WESTDOC 2009 IS A HIT!
WESTDOC - The first West Coast Documentary and Reality Conference took place from September 14th – 16th, 2009 in Santa Monica, California. Over 400 attendees from around the world spent three days listening to speakers, making deals and sharing information. The casual nature of this conference coupled with the accessibility of the speakers and panelists made WESTDOC the perfect place to network and learn.
Content Now said …… “don’t miss WESTDOC next time it comes around: for the content, for the access, for the mentoring. Truly a best kept secret. Step into a Hollywood producer’s party with 400+ of his closest A-list friends pitching programming, talking tv, schmoozing as laid back as LA gets.”
WESTDOC’s schedule offered something for everybody. Reality TV kingpin Thom Beers and legendary non-fiction producer/director RJ Cutler provided the keynote discussions, while dozens of industry players drew on their considerable experience as delegates enjoyed more than 35 panel discussions during the first two days.
Our roll-out year included a number of broadcast executives who also participated in The Sit-Down, which consisted of relaxed, candid conversations with WESTDOC delegates detailing network editorial needs and entry points. And for those attendees who wanted one-on-one appointments with broadcast representatives from over a dozen television channels, there was Face Time.
On Monday night, HISCOX E&O Insurance Group hosted our opening night cocktail party in the upstairs bar of our conference venue, while Tom Jennings Productions hosted the Tuesday cocktail party in their spectacular office on Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade. The acclaimed premiere documentaries P-STAR RISING and 65_RED ROSES were the late evening screenings.
Day Three was entirely devoted to PitchFest: eleven filmmakers took turns standing before a packed audience while pitching their projects to a panel of more than a dozen network executives including Documentary Channel founder Tom Neff and Charles Nordlander, VP of Development & Programming at the History Channel. Bess Kargman’s FIRST POSITION won this year’s WESTDOC Best Pitcher award.
Now that this year’s WESTDOC was such a smashing success, plans are underway for the 2010 event. Get ready to mark your calendars: September 13-15th, 2010.