Date the Commissioners

The Channel 4 Commissioning team. Just hangin' out, waiting for a date...

It's that time of year again, when the great and good (and indeed some of the below average and poor) from the world of TV up sticks and head en-masse for Edinburgh for three days of gossip, hardcore drinking and unabashed hedoni... sorry, for three days of discussion, cultural debate and intellectual expression. Yep, the MGEITF is here again. (That's the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, or Massively Grandiose Exercise In Tequila Feasting, depending upon your perspective).

This year, though, Channel 4 is offering something different: The chance to speed-date a commissioning editor.

In a MGEITF first, Channel 4 will be setting up stall at the TV Festival and giving an open opportunity to producers and content creators - particularly those who have not worked with Channel 4 before - to pitch new ideas to the Channel 4 commissioning team.

In keeping with the speed-dating theme there will be a time limit of five minutes per pitch, with commissioners from across Channel 4's genres ready to hear your ideas including: Chief Creative Officer, Jay Hunt; Head of Factual, Ralph Lee; Head of Drama, Piers Wenger; Head of Entertainment, Justin Gorman; Head of Features and Factual Formats, Damian Kavanagh; Head of Features, Gill Wilson; Dominic Bird, Head of Formats; Commissioning Editor, Documentaries, Emma Cooper; Multiplatform and Commissioning Lead, Louise Brown; and Commissioning Editor, Drama, Sophie Gardiner.

This innovative and exciting opportunity reaffirms Channel 4's commitment to work with more independent production companies. This follows the launch of Jay Hunt's Independent Producers' Access Plan 18 months ago, which promised to offer greater access to its commissioning teams and increase diversity of supply.

It promises to be just like a speed date, in that there are no guarantees of success, every now and again a truly desperate case will come along, and the likelihood of sex at the end of it is extremely slim. It will be less like a speed date in the sense that, it is to be hoped at least, neither party will be drunk.