One-on-One Expert Sessions
Once again, Avant Première 2022 offered its highly-popular speed-dating format online!
2022's hand-picked industry professionals were available according to their field of expertise:
MEET THE BUYERS
This acclaimed speed-dating format facilitates professional collaborations and opens up business opportunities! Pitch your project to buyers at broadcasting companies and streaming platforms + seize this unique opportunity to learn first-hand what major buyers want: What is their editorial line? What types of programmes are they looking for?
MEET THE CROSS-SECTOR EXPERTS
This fast-paced, engaging event provides you with a seat at the table of a seasoned expert on neighbouring sectors. Use your slot to build bridges with representatives of other industries, share information about each other's field and explore ways to collaborate with or learn from each other.
Experts
Meet the buyers
Silvana Grujic
Head of Music Department at Radio Television Serbia
Silvana is Head of Music Department at Television Serbia and Editor-in-Chief of RTS Klasika – 24/7 Classical music television programme. She authored numerous music shows and series and is the editor and commentator of major music and media events. Silvana graduated piano and musicology, received her magister degree in media studies, after which she earned her PhD in musicology and media studies. Since 2017 Silvana is Head of the Serbian delegation at Junior Eurovision Song Contest. She was Jury member of the TV music competition Virtuosos V4+, also she was jury member at the Rose d’Or festival 2021. She is the member of the EBU Music and Dance Experts reference group.
Mari Inamasu
Senior Producer at NHK - Japan Broadcasting Corporation
Since joining NHK in 1997, Mari has worked for more than 20 years as a program director for NHK's music programs and became a producer in 2020. Currently in charge of international co-productions and international program acquisition.
Stephen James-Yeoman
Commissioning Executive, Digital & Festivals at BBC Arts
Stephen James-Yeoman is the Commissioning Executive at BBC Arts and Classical Music mainly looking at classical music, dance and performance. He is also BBC Arts’ Digital Commissioner with responsibility for titles such as Inside Cinema. He is the BBC’s lead on Dance Passion, which is a celebration of dance from across the UK in partnership with One Dance UK. He also commissions Turn up for the Books, a podcast series which recommends interesting reads.
Stephan Königfeld
Founder of and Director at CHANNELFACTORY.TV
After business studies in Germany, USA and Austria, Stephan worked among others at TaurusFilm, PrimaCom, PrimaTV and NetworkServices. 2005 he founded CHANNELFACTORY.TV, a company developing TV channels, VOD platforms and tech services in GAS, Benelux, France and Latin America as EuropaMas and worldwide. At the moment Channelfactory.TV is launching a worldwide SVOD service based on the print magazine DiplomaticWorld and actively looking for music programming and documentaries.
John Kieser
Director of Partnerships at IDAGIO GmbH
Canadian born John Kieser is the Director of Partnerships for IDAGIO GmbH and Executive Producer of Media for the New World Symphony. Previously John served as EVP and Provost for New World since 2015 overseeing Musician Advancement, Marketing, Community and Audience Engagement, and Digital Media. Prior, John was General Manager of the San Francisco Symphony. While there, he created SFS Media, produced the diverse-media project "Keeping Score," Grammy© award winning recordings and won Emmy Awards for The San Francisco Symphony at 100 and Sweeney Todd.
Pedro Martinez Maestre
Senior Jazz Manager at Vialma
Pedro Martínez is Senior Jazz Manager at Vialmar, a streaming platform specialized in classical music and jazz. He manages the content department and relations with record labels and festivals.
Ulrike Köstinger
Chief Content + Partnership Officer at Arts Consolidated ApS
From 2012-2014, Ulrike Köstinger worked in the casting office of the Salzburg Festival, before becoming a product manager at L’Oréal Austria. She was executive assistant to Alexander Pereira at Teatro alla Scala, followed by Director of Cooperation + Development for the streaming platform takt1 until 2020. Today, she is Chief Content + Partnership Officer at Arts Consolidated ApS (Operabase, CueTV).
Isabelle Pasquesoone
Chief Revenue Officer at QWEST TV
With over 18 years of experience in the music and media industry, Isabelle Pasquesoone joined Qwest TV by quincy Jones in January 2021 as CRO. This new professional experience reinforces Isabelle's expertise in the world of medias and music, adding digital and CTV to her career path, after having collaborated for more than 10 years in the international development of the pay-TV channel Mezzo, as well as previously at Radio Classique and Le Monde de la Musique/Classica magazine as Ad
& Partnership Director. A musician trained at the conservatory (harpist), this music lover with a very business-like temperament is now in charge of developing the revenues of Qwest TV, including the distribution of the FAST channels and SVOD platform, the EDU project, ads and sponsoring departments as well as the Auditorium Films sister company of Qwest TV.
Dieter Schneider
Commissioning Editor at ZDF/ARTE and Head of Department ARTE Culture and Music at ZDF – German Television
Dieter was a freelance filmmaker for ZDF, 3sat and ARTE before working as Head of Department Theatre, Pop, Event/ARTE at ZDF from 2012 to 2017. Since April 2017 he is Head of Department ARTE Culture and Music at ZDF.
Peter Schöber
Programme Director at ORF III Culture and Information
Peter Schöber gained his first journalistic experience in the late 1980s at ORF Radio Upper Austria. He was a founding member of the Ars Electronica Center and a graduate of the CNN International Professional Programme. From 1998 onwards, he held various management positions within the ORF. Since 2010, he has been developing and subsequently managing the TV channel ORF III.
Meet the cross-sector experts
Marc Allenby
CEO at Trafalgar Releasing
Marc Allenby is the CEO at Trafalgar Releasing and has over 20 years of experience within the cinema industry, spanning across exhibition and distribution. In 2017, he helped facilitate the management buyout of Picturehouse Entertainment re-established the company as Trafalgar Releasing, an integral part of Trafalgar Entertainment.
Nathaniel Brendel
Senior Director, Emmy® Judging at International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Nathaniel Brendel joined the International Academy in 2009. As Senior Director of Emmy® Judging, he is responsible for a team who oversees all the International Academy’s competitions- including the International Emmy® Awards, the Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award and the JCS International Young Creatives Award. Over 1,000 leading television executives and producers from around the world participate in the judging process every year.
Grainne Clark
Managing Director at Event Cinema Association
Grainne is the Managing Director of the Event Cinema Association (ECA), the global and primary trade body for the alternative content sector. Since being in position, she has redefined the vision of the ECA and consolidated a new strategy for promoting this growing area of cinema programming and worldwide Box Office. Before, she held the position of Policy Executive at the UK Cinema Association, spearheading the development of the association’s pioneering Challenge Fund initiative , which is seeking to develop a more inclusive cinema experience for people with hearing loss.
Emmanuel Cocq
Call Coordinator at European Education and Culture Executive Agency (European Commission)
Emmanuel Cocq works at the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (European Commission) in charge of the implementation of the Creative Europe programme. He is in charge of the development of innovation and new business models in the audiovisual industry and other creative sectors. In this capacity, he is in charge of two calls for proposals of the Creative Europe programme: Innovative business tools (MEDIA strand, budget 14,8 M€ in 2021) and Creative innovation Lab (Cross-sectoral strand: budget 6,3 M€ in 2021).
Katrin Mathe-Cotillon
International Event Cinema Manager at Kinepolis Cinema Group
After 3 years as Event Cinema Marketeer, 4 years as Event Cinema distributor, Katrin Mathe-Cotillon joined in 2019 Kinepolis cinema as International Event Cinema Manager. Kinepolis Group currently operates 108 cinemas in Europe, Canada & USA. From Anime movies, Kids content to Music events and community driving content, Katrin is handling the event cinema strategy, negotiation and distribution at Kinepolis group. She has worked with a wide range of content partners: Royal Opera House, RAI, TF1, France TV, Warner Music, Universal Music, Nickelodeon, Mattel, beIN Sport and more.
EDILIA GÄNZ
Director of FEDORA
Edilia Gänz is the Director of FEDORA. She was involved in the non-profit organisation's launch in 2013 and has ever since been responsible for the growth and management of the organisation. In 2020 she was selected by Ms Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth to be featured among #EUwomen4future. In 2019 she was nominated by Forbes Magazine as one of the most promising European cultural managers and was featured among the "Forbes 30 under 30 Europe in Arts & Culture.
Wolfgang Graf
CEO at & Co-Founder of Ticket Gretchen GmbH / easy-connect / Kulturplanner + Board member of IDAGIO
Wolfang Graf is a cultural entrepreneur in the Performing Arts sector. He has a background in data analytics and a drive to help cultural institutions get a booster from the stone-age of digitalisation to state-of-the art digital audience development tools and thereby make sure that our rich cultural offerings can not only survive but develop & prosper. He works with main cultural institutions (e.g. Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Oper, Residenztheater München, Berliner Festspiele) regarding digital (young) audience solutions, customer retention & customer acquisition tools.
Fiona Morris
Creative Director + Chief Executive at The Space
Fiona is a multi-award-winning music and arts producer with over 25 years’ experience producing and commissioning programmes. She has extensive experience of working with cultural institutions in the UK and provides consultancy services to the arts and the digital sectors.
Simone Lippold
Head of EU funding strategy at Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V. German Booksellers and Publishers Association
Simone Lippold is working as Head of EU Funding Strategy for the CEO of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. After finishing her studies in business administration, she started working at Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH in 2012. At the end of 2019, she transferred to the German Publishers and Booksellers Association and took over the lead of EU funding strategy for the entire group. Simone contributes significantly to the establishment and expansion of the EU network of the Börsenverein Group and initiates numerous projects. She is also one of the driving forces behind the pilot project creativeSHIFT which is set to hack the biggest tech-triggered challenges facing Europe’s content sectors and to shape the future landscape of content innovation.
Olga Sismanidi
Project Officer, Creative Europe Programme at Culture Unit of the Education Audiovisual Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)
Olga Sismanidi is responsible for the management and development of a multi-disciplinary portfolio of Creative Europe projects in the fields of innovation, digital arts, music, digitalisation and cross-sectorial approaches to the CCS. She oversees the implementation of ten European Networks for the music industry (AEC, EJN, ECA, ECSA, EMC, JMI, IMPF, Live DMA, YOUROPE - Future-Fit Festivals) and the IMZ Network along other funded collaborative cross-sectoral initiatives. Previously, she led the ‘Access to Finance’ action under the EU Media Programme and steered several works for the Creative Europe on performance management and the Platforms action. She held multiple roles on other EU funding programmes for innovation, entrepreneurship, research, communication and technology after her time with the private comm industries, the IFPI and the BBC World Service.
