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Sunday, June 14
| 10:00 AM |
Spain Content Showcase (10:00am - 11:00am)Cascade Sponsored by:  |
| 11:30 AM |
Session TBC (11:30am - 12:00pm)Cascade |
| 1:00 PM |
Banff World Media Festival Address (1:00pm - 1:30pm)Van Horne Join us for the Banff World Media Address, featuring special guests and important announcements. Featuring:
   
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| 1:30 PM |
Session TBC (1:30pm - 2:15pm)Van Horne |
| 2:30 PM |
In Conversation With Hon. Marc Miller and Valerie Creighton, CMF/FMC (2:30pm - 3:00pm)Van Horne Sponsored by:  Featuring:
Marc MillerMinister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages Government of Canada |
| 3:00 PM |
Session TBC (3:00pm - 3:30pm)Ivor Petrak |
Monday, June 15
| 9:00 AM |
Keynote Address: Vicky Eatrides, CRTC (9:00am - 9:15am)Cascade Featuring:
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| 9:30 AM |
Canadian Producers: The Work Of Now (9:30am - 10:15am)Cascade Join these producers for an existential conversation about the state of the Canadian industry, exploring the challenges they face, the strategies they're using to move projects forward, and the opportunities they see emerging in the current regulatory and market landscape. This discussion will focus on the concerns, obstacles and successes Canadian producers are experiencing right now. Sponsored by:  Featuring:
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Making It Click: Brand-Funded Content (9:30am - 10:15am)Ivor Petrak This panel will unpack the evolving relationship between creativity, technology, and accountability in brand storytelling. What happens when the mandate isn’t just to tell great stories — but to move product, protect shareholder value, keep it entertaining, and drive cultural relevance? The conversation explores how brand-funded entertainment can serve both art and enterprise without compromise. And when NOT to ‘go there. Featuring:
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| 10:30 AM |
Keynote: Jinny Howe, Netflix (10:30am - 11:00am)Cascade Sponsored by:  Featuring:
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| 11:30 AM |
The Showrunner Superpanel (11:30am - 12:30pm)Cascade An award-winning panel of television’s top showrunners will be revealed shortly. |
| 1:00 PM |
In Conversation With: Doug Smith & Sally Catto, CBC (1:00pm - 1:30pm)Cascade Alongside Sally Catto, join us for Doug Smith’s first public discussion of the new direction for CBC programming. In this conversation Smith and Catto will lay out their vision and priorities for the national broadcaster while directly challenging long-held assumptions about what public media should be, embracing a direction that “there are no rules.” They will discuss the content landscape and the necessary risks required to reshape original programming. Featuring:
In Conversation with Henry Winkler - introduced by A+E’s Sharon Scott (1:00pm - 1:45pm)Ivor Petrak Join us for an intimate session with Emmy award-winning actor and Television Academy Hall of Fame inductee, Henry Winkler, host of Hazardous History. Winkler will discuss his remarkable career and the evolution of TV formats - and maybe offer a fly fishing tip or two. :) Featuring an insightful introduction by A+E’s President of Factual Studios, Sharon Scott exploring the forces shaping nonfiction television and how the studio is building hit content designed to travel across platforms and around the world. Sponsored by: Featuring:
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| 2:00 PM |
Optimists Only: Building Content Businesses in a “Shrinking” Market (2:00pm - 2:45pm)Cascade Consolidation headlines suggest fewer buyers, fewer slots, and a tougher path to growth. So why are some companies still optimistic about the future? This conversation brings together operators who are actively building and backing content businesses across multiple fronts. Rather than retreating in the face of industry contraction, they’re rethinking what a scaled content business looks like in 2026 and beyond. Expect a candid discussion on where capital is really flowing, how business models are evolving, and where they are placing bets, including YouTube, vertical video, creator representation, as well as "traditional" high quality scripted and unscripted film and television. Where are the real opportunities right now? What’s overhyped? And what does a “successful” content company even look like today? Featuring:
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| 3:00 PM |
The Future of Unscripted: Global, Social, Scalable (3:00pm - 3:45pm)Cascade Competition formats are being reimagined in an industry that's changing the definition of success. From IP-driven revivals and hybrid formats to shows built for social shareability, the next wave of unscripted hits is being built with global audiences in mind. This panel brings together top unscripted executives to share how formats are designed to travel and what viewers are looking for in great entertainment. Featuring:
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| 3:15 PM |
Hawco Productions On Their Project-First Approach (3:15pm - 4:00pm)Ivor Petrak How do you turn budget constraints into creative advantages instead of roadblocks? What makes a pitch stand out in today’s crowded film and TV landscape? Join the team from Hawco Productions as they dive into their business and development strategy, and their mission to bring “YES” to everything creative. Founded by actor, writer and producer Allan Hawco (Republic of Doyle, In Cold Light), the company blends originality with a strategic approach to production — but how does that translate into a global success like Saint-Pierre? Don’t miss your chance to walk away with insights that could change how you approach your next project. **This is a partner presentation. Sponsored by:  Featuring:
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| 4:00 PM |
Session TBC (4:00pm - 4:45pm)Cascade |
Tuesday, June 16
| 9:00 AM |
International Commissioners Panel (9:00am - 9:45am)Cascade Featuring:
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| 10:00 AM |
Keynote: Jesse Armstrong (10:00am - 10:45am)Ivor Petrak Featuring:
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| 10:30 AM |
Keynote TBC (10:30am - 11:15am)Cascade |
| 11:30 AM |
In Conversation With: Georgie Holt, FlightStory (11:30am - 12:15pm)Ivor Petrak What if the biggest mistake in media right now... is waiting for permission? While much of the entertainment industry is still chasing commissions, FlightStory is building something else entirely: an audience-first machine that doesn’t ask what platforms want... it tests what audiences can't ignore. FlightStory’s Diary of a CEO, led by superstar Steven Bartlett, is now the world’s #2 podcast with nearly 16 million subscribers on YouTube and 80 million monthly views and listens – economics that rival legacy media. What Bartlett, Holt and their team have built is a system. Not just for content, but for predicting culture. And according to Holt, that system points toward a very different future. One where the next billion-dollar media company is... built around a single human. In this conversation, Holt pulls back the curtain on how FlightStory identifies what matters before it trends, turns creators into scalable franchises, and uses the internet not as a distribution channel, but as a live testing ground. This isn’t about making content. It’s about engineering demand. Inside the session:
Because what looks like storytelling… is actually data. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Featuring:
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| 12:00 PM |
Session TBC (12:00pm - 12:45pm)Cascade |
| 12:30 PM |
Session TBC (12:30pm - 1:00pm)Ivor Petrak |
| 1:00 PM |
Producing with Netflix (1:00pm - 1:30pm)Cascade This conversation will take a deeper look into the strategies and decision making behind physical production at Netflix. Participants will share best practices on how producers can work with Netflix across local and inbound productions in Canada. |
| 1:30 PM |
The Director’s Cut: AI, Automation, and the Value of Human Creativity (1:30pm - 2:15pm)Ivor Petrak Artificial intelligence is already reshaping the creative process, raising a central question: under what conditions should it be used? In this session, the Directors Guild of Canada introduces two initiatives: the Filmmakers Manifesto on the Value of Human Creativity and the Low-Carbon GenAI Toolkit, developed with support from Telefilm Canada, which measures generative AI’s carbon footprint. Together, they argue that guilds do not simply respond to technological change, they help define it. Through discussion with directors, funders, and producers, this session explores what responsible AI adoption looks like in practice. Sponsored by:  Featuring:
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| 2:00 PM |
The Decision Makers (2:00pm - 2:45pm)Cascade Sitting at the crossroads of content, distribution, and audience strategy - these executives are deciding what gets made, where it lives, and how it reaches viewers around the world. Join us for an honest conversation about where commissioning, licensing and distribution strategies are… and where they’re going. Featuring:
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| 3:00 PM |
Becoming Creator-Savvy: Making the Affordable Hit (3:00pm - 3:45pm)Ivor Petrak As budgets shrink and episode orders tighten, the rules of storytelling, packaging, and distribution are being rewritten. For established creators, it’s a moment to adapt; for emerging voices — especially those from platforms like YouTube — it’s a chance to break through with a platform-aware approach from the start. What can traditional TV learn from digital-native creators? How are projects being built to move across platforms? And how is Canada’s low-cost, resourceful model shaping a more agile, globally relevant industry? This panel explores how a creator-savvy mindset — grounded in agility, ownership, and platform awareness — can help content not just get made, but get seen and stand out. **This is a partner presentation. Sponsored by:  Featuring:
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Wednesday, June 17
| 9:30 AM |
The Power Of Fandom (9:30am - 10:15am)Cascade How do you know if a property will translate into longform content? Just as important, how do you nurture the flywheel and keep the love (and revenue) flowing between seasons? These visionaries have harnessed fan fervor to build massive global juggernauts from Heated Rivalry and Culpa Mía to reality TV super-hits, including The Real Housewives franchise. Our panelists will share how they cultivate deeply engaged fans to extend stories beyond the screen through experiences, building and monetizing IP to drive loyalty, engagement and reach. This is your insider blueprint for finding your next mega fandom-fuelled hit. Featuring:
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| 10:30 AM |
Fandom Wednesday: Session TBC (10:30am - 11:15am)Cascade |
| 11:15 AM |
Session TBC (11:15am - 12:30am)Cascade |
| 12:00 PM |
Bubbles & Bites (12:00pm - 12:30pm)Cascade |
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