January is always an exciting month. Everyone is in good spirits after the holidays, looking forward to a fresh new start. It reminds me of the first day of school, when you look forward to reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones.

Similarly, the first months of the year are always exciting for us non-fiction folk. Our industry is gearing up for a number of big events this winter and spring – where we reconnect, mingle, chat, commiserate and make deals with familiar (and not-so-familiar) faces. Be sure to look out for RealScreen‘s VP and group publisher Kirstine Layfield, editor Susan Zeller and myself at the Documentary Pavilion at NATPE. You’ll also find Susan at the Sundance Film Festival.

As you may already know, the 5th edition of the RealScreen Summit will be held in Washington, D.C., from February 5 to 7. We welcome all our sponsors, speakers and delegates. We’re very proud the event has become an annual meeting place for professionals from the non-fiction industry. We are expecting great things for the summit this year, as we have an impressive lineup of presenters, master classes, panels and ’30 minutes with’ sessions. (Check out www.realscreen.com for more information.)

Our sincere thanks to all new and returning sponsors for making the RealScreen Summit a success. This year, our platinum sponsors are Discovery Networks and BBC Worldwide. Our gold sponsor is Panasonic. Our silver sponsors are ABCNEWS VideoSource, CABLEready, Channel 4 International, CNN Productions, Crawford Communications, KPI, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Channels International and PBS. Our bronze sponsors include Atlas Media, CameraPlanet, Granada Visual, Lehmann Strobel, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, National Geographic Television and Film, Tapestry International, WGBH and ZDF Enterprises. Other sponsors include BBC Library Sales, Berman-Bogdan Productions, CTV Archives, MBS Direct – Apple Computer, NHK and SVT Archives.

There will also be some time for fun – call it networking – as CABLEready kicks things off with a party on February 5th, followed by the annual Discovery Network party on February 6th. And don’t forget to join us as we celebrate the magazine’s 5th anniversary following the final session on February 7th.

We hope you have three informative and enlightening days at the must-attend non-fiction event of the year. From all of us at RealScreen, happy new year and here’s wishing you a fantastic 2003!

Salut,

Fatima Chai

Associate Publisher