast.

So there you have it, thought I’d share with you my TV Fast Train experience. It truly is wonderful to have events like this to really help with continuing professional development.

– TV Fast Train 2012: the round up
– BBC TV Fast Train Storify
– TV Fast Train on Flickr