Guest speakers jump at chance to attend media festival

Spark guest speakers are jumping at the opportunity to attend the 15^th annual media festival, even if it means flying halfway across the world.

The 15^th Spark International Festival of Media, Arts and design runs from August 12-16 on the Wintec city campus with many of the workshops already fully subscribed.

Spanish photographer Cristina de Middel is cutting into time spent on a project in China to make an appearance at this year's Spark, says festival director Kat Cox.

"A lot of the speakers say yes just to come to New Zealand," Cox says, but the offer of free accommodation at Javier's Eco Bach in Raglan might just be the icing on the cake.

"We look after our guests; we make sure they leave feeling good about their time here."

It's not always smooth-sailing luring in speakers though, Cox says. Award-winning broadcaster Julian Wilcox was one of the hardest guests to reach due to his busy schedule.

"We've really tried to put most of our resourcing into making sure we can get the big names we wanted to get this year."

The festival has hosted hundreds of of artists, designers, musicians, and media personalities from around the globe. Spark organisers are celebrating the festival's  15^th anniversary this year by focusing on guests such as popular Australian documentary director John Safran, Go Girls actress JJ Fong, and New Idea editor Michelle Coursey.

Spark: http://spark.net.nz/

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1SEfx4XYpk&feature=youtu.be