This is just the beginning! These sessions will continued to be added to and modified as we get closer to the Summit. Speakers and schedule will be announced July/August.
Interested in helping us produce and lead a session? Click here.
Interested in helping us produce and lead a session? Click here.
Media Sessions Preview
Rapid Fire: Wild Women
As we work to bring more representative gender diversity to nature, conservation and science media in front of and behind the camera, here are a few harrowing, funny and heart-breaking stories from women who have gone the extra yard to put themselves “out there” to change the world. Because that is what women do.
Rapid Fire: New Technology, Inspired Solutions
From climate change to food shortages, pandemics to mass extinction and extreme weather, our news feeds are flooded with disaster meet a handful of innovators working on disruptive breakthroughs that will (hopefully) forestall the impending Apocalypse. Will lab-grown food give hunger a 1-2 punch? Can robots and tricorders clean our oceans and help nab the kingpins profiting from extinction? Earth Avengers: ASSEMBLE.
Rapid Fire: Authentic Stories
New perspectives authored by those closest to them. This session gives voice to local storytellers involved in regional discoveries, conflicts, victories, heroics, and wonder...stories that deserve a platform to be heard.
Impact Media At Its Best: It’s All About You
Simply caring is no longer enough to save the planet. Media today has to inspire personal and political engagement. Where are the engaging media projects that transcend entertainment and inspire active commitments? How can conservationists leverage storytelling to create impact? And what does that actually look like?
Masters of the Sea
Sponsored by: Gates Underwater Products
Having more than 150 years of barnacled experience, marine veterans share their insights and solutions to overcoming the unique obstacles of ocean shooting including: Breakthroughs using new tools; Experience vs luck; Free-diving vs rebreathers, Underwater lighting, Use of drones, robots and other new tech.
Case Studies: Platform Agnostic
Is the medium still the message in the digital era? Breaking down how to adapt your storytelling across the plethora of popular current platforms. With concrete, current examples for reference, see how to bring characters and narrative to life whether building a mobile-first photo slideshow, short episodic series, or interactive “tap-umentary.”
Authentic Global Storymaking
Throughout nature and conservation filmmaking, there is an established and regrettable pattern of outside storytellers briefly parachuting into communities and reporting their stories with a decidedly limited frame of reference. That can easily change now as giving voice to local storytellers across the planet is more possible than ever.
Millennial Multitudes: The ABCs of Reaching Gens XYZ
Rock star Millennials -- who have massive followings on YouTube/Instagram -- reveal strategies to capture the Holy Grail of Next Gen demographics through storytelling techniques.
What’s New? Not Much. Except Everything!
Like weather in the mountains -- give delivery systems a minute and they will change! From Extended Reality to mobile-only media, the mega epic to micro-episodic, SVOD to immersive installation experience -- keen industry observers (aka “experts willing to publicly predict the future”) share their insights into what’s trending, even disrupting the foundation of media as we know it.
Mainstreaming: The Direct to Consumer SVOD Wars have Begun
Disney+, Amazon and Apple have joined Netflix in high stakes commissioning of original doc programming. Who--and what--are they looking to fund?
Festival$ 101
Film Festivals can create massive buzz and lead to enviable distribution deals. To be successful, you need to be strategic when betting in this expensive game. There is an art and science to winning festival roulette!
Photography Portfolio Review
Bring 15-20 photos to review, pre-loaded on your laptop or tablet. Select five of these photos to discuss as an edited selection that best represents your body of work and get a personal, one-on-one critique from some of the most talented visual storytellers.
30 Minutes with the Commissioners & Speed Pitching Sessions
You heard the overview on what is trending, and where key commissioners seem to be going. Now spend 30 minutes of “quality time” to learn where their specific programming priorities lie so you can fine-tune the project you want them to love. Sage advice from those who sell: know your buyer!
Workshop: Finding Your “Why”
Independent filmmakers are the ultimate entrepreneurs.This hands-on workshop, with one of the country’s most compelling entrepreneurial “Boot Camp” leaders, will give you surprising tools to imagine beyond your project to truly align your work with your values and personal life goals.
Workshop: Practical Tools for Building Your Impact Campaign
Hands-on, practical ways to create your impact campaign -- step-by-step from the masters.
Workshop: What They Don’t Teach You in Film School
Nobody is giving you a free crew, gear, or software anymore. You’ll learn how to write realistic budgets, create tight production schedules and understand the massive deliverables commissioners all expect.
Workshop: Polish Your Pitch
Come prepared to present! You will get feedback to create a contract-winning pitch. Be ready for Thursday’s Speed Pitching sessions as well as that unexpected moment when you find yourself chatting with a commissioner on the bus or in the food line!
Workshop: Marketing Your Project on Social
Facebook Live. Snapchat. Instagram. Twitter. The stack of platforms is only growing taller. In this ambitious session, innovators experimenting on the frontiers of digital storytelling share strategies to successfully expand audiences and deepen engagement.
As we work to bring more representative gender diversity to nature, conservation and science media in front of and behind the camera, here are a few harrowing, funny and heart-breaking stories from women who have gone the extra yard to put themselves “out there” to change the world. Because that is what women do.
Rapid Fire: New Technology, Inspired Solutions
From climate change to food shortages, pandemics to mass extinction and extreme weather, our news feeds are flooded with disaster meet a handful of innovators working on disruptive breakthroughs that will (hopefully) forestall the impending Apocalypse. Will lab-grown food give hunger a 1-2 punch? Can robots and tricorders clean our oceans and help nab the kingpins profiting from extinction? Earth Avengers: ASSEMBLE.
Rapid Fire: Authentic Stories
New perspectives authored by those closest to them. This session gives voice to local storytellers involved in regional discoveries, conflicts, victories, heroics, and wonder...stories that deserve a platform to be heard.
Impact Media At Its Best: It’s All About You
Simply caring is no longer enough to save the planet. Media today has to inspire personal and political engagement. Where are the engaging media projects that transcend entertainment and inspire active commitments? How can conservationists leverage storytelling to create impact? And what does that actually look like?
Masters of the Sea
Sponsored by: Gates Underwater Products
Having more than 150 years of barnacled experience, marine veterans share their insights and solutions to overcoming the unique obstacles of ocean shooting including: Breakthroughs using new tools; Experience vs luck; Free-diving vs rebreathers, Underwater lighting, Use of drones, robots and other new tech.
Case Studies: Platform Agnostic
Is the medium still the message in the digital era? Breaking down how to adapt your storytelling across the plethora of popular current platforms. With concrete, current examples for reference, see how to bring characters and narrative to life whether building a mobile-first photo slideshow, short episodic series, or interactive “tap-umentary.”
Authentic Global Storymaking
Throughout nature and conservation filmmaking, there is an established and regrettable pattern of outside storytellers briefly parachuting into communities and reporting their stories with a decidedly limited frame of reference. That can easily change now as giving voice to local storytellers across the planet is more possible than ever.
Millennial Multitudes: The ABCs of Reaching Gens XYZ
Rock star Millennials -- who have massive followings on YouTube/Instagram -- reveal strategies to capture the Holy Grail of Next Gen demographics through storytelling techniques.
What’s New? Not Much. Except Everything!
Like weather in the mountains -- give delivery systems a minute and they will change! From Extended Reality to mobile-only media, the mega epic to micro-episodic, SVOD to immersive installation experience -- keen industry observers (aka “experts willing to publicly predict the future”) share their insights into what’s trending, even disrupting the foundation of media as we know it.
Mainstreaming: The Direct to Consumer SVOD Wars have Begun
Disney+, Amazon and Apple have joined Netflix in high stakes commissioning of original doc programming. Who--and what--are they looking to fund?
Festival$ 101
Film Festivals can create massive buzz and lead to enviable distribution deals. To be successful, you need to be strategic when betting in this expensive game. There is an art and science to winning festival roulette!
Photography Portfolio Review
Bring 15-20 photos to review, pre-loaded on your laptop or tablet. Select five of these photos to discuss as an edited selection that best represents your body of work and get a personal, one-on-one critique from some of the most talented visual storytellers.
30 Minutes with the Commissioners & Speed Pitching Sessions
You heard the overview on what is trending, and where key commissioners seem to be going. Now spend 30 minutes of “quality time” to learn where their specific programming priorities lie so you can fine-tune the project you want them to love. Sage advice from those who sell: know your buyer!
Workshop: Finding Your “Why”
Independent filmmakers are the ultimate entrepreneurs.This hands-on workshop, with one of the country’s most compelling entrepreneurial “Boot Camp” leaders, will give you surprising tools to imagine beyond your project to truly align your work with your values and personal life goals.
Workshop: Practical Tools for Building Your Impact Campaign
Hands-on, practical ways to create your impact campaign -- step-by-step from the masters.
Workshop: What They Don’t Teach You in Film School
Nobody is giving you a free crew, gear, or software anymore. You’ll learn how to write realistic budgets, create tight production schedules and understand the massive deliverables commissioners all expect.
Workshop: Polish Your Pitch
Come prepared to present! You will get feedback to create a contract-winning pitch. Be ready for Thursday’s Speed Pitching sessions as well as that unexpected moment when you find yourself chatting with a commissioner on the bus or in the food line!
Workshop: Marketing Your Project on Social
Facebook Live. Snapchat. Instagram. Twitter. The stack of platforms is only growing taller. In this ambitious session, innovators experimenting on the frontiers of digital storytelling share strategies to successfully expand audiences and deepen engagement.
Oceans Sessions Preview
The Challenge: Go Deep!
We open the weekend with a realistic assessment of where the oceans are and how we, at this Summit, can actually make a difference. There are points of influence that this particular group of scientists, filmmakers, networks, and NGOs can impact. What is this collective force that we can bring to bear? This is our challenge for the next few days.
Sanctuary
Certainly, we can all agree that setting aside areas of ocean to protect biodiversity (oh, and life itself) is a good idea. But which approaches provide a bigger bang for our conservation buck: large-scale or smaller protected areas? What about multiple use Marine Protected Areas? This session offers insight from a few visionary leaders who are leading the charge to create sustainable and protected marine areas throughout the world.
Into the Abyss: Exploring Earth’s Final Frontier
We know more about The Sea of Tranquility than the Mediterranean Sea. From hydrothermal vents and undiscovered life forms to mineral extraction & commerce, the race to understand and control the least understood part of our planet is on. But at what cost? And, are we really willing to sell this legacy to the highest bidders?
Nothing is Forever. Except When It Is—PLASTIC.
Since first introduced to our planet in 1907, plastic waste has become a ubiquitous part of our world and has even entered the food and water supply. In the ocean, the challenge is even greater as material degrades into microplastics that are (virtually) impossible to contain. This session explores radical innovations that are being deployed to put this genie back in its plastic bottle.
You’ve Heard it Before.
From explosive air gun bursts during seismic blasting for oil & gas exploration to the relentless low frequency noise of ship traffic, our most chronic form of oceanic pollution is invisible. But its impact is extreme and undeniable. As scientists have begun to understand the pervasive effects of sound pollution on ocean creatures, the race to find interventions has intensified.
Feeding the Planet: Fishing for Solutions
Having depleted one-third of the world’s fisheries, overfishing continues to endanger ocean ecosystems—a crisis that is amplified by illegal trade. On our watch, species are being decimated for black-market consumption. Billions who rely on seafood as a key source of protein will soon be confronting a global food crisis. Impact filmmakers join this global, critical conversation.
Impact Media At Its Best: It’s All About ME
Simply caring is no longer enough to save the oceans. Media today has to inspire personal and political engagement. Where are the engaging media projects that transcend entertainment and inspire active commitments? How can conservationists leverage storytelling to create impact through social change or public policy? And what does that actually MEAN?
Species at Risk I: Warm Water
It’s fairly straightforward to track the decline of biodiversity on land, but what’s going on below the surface of the seas? This series of three “At Risk Sessions” looks at the state of flagship species and what is being done to save them.
Sharks, Corals and Sea Turtles
Species at Risk II: Cold Water
It’s fairly straightforward to track the decline of biodiversity on land, but what’s going on below the surface of the seas? This series of three “At Risk Sessions” looks at the state of flagship species and what is being done to save them.
Penguins, Polar bears and Seals
Species on the Brink
Sponsored by: International Fund for Animal Welfare
It’s fairly straightforward to track the decline of biodiversity on land, but what’s going on below the surface of the seas? This series of three “At Risk Sessions” looks at the state of flagship species and what is being done to save them.
North Atlantic Right Whale, Tuna and Whale Sharks
We open the weekend with a realistic assessment of where the oceans are and how we, at this Summit, can actually make a difference. There are points of influence that this particular group of scientists, filmmakers, networks, and NGOs can impact. What is this collective force that we can bring to bear? This is our challenge for the next few days.
Sanctuary
Certainly, we can all agree that setting aside areas of ocean to protect biodiversity (oh, and life itself) is a good idea. But which approaches provide a bigger bang for our conservation buck: large-scale or smaller protected areas? What about multiple use Marine Protected Areas? This session offers insight from a few visionary leaders who are leading the charge to create sustainable and protected marine areas throughout the world.
Into the Abyss: Exploring Earth’s Final Frontier
We know more about The Sea of Tranquility than the Mediterranean Sea. From hydrothermal vents and undiscovered life forms to mineral extraction & commerce, the race to understand and control the least understood part of our planet is on. But at what cost? And, are we really willing to sell this legacy to the highest bidders?
Nothing is Forever. Except When It Is—PLASTIC.
Since first introduced to our planet in 1907, plastic waste has become a ubiquitous part of our world and has even entered the food and water supply. In the ocean, the challenge is even greater as material degrades into microplastics that are (virtually) impossible to contain. This session explores radical innovations that are being deployed to put this genie back in its plastic bottle.
You’ve Heard it Before.
From explosive air gun bursts during seismic blasting for oil & gas exploration to the relentless low frequency noise of ship traffic, our most chronic form of oceanic pollution is invisible. But its impact is extreme and undeniable. As scientists have begun to understand the pervasive effects of sound pollution on ocean creatures, the race to find interventions has intensified.
Feeding the Planet: Fishing for Solutions
Having depleted one-third of the world’s fisheries, overfishing continues to endanger ocean ecosystems—a crisis that is amplified by illegal trade. On our watch, species are being decimated for black-market consumption. Billions who rely on seafood as a key source of protein will soon be confronting a global food crisis. Impact filmmakers join this global, critical conversation.
Impact Media At Its Best: It’s All About ME
Simply caring is no longer enough to save the oceans. Media today has to inspire personal and political engagement. Where are the engaging media projects that transcend entertainment and inspire active commitments? How can conservationists leverage storytelling to create impact through social change or public policy? And what does that actually MEAN?
Species at Risk I: Warm Water
It’s fairly straightforward to track the decline of biodiversity on land, but what’s going on below the surface of the seas? This series of three “At Risk Sessions” looks at the state of flagship species and what is being done to save them.
Sharks, Corals and Sea Turtles
Species at Risk II: Cold Water
It’s fairly straightforward to track the decline of biodiversity on land, but what’s going on below the surface of the seas? This series of three “At Risk Sessions” looks at the state of flagship species and what is being done to save them.
Penguins, Polar bears and Seals
Species on the Brink
Sponsored by: International Fund for Animal Welfare
It’s fairly straightforward to track the decline of biodiversity on land, but what’s going on below the surface of the seas? This series of three “At Risk Sessions” looks at the state of flagship species and what is being done to save them.
North Atlantic Right Whale, Tuna and Whale Sharks
