The Conference is an intensely serious time of lectures, collaborative work and active networking - at least that's what I told the folks back home. It was also great fun, meeting people, renewing friendships, eating, drinking and being entertained - but I wouldn't want to bore them with details!

This year's programme included educational opportunities, Hollywood movies and new trends in comedy. John Gough of Distraction Formats showed an example of a new scripted comedy format. Camera Café is set in the office corridor (between the toilets) where various employees meet at different times. It was essentially a series of very funny sketches viewed from inside that little glass panel in a coffee vending machine. John is looking for more ideas like this.

Developing Ideas for Children's TV was the talk given by Mike Jackson. currently working as an independent producer for Endamol, Mike has a passion for good quality children's material, such as My Parents are Aliens, Demon Headmaster, Roland Rat, and Beachcomber Bay, believing that children should be protected and encouraged.

Producers are always on the look out for what he described as "manic energy", which translates as "energy with a mad streak" but are very busy people who have to protect their own track record. When writing in, send a letter and a single A4 sheet containing the proposition, legible, attractive with a well thought out "slug line" summing up exactly what it is about and why it should be watched.

The commercial break in children's TV, he says is a valuable 3 mins 40 seconds when 5 million kids are watching. He thinks programme credits are an indulgence and was partly responsible for the trend of squeezing credits into a tiny illegible box- ah well, nobody's perfect.

Mike says "Television is a collaborative art and all the better for it." and advises us to "write for self satisfaction". That way, if no-one wants the product, you'll still be a pauper but at least you'll be a self satisfied one.

Another excellent speaker, brimming with enthusiasm and honesty was busy BBC producer Lucy Armitage. She has five productions scheduled for the six weeks until Christmas as well as presenting talks, reading material and attending the monthly Programme Development Group. Radio 4 has an average listener age of 55, a late night comedy slot which attracts an audience of two million and is always looking for good sitcoms and original panel games.

Lucy had an earnest message to those wanting to write for Radio 4, listen to as much Radio 4 output as you can, get your scripts read and read - by at least four people, then send them in. She is one of 12 radio producers all desperately hopeful that the next script they pick up will be mind-blowing. There is no "gentle comedy" any more. A sitcom must make you laugh out loud on every page.

Lucy recommended sending material to a producer that you admire but if he or she doesn't want it, act on any feedback and send it in again to someone else. Lucy knows about perseverance. "It took 73 job applications before I got in." she said. Watching her talk is an inspiring experience.

Mi Miyauchi travelled from Japan to invite us to the Tokyo International Comedy Festival April 26th to May 6th 2003. Mi is looking especially for slapstick or comedy without words. His email address is: mi7@remus.dti.ne.jp The festival will be broadcast on FUJI television.

Caroline Jester, Literary Officer for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, didn't travel quite so far. This is one of the few theatres which encourages new writers and runs attachment schemes and a stagecoach script reading service. email: stagecoach@playwriting.fsnet.co.uk

Of course there was the BSCW sitcom, the prize draw, script surgeries and more - too much to report here. If you missed out - sorry, you missed out - but I hope to see you there next year!

PHOTOS - The first conference photos are accessible on the website. Do go and have a look at them... re-live the memories if you were there, or put faces to names if you weren't.

After a hard day listening to the speakers, breaking for coffee at regular intervals and queuing for meals, there is something to be said for relaxing in the good company of fellow scribblers and imbibing a glass or two of red. But, for the hardened BSCW member, there is no finer sight than seeing another attempt to smash through last year's record of... Keeping the Bar open till breakfast.

On Friday night, the atmosphere was expectant... The open mike spot came, caused the usual mix of groans and giggles, (please more participants next year!) and then fizzled out. Sadly, a lot of those who had tired of their longish journeys to the conference also fizzled out and went to their slumbers unknowing of the comic drama that was to be performed in the Hotel Foyer between the graveyard hours of 2.00AM AND 5.00AM

With most of the Apollo unconscious, a fierce "Lord of the Flies" type debate began to rage in the Hotel reception area. If you remember, the only one who has "the conch" (in our case, a ciggy lighter" had the authority to speak. Subjects for discussion that came up that morning were nothing short of controversial: "IS BRITISH COMEDY DEAD? - SHOULD BRITISH COMEDY WRITERS WRITE FOR NOT JUST THE BRITISH, BUT FOR THE GLOBAL MARKETS?" This was serious stuff, and at times, the passion displayed would have made great Television. There was fire, there was emotion, there was beer - lots of it - and the barman, a true comedy aficionado giggled and mopped the floor as the minutes ticked towards the record of last year, that of 5.20am.

Alas, with just 5 minutes to go, the fires of argument had dwindled, and not realising the significance of the impending time of 5.20am, the barman pulled down the shutters. I felt like the marathon runner in that memorable Olympic final where he just could not make those final few yards. So, a group of us went off to a room where crumpets were brought out as a consolation prize. Having no cooking facilities in the room, one of our number had a brain wave... the trouble was that it was a fairly small brain wave. In fact it was hardly a wave at all. But needless to say, the crumpets were arranged in a row and having a hair dryer aimed at them in order to get some degree of warmth into them... After 20 minutes of solid blow drying, the hairdryer overheated and cut out. Not to be thwarted, another attendee grabbed the crumpets and jammed them into the Corby trouser press, hoping that it would act like a giant Breville toasted sandwich maker. It didn't. As breakfast time was only an hour and a half away, we decided to retire hungry. Another memory to store in the treasury of anecdotes to be recounted at future meetings.

Saturday night was the last opportunity to break the record. After the excellent Cabaret, the team set out to conquer the record once more. Things went wonderfully well. Time was flying, people were still about, well up until 2.00am when there was a discernible reduction in the numbers of contestants. Still, the time whizzed by, songs were sung, little party pieces performed, half remembered jokes told, and the bar stayed open. Sadly, I have to report that the bar was closed again too early - almost 15 minutes early. So the record stayed intact for another year.

Once again the sessions after the sessions were hilariously funny, they were happy, joyous and surprisingly un-drunken occasions. I look forward to doing it all over again next year... Anyone up for it?

As you'll have seen in previous mailings, MediaXchange ran a two day 'No Laughing Matter' workshop in central London recently. They offered generous discounts to the BSCW, so I was delighted to see I wasn't the only member there. Also among the faces I recognised were Jill James from TAPS, who attended the BSCW's launch some years ago, various comedians and writers, someone who promptly joined the society, and Lucy Armitage, last seen two weeks beforehand at conference.

While getting up half an hour before I normally would on a weekday was a downside of attending "No Laughing Matter" it was well worth it.

Sessions were mainly discussions among the speakers, often highlighting the difference between British and American approaches, but there were also chances to relax and laugh at videos shown of the shows discussed.

Saturday's discussion topics included 'Situation Comedy Today', 'Writing - Inspiring Innovation', 'Team Writing - US/UK Hybrids' - a particularly helpful discussion, give the slow but steady rise of team writing in the UK, and 'Pitching and Commissioning' which covered ways to offer the best to, and get the best out of a potential producer.

On Sunday issues covered were 'Cost-effective Development' - not necessarily the writer's biggest issue, but worth considering in your planning, 'Exploring Secondary Markets' - where the conclusion was that they will find you, once you're on a UK channel, 'Producing more episodes' - which covered the longer runs of US programmes, and the pros and cons of both short series and longer seasons, and 'The Future of television comedy.'

This last, daunting sounding discussion did, thankfully conclude not only that there is one, but that it is bright. There are so many TV channels now, that will find time for some comedy between episodes of celebrity reality TV. Just do something new and interesting, and someone will like it. Simple!

So, who was having these wise discussions? Well, at various times the line up included Beryl Vertue, producer of Coupling and Men Behaving Badly, she has great experience selling to the US market, including the format for Till Death Us Do Part, Steptoe and Son, and Coupling; Fred Barron, writer / executive producer of UK sitcom My Family, and US ones The Larry Sanders Show and Caroline in the City, as well as executive producing Seinfeld; and Micháel Jacob, Editor, Comedy Development at the BBC. From the US, Jeremy Gold, Vice President of the Comedy Department for 20th Century Fox Television; Rob Fox, director of the Osbournes and a new Big Brother/Fame Academy merge, for stand-up comics; Larry Wilmore, executive producer and writer of The Bernie Mac Show, which uses reality style TV in a sitcom, other credits include writing on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Other UK names are John Stroud, director and co-producer of My Hero, who has worked on Spitting Image, Bugs, Game On, Boon, Harry Enfield and Chums, Minder, Kiss Me Kate and Chambers; Ash Atalla, Producer of The Office and The Way It Is, and Yes Sir I Can Boogie; Jamie Carson from BBC Interactive; Richard Boden, director of Blackadder Goes Forth, 2 Point 4 Children and ITV's Sketch Show; Caroline Raphael, Commissioning Editor of Drama and Entertainment for BBC Radio 4 - her commissions include Dead Ringers and The League of Gentlemen; and Kenton Allen, Creative Director of comedy and entertainment at Shine Ltd, which he co-founded in 2001. Prior to this, Kenton worked on The Mrs Merton Show and The Royle Family.

The one thing missing from all this was a full list of contact details for these great names. However most were happy to give them out to keen writers. I've sent one script off already, and hope to contact more of the industry's interesting people for future E-zines.

The great thing about group discussions was that, although the content varied, and wasn't always totally encouraging, it was possible to get a strong impression of the personalities of the speakers. You could get some idea of what each person would be like to work with, and whether you think you could get along with them for the time a whole series takes. Some of them clearly would be a lot of fun. Most would make you work hard, but you don't get into a writing career for the easy ride. To be fair, no one made me think 'No Way!' but a couple did make me think they'd be great.

I got loads of tips on writing sitcom. Some I'd heard before, some new. I also came away with a much better idea about audience figures and how those work. There was so much advice, I can't pass it all on here, but the main thing was the great chance to make new contacts. You should have gone...

The BSCW Networking Day is announced as 22nd March 2003, at the Comedy Pub in London. More information and booking details will appear on the site very soon. Do put the date in your diary, as it promises to be a great day. Just £25 to members and subscribers, £35 to anyone you'd like to bring.

Janice Day (also occasionally known, and very entertaining, as Mrs Pinkerton-Lovely) reports "I haven't been sending in my successes lately so here are three at once... just like buses... I've sold a story to Bella Magazine (my first story submission!), I've signed up to literary agent Isobel Dixon from the Blake Friedmann TV Film and Literary Agency, and had another article accepted by ScriptWriter Magazine, called Who Trains the Trainers, which will appear in the November issue. For subscriptions to ScriptWriter, contact jonquil@scriptwritermagazine.com.

One afternoon not long ago, I spotted Dan Wicksman's name as writer at the start of BBC 1's 'Doctors.' I e-mailed him to check, and apparently I was lucky enough to catch Dan's first episode for them. Well done on getting onto the show, Dan. The E-zine included an article on writing for 'Doctors' "A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS" back in April, issue #037. It is available on the website for anyone who's interested in following Dan's lead.

LATEST NEWS: Members, at last check, only 23 of you have your CVs online. Some of those (mine included, I confess) are a little out of date still. Thanks to Paul's recent hard work, you can edit your online CV any time you like. You can then give it out to producers, and make sure everyone can see what you're working on. This makes you a priority whenever there are projects that are looking for small numbers of people, as we know what you've done and can do.

AS EVER, I'd really enjoy seeing your articles, review, news and successes in the next E-zine. Just in case you've missed where to send them, it's gill@bscw.co.uk. In case some of you, like me, work better to a deadline, then I'd like everything in by 24th DECEMBER, please, for the first issue of 2003.