Exhibitor conference This Way Up sets lineup

UK exhibition conference This Way Up: Exhibition Innovation (Dec 2-3), which will explore how films are showsn and consumed, has set its lineup.

Ben Roberts, director of the lottery fund at the BFI, will provide opening remarks, with Dave Moutrey, CEO of HOME, Manchester (This Way Up’s venue for 2015) closing the conference.

Day One speakers will include Jon Barrenechea of Picturehouse Cinemas, National Theatre Live’s Emma Keith, Ian Frances from the Flatpack Festival and Abandon Normal Devices’ Gabi Jenks.

Michael Pierce from Cinema Nation/Scalarama will lead Anyone can be a programmer, analyzing the contemporary dialectic between the programmer and the audience as tastemaker while asking who is really in control of what we exhibit.

Breakout panels will feature John Wyver, media associate with the RSC developing their future policy for broadcasting and digital distribution; Sam Meech, founder of ScreeningFilm.com; Dave Kapur from ourscreen; Bill Lawrence, Reel Solutions which programmes and supports independent cinema; David Forrest, lecturer in film studies at University of Sheffield; Joan Parsons of Sheffield Showroom and Rob Arthur of Thurso Cinema.

Day two will focus on digital innovation led by Rohan Gunatillake, creative director of 21awake and editor of Native, the NESTA R&D magazine, who will make a presentation on why exhibitors should be thinking more about digital.

Breakout panels will follow with: Chris Dennis, digital marketing manager at Entertainment One; Ivan Wadeson, from The Dukes, Lancaster; Simon Bateson, director of Take One Action Film Festival; Marc Allenby, director of distribution at Picturehouse Entertainment and Joeli Brearley of Future Everything, an internationally recognised R&D hub for digital culture.

Included in the festival is the This Way Up: Exhibition Innovation Fund live pitch, worth £50,000 to the winning project.

The event, which will take place at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle, is organised by Film Hubs North, North West Central and Scotland as part of the BFI Film Audience Network.

The full programme can be viewed here: http://thiswayupconference.com/