Twenty-seven media companies participated. Seven new projects were up for grabs. For Singapore, it proved to be a defining moment as the city-state brought home the most prized project of all - to produce five telemovies with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) for international audiences.
Which, essentially, translates to five lucrative projects for local production houses, and, importantly, a chance for Singapore to showcase its creative expertise to international audiences.
And, SMG, it appears, isn't the only company eyeing Singapore. Regional and international TV and cable buyers are increasingly turning to the city-state, which is seeking to position itself as the region's media hub, for telemovies, animation series and feature films - making it viable for the local production houses to prosper beyond their home market.
"The potential for homegrown Singapore-made productions is great," says Nickelodeon Asia-Pacific regional programme and acquisition director, Syharizan Mansor. "From our experience with Peach Blossom (for the production of children's animation series Tao Shu, the Warrior Boy), we have found their creativity, skill and technical expertise have been integral in developing a product that fits into Nickelodeon's kids-first philosophy."
According to MDA's director of industry development, Seto Lok Yin, the biggest opportunities for made-in-Singapore content lie in documentaries, drama and animation. He says the goal of the MDA, launched last year, is to encourage local companies to participate in international events such as the Banff TVFestival and MIPCOM.
"Given the scale of MIPCOM, the level of competition for these genres and markets is high, and Singapore competes on a global playing field. There was, however, a great deal of interest (at MIPCOM) for acquisitions as well as co-productions, which came largely from the European and North American markets."
Indeed, Singapore already has lucrative agreements in place with markets like Canada, New Zealand and Japan. The Canadian deal, for instance, has led to four co-productions two of which are documentaries - Quiet Mind and Samurai: Behind the Blade.
MTV Networks Asia, meanwhile, worked with MDA to produce Asia's first regional TV drama series Rouge. The MDA has also funded other productions with international broadcasters, including Discovery Networks for the documentary Director's Chair, Germany's ZDF and Alliance Atlantis.
"On the content front, we should look towards content from Asia," says media company Mega Media's managing director, Jonathan Foo. "Asian culture is seen by the West as exotic and unusual. Documentary projects about the unusual people and places have good potential in the world market.
"For fictional and dramatic content, the horror genre has a very universal theme and is almost always lucrative. The romance genre is also popular as demonstrated by the Japanese and Korean industries."
However, Singapore companies will first need to strengthen the marketing and branding of local productions if they are to win wider appeal. More thought will also have to be put into licensing and merchandising, according to industry experts.
"One of the challenges that local production companies face is that in the bigger, global market, local production houses have to compete with distribution and animation studios that have been around for a much longer time, have bigger budgets for research on properties, licensing and marketing," says Nickelodeon's Syharizan.
For now, Mega Media, whose turning point came when it financed its own feature film The Teenage Textbook Movie in 1998, the focus is on its 'Media Incubator Project' for the next two years.
Explains Foo: "We are committed to producing eight to 12 feature films in the next 24 months. We will be launching this project with the signing of an MOU with Vietnamese film company, Vietnam Studio, for four feature co-productions. Several other agreements are currently in negotiations."