Drawing on his experience of writing and producing Kiril, The Cell and other drama-led campaigns, Sean Coleman enlightened students to the emerging publishing opportunities available within a broadening digital landscape.

Through visual cues, anecdotal stories and careful questioning he demonstrated how scripted blogs, games and competitions can all support the narrative of micro-episodic shows.  In this new model, when it works, audiences evolve into eager online communities.

The key, as ever, is story.  Digital consumers have a thirst for engaging narrative content that is often understated.  At the same time, story-tellers can use multi-platform opportunities to hunt for new and receptive audiences

Everyone who was lucky enough to hear Sean speak will be re-evaluating all available mediums for their work. At the same time, it is reassuring for narrative writers to hear that demand for original content will only continue to grow.

Considering his parting comment - “Online participation is the new way of clapping” - I’m off to comment on his blog.

Fran Thomas, NAW