Join us at Serial Killer TV Days in Brno on Thursday, 24 September, at 16:30 for a lecture by Paul Rieth, who leads the Audience Design & Outreach module of Docs Beyond. The session offers a practical introduction to audience design ahead of the programme’s first online workshop on 6 and 7 October. A TV Days accreditation is required to attend.
The 30-minute session, Audience Design: Why Knowing Your Audience Shapes Your Audiovisual Content, begins with two questions: Who is your content really for? And what do you want to happen after people see it? Audience design helps creative teams identify their target audiences early, rather than treating this work as a marketing task left until the film is finished. Rieth will explain how a project’s goals, motivation and intent can shape its story, communication, outreach and distribution. He will also look at the importance of aligning the writer or director, producer and release partners around a shared direction.
Paul Rieth is a consultant, speaker and author working at the intersection of audience design, communication and marketing for film and creative projects. He collaborates with producers, filmmakers and organisations to develop audience-focused strategies from early development through to release. He teaches and mentors at film schools, universities and international training programmes, including Documentary Campus Masterschool and the African-European Distribution Academy. In 2025, he curated the Industry Training Talks at DOK.fest München. He is also the author of DOK & CROWD, a practical handbook on funding, distribution and audience engagement for documentary films. His Berlin-based agency GET YOUR CROWD develops tailor-made strategies and content campaigns that help creative projects connect with and grow their audiences worldwide.
We present the lecture in collaboration with Serial Killer. TV Days is the festival’s industry programme and takes place from 24 to 26 September at Divadlo na Orlí in Brno. All conference sessions are held in English and are open to accredited participants. The full schedule and accreditation details are available on the festival website.
This accompanying event takes place before the Docs Beyond training programme itself begins. Participants in Docs Beyond: Audience, Impact & AI will start working together online on 6 and 7 October. The programme continues until December and combines audience design with impact producing and the responsible use of AI in documentary work.
Docs Beyond is organised by the Institute of Documentary Film. The programme is supported by the Czech Audiovisual Fund and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.