London Welcomes The Media Production Show

There are already a lot of annual TV exhibitions in the UK and the Media Production Show is being launched on 9/10 June at the Business Design Centre, Islington to add to them, writes Barry Bassett, Managing Director, VMI.

My company, VMI, has had a long and eventful history of being involved with various shows and have in fact previously exhibited at the Business Design Centre many years ago when it was called, rather appropriately, 'The Television Show'. This was a show for TV facilities companies and in its day was well attended and appealed to Production Companies and professionals who wanted to make contacts with Production Facilities companies but sadly it no longer exists.

Our hope is that the Media Production Show will fit this role again in the same way that the Wildscreen Show in Bristol (www.wildscreen.org) caters for Natural History productions. The Wildscreen Expo is only held every two years and anyone who is anyone involved in Natural History production internationally will try to attend this annual fest of screenings, talks and networking.

So, who is The Media Production Show for? The most important questions here are of content, scale and location.

The Broadcast and Video Expo evolved from the Television Show and became known as BVE and is now based at the excellent ExCel Centre. It is ostensibly an equipment show for all major manufacturers to attend in February every year but the Docklands-based Convention Centre is simply too far from the West End for many Producers and Production Managers to attend; besides which, it is a smaller version of the European IBC expo based in Amsterdam every September, which, if you are serious about your equipment, you will attend anyway.

The BSC Show is also held annually and was held this year at the Battersea Power Station. This is mainly a cinematography equipment Show for freelancers and DPs. Again, a very different show.

So what does this leave? A smaller venue in Islington with excellent transport links, close to the West End, so you can visit just in the afternoon or morning and includes useful and interesting seminars from subjects as diverse as online content to creativity meeting technology.

There is also an eclectic mix of media production suppliers including camera rental companies like VMI, Shooting Partners, Picture Canning North and Alias Hire; all of the main equipment dealers like BPS, PEC and Visual Impact as well as equipment manufacturers like Canon, Panasonic, Cooke, Zeiss, AJA and JVC plus many others. Other suppliers involved in makeup, special effects, leasing, insurance and location facilities are all included for good measure in a venue close enough to Soho to be convenient for most people, yet large enough to be a useful show but not too large so that it still remains personable.

This is an event for Media professionals who want to network and meet with like-minded companies without being a massive equipment show.

VMI shall be exhibiting at the Media Production Show on 9/10 June at the Business Design Centre, Islington and also at Wildscreen in Bristol in October.

VMI will be at Stand 124 at the Media Production Show.

Image: Barry Bassett, Managing Director, VMI.

www.vmi.tv

www.mediaproductionshow.com

(JP/LM)