As well as The Network the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival also host Fast Track which is aimed at people who have already been working in TV. If you, or someone you know, has been working in TV for 2-4 years and have all the gumption, drive, and passion then you (or someone you know) can gain access to some of the biggest and most respected programme and policy makers in the business.
“Over the past 15 years, Fast Track has been fantastic at helping to identify and nurture those individuals who have the talent, abilities and drive to be the future of television. It might sound worthy, but it helps make the industry better.”
Andrew Zein, Managing Director of Tiger Aspect and Patron of Fast Track
Not only will the Fast Track participants get a full weekend delegates pass to the festival you will also get to pitch your idea and win a possible commission on it. In terms of who the wider media ias and how difficult it can be to get noticed even let alone have your ideas picked up by a major network is, am sure, a dream come true for those who have just started their career’s within TV.
Fast Track is, much like it’s sister scheme The Network, one of the most innovative schemes within the industry and goes right back to the core of what these schemes are aimed at doing, giving young people the opportunities to get in TV.
Some of the previous Fast Trackers had this to say about the scheme:
“I was a Director/ Assistant Producer on Blue Peter when he came to Edinburgh in 1998 for TV25. A weekend’s exposure to the George Bar gave me a taste of working within the commissioning side of the industry. Within a few months I became a Development Planner for BBC One – running the channel’s Entertainment and Factual development slates. A year later I moved back to BBC Production- working for Lorraine Heggessey as Head of New Media and New Channels. In 2000, I was poached by Dawn Airey to the position of Controller Interactive Programmes at Channel Five. I was appointed Controller of Youth and Music the following year, then the Controller of Special Events and Pop Features and am now Creative Director at Amaze TV.”
Sham Sandhu, Creative Director, Amaze TV .
“I shared a flat with other people on the scheme and we lurched bleary eyed, but excited from the masterclasses to comedy nights and the major sessions with lots of time in between spent in earnest discussion putting the TV world to rights. I had worked in TV for a few years at that point, but only knew my own small corner of it. Fast Track was a whistlestop tour of the whole TV landscape and gave me an ambition to expand my horizons. And it was a lot of fun!”.
Katy Thorogood, Head of Features , North One.
Closing date for applications or nominations is 13th June 2010. There are only 40 places available meaning you will get up close and personal with some of the biggest hitters in the industry, this opportunity is not one to be taken lightly and is, as the former Fast Trackers have testified, one that can change the course of your career within TV.
