TIME & LOCATION
About
Chair
SPONSOR
Panel
Lecturer, School of Communication and Media, Ulster University.
Phil Ramsey is a Lecturer in the School of Communication and Media and a member of the Centre for Communication, Media and Cultural Studies, at Ulster University. Between 2012 and 2016 he worked at the University of Nottingham’s campus in Ningbo, China. His research mainly focuses on public service broadcasting and media policy, in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK.
Lifestyle Commissioning Editor, Channel 4
Deborah Dunnett is an award-winning TV-maker with 25 years’ experience in the industry. A prolific commissioner for Channel 4 Lifestyle, she is focused on high-performing unashamedly-populist shows and looks after a range of content from Pottery Throw Down to Secrets of the Middle Aisle, Our Tiny Islands and Titanic: The Untold Stories. Before moving into commissioning Deborah headed up Nations & Regions for Channel 4 - helping Indies make the most of the broadcaster’s commitment to spend outside of London. Working closely across all genres, Deborah led strategy on increasing Indie engagement across the UK as well as running an annual development Fund for small and emerging indies. Prior to Channel 4 Deborah was an Executive Producer, Head of Development and active member of the freelance community: working at Indies and other broadcasters in London, Manchester and Glasgow as well as creating Scotland’s leading free-to-access TV recruitment site. In her spare time she is learning British Sign Language.
Director, Broadcasting and Media, Ofcom
Siobhan Walsh is a Director in the Broadcasting and Media Group. She joined the team six years ago and oversees the regulation of the BBC and PSB sector. Previously she worked in the Competition Group in Ofcom, working on broadcasting, telecoms and postal regulation. Prior to Ofcom Siobhan was an economist in the Government Economic Service and started out working as an economist in a research team at the University of Westminster, focussing on education and labour market issues.
Head of Content Commissioning, BBC Northern Ireland.
Eddie Doyle is BBC Northern Ireland’s Head of Content Commissioning. Reporting to the Director BBC NI, Peter Johnston, Eddie leads BBC NI Commissioning in providing audiences with television and digital content that reflects all aspects of life in Northern Ireland. The role sees Eddie commission content across a range of genres outside of news and current affairs, including factual, entertainment, comedy, music and events. He provides strategic and editorial leadership to the BBC NI commissioning team and works closely with external partners, BBC network commissioning, independent production companies and the wider Northern Ireland creative sector. Eddie Doyle joined BBC Northern Ireland as Head of Content Production in February 2018. In this role, Eddie has worked with BBC Three and Northern Ireland Screen to develop a new strategy for the Northern Irish sector, in the production of digital content for younger audiences. He has also restructured in-house production teams, launched new programming in the sport, documentary, arts and comedy areas and has worked to deliver change to the BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle schedules. Prior to joining the BBC, Eddie was Head of Factual, Comedy, Talent Development and Music at RTÉ where he commissioned Comedy, Drama and Entertainment programmes such as Mrs Brown's Boys, The Young Offenders, and The Tommy Tiernan Show. His documentary commissions, include Whistleblower: The Maurice McCabe Story, The Man Who Wanted to Fly, and The Notorious Conor McGregor. He launched the 'Prime Time Investigates' series, the ‘Format Farm’ commissioning scheme and the Reality Bites youth documentary series. He devised and delivered the RTÉ Cross Platform Strategy on Comedy in 2014 and RTÉ2 Channel Strategy in 2012 and the RTÉ/Irish Film Board Export Initiative in 2017.