Leighton-Pope Out Of ILMC

ILMC stalwart Carl Leighton-Pope won’t be doing his Talking Shop at this year’s conference, apparently as a result of a falling out over the direction the annual British gathering is taking.

Although the government has just reminded him he’s reached retirement age, Leighton-Pope – who says he’s just had his most profitable two years as an agent – says he’s urged the conference to do more to attract a younger clientele.

ILMC founder Martin Hopewell sent the following to Pollstar regarding Leighton-Pope’s departure:

“Carl has been a fantastic supporter of the ILMC since day one. As far as I’m concerned the man is a legend, and everyone connected with ILMC owes him a big debt of gratitude for the work he has put into the event over the years.

“Even the best things in life don’t last forever, though, and – with a new generation of live industry professionals taking up the reins of the business – both he and the rest of the conference team felt it was time to try something different.

“We’re still finalising all of our plans for the schedule this year, but we’ll be announcing details of the ‘new look’ opening of the conference within the next few weeks. It’s something that we’ve been thinking about for some time and we’re quite excited about it. Hopefully everybody else will be too.

“One thing’s for sure, though – Carl will be there and I have no doubt he’ll be making his presence known. As they say, you can’t keep a good man down!”

In addition to not doing Talking Shop, Leighton-Pope will also no longer host the Arthur Awards at the annual ILMC dinner March 12.

Leighton-Pope said he’s not completely happy with stepping down but accepts the conference needs to progress in its own way.

For more than 20 years, Leighton-Pope’s often hilarious spoutings have produced some of the conference’s liveliest gatherings, although his usually tongue-in-cheek comments regarding some mainland European states have been known to offend a few people in the room.

His supporters would say his detractors have made the mistake of taking him too seriously.

ILMC 2011 is March 11-13.