Robert Mitchell, Tim Richards, Pete Buckingham head the speakers’ line up for
this year’s RAAM Conference and Trade Show
4 ½ Hours of advance screenings
Something for everyone
Eleven leading figures from the UK and Irish film distribution and exhibition
business will speak at the 2006 RAAM Conference and trade show being held in
Glasgow, Scotland next month –(February 14 – 16, 2006)
The international line up of guest speakers is headed by;
Robert Mitchell SVP & MD - Buena Vista International UK
Tim Richards CEO – Vue Entertainment
Pete Buckingham Head of Distribution and Exhibition- UK Film Council
Steve Lavelle Director - Apollo Cinemas
Sheamus Smith, former Irish Film Censor
Murray Holdaway, CEO - Vista Entertainment Solutions Limited
Rod Wheeler – BARCO
Denis Kelly – Kodak
David Hancock – Screen Digest
Stuart Nicolle Director – Purple Seven
Maurice Newton CEO – Omnicomm
In addition to the presentations, the RAAM conference programme includes four
and a half hours of screening of forthcoming trailers and movies.
RAAM Chairman Tony Meehan commented;
“The importance of the RAAM conference and trade show is that it is crucial to
the development of the UK and Irish independent cinema markets. Further
testimony to the importance of the conference can be judged by the number and
quality of international companies who are either sponsors or exhibitors, these
include; Britvic; Masterfoods; UK Film Council; Pearl & Dean; BARCO; KODAK: VCS
Timeless; VISTA; Saturn Visual Technologies; Peach Digital; Snack Solutions;
Häagen Dazs;
“The conference has something for everyone in the cinema business – case studies
on overall market performance during the past year; operations; film and
concession buying; background into future technologies covering digital
projection, IT, website, and insights into understanding how to manage
competition and new market opportunities. The Trade show has more than 20
exhibitors covering everything operators need to review and improve their
businesses.
“Each of the speakers, who are specialists in their own areas of expertise, will
present studies relevant to the UK and Irish cinema markets and how the
independent cinema sector in each country can improve performance, and more
importantly what they can expect in the year ahead. Simply to serve a local
audience is no longer an option. UK and Irish independent operators have to go
head to head with the majors at every level.
“The value of Robert Mitchell and relevance of Tim Richards speaking is
tremendously important. Robert, together with the team which he now leads, built
the BVI franchise in the UK to be the number 1 distributor in 10 years. Tim is
one of the co-founders of a start up company which he has led to become Vue
Entertainment, one of the top three cinema companies in the UK.
“Pete Buckingham of the UK Film Council will set a different tone to the
proceedings by addressing the issue of “New Technologies, New Audiences
“Steve Lavelle is a director of the UK’s largest independent group of Cinemas
and competes head on with the majors across the country.
“Maurice Newton, CEO of Omnicomm, will be launching a new concept in concession
buying created specifically for independent cinema owners.
“Sheamus Smith, the recently retire Irish Censor will review the Irish cinema
market, and David Hancock of Screen Digest will present the case for the UK
market.
“On the technology front, Rod Wheeler of BARCO and Denis Kelly of KODAK will
present and demonstrate the latest in digital technology.
“Murray Holdaway the CEO of VISTA is travelling from New Zealand to explain the
importance of Information Technology, how it interfaces with the day to day
running of the business and the relationship with website and phone technologies
to increase the level of advance sales.
“How to understand and manage each local market will be covered by Stuart
Nicolle, whose company, Purple Seven, is one of the UK’s leading experts in
automated data analyses in the leisure industry, and how the information
gathered can be used to greater benefit by each operator.”
Further information about the RAAM Conference and Trade Show can be found on
www.RAAMconference.com