Halifax: Getting meetings with the top international producers, distributors and broadcasters is usually a challenge. But at Strategic Partners 2004, all you have to do is ask.

Since its inception in 1998, the Atlantic Film Festival’s premiere industry event has grown considerably in its importance as a key meeting place for Canadian producers seeking international coproduction partners. Now it is also making an important contribution to building a stronger, more profitable industry in Atlantic Canada.

The conference, which ran Sept. 17-19 in Halifax, generates significant revenues for the region’s cultural sector. Janice Goguen, senior trade officer for the Moncton, NB-based Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, says that last year’s conference generated at least $10 million in contracts for Atlantic Canada’s film and television industry. The data comes from Pan-Atlantic Cultural Export Initiatives Evaluation, a study conducted by the Consortia Development Group in April for ACOA.

ACOA, which invests public funds to grow certain sectors of the Atlantic economy, such as its cultural industries, invested $232,367 in Strategic Partners 2004. Goguen says that showing a return of $10 million for that kind of investment ensures that the agency will continue to be a strong supporter of SP in future years, and reflects the growing significance of the event for the Atlantic region’s cultural sector, an area she says suffers from severe brain drain. Goguen estimates that as many as 90% of those trained in cultural industries in the Atlantic provinces move on to work elsewhere.

An international coproduction generated at last year’s conference will help keep skilled crew and creatives in Newfoundland over the coming year. Michael Garland of Dublin, Ireland-based Grand Pictures made contacts last year that led to his first coproduction with Canada, a dramatic series called Atlantic Sound, which is being coproduced with Paul Pope of Pope Productions in St. John’s.

‘It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been here,’ says Garland, explaining that the dramatic series about a small radio station in an island community is due to start shooting at the end of 2005.

When conference director Jan Miller came up with the idea for SP seven years ago, it was exactly this type of success story she hoped to help facilitate.

‘From the get-go I’ve structured the conference by drawing on feedback from the Canadian industry, while remaining very conscious of the international market,’ says Miller.

Input from the Canadian community continues to shape the conference year by year. For example, Miller selects international delegates largely by going to Canadian producers and asking them whom they would most like to meet.

While panel discussions such as Above the Line Producer, focusing on relationships between American and Canadian producers, and keynote speeches by the likes of Paul Brett of U.K.-based Prescience Film Financing and producer Anthony Bregman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) were both lively and informative, most delegates point to the one-on-one meetings at the venue as the place where most of the real business goes down. Before this year’s 125 delegates arrived at the conference, Miller and conference manager Nicolle Spagnoli had prebooked 400 different meetings, all but one of which were conducted over three days.

Gathering just the right group of people is one of Miller’s hardest tasks and greatest passions. She says panelists, mediators and keynote speakers are selected with great care.

‘There are potentially more well-known people than Bregman, but there is not a better person for people to meet here than [him]. I have to resist the sex appeal for the practical realities, which become sexy themselves,’ says Miller.

In order to create an event where Canadian producers are offered access to the top people in the world, Miller designed a project-driven event geared toward established producers, where participants are selected on the basis of a specific project. The conference also focuses on certain countries each year. This year’s international participants came from the U.S., Ireland and the U.K.

In SP’s early days the event drew on funds to subsidize travel expenses for participants from across Canada. Gradually, fewer participants were subsidized, as provincial agencies realized the potential importance of the event for their producers. This year the festival did not have to subsidize any of the Canadian producers who attended.

Miller says it is also getting easier to attract major international players to the event. For U.K. producer Maggie Taylor of Double Scorpio Productions, the presence of U.S. producers and distributors is a major draw. Last year she connected with New York producer Diana Williams, who is now on board as a coproducer for Taylor’s feature The Warrior Queen, which is to be shot in New Zealand. And at this year’s conference Taylor says three investors have told her they also want to get on board.

‘We don’t get to meet many Americans on our own turf, so it’s really hard for us, but here I’ve had a lot of good talks with people who I’d never get the chance to otherwise,’ says Taylor.

SP has primarily focused on bringing together partners from North America and Europe, but in light of growing markets in Asia and Latin America, Miller says there is a potential for SP to expand. For example, Miller, along with AFF executive director Gregor Ash, are in the preliminary stages of developing SP Asia.

‘We want to do SP Asia as a separate event at a different time of year and we’re talking to B.C.,’ says Miller. One of her key tasks in developing this new event will be to look at how business is conducted in Asian markets and determine if the current SP model will work.

‘It’s something that we’re interested in doing. We’ve had some talks and if all the pieces come together it’s something we’d like to see happen,’ says Ash. ‘It makes sense to do it in B.C. because there’s a higher percentage of producers from Canada interested in the Asian market there, and in terms of travel it’s the hub, so your economies of scale will work.’

‘SP puts [AFF] on the international map. It connects us with the industry on a global level and does wonders for our reputation,’ he continues. ‘The big thing now with SP is that we’re starting to engage producers in the U.S., and cultural agencies from other countries are starting to talk about how they can participate from their end.’

While the focus of SP is to connect Canadians with international partners, Ash recognizes that Canadian producers are making important connections with each other, as well, and says that interprovincial coproductions may be more of a focus in the future. For example, at last year’s conference Jeanne Stromberg of Toronto-based StromHaus Productions struck up a partnership with Halifax-based Picture Plant and says the companies have been working together ever since.

‘The conference works really, really well because it’s small and very impressive,’ says Stromberg. ‘Everyone is very relaxed and receptive.’

Like the entire AFF, relaxed and casual is the name of the game at SP. While the event is looking to new horizons, the size and location of SP will remain the same. For Miller, it is important to restrict the event to around 125 delegates in order to maintain the intimate atmosphere that facilitates productive meetings.

‘I don’t think of it as being limiting, that’s the conference’s strength. When you get bigger you become something else,’ she says. ‘My personal goal is to remove competition, we’re all in this together. When people come to Atlantic Canada they let their hair down and by nature feel more relaxed.’

-www.atlanticfilm.com