There are so many different definitions of success and “bigness.”
Although some festivals admit they would love to grow "smaller" the general issue on development is how can a festival become bigger, better or even louder.
What makes a festival director really happy, eventually what makes sponsors happy, and fulfill filmmakers dreams...

How do festivals define goals and ways to measure the success.
There are film festivals that attract hundreds of thousands of people, and yet are not on the mainstream radar, and festivals which show only a few dozen films that are world famous. This session will address considerations and metrics for success including: number of films, number of acquisitions, celebrities, size of audience, longevity, number of impressions and reach? Most notably, these different metrics have differing relevance to the constituents served by festivals – audiences, filmmakers, sponsors, media, film industry etc. Hear from different festivals on how they approach benchmarking and defining success.

Moderator: Christian Gaines, Director of Festivals, Withoutabox, a division of IMDb
Participants of this exciting panel that took place at IFFS Europe Paris Festival Summit April 8th.
Sandra Hebron, Artistic Director, BFI London Film Festival
Prune Engler, Festival Director, La Rochelle Int'l Film Festival
Andreas Strohl, Festival Director, Munich Film Festival
See more on fest21.com, pictures and videos.