The Business of Entertainment: Career Pathways in Executive Production

Dreaming of a career in executive production? Whether you aspire to manage creative endeavours in film, television, live shows, events, festivals or video games, you need more than creative talent and skill. Executive producers must be able to develop a vision, inspire and motivate a team, secure funding, negotiate deals, manage intellectual property, and successfully market their projects to the public. They must master the business side of entertainment.

If you’re aiming for the executive producer's chair, then our upcoming Info Session for Creative Professionals is for you. Led by Executive Producer and McGill Faculty Lecturer Sylvain Gauthier, you’ll join professionals from across creative sectors for an interactive presentation on topics such as:

• Why demand for creative professionals with skills in executive production is up
• 9 types of organizations hiring executive producers (and some you might not expect)
• Key creative industries seeing the fastest growth and the hottest sectors for jobs
• 7 key skills every executive producer needs
• Doorways to international careers and the capabilities needed to manage creative projects abroad

Cost: Free

Refreshments will be served

OUR SPEAKER

Sylvain Gauthier, P.Eng, MBA, PMP

Sylvain is an international executive producer specializing in new product and business development. He is currently the Executive Producer and General Manager of Franco Dragone Entertainment in China after spending 6 years with Cirque Du Soleil’s creative content division. As Executive Producer, he oversees the relationship with Wanda for the operation of the HAN and DAI shows in China. Over the last 3 years, Sylvain conducted the negotiations and signed multiple contracts totalling more than US $200M for the creation of new shows in Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing and Wuxi. At Cirque du Soleil, Sylvain was involved in the delivery of many productions such as Michael Jackson One & Immortal, Totem, Iris, and Amaluna.

In his over 30 years of experience, some of the high-profile projects he has managed include the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the Formula One World Championship deployment in China (TV and race), the setup of many joint ventures between Chinese partners and foreign corporations, and countless other businesses-related projects. He has a solid background and extensive experience in project management, business planning, cost management and the implementation of project management offices for large corporations. He is the author of the book 1 Hour to save 1000 hours of stress and a McGill Faculty Lecturer in project management and executive production.