Crucial advice for new entrants to an “industry in flux” was provided by a wide range of industry professionals at this year’s RTS North West networking day.
RTS award-winning broadcaster Lucy Meacock, Chancellor of Salford University, kicked off proceedings using the acronym SALFORD.
“Stand out,” she said. “You don’t need to be the most confident [person], just make sure you have good ideas.
Adapt and Listen came next: “Have conversations... You’ll get your best ideas from that real person – and networking is also about creating supportive friendships.”
Completing the acronym, Meacock advised being outward-looking, resilient and determined. “The power is with you,” she concluded. “You are the future.”
The panellists discussing “AI, immersive technologies and creativity” gave students an encouraging glimpse into TV’s future. “We’re hearing how the industry is collapsing,” said freelance development executive Andrew Oldbury. “Yet when you look at the viewing figures... consumption is through the roof.”
The key is how audiences consume content, and new entrants can capitalise on this, he explained, because “when you look at immersive tech, social media and how gaming is changing, there aren’t the same ‘grammar’, rules and formats [as in traditional TV]. People are still figuring out how it works.
“You have a supercomputer in your pocket,” he added. “There’s nothing stopping you [from] creating those shows.”
Richard Wormwell, Head of Product Innovation at Dock10 Studios, agreed: “Entry to market is easier – [there’s] no need to wait for a broadcaster to give you money. Distribution is easier – you can post things on YouTube for free.”
Sam Hunt, Chief Creative Officer at AIX Live, explained how the immersive content specialists are using tech to create and enhance people’s social experiences.
“There’s been this huge trend over many years of separating individual human beings through wearables like headsets,” he said. “We’re interested in people in a space enjoying themselves, [and how] that can be enhanced by linking to other people enjoying the same thing in other spaces.”
Hunt explained how AIX Live “set up a private 5G network between Salford and Dundee, linking LED volumes, lights, audio and an audience app [using] the Six Nations Wales vs Scotland rugby match as a test.
“People say appointment-to-view is dead, yet there are big national moments when people want to be together.”
Echoing advice on creating content, BBC journalist Claire Harris said the objective was to “stand out in a field of 30,000 applicants for 200 trainee places”.
In the session “Finding opportunities in challenging times”, she advised: “Bring ‘you’ into what you’re making. So if you’re a deaf, disabled or neurodivergent person, how does that reflect in how you’re telling the story?”
Home Manchester producer Isobel Glenton advised students to look locally, pointing to micro-funding from Film Hub North and Home’s Young Film Collective programme.
Elli Metcalfe, Crew and Facilities Manager at Screen Manchester, urged students to seek work wherever they can, since television roles demand many different skills. “I worked as a bartender and in a shoe shop,” she said. “Those jobs gave me transferable skills which are all-important to getting your next job in television. See it as a positive.”
4Skills Project Manager Fanny Kerekes added: “It’s good to have long-term goals... but don’t be choosy [about specific roles] when you’re starting out.”
Creative Access CEO Mel Rodrigues flipped the script. “The industry needs you. You have insights, perspectives, experiences that [older] execs don’t know about,” she insisted. “You are the key to them getting content commissioned.”
The ‘RTS North West Student & Industry Networking Day 2025’ was held on 12 March and produced by Beautiful Productions in association with Dock10, University of Salford and AIX Live
