Hong Kong Filmart Readies 3rd Virtual Edition in the midst of the local Omicron wave – The Hollywood Reporter

For the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the organization of Filmart, Asia’s largest content marketplace, the default regime in the pandemic is to devise a series of contingency plans to ensure that the congress will proceed without a hitch no matter how the situation changes, said Peggie Liu, deputy director of HKTDC. The Hollywood Reporter. Thanks to this mentality, when the city’s fifth wave of infections peaks this week, the team will get ready.

“Since the majority of our visitors are from abroad, even before the latest outbreak in Hong Kong, we decided when we saw the evolution of the pandemic late last year to there will be another virtual version.”

Hong Kong Filmart 2022, scheduled for March 14-17, is focusing on maintaining an edge in both quantity and variety of available Asian content. As the largest film and television content market in the region, it is also a showcase for what the Hong Kong film industry has to offer. Organizers are promoting this year’s films in Cantonese, which is spoken in Hong Kong as well as in Mainland China’s Guangdong province. Guangdong’s major companies are set to rejoin Filmart after many Chinese companies pulled out of the online market in 2020.

For the third Filmart to be held virtual, HKTDC is putting more effort into publicizing and previewing the event to inform participants of market highlights, such as the new Philippine pavilion . “With a virtual Filmart, we are also aware that the conference is not limited to four days in March. We can expand publicity and promotion to cover important market events as said by Hong Kong International Film. Liu said that film sales can be made year-round, so we hope to facilitate transactions throughout the year.

Those in the entertainment industry in particular view face-to-face meetings, coffee chats or dinners and parties as essential to networking and transacting, and HKTDC is well aware of the need for exposure. directly between the salesperson and the buyer. , or producer and filmmaker, to build a relationship.

“Nothing can replace face-to-face meetings, but we strive to help create a better environment for online meetings for our participants. When we have physical booths in the convention center, even if the buyer has not entered the exhibitor booth, the exhibitor can know the buyer is somewhere nearby.” But in online settings, this is more complicated. With about 8,000 buyers browsing through titles from around 670 exhibitors this year, Filmart will issue a report to exhibitors about buyers who clicked on their page, so they can keep track based on this information.

The past two years have been a learning curve for everyone – especially the technical aspects. “Previous concerns of online participants have been about technical issues with accessing the Filmart online platform, such as uploading. But now they are more used to conferences and virtual marketplaces,” said Liu. Based on comments from participants during the registration process, the organizers are also introducing upgrades and new features to the platform to help exhibitors highlight their products and find buyers to find. Search for many titles on offer.

“While buyers will spend hours strolling the aisles of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center at previous physical studios, what we have learned from previous virtual versions is that they may just take time out of their schedule to browse through headlines or listen to webinars. They may have meetings or other tasks to do after that period,” adds Liu. “They want to shorten the time it takes to find the titles they want. So we’re introducing a recommendation function for titles they might be interested in, based on the information they give us to save time trying to find what they want. ”

Technology in the entertainment industry is also an area of ​​focus in the webinars. With the rebranding of the conference series to EntertainmentPulse, discussions will revolve around hot topics including how the metaverse can bring transformation to the entertainment industry and how NFT technology can create business opportunities. New for entertainment companies with IP libraries and content.

“We are always trying to make Filmart more inclusive and bring information to the industry. So we note what needs to be discussed. Many people in the entertainment industry are starting to explore ways to leverage the NFT and metaverse, to generate revenue streams, use them as a marketing channel or to engage customers,” Liu said. These two themes will be shared with EntertainmentPulse’s non-Filmart sister events – MarketingPulse and EtailingPulse – held concurrently to avoid any overlap. Visitors can access seminars to get a better picture of the current overall market.

With the pandemic unlikely to end anytime soon, Liu ensures a return to Filmart remains a steadfast goal for the HKTDC team. “Filmart has been around for over 20 years and has proven its worth. We place the store great because of our position as the largest content marketplace in Asia,” she said. “As we all know, people in the entertainment industry love to meet face-to-face, so our biggest goal in the future is to hold a real Filmart like the ones we used to have. But the online platform can be used for publicity, interviews, seminars and information dissemination, all year round.”