The first day kicked off with a closed meeting for the 2024-25 cohort of the UNIC Women’s Cinema Leadership Programme. Now in its eighth year, this programme connects 14 senior female cinema leaders with rising talents, promoting mentorship across the industry. The session, moderated by Monica Chadha, featured an inspiring talk by Juan Antonio Gomez from ODEON Cinemas Group.
After registration, attendees were welcomed by UNIC CEO Laura Houlgatte, who set the tone for a day full of knowledge-sharing and forward-thinking. The opening keynote session, moderated by UNIC President Phil Clapp, brought together industry experts Katarina Nyman of Nordisk Film and Eric Meyniel of Kinepolis Group, who shared their perspectives on current opportunities and challenges in cinema.
The afternoon continued with an interactive leadership session led by Joanne Hession, CEO of LIFT Ireland. She explored value-based leadership and actionable strategies, encouraging cinema leaders to embrace reflective and intentional practices.
Nick Gault from Coca-Cola Europe then led a quickfire session on the rise of unattended retail and its potential for cinemas. This was followed by a panel on the role of cinemas in community building, moderated by Linn Fingalsson of IMAX. The discussion examined ways to strengthen cinemas’ role as cultural and social hubs, with insights from industry leaders like Serena Gill of Everyman, Christof Papousek of Cineplexx International, Marynia Gierat, of Kino pod Baranami and Benny Salaets, of the Lumière Group.
The day concluded with a session spotlighting the UNIC Women’s Cinema Leadership Programme given by Laure Galtier, UNIC, featuring Alexandra Body from CinemaNext and Angela Malvone of Rai Cinema. Following closing remarks, attendees enjoyed a lively drinks reception and dinner, rounding off the first day of networking and learning.
The second day saw participants diving into two concurrent tracks—the Cinema Marketing Lab and the Cinema Technology Lab—each focusing on targeted industry challenges and innovations.
Cinema Marketing Lab
Helen Budge, of Celluloid Junkie, opened the Marketing Lab with a series of quickfire sessions, including a discussion on the future of cinema advertising led by Jan Runge, Independent Advisor, Mikkel Hagedorn, of Cinemataztic and Jan Fleck of Weischer. They highlighted trends like gamification and programmatic advertising, sparking ideas on how cinemas can enhance audience engagement.
Other highlights included sessions on leveraging emotional engagement in cinema marketing with Derren Sequeira and Tanya Easterman of Dragonfly, and exploring the use of Roblox in cinema promotion with Greta D’Este-Donelan from AliLeo Media. A panel on slate awareness, moderated by Budge, addressed the challenge of keeping audiences informed in an ever-growing content landscape. Speakers included Ismail Tabi, Kinepolis Group, Carla Boyd, of Cineworld Cinemas, a video address from David Larkin, of Letterboxd and Emanuele Grassia, of The International Federation of Film Distributors’ and Publishers' Associations (FIAD).
The Marketing Lab presentations offered delegates new ways to enhance the cinema experience. Cyril Parenna, of Hall U Need, began the session with an engaging conversation led by Guillaume Branders, an independent consultant. Together, they explored the potential of immersive experiences beyond the cinema itself.
Following this, presentations on subscription models and loyalty schemes dived into building sustained audience loyalty through personalised incentives and memberships. Kim Ludolf Koch and Thomas Limmer of Cineplex Germany shared their insights Cineplex Plus, while Frank Groot from KINO Rotterdam offered details on Cineville. Bruno Plantin-Carrenard from UGC Belgium then closed the session by sharing best practices from UGC Unlimited.
The Masterclasses and Group Workshops provided hands-on insights for cinema marketing strategies, with UNIC partners leading practical crash courses. Julien Drouais and Malcolm MacMillan from The Boxoffice Company, presented a workshop on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), demonstrating SEO’s importance for cinemas and offering actionable tips on maximising search visibility.
Next, Lauren Greene and Hannah Murray from Vista Group introduced attendees to techniques for leveraging moviegoer data to enhance marketing efforts beyond the cinema environment, exploring data-driven strategies to build a loyal customer base. Lucy Jones from Comscore Movies led a workshop focused on attracting solo cinema-goers, addressing the needs and preferences of independent moviegoers to improve outreach.
In another workshop, Maria Sweeney and Richard Power of Showtime Group Solutions discussed using Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure and improve customer experiences, providing a framework for gathering and acting on audience feedback.
Finally, Ben Johnson and Lee Shelton from Gruvi guided participants through strategies to grow the cinemagoing audience in 2025. Their session, aimed at optimising data-driven advertising, offered cinemas practical tools to maximise digital advertising efforts, catering to audiences of all circuit sizes.
Cinema Technology Lab
Moderated by Sonia Ragone and UNIC CEO Laura Houlgatte, the Technology Lab covered topics critical to the technical side of cinema operations. Quickfire sessions included a demo on accessibility tech by Alexander Gram Jensen of SubReader and insights into cinema design by Nicolas Chican of Ōma Cinema. The lab also featured a session on cybersecurity, co-produced with the Cinema Technology Community (CTC), with President Richard Mitchell along with Cathy Huis int' Veld-Esser from Gofilex and Wout Vander Elst from CinemaNext, emphasising best practices for protecting cinema operations.
Later, a panel discussion explored trends in Key Delivery Message (KDM) delivery, with perspectives from experts like Carly Brown of Disney, Marie-Laure Barrau Sabatini, Deluxe Cinema and Mike Bradbury of Odeon Cinemas Group.
Sustainability and energy efficiency took centre stage with a series of insightful presentations. Sophie Jardillier, of CNC France, opened with findings from the CNC study “Projectors: Energy Consumption and Lifecycle.”
James Connor, UK Cinema Association, followed with the UKCA Road Map to Net Zero, detailing a comprehensive approach for cinemas to reduce their carbon footprints. Closing the session, Jan Petersen, Vue shared practical insights on power savings through laser projection.
These presentations were followed by a panel Debate on Software Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges. Co-produced by the International Cinema Technology Association (ICTA) and the European Digital Cinema Forum (EDCF), the software trends panel explored critical needs and advancements in cinema software. This session brought together cinema operators and software providers for a dynamic discussion on essential software developments.
Finally participants then had the opportunity to engage in rotating group workshops moderated by UNIC Partners. The workshops covered; HDR: benefits and challenges for cinemas; Light loss of laser projectors; Sound quality and volume level inconsistencies across Europe; The future of premium cinema: further developments, challenges, potential; and Technical staff training.
Thank you to all participants and attendees and we look forward to seeing everyone at CineEurope in Barcelona from 16-19 June 2025!