BANFF — It was following a touch of Hollywood glitz and the return of the barbeque hoedown that the 29th annual Banff World Television Festival wrapped Wednesday.

The four-day festival was abuzz with the homecoming of Sex and the City‘s Kim Cattrall, here to accept the festival’s award of distinction and to spread a bit of stardust around this mountain resort town, recalling a stint at the Banff Centre for the Arts in her youth as ‘extraordinary’ and a key factor in her decision to pursue acting.

Festival organizers report about 1,500 delegates having been on-hand from Canada, the U.S. and more than 20 other countries, up slightly from last year. Opening sister event nextMEDIA, focusing on the digital world, drew an additional 400.

‘We’re becoming more recognized internationally as a place that producers can come pitch their content ideas, network with their peers and have a creative exchange of ideas,’ said Jennifer Harkness, executive director of the festival.

Banff is where many a deal germinates and is later brought back for its coming-out party. On Monday, Toronto-based Temple Street Productions announced that it had sold a 25% stake to BBC Worldwide in a partnership that gives the Brits a Canadian market for its formats and increases Temple Street’s international reach. BBC Worldwide’s Hilary Read and Wayne Garvie first met Temple Street principals Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier at Banff last year.

The fest’s delegate lounge in Banff is where Zarqa Nawaz pitched a comedy about Muslims in a prairie town to Mary Darling, and the CBC hit Little Mosque on the Prairie, the format rights for which were just picked up by Fox, was born.

And while the burgeoning digital realm has industryites scrambling to find workable business models, the decline of linear television was outlined by Malcolm Wall of Virgin Media in his crossover keynote on Sunday. But some salve was on hand Monday, as academic and author Dr. Richard Florida shared his theories regarding the increasingly pivotal role the creative class plays as the underpinning of the modern economy.

Panels on global distribution, politics, formats, digital media and the like did their usual brisk business, but new sessions The Craft, a how-to for producers on the creative end, and The Biz, for those wanting a primer on the small print, were particularly well received. On hand to share their stories and secrets for individual sessions were David Hoselton of House, Sanctuary‘s Martin Wood, and Jeff Greenstein and Jeff Murphy of Desperate Housewives. Group sessions provided tips on breaking into the U.S. with scripted comedy and on weathering the storm as the recent writers strike has accelerated the move to broadband.

Leading master class sessions were Jason Katims of Friday Night Lights, Swingtown‘s Alan Poul, Doug Ellen of Entourage, Bones creator/showrunner Hart Hanson, Stephanie Savage of Gossip Girl, Hannah Montana‘s Michael Poryes, Dirty Sexy Money‘s Craig Wright and Frontline‘s Steve Audette.

On the prize front, Blueprint Entertainment took the innovative producer award. John Morayniss, a regular at Banff in his Alliance Atlantis days, has been attending the festival every year since forming Blueprint in 2002 with Noreen Halpern and is a big fan. ‘It’s always the meetings you haven’t set up or the people that you didn’t expect to meet that end up the most impactful,’ he noted.

The festival’s pitch sessions handed out more than $50,000 in prizes. Among the winners this year were: Anne Pick, who took $15,000 for development of the nature doc Bear Cave Mountain; Jarrett Sherman, whose single-camera teen comedy Overruled! landed the $10,000 new media iPitch; Tricia Lee, whose teen theater comedy Waiting in the Wings won US$10,000 at the N Youth Drama Pitch; and Larry Day, winner of £5,000 and the UKTV lifestyle pitch with Lose the Baby Fat.

And while the return of the Banff barbeque, complete with cowboy hats, was a popular draw, Blueprint threw the most picturesque — and crowded — party, packing the host Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel’s breathtaking Presidential Suite to the point that the fire marshal came to visit.

Others who left with a heavier suitcase than they came with were ABC Studios, which took the nod for outstanding achievement; the BBC’s Jon Plowman, recipient of a lifetime achievement award; and Brent Butt, who took the prestigious Sir Peter Ustinov comedy award. Butt told Playback that when he walked into his hotel room at the Springs, the previous guests were still there. No doubt a shock for Butt, but it must have been surreal for the hotel guests to have Mr. Corner Gas burst in on them.