This Thursday Media Parents is holding a Summer CV Bash at ENVY. We’re being joined by a host of indies, ITV and the BBC. Plus about 60 talented and experienced freelancers. The plan is to put faces to names and to see how freelancers can sell their expertise better on paper. And someone from the BBC Academy is also coming along to advise people on the best ways to present themselves on social media. Some of the freelancers will be parents returning to the workplace, others will be experienced freelancers, not necessarily parents, who see the value in meeting employers. Here follows a list of everyone who has sent a biog back so far.

Alice Lister, Head of Production, ClearStory

During ten years in the industry, Alice Lister has managed and produced projects in the UK, New Zealand and the Middle East for a variety of international broadcasters including BBC, Discovery, National Geographic, Disney, Channel 4, Channel 5, TVNZ & Al Rayyan. Her recent production credits include prime time series such as Out of Empire presented by Jeremy Paxman, The Seven Ages of Britain presented by David Dimbleby and Michel Roux’s Service.

Amy Walker, Director, Media Parents

Media Parents Director Amy Walker has seen a million CVs and heard a lot of CV advice. She is well-placed to advise on what different indies like to see on CVs. Amy continues to work as a freelance Series Producer as well as overseeing Media Parents. Currently making a series with Kirstie Allsopp for Channel 4 that starts airing at 8pm on July 8th, her previous series is airing on Discovery UK, fronted by Bear Grylls. Amy has worked for all the major broadcasters, in the UK and across five continents for many years. Read more here: http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/aug/01/parents-working-in-tv

Cat O’Gorman, Head of Production, Rockabox Media

Cat started out in TV in 2005 at RDF working on a variety of shows including Shipwrecked, Wifeswap and The Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work.  She continued in reality TV working at some of the top indies – Talkback Thames, Endemol and TwoFour. In 2010 she went back to RDF (Zodiak) to work in the digital department as in house PM for 3 years on multi-platform projects including Being Human for BBC 2, Gadget Geeks for Sky 1 and co-pro branded content for Renault TV, BBC Worldwide, Tourism Australia and Domino’s Pizza. Cat then spent 6 months helping set up the AudioVisual Department of PR agency Hill and Knowlton.

In April this year Cat joined Rockabox as maternity cover for the Head of Production. Most recently she has managed the global campaign for Monsoon’s Autumn Winter Collection as well as overseeing operations for the in house design studio.

David Postlethwaite, Media Parents

David Postlethwaite comes from a background in production. He was a production executive at the BBC, working across a wide range of programming,  before becoming Head of Production at a number of independents. He has worked with Amy and Media Parents since its inception and realises the importance of flexible working in the modern world.

Ezim E-Agwuegbo, Recruitment Advisor, ITV

As a Recruitment Advisor within the in-house recruitment team, Ezim takes a proactive approach in delivering a best in class recruitment service to the whole of ITV. From gathering detailed job requirements, effective campaigning, candidate screening, conducting interviews and managing the recruitment process from end to end. Ezim is always keen to connect with professionals especially within her focus areas; Commercial sales, Creative, Competition, Post Production, Marketing, Legal and Internal Communications to discuss your potential career at ITV.

Josh Moore, Head of Client Services, ENVY

Josh is the Head of Client services at ENVY. Part of his responsibility is the hiring of the junior post production staff, and mentoring them from runners until they move on to technical positions within the company.

Overseeing training alongside the heads of each technical department to ensure runners are being developed as skilled employees who can further their career within the company.

Kerry Jones, Media Parents

Kerry Jones (nee Scourfield) is celebrating her first anniversary with Media Parents> She covers jobs and talent in the North & Scotland. After working as a Style Director at TONI&GUY, Kerry moved into TV as a Hairdresser and Makeup Artist. She worked on a variety of factual programmes from Watercolour Challenge to The Big Breakfast. Kerry moved into feature films and worked with Danny Boyle, Mike Leigh on Vera Drake, and a variety of British directors on quality period features.

Kerry left TV and London to bring up her two girls in Liverpool, but is now looking forward to working flexibly in yet another different area. She is excited to be helping parents to juggle the logistics of childcare and parenting with TV.

Gavin Ricketts, Director, Napoleon Creative

Gavin runs Napoleon Creative, a video production company and animation studio. We work doing short form videos for corporates and also doing graphics for TV shows. We’re looking to meet production managers and directors. Gavin has also written a book called Clearly Creative CVs, which helps crews win more more work.

Nikki Tilley, Head of Production, Pioneer TV

Nikki left the world of drama to join Pioneer in 2000 as a researcher and has gone on to work on numerous hours of programming across the genres ever since.  Her directing credits include Million Dollar Machines (Travel Channel) and two series of Extreme Homes (HGTV). From there Nikki went onto manage projects such as How The Earth Was Made (The History Channel),  Worlds Deadliest Places (NOVA), Birth of Europe (NGCI), Megafactories (NGCI) Secrets of the Manor House (PBS) and The Year The Earth Went Wild (Ch4/Discovery).  Nikki was made Deputy Head of Production in 2011 where she became heavily involved in all elements of production within the company whilst supervising a major new eight part series for Discovery Science (How the Earth Works). Nikki became Head of Production in 2012.

Paul Birmingham, Production Manager, Brook Lapping

Paul has been a Production Manager at Brook Lapping Productions for over a year now working on documentaries for ITV, More 4, PBS and Sky. Before that he was a PM at Mentorn mainly working on a presenter led BBC Three documentary and a science commission for Discovery, with a number of years prior to this as a Production Co-ordinator both inside and outside the BBC. The majority of Paul’s career has been working on arts programming.

Paul Buller, Editor, BBC College of Production Website

Paul Buller is editor of the BBC Academy’s College of Production website, a site packed with skills, tips and know-how for anyone working in or wanting to work in the broadcast industry.

Paul has worked in broadcast for over 17 years, producing programmes for all the major broadcasters, and regularly hosts masterclasses and sessions on how to sell yourself online.

Petra Von Schalien, General Manager, Springshot Productions

With a background working primarily in Sports and News Broadcasting, and having managed FA Premier League client accounts for Nordic broadcasters Viasat, TV2, SBS/Discovery and Canal+/MTV3 as well as produced and overseen all onsite (live/pre-recorded) productions for three seasons. Also helped set up a crewing services supplying specialised broadcast freelancers and kit to cover breaking news, sports as well as corporate events (UK Election, G20 Summit, Champions League etc), and has worked on a variety of media projects (from corporate and e-learning to documentaries) as project manager or a consultant.

Currently freelancing as a Media Consultant and acting General Manager for a London-based production company, overseeing the production of a feature length BBC-commissioned documentary.

Rachel Platt, Series Editor, Reef TV

Rachel started out as a print journalist before working in live television for about 4 years. She has since worked for RDF, Endemol, Topical, Real Life and now Reef. At Reef Rachel have worked as a series producer / series editor/ exec producer for the past two years. Productions include Sarah Beeny’s Selling Houses, Selling Houses with Amanda Lamb, French Collection, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

Sarah Cox, Production Manager, Leopard Films

Sarah has been working in the media industry for 14 years, mainly in factual and factual entertainment programmes, initially as a production co-ordinator and then for the last 8 years as a production manager. Sarah has worked within various companies such as Prospect Pictures, Optomen, Blast Films and currently at Leopard Films.

Media Parents next networking event is our summer CV bash on July 3rd, please join www.mediaparents.co.uk.

As Media Parents announces its next London networking event on July 3rd https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/media-parents-summer-cv-bash-3rd-july-tickets we share some photos of our latest event in Cardiff, attended by 100 brilliant TV professionals, the BBC and several indies including Boom Cymru and Dragonfly Film & TV who sponsored the evening.

The Cardiff Media Parents event. Freelancers had scheduled timed appointments with BBC Wales and indies. At our next event in London on July 3rd appointments with indies will be on a first come first served basis.

Networking can be an intimidating prospect for some, but further down this blog freelance PD Paul Leyshon writes about his transformation from networking sceptic to evangelist. https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2014/06/5-minutes-at-the-media-parents-cardiff-event-with-paul-leyshon-pd/

Boom Pictures' Tess Cumming meets a freelancer.

On July 3rd we’ll be joined by a host of companies at our Media Parents Summer CV Bash. This informal event offers freelancers and indies the chance to meet each other, and freelancers can benefit from advice on how to sell their talents better on paper. See this blog for great tips to get your CV in shape first:

https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2013/10/media-parents-cv-tips-from-the-cv-event/ The July 3rd event will be held in the same lovely venue, entry is by guestlist only.

BBC Wales' Head of Factual and Music, Judith Winnan, meets a freelancer.

Christopher Hutchins, Head of Production Talent, Natural History, Features, Documentaries, Daytime, BBC Television putting a freelancer at ease.

Boom Pictures Cymru MD Nia Thomas at the Media Parents Cardiff event.

Paul Islwyn Thomas of Bulb Pictures gets down to some music chat.

Dragonfly Exec Sarah Swingler was recruiting for One Born Every Minute at the event, with Dragonfly HoP Yvonne Bainton.

More photos will be uploaded shortly.

Media Parents next networking event is our summer CV bash on July 3rd, please join www.mediaparents.co.uk.

Sunita Shroff is a Presenter, Actress, Property expert, Red carpet reporter and now Events Producer! Here she writes about her first event at BAFTA on July 6th.

Sunita Shroff, a Media Parents networker http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/collaborator/3533/sunita-shroff

Sunita was born in Scotland to Irish and Indian parents. She was raised in Greece and therefore brings a  cultural mix to the table.

Sunita has become a familiar face on our screens presenting a mix of shows across various networks. Her last project was Secret Location on Channel 4. Sunita is also an actress and has appeared in some of Britains favourite soaps, dramas and films! You will next see her on BBC1′s Doctors as a frosty Matron.

Sunita became a mum nearly 4 years ago to lovey Mimi and now wants to be able to juggle it all! Hence Media Parents is so incredibly helpful!

An ebullient character, Sunita has chutzpah in the bucket loads. Her passions include fashion, travel, personal development and all things mind body and soul!! In addition, Sunita loves Film, so much so she’s a host at BAFTA and now producing her first event there with the amazing Dr David Hamilton who inspired and motivated her a few years ago during one of his incredible talks. In fact there are still a few tickets left. Take a look here for more info www.drdavidhamilton.com or http://drdavidhamilton.com/?page_id=13

Sunita is also developing some formats and getting ready to film pilots.

More about the event, in Dr. David Hamilton’s words:

How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body
Why Kindness & Compassion are Good for You
5 Steps to Boost Your Self-Esteem

- You’ll learn tools, tips, and strategies for using your mind to impact and heal your body that you can use on yourself or pass on to loved ones or friends.

- You’ll learn how kindness and compassion impact your arteries and how to make the effects actually work for you.

- And you’ll also learn powerful tools, based on cutting edge neuroscience, for developing your self esteem (self-love) and learn how to, well, just feel good about yourself.

- And you’ll have some laughs

The venue is BAFTA in London, on Piccadilly, in the Princess Anne Theatre.

Afterwards, we can all have drinks in the private BAFTA members bar from 5-7pm.

How does that sound? I imagine you might expect this to be a very expensive event, given the venue. Actually, it’s one of my least expensive events all year and we wanted to keep it that way to make it accessible to everyone.

A couple of years ago, I’d likely be reading about this event with someone else speaking there and not me. But amazing things happen when you start working on self-love.

For more information contact Sunita through Media Parents: http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/collaborator/3533/sunita-shroff

Media Parents next networking event is our summer CV bash on July 3rd. To be there please join www.mediaparents.co.uk.

Shooting PD Paul Leyshon and I met on twitter @paulleyshon @mediaparents when he was complaining that he’d never had work through a TV jobsite, and was fed up that he had great credits in Wales but couldn’t get a break into network TV. I tweeted that if he joined Media Parents we’d get him work. I was confident because we have the largest number of jobs per capita on a TV jobsite, and therefore the best odds of getting work. We’re also really determined to do whatever we can to help freelancers get breaks. So now I’ve asked him to write about what happened next.

Paul Leyshon is in this crowd of about 100 people at the recent Media Parents event in Cardiff. http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/6085/paul-leyshon

About 12 months ago I reluctantly attended a Media Parents networking event in BBC Bristol, writes Paul Leyshon. I say ‘reluctantly’ as I’ve never been one for ‘selling myself’ and had my preconceived ideas of it being full of some nerdy people talking shop about some recent tractor documentary they’d shot in Azerbeijan. But I had nothing to worry about.

What I got was a room full of interesting professionals swapping stories about all sorts of genres, and numerous talent managers and exec producers happy to give me advice on how to rearrange my higgledy-piggledy CV, and how to sell myself better. If someone had made a documentary on Azerbeijani tractors they were keeping themselves quiet. This event came at a time when I was finding that everything in Wales was going ‘in-house’ and I needed to plant some seeds with London and Bristol based companies. At this point I’d probably applied for 200+ jobs online with various websites with no luck.

I’ve since had a couple of private meetings with some of those talent managers and taken their advice on how to rearrange my CV and how to promote myself. The result? Several months work on a Channel 4 production and a repeat contract, a few bits and bobs elsewhere, and the BBC Academy using my website as an example of how to promote yourself in a recent freelancer’s fair. http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20130702112135250

So when the opportunity came to attend the recent Cardiff Media Parents networking evening, rather than seeing it as an occupational hazard as I would have done in the past, I jumped at the chance. With my current contract ending in August (it’s now been extended til October) it was an ideal opportunity to chase some work.

Again, working on a ‘speed dating’ basis, the opportunity was there to meet some more London, Bristol, and Cardiff based exec producers and Head of Factual and Music for BBC Wales, Judith Winnan. It was also a chance to meet some old work colleagues and some new friends I made in the Bristol evening last year, catching up on what’s kept them busy in the past 12 months.

Paul Leyshon amongst some of the 80-strong crowd at the Media Parents networking event in Bristol in 2013.

On the night I had some positive meetings with execs who knew my name, and knew of my work, but had not met with me before. As clichéd as it sounds putting ‘a name to a face’, or vice-versa in my case is always a good step. I also had meetings with some very helpful people from Love Productions and Dragonfly who were very good with their advice. I had a phone call this week from one of the companies that I met with so it just goes to show how useful these networking opportunities can be.

For someone as cynical as me I’ve found both networking evenings really helpful and directly or indirectly I think I will reap the benefits down the line. Who knows, I may even take that ob-doc job on Azerbaijani tractors!

http://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/6085/paul-leyshon

For networking, jobs and great events please join www.mediaparents.co.uk.