Children’s Media Conference 2020 Report: Still Here, Right Now

27 July 2020 // Reviews (Event)

Back at the start of April, when Covid-19 was at its peak on the UK, the Children’s Media Conference announced their plans to move the whole event online for 2020; temporarily becoming ‘The Children’s Media Community’ with the revised theme of ‘Still Here, Right Now’. Taking place over five days this year, and with content available until the end of September, we look at some of the key takeaway points from CMC 2020, and how it fared as an online-only event.

The Online Platform and Schedule

As events have gone totally online this year, some have kept their platforms nice and simple, while others have gone into overkill with features, links and many pages to click through. CMC have struck a nice balance, with a well laid interface and the usual bold and colourful branding you come to expect from them.

CMC’s online portal this year: Video on Demand section

Aside from the list of speakers, delegates, sponsors and FAQ pages, you really only needed to switch between two sections during the conference: Live Stream (there we 3 events per day; morning, afternoon and evening), and Video on Demand (a wide selection of pre-recorded content that you could dip into at your leisure).

The Live Stream sessions covered the usual ‘exclusive’ events such as keynotes, Put Your Money Where Your Month Is, and Commissioner Conversations. These were capped with a useful feature called Back Chat, where the speakers would stay behind for 30 minutes and take questions from the audience via a chat window.

Additionally, the virtual delegate bag was a very nice touch, and something I’ve not seen other events do yet. It included free digital editions of Kidscreen and Licencing Magazine, plus a couple of discount code from other media partners.

Selected Sessions & Take-away Points

The talks and sessions on offer were just as varied and abundant as ever – Changemakers, Research, Focus On, Inclusivity Now – all took place with their roster of high calibre speakers, although with more international guests being able to call in this year. Below you will find some of my top sessions and useful takeaway tips.

Animation Assemble!

Specifically aimed at animated related children’s media, this panel looked at how Covid-19 has changed the industry’s working practices, opportunities, and funding. You can view our full report here: CMC Report: How Has Covid-19 Changed Animation in Children’s Media?

Golden Rules for Creating Great Kids’ Cartoons

The classic question of “What makes a great animation?” (in the children’s industry, at least) was the subject of this panel, including speakers Debbie Bray & Nick Fisher (Hook Research), Sophie Deen (Bright Little Labs), Rebecca Hobbs (Writer), and Andrew Kavanagh (Kavaleer). We have condensed their rules down to the following key points:

Create or write for yourself, and your own interests. It is important to create/write what you are passionate about
Beware of the ‘general grey’ – this is where you take on too much of everyone else’s feedback and it waters down your show. This can lead to a series that offends no one but pleases no one either. Don’t ‘sand off all the edges’ – keep the core of your show despite everyone wanting to add their input
Make your characters diverse on screen, and those who create them off screen
Constantly question yourself and if your show is relevant to children. This goes hand in hand with the idea that you should reconnect with your inner child
Accept that you won’t know everything at the start of your show’s development
Go beyond ‘good enough’ to get noticed and stand out

Going Viral

Happy Yolk/Egg Gang – the team behind the Instagram campaign that saw an image of an egg get 54 million likes – gave an insightful session about how they achieved this feat, beating Kylie Jenner’s then record of 18 million. The egg has since used its global reach for social good (promoting mental health struggles) and is currently being developed as a long form series, funded by the BFI Young Audience Content Fund. Alissa Khan-Whelan offered these tips on how to go viral:

Don’t be complicated – you have 3-5 secs to create a hook (humour, sentimental, wholesome, etc.)
Go to the most popular places your audience will be
Don’t ‘post and ghost’… be social
Find ways to get people to get involved or interact. ‘Gamify’ your idea
Become a true part of the community you’re trying to be in

Write On – top advice for writers

This virtual room of writers (and those who hire writers) looked at what it takes to write for animation (and children’s media). Adam Redfern kicked off the discussion with his helpful tips (Did you know that an 11-minute episode should be a max. of 14 pages / approx. 105 lines of dialogue?), followed by Lena Byrne, Jasmine Richards, David Varela, Tom Jordan. We’ve condensed some of their wisdom below:

Never send a script late or long. If in doubth, cut it out
Never take notes personally – be ready to change your script to make it better
Bring your own life experiences to the stories; let your unique experiences shone
Know thr broadcaster or SVOD; basically, know your audience
Pay it forwards. Be generous with your time and advice for new writers. It’s just the nice thing to do!

Host, Sharna Jackson, speaking to Children’s Writer and Storymix Founder Jasmine Richards about her top tips for writers

The speakers signed off by recognising that there is an opportunity for BBC Bitesize and educational content for writers at the moment, following the home schooling situation that pupils have found themselves in.

Other Sessions

One of my favourite segments was The Creator’s Inner Child – a series of digestible 10-minute clips looking at how various creators remembered their childhood memories, TV shows, and inspiration growing up. Speakers ranged from Keith Chapman (Paw Patrol, Bob the Builder) to Laura Henry-Allain (JoJo and Gran Gran). This was an idea format for online and one I would love to see return in future editions.

CMC never fail to get some of the most inspirational speakers for their Creative Keynotes. This year, Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell, was no exception; even with the challenge of doing so over Zoom. In this case, it actually benefited her being at her home studio, where she could lean off camera to pull up some sketches to illustrate her point. Using the example of her 12-part series ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, in which Dreamworks approached her first, Cressida advised aspiring authors against writing a book as if it could one day become a screenplay.

Finally, for anyone interested in getting involved with Interactive Content for Children, there were recommendations for newbies to get started with open source software such as Twine or Eko, with Matt Brandon giving the simple piece of advice: “Roll your sleeves up, jump in and have a play with it. It’s really fun.”

LGBTQ+ Now panel (clockwise): Natalie Walmsley, David Levine, Olly Pike, Leah Kirby, Eryk Casemiro, Dr Elly Barnes

Social Events

The one remaining barrier to successfully taking an event online – and one in which every festival or conference is trying to get their head around still – is how to achieve that level of social interaction/networking/community that can only be found at real, physical events.

The CMC addressed this with two live Zoom events: the CMC Quiz, where individuals pitted themselves against each other for some top retro prizes (Gameboy or VHS player anyone?!); and the CMC Karaoke Show, hosted by karaoke legend Jamie Badminton (Karrot).

I enjoy a good animation quiz, and this was a lot of fun, despite my dismal score! This is definitely something I’d like to see at future CMC’s; either online or as a physical quiz. At the same time, while the Karaoke Show was brilliantly hosted by Jamie, not to mention all the brave performers who sung their heart out, I remain on the fence as to whether karaoke can be replicated as a Zoom only event. It’s just not the same when you can’t drunkenly join in and share your terrible singing with everyone!

Summary

Like every event that’s been taken online this year, there are aspects that work really well, and some that are better suited to the real, physical world. Some of the things I would like to see continue online in the future would be the virtual delegate bag, The Creator’s Inner Child, or similar ‘snippet’ content like this. Well done to the CMC team and contributors who made this online edition a smooth, informative and enjoyable experience; I hope that we all get to meet in person in 2021!