The world of cross-platform content and distribution demands a range of skills from technical, creative, artistic and business contexts. Crossover is a perfect environment for talent to get together and really understand how creativity works in each others’ fields.

Matt Locke, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4 New Media.

Attending Crossover completely opened my eyes to the future of documentary work. I’m grateful, excited and inspired by the opportunities that I now see ahead of us having done Crossover. The lab is particularly valuable given the crisis we are in with regards to the funding levels of documentaries in television.

Roger Graef, writer, filmmaker and BAFTA winner, CEO Films of Record.

Crossover UK changed my life: it was the most stimulatingly brilliant workshop I have attended. Part personal development, part creative brainstorming, it has the capacity to change entire businesses as well as creatives, such as myself.

Roy Ackerman, Creative Director, Diverse Production, UK.

Without doubt, the most useful media course I have attended in a 20-year career in broadcast television.

Sonya Pemberton, Head of Specialist Factual, ABC.

It’s often hard to find the time for creative thinking at work so it was wonderful to have time to focus solely on ideas and brainstorming and to be able to practice different techniques (which I will definitely introduce to the team at work).

Anna Evans-Freke, Windfall Digital.

Crossover surpassed my expectations. It will change the way I look at the industry from here on out. It has taught me how to think outside the box and take a ‘braver’ approach to developing ideas.

Carolyn Payne, producer, factual entertainment.

On the first few days of the lab I was completely pushed outside my comfort zone as I was exposed to new information and new ways of thinking. These new skills were put to great practical advantage as the week unfolded. It was an amazing journey.

Kathryn Penny, Mezzo Films.

Crossover Labs main achievement was to open up the opportunity to use the concepts fashioned in the commercial game industry in other media: we’d never have put projects to Channel 4 if it wasn’t for Crossover. It opened both eyes and doors - that’s a very powerful thing.

Alex Amsel, Tuna Technologies – games developer

Crossover was an intense, mind expanding experience. In addition to valuable collaborations that have resulted in an Emmy Award for the partners involved, Numiko has rewired its business based on the principles of crossover – cross disciplined working, user centred design and the iterative creative development process. As a direct result, our business has a more rigorous, commercially successful process of generating creative ideas that work, that are backed up with strong reason and evidence.

Dave Eccles, Managing Director, Numiko – digital agency

I’m starting a new creative life from now on, thinking in a much broader way how to communicate our stories to the audience, and I’ve met a wonderful bunch of new colleagues and friends to share knowledge, ideas and business with.

Gila Ulfung, Breidablick Film AB.

The mentors were of a very high calibre and interacted really well with everyone The structure of the week was effective – throwing ourselves into ‘quick and dirty idea generating and pitching, and losing our inhibitions about doing this in areas in which we may have no expertise. I found the user centred design exercises and pitching tools especially effective and I shall certainly be using these in both linear programme and cross platform development work. I loved the pressure – and that it was genuinely immersive and exhausting.

Jim Sayer, Managing Director, Maverick TV

I felt like I crammed a university term into the four days of practical work. I learned a lot of practical things for the variety of exercises. I experienced some great ways of unlocking creativity. I learned so much because I met and worked with people I would never have met any other way. It was a fabulous experience.

Karen Johnson, Director, Turmeric Media – children’s tv producer

For me, the lesson of Crossover was that… the challenge for people developing media projects today is that of creating experiences which have an existence and a reality beyond the limitations, technologies and timeframes of any single platform…. It’s a bit like the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: once you’ve tasted the apple you can’t ‘untaste’ it. I’d find it hard now to imagine developing any future project with the sole objective of putting it on a TV screen.

Simon Wells, Crazyboy TV. – documentary film maker