Connecting beauty with business.

The Banff World Television Festival's 27th annual event--to be held June 11-14, in the picturesque Canadian Rocky Mountains--will build on recent success by becoming more of a world-fest than ever before. This year, Banff had over 1,000 entrees in its awards competition and amongst the 101 nominated programs, 24 countries are represented. With more than 150 international programming decision-makers attending, not to mention the delegates and board members from all parts of the globe, the festival continues to thrive on a global spectrum.

Robert Montgomery, CEO of Achilles Media--which stages the festival--emphasized, "Even though we hold the event in such a beautiful location, it's all about [TV] business; it's all about getting deals done." And according to an independent survey conducted by Kelly Sears Consulting Group on the 2005 event, Banff helped facilitate C$160 million worth of development deals.

"We see ourselves as facilitators and that is the key to what we're doing," said Montgomery. "Our focus is having the right people come and connecting them. We're all about targeting the right people and having them participate, as opposed to everything from soup to nuts. This is an event about the production and development of the next great content and that's delivered to a concise group of people," Montgomery said. "We're very acute to the legacy of the event--the fact that it's 27 years old and has commanded such a great branded following--but we're equally acute to the fact that moving forward, people's businesses are changing, business models are changing, different digital distribution platforms are emerging; there's a real need for answers and new relationships. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. But we can lead as many horses to water as we can and that's a big difference."

Highlights of this year's program include author Steven Johnson as the Canadian Broadcasting Corp./Radio Canada opening keynote speaker. Johnson is author of several popular books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. His latest best-selling work, Everything Bad is Goodyear You argues that the popular culture some love to hate is getting better--and is even making us smarter.

"Banff Master Classes" will be led by Ali LeRoi, executive producer and co-creator of CBS Paramount International Television's comedy series Everybody Hates Chris, Scott Peters, executive producer, co-creator and writer for the CBS Paramount International drama series The 4400, David Shore, writer, creator and executive producer of House, Richard J. Lewis, supervising producer and director of CSI; and Neil Docherty, senior editor and producer of CBC's The Fifth Estate.

Academy Award winner Paul Haggis (who took home the Best Picture award for Crash) will be honored with the first-ever NBC Universal Canada Award of Distinction. The annual tribute is decided upon by a committee of peers and recognizes an individual who best exemplifies achievement or advancement in the Canadian entertainment industry.

The "In Conversation With ..." series is back, with Howard Davine, executive vice president of Touchstone Television; Gary Carter, chief creative officer, New Platforms of FremantleMedia; and Jane Root, vice president & general manager of Discovery Channel.

Dan Marks, CEO of TV Services at British Telecommunications, will deliver a speech about the future of various entertainment platforms.

Heenan Blaikie's "20 Minutes with an Entertainment Lawyer," will provide delegates with the opportunity to meet top entertainment lawyers face-to-face.

"C21 Broadcaster Briefings" allow top programming decision-makers from major broadcasters to outline production priorities and biases, discuss potential partnership deals and answer questions from independent producers and industry participants.

"Take a Decision Maker to Breakfast/Lunch/Cocktails" is an opportunity for independent producers to meet with key programmers in an intimate setting, in an addition to a series of 10-minute Face-to-Face facilitated meetings.

CTV has once again joined forces with the Festival to host the CTV Canadian Documart--an annual competition offering a lucrative pitching prize. CTV has donated $100,000 in support of the contest, giving documentary filmmakers a healthy incentive to participate. Six finalists will have 10 minutes each to pitch their projects to a jury of industry experts. Development funding will then be awarded to the top three pitches: $50,000 for first place, $30,000 for second place and $20,000 for third.

Reinforcing it's commitment to the global HDTV industry, the Banff World Television Festival has joined forces with NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, to offer up the prestigious "NHK President's Prize" for the sixth consecutive year. NHK will sponsor the special award, which includes a $25,000 cash prize for the best HDTV program.

Recognizing contributions and leadership in the use of digital technology as a creative tool, the Banff World Television Festival announced Quantel as recipient of the 2006 Deluxe Outstanding Technical Achievement Award. The selection was made in consultation with technology executives from the post-production and broadcast industries throughout Canada.

In keeping with the digital theme, is a sister event held immediately before the Festival. "nextMedia is a digital content market meant to complement the festival in the sense that it does even more justice to mobile, interactive, and IPTV platforms from a content perspective and helps people understand how they can make money and how they can elaborate their brands and their businesses in other platforms," said Montgomery. "It's all structured to be complementary."