High Profile Speakers Join Children’s Media Conference Line Up
Helen Goodman, MP, Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport and Michael Acton Smith, CEO at Mind Candy have joined a high-profile line up of speakers for The Children Media Conference (CMC), which takes place from 2-4 July 2014 in Sheffield.
Goodman, who is leader for the Opposition on media and broadcast, the Leveson inquiry, the BBC and the licence fee as well as the creative industries, will be taking part in the session looking at Charter Renewal. The panel will assess the appetite at the BBC to commit to the children’s audience and guarantee increased budgets for their content and services. Joining Helen in this landmark session will be moderator Steve Hewlett, writer, broadcaster and media consultant as well as further panellists Jeanette Steemers, Professor of Media and Communications (CAMRI) at the University of Westminster and Oli Hyatt, MBE, Creative Director, Blue Zoo Animation, a key player in the successful UK animation tax break campaign.
Also scheduled for Friday’s insight-packed day is Michael Acton Smith’s closing keynote, which sees the founder and creative director of Mind Candy unveil the launch of a brand new project following the success of Moshi Monsters and new gaming franchise World of Warriors. He will exclusively unveil a revolutionary new creative community for 7-12 year olds that will become a platform for content creators (books, games, cartoons, music) to connect with fans.
This year’s CMC promises to offer an unrivalled collective opportunity to explore the insights, expertise, and insider knowledge of the UK kids’ content business from a range of industry trailblazers.
Brand new for this year is the Learning@Heart strand which will focus on the synergies between education, technology, and content creation. Lewis Bronze MBE, co-founder of Espresso Education, heads up a number of speakers who promote the cross-pollination of entertainment and education. This vital theme will also be explored by the Keynote speaker Jonny Mitchell, Headteacher of Thornhill Community Academy which featured in Channel 4’s acclaimed documentary Educating Yorkshire.
With financing front of mind for many in the industry, Angels and Urchins will look at sourcing private money and children’s media and hear from leading early-stage investors on what they’re looking for, where they’ve seen success and what to avoid.
Give Kids a Break! will ask why tax credits that already exist for British animation, high-end TV drama and film are not available children’s live action television. In this session a panel of experts including kids’ TV producers Billy Macqueen and Val Ames along with Pact Chief Executive John McVay will outline the financial and cultural arguments.
Further sessions will tackle issues such as how the children’s media and content industries will evolve during the next 5-10 years. Can television retain its central role – or will it give way to tablets and mobiles, games and multimedia apps? Which funding models will prosper and which will decline? In a first time experiment, children will be invited on to a panel to explore whether kids could sit with commissioners to help decide future content for their peers.
Looking ahead to the growing influence of social media on the lives of children, their interactions with each other and the wider world, Out of the Mouths of Babes: Free Expression, Children and 21st-century Media examines how content makers can help kids and teens navigate digital perils as well as pleasures. The panel for this session includes Simon Milner, Policy Director of Facebook for the UK and Ireland, who is also a board member of both the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, of the Family Online Safety Institute.
Tackling viewing trends, Whatever Happened to the Heroes? moderated by Kidcreen’s Jeremy Dickson brings together a high-profile international panel featuring: Hasbro’s Finn Arnesen; Nerd Corps Ken Faier; Research Consultant Nicky Goldstone; Disney’s David Levine; and Patricia Hidalgo from Turner Broadcasting EMEA to debate whether today’s 6-9 boy’s audience no longer interested in animated action adventure TV shows. Are superheroes being exchanged for new comic-heroes that make kids laugh, and where are girls in all of this?
Currently in its 11th year, the CMC is the premier event in the UK for supporting children’s media and hosts a global delegation of creatives, producers and distributors of kids’ content across all media. This year’s CMC has a general theme of Child@Heart and features an International Exchange, which will bring together IP owners, producers, writers, interactive media specialists and service providers from the UK with broadcasters, distributors and funding agencies, and producers seeking co-production potential from around the world.
Greg Childs, Editorial Director of Children’s Media Conference said: “CMC is the place to learn the things you didn’t know you needed to learn and the place to meet the people you didn’t know you needed to meet. With workshops, commissioning sessions that include one-to-one meeting opportunities, research insight panels, three diverse keynote speakers, and a packed schedule tackling the strategic landscape, creative insights, business issues and major policy-focused discussions, this CMC is more comprehensive than ever at tackling all the big issues at the heart of the UK and global kids’ content businesses.”
For more information visit: www.thechildrensmediaconference.com.
Source: CMC
Jake is a Researcher and Interactive developer at Wonky Films and the face behind all of Show Me The Animation’s online platforms and website. So if it breaks he’s probably to blame! Aside from running the SMTA online, Jake make’s interactive things for Wonky Films.
