Move On Up “imaginative”

The latest Move On Up has been praised as "an imaginative way for people to develop their careers" by the TUC.

The cross-industry initiative, Move On Up Film and Television, held to address the under-representation of black and minority ethnic (BME) professionals, met at the TUC on 18 June.

BECTU's fourth Move On Up involved more than 100 film and television executives.

One-to-one meetings between 250 BME professionals and executives were scheduled, with participants benefiting from advice, networking opportunities and a chance to pitch their ideas.

The day opened with speeches from BECTU's General Secretary Gerry Morrissey, BBC Head of Diversity Andrea Callender and TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady.

O'Grady announced that, for the first time, research has shown that men and women were equally represented in the workforce, but "I look forward to true diversity in the workforce."

She went on: "There are institutional barriers to people from BME backgrounds as our industries are overwhelmingly white, middle class and today's event is about redressing the balance. Move On Up is an imaginative way for people to develop their careers."

Move On Up has been awarded the TUC Equality Award for an unprecedented two years running.

Lee Jasper, from the London Development Agency, gave a rousing and energetic address, pointing to the fact that presently the TV and film industries "rely more on who you know rather than what you know" and urged participants to show off their irrepressible creative talents to the assembled executives.

700 one-to-one meetings took place between participants and representatives from, amongst others, the BBC, Channel 4, Bloomberg TV, Endemol, Tiger Aspect, Working Title, the UK Film Council and the British Society of Cinematographers.

Participants ranged from web developers wanting to work for the BBC, directors wanting to get ideas of how to raise funding, to a would-be music producer wanting to get advice on how to break into the industry.

Alongside the one-to-one meetings ran a parallel series of workshops and seminars for larger groups.

These attracted distinguished names such as Jon Beazley, Controller of BBC Entertainment, who led a seminar on how to pitch and develop programme ideas, and BBC Director General Mark Thompson and BBC2 Controller Roly Keating who took part in a panel discussion on how to do business with the BBC, chaired by Peter Salmon.

Mark Thompson was honest in his appraisal of the BBC: "Opening up the BBC to the outside world is the key thing about content.

"It has previously been quite a closed culture and it can be very daunting if you're coming in from outside. But we need to have a more equal relationship because it's easy to miss out on talent otherwise."

He went on: "In the '90s most BBC dramas there was little or no black representation. But we're kind of there if you look at Holby City and Casualty. We're maybe not there with every programme, but significant progress has been made."

Roly Keating responded: "We need to keep asking questions about numbers of BMEs on and off the screen. The best presenters have journalistic backgrounds. We need a new generation of these types of people as storytellers make the best presenters."

Move On Up organiser and BECTU's Diversity Officer Janice Turner commented on the event: "Yet again there has been a tremendous response from the industry to this initiative and we are extremely pleased with the way Move On Up has progressed since the first event back in 2003.

"The thing that excited me about today's event was the buzz and enthusiasm created by all the participants and the networking that was going on between themselves as well as with the executives."

Move On Up Film and Television was supported by the BBC, the Equal fund, the European Social Fund, the London Development Agency, Creative London, Skillset, the UK Film Council and the TUC.

The next Move On Up on 12 September will concentrate on News areas.

For Move On Up in News BECTU has teamed up with the BBC News and the NUJ, plus media groups such as Sky News, Al Jazeera, Reuters, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. The day will be fronted by BBC newscaster George Alagiah, with Sir Trevor McDonald also in attendance.

To date, over 2,300 one-to-one meetings have been held between 350 executives and 850 BME professionals at all the Move On Up events.