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