February Media and Showbiz Industry Networking Events

The 2006 Writers Guild Awards takes place Saturday, February 4, simultaneously in Los Angeles and New York. Author Franz Wisner speaks at the Alameda Writers Group February 4 meeting in Glendale discussing turning your own life experiences into material for your projects, the inside track on selling the movie rights, why writers need to be savvy about marketing and promotion and other topics. For an Actor’s Intensive Weekend Workshop, Kirk Baltz leads a session on group and individual exercises using relaxation and emotional recall, for two days starting February 4 in San Francisco. At UCLA Westwood campus, “Making Funny: A Course on Creating Comics” is offered in conjunction with “Masters of American Comics”, with sessions running February 4 to March 18.

The Sixth Annual Do It Yourself (DIY) Convention is geared to indie producers of film, music and books, and runs February 5-12 in Hollywood. Academy Award-nominee Lynn Redgrave shares her insight and expertise on Irish playwright Oscar Wilde when she conducts a Master Class on February 5 in West Hollywood. The Recording Academy honors singer/songwriter James Taylor at gala tribute with cocktail reception, auction, dinner. Featuring performances by Sting, Bruce Springsteen, and others in Los Angeles on February 6. The Music Center Speaker Series presents an evening with broadcast journalist Bill Moyers, currently president of The Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, in a February 6 talk in Los Angeles. “Cinema’s Legacy: How Great Filmmakers Inspire Great Filmmakers” a monthly discussion series exploring the influences of filmmaking process, takes place February 7 in West Los Angeles. VideoForum, a technology exhibition for everyone in production, post and new media, runs only two days starting February 7 in London.

The 48th Annual Grammy Awards, with Mariah Carey, John Legend and Kanye West among performers, will be presented February 8 in Los Angeles as well as via CBS broadcast. Media Summit New York is an international conference for media, entertainment and technology leaders covering the gamut, taking place February 8 & 9 in New York City. The Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation honors Travis Reid, president and CEO of Loews Cineplex Entertainment, for its Pioneer Of The Year Dinner taking on February 9 in Los Angeles. The ASCAP Foundation Country Songwriters Workshop occurs every spring for six consecutive weekly evening sessions. For this workshop, opening February 10 in Nashville, music industry guest speakers giving advice on the art and craft of successful songwriting techniques as well as business related topics. ASCAP and Myspace.com present another showcase in its continuing series that you can apply to on the myspace site, this one in Dallas, on February 10.

At an Entertainment Industry Career Job Fair on February 11 in Pasadena, job seekers have the opportunity to meet representatives from some of the largest employers in the entertainment industry, and its free. During the 10th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards Dinner, happening in Beverly Hills on February 11, Steven Spielberg will receive the honorary Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award. The Berlinale Talent Campus builds on the success of the inaugural year in 2003 and is actively seeking screenwriters, producers, cinematographers, directors, actors and music composers for its February 12 & 13 event in Berlin. The 2006 North American Folk Alliance Conference focuses on folk, roots, multicultural and world music in North America, and is held this year February 12-14 in Austin. Country Radio Broadcasters CRS 37 running February 15-17, will be a seminar and networking session sponsored by the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, in Nashville. “Writers Bloc Presents…” Screenwriter, director, actor, novelist Carl reiner in conversation with writer Peter Mehlman on February 16 in Los Angeles.

The 20th Annual Southern California Writers’ Conference, running February 17-20 in San Diego, offers problem-solving and assignment-oriented workshops in addition to critiqued readings at this year’s session. Screenplay Lab presents a workshop titled “Writing Animated Comedy for Television” with Cartoon Network exec Heather Kenyon, at a February 19 session in Hollywood. The ASCAP Music Business 101 workshop is for songwriters who would like to improve demo production, and is a free session given February 22 in the ASCAP New York office. The Music 2.0 event, running February 23-24 in San Francisco, covers trends and developments affecting the business of digital music. The 37th NAACP Image Awards Ceremony taking place February 25 in Los Angeles, airs Friday, March 3 over the FOX network. The French Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences 31st Annual Cesar Awards takes place in Paris on February 25. The 8th Wonder of the UNICEF World Concert Series in which Ricky Martin performs first in a series of 10 concerts over a 5-year period to benefit UNICEF causes, gets underway February 25 in Agra. The Golden Mike Award taking place will be presented February 27 in New York honoring broadcaster Jeff Smulyan.

The above events are only a sampling of what is listed. Many of the events above have a submission process for indie and/or performing artists to take part in. Complete details are on the “Media, Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry News and Events” page at http://www.actorschecklist.com/news.html. Experience the newly relaunched message board on The Actor’s Checklist which now permits user profiles and private messaging which you can find at http://actorschecklist.com/phpBB2/.

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