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Michele Schofield is Senior Vice President, Programming & Marketing for A+E Networks Asia, based in Singapore. 

Schofield oversees the content and brands – across program scheduling, acquisitions, original production commissions, on-air creative, as well as trade, affiliate and consumer marketing – for Lifetime®, HISTORY®, bio.®, H2™ and Crime & Investigation Network®, across a regional footprint of South East Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

When considering original production commissions or co-production opportunities, A+E Networks Asia requires a level of Asian content and relevance.   Looking at series that feature real-life characters, as well as series in the food, travel and lifestyle space.  Short-running series or specials featuring real crime stories from Asia are also commissioned.

Prior to joining A+E Networks Asia in 2007, Schofield worked in Hong Kong for Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, where she headed the program scheduling, commissioning and acquisitions for the company’s Asia Pacific networks, including Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Pogo.  She joined the company in 2002 as Program Manager for Cartoon Network Australia/New Zealand, based in Sydney, before her move to Hong Kong in 2004.  Prior to joining Turner, Schofield held positions with Paramount Pictures, Discovery Networks, and various film and television productions in Los Angeles. 

Schofield is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television Production from Queensland University of Technology. 

Tarni James is Executive Producer of Entertainment for ABC Television, based in Melbourne. She has worked in the television industry for the past 30 years for all the Australian FTA networks, several cable channels, numerous independent production companies and the BBC as a journalist, producer, writer and director.  Tarni has created programming for arts, sport, current affairs, children’s, news, comedy, variety and documentary genres and has produced extensively in the field in Britain, USA, Africa, The Pacific, Europe and remote Australia.  Tarni currently oversees production of The New Spicks and Specks, Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell; RAW Comedy; Comedy Up Late and Dirty Laundry Live.

Her documentary series credits include Family Footsteps, ABC; The Naked Lentil, SBS; Jail Birds ABC;  the environmental series Carbon Cops ABC; and Grand Designs Australia series 1 Foxtel Lifestyle Channel. 

Jo Chichester is an Executive Producer in ABC TV Arts working across a range of programs including At The Movies, The Book Club, Jennifer Byrne Presents,  Exhumed and Sunday Arts Up Late.  Her documentary slate includes Outback Choir, Brilliant Creatures: Germaine, Clive, Barry & Bob, The Sharp Edge: The Art of Martin Sharp, Polly Borland: Polymorphous, George Gittoes: War Paint &  Robyn Beeche: A Life Exposed. Jo was Series Producer of Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabb and has worked on a range of TV shows in arts, comedy and entertainment including Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey, Artscape, Art Nation, Memphis Trousers with HG & Roy and Mondo Thingo. Jo has also worked as a presenter/producer at triple j, 702 Sydney and Radio National, and was a film critic for Vogue Australia.

Mandy Chang is ABC TV's Arts Commissioning Editor. Since joining Mandy has Exec Produced several programs including The Art of Australia, Comic Book Heroes and The Dream of Perfection/Autopsy on a Dream plus the upcoming Hannah Gadsby’s Oz and Art & Soul II.

Mandy is an award-winning producer/director, has worked with a number of high profile presenters including art critic Robert Hughes and has a successful track record in developing projects from scratch and making visually arresting, intelligent films. Her feature doc The Mona Lisa Curse (Channel 4) won a Rose D’Or, Grierson and Emmy Award and The Camera that Changed the World (BBC) screened, at festivals worldwide. Before leaving the UK Mandy made a 3-part factual series for the BBC about brain surgeons and a documentary about British admen for Ridley Scott. Mandy is a regular judge for the Grierson, Emmy and London Film Festival Awards.

Phil Craig is an accomplished producer and writer. He progressed via British current affairs series 'World in Action' and 'Panorama' to produce a range of films and series including complex international co-productions. Mainstream hits like 'The Flight That Fought Back', 'Live Aid Remembered', 'Ocean of Fear', 'Geldof in Africa' and 'Catherine the Great'; primetime history such as 'Finest Hour', 'Churchill?s Darkest Decision' and 'Diana, Story of a Princess'; and the quirky nostalgia of 'Jackie Magazine' and 'Phantom of the Opera: Behind the Mask'. In Australia Phil has exec produced and co-written 'Skippy, Australia?s First Superstar', 'Great Escape: The Reckoning', 'Surviving Mumbai', 'Bomb Bali', 'The Secret History of Eurovision', 'Chateau Chunder' and the ABC?s upcoming 'Desert War'. Phil recently worked at Nutopia producing factual series including 'How We Invented the World', 'The 80s, the Decade That Made Us' and making specials including '911 State of Emergency', 'Adrift' and 'Targeting Bin Laden'.

Matt Scully was series producer of ABC Science flagship series Catalyst. He worked as producer/director with Film Australia in Canberra and Sydney, and as series producer for Channel Seven’s Better Homes and Gardens.

Through several leading production companies, he has produced a wide variety of reality, entertainment, ob doc and art programs including the BBC format 'Honey, We’re Killing the Kids', 'Joker Poker', 'Stuart McGill Uncorked', 'Lock ‘n’ Load' with R. Lee Ermey, and HG Nelson’s 'Bush Slam' which Matt conceived and developed for the ABC.

Director Andrea Ulbrick is a science specialist who has been working in the media for twenty-four years. A series director, series producer and writer, she was series producer on the new William McInnes birdwatching series 'Hello Birdy' to be screened on the ABC. Previously, she worked on Australia’s highest-rating show 'Australia’s Got Talent'. In 2010, Andrea completed a two-part, long-running, award-winning observational science series investigating child development for the ABC: The Life Series.

Anita was a newspaper journalist in the UK before moving into television where she spent 11 years making documentaries, Factual Entertainment and reality programmes for ITV, Channel  4, Sky and Channel 5. She has been in Australia for 7 years producing shows for the commercial networks before moving to the ABC as Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment 20 months ago. Programmes include Race to London, Wild Life at the Zoo on ABC1 as well as yet untx?d shows such as Croc College, Boomtown and Vet School and a new series for ABC2 entitled Head First.

Sophia Zachariou is currently Acting Head of Entertainment with ABC.  She has developed, managed and launched a number of extremely successful ABC TV programs across all genres of Entertainment and Comedy from studio based panel shows, observational documentary series, sketch comedy and game shows.

Some of Sophia’s career  highlights include ratings smash hits such as  Gruen Nation/Planet, Kitchen Cabinet, Hamster Decides, The Check Out, The Chaser’s War on Everything, Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey, Agony Uncles/Aunts, Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife fighting, The Agony Of Life, Good Game, The Roast, Hungry Beast, At the Movies, The Book Club and  Next Stop Hollywood.

In 2010 Dena joined the ABC taking up the role of Series Producer for Message Stick. in 2011 she commence her current role as a Commissioning Editor for the Indigenous Department. In 2002 she completed the AFTRS Television Editing course. Dena returned to CAAMA Productions, where some of her editing credits include Rosalie?s Journey, Lore of Love and Cheeky Dog, a documentary in which she also directed. In 2008 Dena wrote/directed Hush, a which won the audience award for Best Foreign Short Film at the 2008 Films de Femmes, Créteil France. In 2009 Dena premiered Jacob, which short won the Gold Shorts at the Adelaide Short Film Festival and Best Narrative Short at the Harlem Film Festival. Attending AIDC on behalf of the Indigenous Department, she is seeking film makers with potiential projects for development and commission.

Jacinta completed a Bachelor of Commerce at The University of Melbourne majoring in Marketing and Management. During this time she undertook a traineeship at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in the Risk Services Department and an internship at DDB Advertising in Hong Kong. It was during her University studies she realised her passion for marketing, advertising and sales and began her media career at ACP Magazines (Bauer Media). Here, Jacinta worked in the Mediabrands agency team as a Sales Coordinator. Within her exciting new role at activeTV, Jacinta is responsible for generating and implementing sponsorships for productions and continually developing business strategies.

Kay is a highly accomplished General Manager and Executive Producer with an exceptional track record of delivering successful productions. Kay has a demonstrated ability to forge and sustain relationships with the Australian and international industry to optimise opportunities and secure finance for projects. Kay's track record of success in negotiating deals which deliver substantial benefits to all parties by understanding requirements and expectations and devising innovative structures and approaches is second to none.

Amanda is Director/CEO of Adelaide Film Festival and CEO of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas. 

We are currently looking for projects for 2015 AFF Investment Fund (AFFIF) - check site for details and happy to heaer of projects in pre or post. www.adealaidefilmfestival.org  

Fiona has more than 15 years experience in factual television across the UK, Australia and Asia. She started her broadcast career at BBC London in long-form current affairs, magazine science and interactive productions. As an AFTRS graduate, she worked for SBS television in production, commissioning and acquisitions. Since 2008, she has worked in Singapore and Malaysia, overseeing productions for Al Jazeera English (AJE), ZDF, Discovery, History and Crime & Investigation Channels. Fiona was integral to the first Malaysian Australian co-production in 2012, The Coral Triangle (3 x 1 hrs). Currently, Fiona is based in Malaysia with AJE sourcing documentaries from the Asia Pacific region for the flagship documentary strand, Witness. In 2013, Fiona oversaw a special Al Jazeera series from China, Wukan: After the Uprising with the festival version premiering at IDFA. She also oversees Viewfinder Asia, an extraordinary project bringing stories from indies in Asia to AJE's global audience.

Patrick Connolly, vice president of programming, scheduling & creative services for AMC / Sundance Channel Global is responsible for the global strategy of all programming schedules, as well as on-air creative for all Sundance Channel and WE tv International channels. He also executive produces all film festival coverage for Sundance Channel Global. Prior to Sundance Channel Global, Mr. Connolly was a programming consultant with Showtime in the US and, previously, Sundance Channel US. Mr. Connolly began his career in programming at Fox Broadcasting where he served as vice president of children’s programming. He also worked as a documentary programming consultant at Sundance Film Festival and as a programmer at Outfest, and the International Documentary Association. Connolly serves as a Board Member of BAFTA New York. He is also a member of Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Mr. Connolly has a degree in English literature from UCLA.

Ruari has worked with distributor Gil Scrine Films since 2009 including the company's evolution into Antidote Films. This work included acquisitions for the VoD platform beamafilm and the not-for-profit theatrical distributor, Cinema Ventures.  With a focus on documentary and the education market Ruari now consults in acquisition/distribution for Antidote Films and others while completing his PhD at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology. 

Cecilia joined Aquarius Films from Matchbox Pictures in late 2013. At Matchbox she series produced Next Stop Hollywood, a six part series for ABC1 following young Aussie actors to LA for pilot season, and associate produced the political doc Leaky Boat for Penny Chapman. She also coordinated business affairs on the high profile ABC1 dramas The Slap and The Straits. Prior to Matchbox Cecilia produced the critically acclaimed ABC1 single Searching 4 Sandeep, which premiered internationally at Hot Docs 2008 and has sold to broadcasters all over the world.

Polly Staniford is an award-winning producer, writer and director and co-founder of film and TV production company Aquarius Films. Most recently she wrote an episode of the ABC3 children's drama 'Nowhere Boys' and directed the half hour documentary Brain as part of season 4 of ABC1's acclaimed Anatomy series. Brain profiles painter Jamie Daddo and his relationship with his identical twin brother, TV presenter Andrew Daddo. Prior to setting up Aquarius Films, Polly spent three years working as an in-house producer at Matchbox Pictures where she collaborated on a number of film and television projects with award-winning producers Tony Ayres and Michael McMahon, with whom she produced Miss South Sudan Australia and Season 2 of Anatomy She is currently developing a number of feature films, TV drama and factual projects.

Kingston is a graduate of the University of NSW, National Institute of Dramatic Art and the Australian Film Television & Radio School. He has directed in theatre and produced numerous documentaries and a TV movie. He's worked in policy and production for many years including as Film Commissioner for NSW and the Manager of the Production Liaison Unit for the NSW Film & Television Office (now Screen NSW)