CREATIVE Times is rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of the media world at the inaugural Media Festival, held over three days at both the Midland and Radisson hotel’s, the festival has an array of speakers including Julian Bellamy of Channel 4 and Kate Burns of Bebo.

Phil Redmond opened the first full day of festivities, reflecting on his year, he described the European Capital of Culture, as the “biggest white knuckle ride of his life”. He highlighted the industry’s need to look at Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) and question it. PSB is of course among the hot topics to be tackled throughout the festival. With talk of technology and the economy also a high priority.

Phil Guest of Habbo Hotel, one of the world’s largest social networking sites for teenagers, talked us through the concept and the opportunities of social networking. Habbo Hotel, as Phil described it is: “a modern day virtual youth club”, where a user can create an avatar (Habbo currently has 160 million registered avatars) and meet friends in an anonymous environment. What sites like this can offer is an opportunity for brands to tap into the teen market. For example, on the launch of the St. Trinian’s film, Habbo held virtual school discos and gave users the chance to join a St. Trinian’s house. These experiences are potentially discussed outside the site in over 150 Habbo fan sites, spreading the word across the internet. Another example is ING, who have advertised through the site. “While banking may not be a service teens are looking for now, because they know the name, ING could be the first bank a teenager would think of in later life,” Phil suggested.

Following Phil Guest, Nick Parker of Parker Consultancy talked about the industry which is potentially bigger than Hollywood – the games industry. From Nick we heard a home grown success story, telling us that the biggest selling game of last year was Grand Theft Auto, with 310 million revenue, comparing that to Spiderman 3, which was the biggest box office hit, with 60 million revenue. Nick also described the industry as “recession proof” because of the public looking to home entertainment as a cheaper option.

Later on Peter Fincham of ITV and Julian Bellamy of Channel 4 talked us through future plans for their respective channels. Speaking of the growth in multiple platforms, Peter said: “The speed with which the BBC iplayer and 4OD have taken off is not a threat, but a force to make the medium more powerful”.

And after an interesting and informative morning, CREATIVE Times thinks its time for lunch.

W: www.themediafestival.com