Storytelling360 was founded by Zack Gutin (of ThinkAlike Media and a former Final Draft VP) in 2025 as an organisation that holds high-profile conferences and events in (so far) Los Angeles, New York and London.
I attended the London event in the summer just past. It was held at the BFI on the South Bank on Sunday 12 July 2026 with a UK-heavy lineup that included Richard Gadd, Gurinder Chadha, Philip Barantini, Joe Barton, Matt Charman, and Neil Marshall. A number of names who hadn’t been pre-advertised also made excellent panel contributions.
Storytelling360 sells tickets for both live and online attendance at these events. The ticket price includes 3-months online access to the recorded stage talks. After I had attended the London event I was offered very advantageous terms for a full year’s access to all past and future talks.
This was an excellent deal. Not only can I now replay all the sessions from the BFI day I attended in person, I’ve also been able to catch up on two recent StorySocial events, one with the Broken Lizard team, held in NY, and the other with Ben Kronengold & Rebecca Shaw, creators of the Friends-style comedy show Adults.
What’s more, I can now look forward to having online access to the upcoming State of the Story conference to be held in New York at the Directors Guild Theater, 10am–5pm this Sunday, October 4 2026.
I’ve been very very careful how I’ve spent my money while branching out this late in my writing career. I have Scottish blood so financial prudence comes naturally. It soon became abundantly clear to me that it would be easy to blow literally thousands of dollars/pounds on courses, webinars, pitch sessions, script notes etc. in the space of a few months. I’ve seen evidence of people doing just that and apparently getting no further along with their careers.
I’m not a great in-person schmoozer and networker so I’ve been prioritising getting connected on online forums such as Stage32 (see previous review) and LinkedIn. I consider what I spent on my Storytelling360 London ticket plus the small upgrade fee for full online access to have been excellent value for money.
The calibre of the people Zack manages to book for the conference days and the social event sessions is top class. A recent session with Michael H. Weber was riveting and it prompted me to post the following: “Gosh, that was so good. He was on a roll and I loved the way he kept going with the Q&A while the set was being taken down behind him. So much in it, I’m sure I’ll be giving it a rewatch some time.”
There are currently very few such contributions on Zack’s site, but it’s a young platform and the comments sit behind the login so perhaps it’s not surprising. I reckon it will change as more people attend, upgrade their membership and the library of material expands.
Zack kicked off the London event by stating that his goal is to give people the chance of hearing from people who are on the frontlines of the craft that they’re pursuing, and that’s what the London event delivered. The panels (two in the morning, two in the afternoon) featured agents, producers and screenwriters. All of them spoke about their first steps into the industry before launching into a general discussion steered by skilful moderators. The day ended with a keynote appearance from Sir Stephen Frears, now aged 85, and prone to giving the sort of brief, no-nonsense answers men in their ninth decade of life feel liberated to give. It wasn’t an easy gig for film critic Jason Solomons who was doing the questioning, but he handled the occasion brilliantly.
At the stage I’m at — an experienced writer but new to the workings of the film/tv world — I found the two morning sessions most helpful. If the event ever comes back to London (hopefully next year) I’ll attend again. Perhaps next time, (and this is a bit of boring housekeeping feedback for Zack) a welcome cup of coffee could be arranged. The South Bank was pretty dead at 9am on a Sunday (the advertised check-in time) and as the BFI’s own cafe didn’t open till 10, we all ended up queueing at the river facing bar where a single person was having to serve dozens of orders. A good networking opportunity you could say, but some of us need that first coffee of the day to get going.
Bottom line: I’ll attend in person again if there’s another event in London and I’d advise other screenwriters cautious about their spending to strongly consider becoming members.