This month was an eventful one for JHRTS! We kicked it off with our first Board Meeting for the 2012-2013 year and in between planning events for the new year and electing our new chairs, we were also able to enjoy two round tables with some very interesting members of the Entertainment community.
On July 11th, our members got to spend an evening with “The Great Graham Yost”, as he is jokingly referred to by some. It was an incredible event uniting JHRTS members for an engaging hour and a half of anecdotes and advice from the Creator and Showrunner of the hit FX show, “Justified.”
JHRTS Presents: A Conversation with Graham Yost
The conversation was led by fellow “Justified” Executive Producer Sarah Timberman which made for an easy-flowing conversation bursting with great energy. The pair discussed their experiences working together on the show and how each of their roles has been essential to their shared success. Yost shared with the audience how he came to be a writer, a skill he started to develop when he was young man working at the train tracks in the middle of the night. In the extensive Q&A session following the conversation, members had the floor to learn more about Yost, his passion for writing and the alternative dream career had he not pursued television: to be a drummer.
A week later, on July 17th a lucky group of members had the chance to engage in a conversation with David Nevins, President of Showtime. The evening was a success! As the President of Showtime, David had a lot of wisdom to share with us. He packed the room, and entertained the JHRTS members with stories from his rise through the industry to his position now as the head of a successful cable network. He spent the better half of the hour answering questions from the members, and explaining everything he does from what he looks for in a project, his process of green lighting shows, his favorite and least liked shows on television to the future of television and cable for the next generation, and how he plans to keep up!
August is going to be a chock-full month as well! We have round tables with very exciting industry leaders in the works, and we are looking to host some panel discussions delving into topics such as the US Hispanic market and TV Packaging in following months. Much, much more to come!
All the best,
Melissa Pangkey & Rachel Polan,
JHRTS – LA Co-Presidents