Asia Media Festival set to make a bigger splash in 2007

5 November 2007

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Singapore – The Asia Media Festival 2007 (AMF 2007), the regional business platform for the media industry to be held Nov. 14 – Dec. 4 in Singapore, is set to grow this year with a marked increase in participation and the debut of several new events.
Hosted by the Media Development Authority of Singapore and organized by Reed Exhibitions in collaboration with key industry partners, AMF 2007 is expecting 5,400 trade participants, 16% up on 2006. Among the new events will be the Apollo Awards and Asia Factual Forum (AFF), as well as Promax/BDA Asia 2007 Awards, which rejoins AMF.
Apollo Awards is a technical and creative award to recognize the region’s best in advertising, animation, production, and post production industries; AFF is a networking and ‘match-making’ event for commissioning editors and regional documentary makers aimed at promoting co-production of factual content; while Promax/BDA Asia 2007 Awards recognizes excellence in on-air promotion, branding and advertising.
Dr. Christopher Chia, CEO, MDA and Yeow Hui Leng, Project Director, Reed Exhibitions, predicted AMF 2007 will yield deals which exceed the $US47.1 million mark reached in 2006, which in turn surpassed 2005’s $US33 million worth of business.
The Asian Television Awards have garnered 1,374 entries, up from 1,331 in 2006, and Australia and New Zealand are included for the first time. The Asian Festival of 1st Films has attracted 500 entries, up from 300 last year.
The Asia Television Forum (ATF) is expected to grow by 10% in 2007 as 40 new companies will participate in the market, with delegates from more than 50 countries worldwide. In 2008, the ATF will move to the larger venue of Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre to cater for growing industry demand.
Yeow said she expects the 2008 edition of AMF to be largely unaffected by the new AMAZIA content exhibition and conference due to take place next November in Hong Kong, given the different positioning of the two events. She revealed 30% of exhibition space for AMF 2008 has already been sold and 85% of AMF 2007 delegates have expressed interest in returning next year. Dr. Chia sees AMAZIA as an additional opportunity for the MDA to showcase local companies and productions to the international market.