I was lucky enough to be selected for the Crossover Docs Lab, run by the folks behind the BBC Innovation Labs, and following a similar format of idea generation, pitching and refinement.

While it may appear that spending another all-expenses-paid week at one of the finest small hotels in the country seems like a bit of a cop-out from actually doing any work, I can assure you that despite the countryside surroundings, fine dining and luxury health spa, it was an exceedingly hard week of work – long days, late night pitches and early morning breakfast meetings.

The idea of the labs was to bring together professionals from the worlds of TV, film, interactive media and gaming to learn about each others’ ways of working, industries and techniques, and how these could be applied to cross-platform documentaries. Along with the 24 participants were four mentors, all industry leaders in their areas – including BAFTA winners, Big Brother producers and video game magazine editors. The participants came with an equally diverse range of skills, backgrounds and expertise – from Hollywood special effects to scientists, theatrical innovators to TV producers.

The sessions were structured so that you got to know and work with as many different people as possible, to generate as many different, unique and crazy documentary ideas as possible. Half way through, fifty of the best ideas were collected, and we had to form groups to choose a concept to develop. This was then developed in time for a final pitch to a group of specially invited experts – commissioners from the BBC and Channel 4, and representatives from other organisations such as the Wellcome Trust, regional development agencies, and funders. This was a great finale to the week, as ideas which were just bullet points on a piece of paper 48 hours earlier were presented as fully fleshed out, thought-through concepts.

The idea I was lucky enough to work on has already had interest from commissioners and production companies, and will be pitched again in the Crossover Pitching Competition at the Sheffield DocFest this weekend. I can’t say too much about what it’s all about at the moment, but as they say, watch this space…

Following our success at the most recent BBC Innovation Labs Rocket have won a place at the 2008 Crossover Labs. A worldwide series of events that bring together the best innovative thinkers from the world of the media and digital technology. Here is how the people who are running the project describe the concept of crossover:

“Social media, social networks, alternate reality games, serious games, user generated content and participatory story-telling: just some of the terms used to describe emerging digital media formats. With the BBC calling for ‘360′ proposals and Channel 4 describing itself as ‘network publisher’, are there new ways to engage audiences with factual topics and documentary subjects?”

Find out more at their website by clicking here.

Nick, our chief digital guru is the lucky one off to the rather nice country hotel for the week, where we hope he’ll keep us up to date through his blog.

A blow-by-blow account of mine and Simon’s week at the BBC Innovation Lab…

Day 1

It’s been an extremely busy day. It started with an early start to drive up from Sheffield, and then on arriving at the gorgeous Swinton Park hotel (a former castle complete with ivy-lined turrets) we got straight into ‘getting to know you’ exercises, presentations and critiques with the other 20 or so participants. There’s lots of names to learn, but being thrown in to work with people you’ve never met before is no doubt a healthy experience.

Despite the amazing surroundings of the hotel, which we’ve pretty much taken over, it’s been extremely hard work – and today was just scratching the surface! Already there are plenty of things for us to think about with our proposal – things which were a bit too scary to consider before, but now we have to confront head on.

The day was rounded off by an evening meal which tasted as beautiful as it looked, served in suitably palatial surroundings – a long and elegantly set banqueting table in the opulent surroundings of the dining room, overlooking the grounds. The hotel has it’s own cooking school and is renowned for the quality of it’s chefs, so it was no surprise the food was, I suspect, the best many of us had ever eaten. After dinner it was off to the drawing room for coffee and truffles while we caught up on some work which Andy had conveniently sent through to us to look at (!).

Now all that’s outstanding is our ‘homework’ – we have to present it at 9:30am, so it’s up bright and early for a quick breakfast before getting started on another day of creative torture!

Day 2

Another long day – first of all developing detailed user personas, and then thinking about user journeys through the application. Working in groups again was useful for getting a fresh perspective on things, some useful advice and some great new ideas came out of the discussion! We worked on solving some of the problems that yesterday’s feedback had thrown up – a relaxing walk through the hotel’s grounds and lakes helped to make things a bit clearer.

Working on a further iteration of the pitch took up most of the afternoon, before yet another presentation to half the group and the mentors. Apart from going horrifically over the time limit, it went quite well – we got even more feedback (our first ‘official’ lot from the mentors – perhaps best described as a group of non-BBC media professionals/experts?) which gives us plenty more decisions to make tomorrow.

Day 3

Another day of following the familiar pattern of Pitch, Feedback, Refine and repeat. The proposal is becoming more and more focussed – things which we originally thought were important have been dropped, to give a really tight concept, which we can even imagine ourselves using!

The BBC commissioners arrived at lunchtime, and we had a couple of hours to refine things further before pitching to them for the first time. Our proposal crossed over two areas, so we had two commissioners to impress. The first one went very well – he liked the idea, thought the presentation was good – we were getting very good vibes. At 5:30pm, the second one went equally well, but with a slight sting in the tail. Jason (the Mobile commissioner) liked the idea so much – he has already commissioned it, and it’s nicely under development and on the road to launch.

On one hand this is excellent news – we obviously had a commissionable idea, and are thinking along the right tracks. But, on a frankly more worrying and practical level, this is fairly devastating news – as there’s no way that on Friday we can present the idea we’ve spent the last three days intensively developing and refining (although we stand by the name – MiPlayer is definitely the best name for a personalised iPlayer page).

This leaves us somewhat at a loss – how can we cram repeating the last three days into the one preparation day we have left? The easiest option would be to give up this whole pitching lark and spend the next two days relaxing in the spa.

We decide to reflect over dinner, an expensive bottle of wine and a couple of large Armagnacs.

Day 4

Although the option of kicking back and doing nothing for two days seems very appealing, we decide that we came here with a job to do – and we’re going to do it come what may. After a brief general session on presentation / pitching tips (the irony not lost on us that we have, as yet, nothing to present) we go upstairs to our work area.

We start the day symbolically with a brand new, blank flip-chart pad. The mentors and commissioners are being very helpful in spending time with us helping find a route forward. We go right back to the basics of the briefs, and brainstorm a range of options. By midday we think we’ve got something we’re able to run with, and run it past Simon (the interactive TV commissioner) who thinks it’s got potential. We start to refine the idea and work on making some kind of meaningful presentation – we only have until 6:30pm, when we have to do our final rehearsal pitch to the mentors.

You could practically see the steam coming off the markers and laptop, as we work right up til the last minute. Very pleased to find it is well received, and we only have a few minor tweaks to the presentation after dinner – very glad we’re not working through the night like some people!

Day 5

We have to be checked out and ready to pitch at 9 am sharp. There’s a nerve wracking moment when the laptop refuses to start up, but it’s just testing our mettle – and eventually gets itself going. We’re pitching first after the coffee break, and considering that just 24 hours before we had no idea what we were going to be able to pitch, it goes surprisingly well.

We’re all then sent out to relax (and do a bit of last minute networking) while the commissioners deliberate, and then a rather awkward final lunch sitting amongst the people whose decision have already sealed your fate.

Reassembling in the library (Swinton Park does have a very ‘Cluedo’ feel to it, with a Drawing Room, Library and Billiard Room, and quite possibly secret passages, etc) we listen to the commissioners deliver their verdict about each proposal in turn. It’s done in no particular order, but we are the last to hear – thankfully it was good news, and we’re being commissioned to develop some of our interactive TV concepts further. It’s also rewarding to hear that this year’s companies from the North East and Yorkshire have produced one of the most creative and most-commissioned-from Labs to date.

In conclusion

Overall it’s been an extremely useful process – it’s not often you get to spend such a long time looking at one idea (or in our case, two ideas) so intensively, and really getting the chance to pull them apart and solve as many holes in them. We got a much better feel for what the BBC commissioners are looking for, although it still seems daunting trying to pitch innovative ideas to an organisation which has so many creative people working within it already, and so broad a remit to develop innovative concepts. Over the course of the week we also got to know a bunch of really interesting and talented fellow independent developers from all over the region (from our doorstep in Sheffield right up to Newcastle).

Thanks must go to Matthew Cashmore at the BBC for organising and running this superb initiative (and also demoing to us some of the bits of technology developed internally at the beeb, which gave you the “kid in a chocolate factory” feeling that you’re glimpsing the future).

So, now we’re looking forward to starting work with the BBC on our project, and hoping that we’ll be able to apply for Innovation Labs again next year!

Related links and blogs

There was a very good chance that this series of blog posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) would simply be a trilogy – however we were delighted to find out (very appropriately via the Innovation Labs blog) that one of our ideas has been accepted!

So, we’ll be spending a week being mentored and advised into developing the idea into a fully formed concept – before pitching them to commissioners at the end of week. It’s a great opportunity for us, and we’re already fighting over which three people will get to go.

It’s an interesting choice for us that this idea that was picked (codename “Magic Moments”) because it was the idea that was hardest to distill into a simple elevator pitch – it has so many potential aspects to it. Of course that’s one of the main outcomes of the week – to nail it down to the bare essentials.