We are proposing the delivery of two activities within the Film Festival Development project. The first activity is the 6th edition of the 5-day residential training course, Developing Your Film Festival, for professionals from established medium sized film festivals from across Europe. The course is designed to professionalise the film festival sector by equipping film festival professionals with essential skills, knowledge and confidence to: strengthen their festival’s business model, build audiences, and maximise professional relationships. The course also fosters international networking, collaboration, information sharing and partnerships between film festivals across Europe, sharing best practice and encouraging them to integrate a European dimension into their work. The second activity in the project is the creation of a new series of events called The Film Festival Symposium, a cultural space encouraging debate and discussion through the exchange of ideas around a particular contemporary issue of importance to film festivals. The subjects debated at The Film Festival Symposium will be ideas driven, discussing big questions, looking to the future, exploring and celebrating the art form of cinema as well as the impact of new technologies on film culture. The symposiums will feature the world's leading thinkers and doers, sharing their knowledge and ideas, experts from within the audiovisual industry and other creative and cultural industries. With traditional film distribution and exhibition models struggling to maintain their market positions in a hostile economic climate, as well as against new patterns of digital consumption, the importance of festivals as champions of film culture has never been greater. There is a need for professional development opportunities for this sector, especially for more senior level professionals, and The Film Festival Symposium is a way of formalising a space for discussion and developing new models.