Groningen, Netherlands, 14 - 16 May 2009

Conference picture gallery
Conference presentations
Conference Venue 
Invitation to the conference by CR Secretary General and conference host

The theme of the Annual conference was 24/7 Multimedia Broadcasting.
We had workshops, plenary sessions and exhibitions about the challenges that regional broadcasters face in the new media environment.
The conference had a content suitable for both managers, producers and reporters with its four strands; Strategic, Editorial, Co-production and Training.

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

14th May

1. Opening by
* Michael Lally, president of CIRCOM Regional
* Drs. Jacques Wallage, Mayor of the city of Groningen
* Drs. Max van den Berg, the Queens commissioner in the province of Groningen
* Roel Dijkhuis, vice-president of CIRCOM Regional

2. The best of 20 years of Prix CIRCOM. The chair of the Prix jury and Grethe Haaland, NRK, will give an exposé of the best European regional Television the last 20 years - Television history and European history in the making.

3. Keynote Speech by Vincent Everts. The Dutch new media guru shares his thoughts on the ways of the business and what lays ahead. Producer: Roel Dijkhuis.

4. Public Service Broadcasting Past or Future? The President of CIRCOM Regional will discuss the current situation with a panel of experienced television managers. The panel: Dr Lidia Marton, Director of International Relations MTV; Pat Loughrey, Director of Nations and Regions BBC; Bob Collins Chief Commissioner 'Equality Commissioner For Northern Ireland' and member of Broadcasting Commission of Ireland; Boris Bergant, former VP EBU, Former Deputy General manager RTV Slovenia. Producer: Michael Lally.

5. Smart budget and Co-production in a Quartet. Two examples of how to make television on a smart budget; the Hungarian 'Balaton Summer' and the European co-production The Quartet, which is celebrating its 10th jubilee. The Quartet is made by STV, CT, TVP3 and MTV and is a monthly 26 minute long magazine. Balaton is a co-production between Hungarian national and regional stations. Producer: Erika Kocsor.

6a. PHAROS - The Google of Television and Movies. PHAROS is a multimedia search platform enabling users to search, browse and discover information embedded in videos, audio and images. This workshop will demonstrate how it is possible to find what was spoken in a video, using images to search for similar videos and navigating to the relevant location in the video. After the demonstration we look at the enabling technologies, how they contribute to bridging the so-called semantic gap and what some of the challenges in the field are. Producers: Andres Eben and Tobias Hellmuth.

6b. Small phone - big impact. This workshop explaines the possibilities of 3G-technology to transfer pictures and videos as file to the stations. The Secretary General of CIRCOM Regional, Peter Sauer will present concrete examples; how mobilephones are used to dropuce content or to transfer content. In his station Bavarian Television, he is using this technology sine two years. Producer: Peter Sauer.

7. Management Challenges in Multimedia Newsrooms. Technology has changed the media landscape; the audience has changed its behaviour and media companies who want to stay important, have to change accordingly. To manage multimedia newsrooms you need multimedia leaders, managers as well as editors. Managers who understand to optimize the use of the content on the different platforms, who are able to coordinate and who knows how to make creativity blossom when the economy is getting tighter. At this seminar Ulf Morten Davidsen, NRK, Christina Agren, SVT reflects on multimedia leadership - the Scandinavian way. Katarina Ek, Development Director at FOJO, the Swedish Institute for Further Education of Journalists, gives her view of how the need for media management training has changed and what tools are important if you want to achieve success. Producer: Christina Agren.

8. The Trimedial Newsroom, RTV Allard Berends, managing director of rtv flevoland explains the new ways his station has found in integration of radio tv and internet and how they use narrowcasting to reach a bigger audience. Producer: Richel Bernsen.

9. (Also no. 30) Media Conductor - Seminar. Katarina Ek, Development Director at the Swedish Institute for Further Education of Journalists, deliver tools and perspectives that are necessary in a multimedia newsroom. This seminar will be followed by a work shop and hands-on training. Please note that the seminar and the work shop is limited to 20 participants. Producer: Christina Agren.

10. Open Newsroom. 'Our boss sometimes calls us "a pain in the ass" - so why does she still wants us around?' Since November 2007 the small staff of "The Open newsroom" have covered the actions and discussions behind the scenes at Aktuellt, the oldest and one of the largest news programs in Sweden. Everything has been broadcasted via the web. Tove Hanell and Jon Nilsson will tell what happened when they invited the rest of the world to follow the Aktuellt-staff at the video blog 'Open newsroom' and why they believe transparency is of the utter importance for the 'old' broadcasters in order to stay credible. Producer: Tove Hanell.

11. The Do’s and don’ts in Co-operation. Co-productions are the cheapest way to get high quality international TV programmes. Yet, it’s not the easiest way. What’s crucial for a successful co-production: topic, rules, programme makers, executive producer or budget? Why is it so hard to launch a new co-production project, why does it cause so much stress to work on it? And how come the final product usually makes bot - the programme makers and the audience - happy? The session will show examples of successful long lasting co-productions on the European level, will point out problems one can face while participating in a co-production and will be open to your new coproduction ideas. Don’t miss the opportunity to launch a new CIRCOM co-production in Groningen! Producer: Daniela Drastata.

12. (Also no. 33) Media Conductor - Workshop. Katarina Ek, Development Director at the Swedish Institute for Further Education of Journalists will give hands-on training on working in a Multi media Newsroom. Please note that both the seminar and the work shop is limited to 20 participants. Producer: Christina Agren.

13. Quality Broadcasting vs Cost Saving. How can you keep track of the quality of your production while saving costs? Is there a way to handle the present economic crisis? Arno Schimmelpfennig, a German Media scholar, gives his thoughts based on theoretical and practical studies of German regional television. Producer: Arno Schimmelpfennig.

15th May

14. Prix Screening of the winner of The Grand Prix CIRCOM and the Drama category winner.

15. Prix Screening of the winner of the Documentary category and the Magazine category winner.

16. Prix Screening of the Vive l’Europe category winner.

17. Meet the winner of Fiction and Drama. This session will give you a chance to meet the maker and ask any questions that you might have. You will also get an insight into the minds of the jury of what they thought were the current trends within this category. Producer and Chair: Máire Ní Chonláin.

18. The SVT Newsdesk. Learn what SVT is doing to increase the cooperation between the regional and national news programs by sharing news material, knowledge and resources. Producer and speaker: Niclas Brunell, SVT's project manager.

19. PHAROS - The next generation search platform for your contents! PHAROS is a European R&D flagship on audiovisual search. Multimedia information retrieval is probably the most difficult and exciting challenge for the future. The PHAROS search platform will create a new infrastructure for managing and accessing information sources of all types in digital archives of broadcasters. Support for advanced audiovisual processing, content handling, and management will enhance creation and fruition of multimedia. Be one of the first from the industry to see what will be the future in two years. Producers: Andres Eben and Tobias Hellmuth.

20. Meet the Prix CIRCOM winner of the International category. You will also get an insight into the minds of the jury of what they thought were the current trends within this category. Producer: Boris Bergant.

21. Regional Formats and Audience Tracking. Research company Klapper Communications B.V. developed a revolutionary new real time audience feedback tool TV&RadioImpactMeter (TIM Omline TM and TIM-Studio TM). It offers Tv/radio producers and broadcasters the possibility to measure moment-to-moment audience responses to tv- and radio content. Based on years of experience a benchmark of audience response has been build, which offers remarkable insights on the most effective radio and television production techniques. The speaker is Charles Vaneker. Producer: Richel Bernsen.

22. Mobile Television in Europa, The Deloitte Report. Harald van Doorn and Erik Jan Gelink from Deloitte explain the new future expectations for mobile tv, based on their latest surveys. Producer:Gerard Schuiteman.

23. How to work with the Web and Social Communities like Facebook. Helene Hillestad, NRK, gives an insight on how to include Social Communities in a broadcasting situation. Producer: Grethe Haaland.

24. Meet the winner of Vive l’Europe category and the Magazine category. This session is dedicated to programs showing the singularity of European current events, mostly produced in cooperation between European televisions, and giving one an insight into other’s lifestyles. The session will discuss how European televisions could develop cooperation on programs about Europe, what style and what in formation can be put in common to be interesting and accurate enough for spectators located in neighbour countries. The session also includes the Magazine winner and the judges thoughts on the over all magazine entries. Producers: Jean-Christian Spenleand Malin Rogström.

25. (Also 36) CIRCOM Training. An in depth review of CIRCOM Training. In this difficult financial climate, training is an area that can easily be crossed off as a means of saving money. Is this a wise or sensible move? We will be looking at training need now and for the future. We will be looking at different approaches to training at TV stations from across Europe. We will also investigate what CIRCOM has to offer it’s members and other organisations in training television professionals. Chair: Anita Bhalla. Producer: Karol Cioma.

26. The state of Democratic Journalism in Europe. A report from Open Society Foundation.

27. Meet the winner of the Documentary category. This year’s Documentary entries show a big diversity from investigating journalism that really makes a difference to programs were the producers tell their own stories with a personal voice. In this session we will watch examples of high class documentaries and meet the producers of some of the best and of course the Prix CIRCOM winner of this category. Producer: Grethe Haaland.

28. Ideas Bazaar. In this session a 'Smörgasbord' of good ideas of regional television will be presented. It is open to anyone to present a good idea from their own station regarding programming, co-productions, production etc. Producer: Michael Lally.

29. The regional story that rocked the Catholic Church. Ali Fegan investigated the emergence of the Catholic priestly society SSPX in a Swedish region. When the story was aired and it became clear that the Bishop of SSPX, Richard Williamson, was denying the holocaust, the story became world news. The Pope and the Vatican reacted strongly - at the reporter. Ali Fegan and his editor Lars-Göran Svensson will talk about the investigation, show the story and talk about the aftermath -never in history did a Swedish regional reporter get so much attention. Producer: Nils Hanson.

30. (Also no. 9) Media Conductor - seminar. Katarina Ek, Development Director at the Swedish Institute for Further Education of Journalists, deliver tools and perspectives that are necessary in a multi -media newsroom. This seminar will be followed by a work shop and hands-on training. Please note that the seminar and the work shop is limited to 20 participants. Producer: Christina Agren.

31. Meet the winner of the Sport category and the VJ category. This session will give you a chance to meet the maker and ask any questions that you might have. You will also get an insight into the minds of the jury of what they thought were the current trends within this category. Producers: Jean-Christian Spenle and Malin Rogström.

32. Investigative journalism on a small budget. Making important investigative journalism with a low budget. The tricks of the trade of a regular prize winning manager. Nils Hanson worked for five years as an editor of three local TV-stations in Sweden with the ambition to show that even the smallest newsroom can do investigative work. He will show his strategy to get resources to muck rake and give examples of quick investigations. Nils will also present invaluable investigative tricks, learnt from editing Uppdrag Granskning (Mission; Investigate!), the current affairs flagship of Swedish Television.

33. (Also no 12) Media Conductor - Workshop. Katarina Ek, Development Director at the Swedish Institute for Further Education of Journalists will give hands-on training on working in a Multi media Newsroom. Please note that both the seminar and the work shop is limited to 20 participants. Producer: Christina Agren.

34. Meet the winner of the Web category. RTE Young Peoples is this year’s winner in the web category. This site disseminates content through both Youtube.com, Bebo.com and Rte.ie. A large amount of the content is web exclusive. The lay out and the focus on moving images contributes to the extremely fresh and modern feeling. Is this the way to attract the new generation and what is so regional about it? The web editor, Aaron Heffernan, at RTE Young peoples will give you all you got to know if you want to catch the eye and interest of the young ones. Producer: Malin Rogström.

16th May

35. CIRCOM Training. An in depth review of CIRCOM Training. In this difficult financial climate, training is an area that can easily be crossed off as a means of saving money. Is this a wise or sensible move? We will be looking at training need now and for the future. We will be looking at different approaches to training at TV stations from across Europe. We will also investigate what CIRCOM has to offer it’s members and other organisations in training television professionals. Chair: Anita Bhalla. Producer: Karol Cioma.

36. LIVE - cutting edge broadcasting on the web - offers an Interactive Multi-channel iTV solution to bring more stories and more action to live media events. The LIVE solution radically improves on linear approaches to TV broadcasting of live events by providing digital technologies and content formats that enable viewers to shape their own personal and highly interactive viewing experience. To keep the viewer on top of the action LIVE has designed a system that is able to adapt the storytelling around a sports event to user feedback and other stories that unfold alongside the main story. The revolution behind LIVE is that in addition to providing multiple live audiovisual streams, there are transition points, where the consumer is invited to switch to another subchannel. This means that the consumer can navigate through the event, getting multiple points of view on the action - because there is always more than one story to tell. Producers: John Pereira and Joachim Köhler.

37. Young CIRCOM. Young journalists, who have been attending the CIRCOM Television Journalism Workshop in Groningen for the past 8 days will present the stories they have produced as part of their training. The journalist will receive certificates from CIRCOM in recognition of their commitment and effort during their time in Groningen. Chair: Anita Bhalla.