Dunedin-based production company NHNZ is crossing the ditch later this year to loan its support to one of the world’s biggest meetings of science and factual producers.
The annual World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (WCSFP) will be held in Melbourne from December 1-4 and is expected to attract around 400 delegates from an international community of television producers, broadcasters, distributors, content creators and academics.
NHNZ’s Executive Vice President of Development and Marketing Neil Harraway says in addition to confirming its support as a gold level sponsor of the popular event, NHNZ will also host a pub trivia night during the Congress.
“Pub quizzes are hugely popular down under so we thought we’d challenge delegates to a trivia contest with a science focus. It should be highly competitive, lots of fun and a good way to unwind at what promises to be a thought provoking event.”
The Dog Eat Dog pub trivia night, for registered WCSFP delegates, will also provide networking opportunities for those who share NHNZ’s passion for professional science communication, he says.
“Creating engaging science related programs for television broadcast is an area we’re always keen to learn more about as well as share our expertise in. Over the past decade NHNZ has tackled everything from the science behind extreme sports to a special on the Elephant Man.”
Earlier this year NHNZ took science out of the laboratory and into the jungle with virologist Dr. Mike Leahy who tested the effects of a variety of seemingly innocuous but potentially lethal parasites, bugs and animals. The resulting eight x 1 hour series, Bite Me with Dr Mike Leahy, made for National Geographic Channels and the Travel Channel, sees Mike catch rogue pythons in Florida’s Everglades, endure leech therapy in India and brave a Cassowary enclosure in Queensland.
“It’s the type of series that both entertains and informs audiences and in Bite Me’s case, also combines an element of travel. The challenge for producers is to keep developing fresh ways to present what can be complex subjects to viewers,” he says.
WCSFP Chair and Head of Science at BBC Factual London John Lynch says organizers are excited to welcome NHNZ as a new Congress partner.
“NHNZ programming is innovative and highly respected. Their trivia pub night promises to be great fun, bringing together the best aspects of the Congress; it will be an incisive way to test if we’re really all as clever as we think we are,” he says.
For more information contact:
NHNZ
Executive Vice President Development and Marketing
Neil Harraway
Phone +64 3 479 9812
Email nharraway@nhnz.tv