MONTREAL — The Just for Laughs comedy festival and Toronto’s Achilles Media say they will combine forces to create the first World Comedy Conference in July 2008.

The WCC will work to pump up the Montreal comedy fest’s much-touted industry edge. Each year, over 1,000 film and TV industry types attend the popular summer event, with talent scouts, agents and TV producers looking for hot new comic talent.

Achilles Media CEO Robert Montgomery says the plan is ‘part of the natural growth for Just for Laughs,’ noting that ‘there has been an increasing industry presence at Just for Laughs for years.’

Montgomery says Just for Laughs president and founder Gilbert Rozon began talking to Achilles, which also runs the Banff World Television Festival, over a year ago. ‘Gilbert had come to Banff and had seen what we were doing there, and he liked it. He felt we could help to create more opportunities for networking at Just for Laughs.’

JFL and Achilles plan to make the WCC a ‘not-to-be-missed forum’ at which industry leaders, broadcasters, producers, writers, directors and actors can meet to exchange ideas and forge new deals. The WCC will also launch a people’s choice comedy awards, pitch sessions, customized VIP tours of the most buzzed-about acts at the event, a pilots’ market, and an exclusive broadcasters-only forum.

‘I have been very impressed by Achilles Media and the work they have done reinvigorating the Banff World Television Festival,’ Rozon said in a statement. ‘I feel we are perfectly suited to pull off this event in a world-class manner.’

The WCC will be a two-day event held during JFL. There will be forums and panel discussions on the business of selling comedy and, Montgomery stresses, the importance of new platforms. ‘Comedy has been very popular on the new platforms. Part of the conference will be to take it all one step further — to seize opportunities and facilitate new ideas about how to connect the consumer to content.’

Montgomery adds that the local benefits are huge. ‘This is great news for the Canadian industry,’ he says. ‘Bringing the world’s key players to Canada is better for our producers, broadcasters and artists. To do the business in our garden is a great way to advantage our industry. This is going to provide a lot of inspiration.’

JFL is the largest comedy event in the world, welcoming over two million people each year. The festival has produced numerous business offshoots, including comedy TV shows that are syndicated worldwide. Achilles Media also manages the World Congress of History Producers and nextMEDIA.