Hollywood is keeping their eye on the movie industry’s new hottest event. The Rel/Event Series, set to host its second event on April 8 at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles.
The panels at the event, featuring reps and artists working on some of television and movie’s biggest projects, are built around educating, inspiring and entertaining aspiring artists and helping them improve on their skills.
Erman Baradi, one of the founders of the Rel/Event Series, spoke with CGMagazine over the phone about how his event stands out from others.
“I’ve been to different events in LA, different conferences, panel events too, and to me they kind of felt all the same,” said Baradi. “The speakers do their thing and they leave, right? I thought to myself ‘how is it beneficial to the audience if they don’t get to connect with them.’”
Baradi goes on to say that he wanted to put together something that would break down that wall and help others connect directly with Hollywood individuals such as producers and casting directors.
“At our event, our guest speakers who are very prestigious, they’re very illustrious people and they are giving up their Friday nights to interact with these attendees. So it’s not just a thing where they speak and they leave; they are actually going to stick around to mingle, to network and to connect with those people,” said Baradi
This year’s lineup will feature people such as Tommy Harper, COO of Bad Robot and executive producer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Doug Jung, screenwriter for Star Trek Beyond; Gohar Gazazyan, casting director for The Walking Dead, and many more. The lineup is subject to change however.
Rel/Event held its first event back in October 2015 and Baradi was very pleased with how it went.
“Our first event was headlined by Lauren Shuler Donner who was producer for the X-Men films, Deadpool, the upcoming X-Men Apocalypse. She definitely stood out. People loved her as the speaker,” said Baradi. “We had somebody walk away with information about one of the speakers and it was the casting director for Star Wars. One of our volunteers left with her card and that was awesome.”
For the time being, Baradi says the event is based in LA due to the ease of getting speakers, but he definitely wants to expand.
“I want to hit the road go to Chicago. I want to go to Toronto. Miami, Orlando. We’ll see, we’ll see. We’ll keep doing these as long as they’re in demand.”
He’s also hoping to increase the length of the event to make it a full weekend and add in different elements.
“I want to try out roundtable discussions. I think they’ll provide an intimate atmosphere with guest speakers and members of the audience,” said Baradi. “I want to add in performance art. That would be really cool, like monologues. We’re playing around with different ideas for future events, but we definitely want to grow alongside these events.”
All the information for the event is available on their website where they will host a paid live stream of the event.
