Jørgen Stensland, Assistant Director, Film & Kino looks back at the Kino Konferansen in Sandnes, Norway
The Norwegian Cinema Conference was held, this year and for the first time since the pandemic started, in Sandnes outside of Stavanger, Norway, from the 8-11th November. And it was the conference’s tenth anniversary, no less, having been held in different cities and cinemas around Norway since it began.
The idea behind the planning is to arrange the conference in recently refurbished, or even brand new, cinemas so that attendees can explore the new venue, as well as listen to interesting talks and panels. The focus for the main body of the conference usually covers marketing, data / statistics, ticket sales and systems, screen advertising, concessions, general trends and so on. And the latter part typically has a more technical focus on sound, projection, screens, seating, construction of cinemas.
Our speakers attend from all over the world, even though the majority are Norwegian or European. But previous years have seen guests from Hollywood, Malaysia, Australia, United Arab Emirates and others. This year, due to COVID, we did not have speakers from outside Europe, but a great many topics were covered with those who could be with us. And this year had a special focus on “green cinema” and sustainability, as well as event cinema including “eventification” of the regular cinema experience, looking to the future of cinema and the return of European audiences.
The technical section of the conference started with an overview of industry trends and developments and we were fortunate and thankful to have many of our event sponsors also be able to present their latest news and products. A big thank you to Sharp-NEC, Christie, Cinionic, QSC, Dolby, Harkness Screens and local representatives.
Our European delegate and speaker list included Phil Clapp (UNIC), Patrick von Sychowski (Celluloid Junkie), Sarah Lewthwaite (Movio), Birgit Heidsiek (German Film Federation), Hugo Derivry (Spielfabrique EU), Grainne Peat (Event Cinema Association), Helen Budge (Celluloid Junkie), Oliver Delaney (Coca-Cola via link), Peter Fornstam (Svenska Bio) and Andrew Woodyatt (Rio Cinema). And our Norwegian contingent included Guttorm Petterson, Linn Barholt (Capa), Frode Soleim (Filmweb), Simon Strumse (Filmgrail), Christer Solberg (Media Direct Norway), Katherina Bramslev (The Norwegian “Green Building Alliance”), Nina Tryggvadottir (Live Kino) and Arild Kalkvik (Trondheim Kino).
Our technical experts were: Mark Kendall (NEC), Phil Lord (Christie), Tom Bert (Cinionic), Ulf Qvicklund (QSC), Guillaume Branders (UNIC), Andrew Emmott (Harkness Screens), Jan Rasmussen (Nordisk Film Cinemas), Christian Lerch (Dolby) and Mike Bradbury (Odeon). And our Norwegian technical speakers were: Ørjan Taule (Unique Digital Norway), Robert Sigfusson and Ivar Halstvedt (Kulturmeglerne).
