Jonathan Tait

Jonathan is currently the Rights Manager for STV, where he looks after acquisitions, rights and clearances for the STV Player as well as seeking new Scottish based talent for the Player. 

Before this, Jonathan spent nearly 20 years in the music industry working in A&R, artist management, tour management, as a rehearsal and studio owner and then latterly in music education before re-training as a lawyer. 

Jonathan worked with commercial law firms specialising in media, entertainment and IP law and helped set up BTO BeCreative, Scotland’s only dedicated creative industries legal services team and was recommended by the Legal 500 for providing legal advice in relation to media and entertainment matter.  

  Michael Hines is an award winning director, based in Scotland, UK. He has directed for over 20 years across many genres, specializing in Scripted Comedy and Childrens' television. His best know work is Still Game, the BBC networked sitcom, directing every one of the 62 episodes and producing some series. He also directed the stage plays that drew in 210,000 people over 21 nights in 2014 and 150,000 over 15 nights in 2016. His first feature film 'Man and Witch' starring Tami Stronach, Christopher Lloyd, Sean Astin, Jennifer Saunders and Greg Steinbruner was released across the USA summer 2024 to critical acclaim. He has his own production company, The Woven Thread as well as lecturing in filmmaking and occasionally composing for film and television.  

 Fiona Gillies worked extensively in Film & TV as an actor before becoming an independent film producer  and, along with Christine Hartland and Mahesh Ramachandra, one of the co-founders of My SMASH Media.   

My SMASH Media is an IP matchmaking platform for the Creative Industries, starting in film & TV.  SMASH is like a dating app for creative projects.  The platform provides Creators with pitch-building and IP  protection tools and offers Industry Professionals a cost-effective and efficient way to discover innovative  projects. 

 Prior to SMASH, Fiona produced THE BEAT BENEATH MY FEET, DUMMY and  BIFA nominated CITY SLACKER.  Fiona is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts & a mentor for Women in Film & TV. 

 Christine Hartland is an independent film producer and co-founder of My  SMASH Media, the IP  matchmaking platform for the creative industries (starting in Film & TV), with fellow independent  producer Fiona Gillies and product expert Mahesh Ramachandra. 

SMASH is like a dating app for creative projects, it provides Creators with free pitch-building and IP  protection tools to help them create Industry-savvy pitches for their projects.   

 As an independent producer, Christine produced political thriller WMD (2008) with a reverse distribution strategy, CONTAINMENT which has sold  worldwide (inc. Netflix). Christine is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a mentor with the Creative Mentor Network. 

Chris is an award winning filmmaker, and was recently Splinter Unit Director on Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning, parts 1 and 2 for Paramount.  He is also the Exec Producer on an Apple TV+ five part docu-drama that is in post production. Deeper into his past, early major projects include action thriller ‘The Runner’, serial killer thriller ‘White Angel’ and paranormal horror ‘Urban Ghost Story’. Chris co-created and authored The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series, published by Blomsbury.  Chris has run a series of London based festivals, kicking off with the London Screenwriters Festival which attracts over 1,000 professional screenwriters from around the globe annually. He also setup and run TEDxEaling.

 Venetia Hawkes is the author of ‘We Have Some Notes… The Insider’s Guide to Notes, Script Editing and Development’ and Executive Producer for Masterclasses & Bridge to Industry films at the National Film and Television School (NFTS)

With over twenty years’ experience supporting creatives to craft engaging screen stories, her first book, ‘We Have Some Notes… The Insider’s Guide to Notes, Script Editing and Development’, was published by Bloomsbury/The British Film Institute in 2024. In it she interviews leading writers and directors, including Russell T Davies, Lynne Ramsay and Edgar Wright, to explore the art of giving and receiving ‘notes’ and how to make it a constructive part of the creative process.