Fifty people crammed themselves into Suite 5 of the Elangeni hotel on Friday 17th of June to attend the panel discussion around the Business Model Canvas and its application to the film industry. Documentary filmmaker Tina-Louise Smith (Mr. Table Tennis) introduced the rest of the panelists and gave a brief overview of the history of the business model canvas workshops in South Africa. Orla Garriques of the CFC Media Lab explained the workshop’s origins and how it has been applied to the media industry in Canada. The participants then broke up into groups to get to grips with the tool, carrying out a practical exercise that saw them being tasked with creating a new business by combining two existing businesses. The exercise got people up on their feet and active, and served to quickly break the ice and get the participants already feeling comfortable with the tool.

Erica Shaw, a facilitator and media educator at the Sheridan College in Canada, spoke about the relationship between the Business Model Canvas, other tools and creative thinking processes and Fidel Namisi, a film writer-producer, gave a case study of how the business model canvas was used to raise money for the feature film, “Hear Me Move”.

At the end of the session, several questions were asked, mainly to do with the application of the tool to various scenarios and specific projects. The two workshops on the 19th and 20th of June got fully subscribed with twenty people signing up for them.