Screen Producers Australia is extending Screen Forever’s International Partnership Market (IPM) with the launch of the inaugural SPA Connect program.
To increase the range and variety of business opportunities available, SPA said it saw a need for an overall body to “draw the many threads of the international marketplace together and streamline existing business-to-business events.”
As such, SPA Connect will be the “overarching umbrella” under which members and international and domestic business will now be coordinated.
Existing strands such as the IPM, Roundtables, Ready Steady Pitch, and a series of networking functions and events will now be organised under the SPA Connect brand.
Further, through SPA Connect, the organisation intends to launch a Domestic Partnership Market (DPM).
Roundtables and Ready Steady Pitch will also be “re-balanced to maximise member opportunities for business engagement”.
SPA CEO Matthew Deaner said the organisation considered increasing opportunities for producers to meet potential partners both internationally and on the domestic scene as key to growing Australian media business.
“With co-productions and global financing now commonplace across all content platforms, the opportunity to forge new relationships, or grow/extend existing partnerships, is more important than ever. This new initiative announced as part of Screen Forever 2016 is a chance to really drive growth in the independent production sector and provide real production and business opportunities.”
“Our commitment to encouraging a healthy production sector is undiminished. SPA Connect will be the mechanism by which Australian producers can do business at Screen Forever and we look forward to using it to optimise business opportunities for all sectors of the industry.”