Children’s Media Conference: Day Three
I woke up this morning feeling bright eyed, bushy tailed and really rather smug as I looked at my bleary eyed partner. I left to interview Swampy Marsh with a spring in my step (which admittedly was mostly gone by the time I’d walked twice round Sheffield trying to find the darned place).
The interview with Swampy went pretty well. He’s a very easy speaker with a lot of stories to tell. A transcription of the article will be up shortly, and the audio version will be in the podcast, so frankly if you miss it, it’s entirely your own fault.
To whet your appetite though, here’s Swampy ruminating on the life of an animator:
After I had recovered from the awesomeness of being drawn a Perry the Platypus of my very own, I had to run to a Speed Meeting.
The speed meetings are very short, 5 minute slots with various Commissioners that are set up on a first come, first served basis. If you haven’t managed to meet the people you need to see during the Conference, these give you the opportunity to at least say hi and give a very broad overview of the project you want to talk about.
They are absurdly nerve wracking.
You sit downstairs and wait for your number to be called. Dentist style. Then you are summoned upstairs to sit in a different chair and wait until your person is free. You approach, minutely aware of every second that passes and launch into your pitch before your bum hits the seat. They stare at you, open mouthed and struggling to take in your high pitched, lightning fast words and rapidly flicked through images. The whistle blows, and they smile at you, and (hopefully) give you a business card to arrange a proper meeting in a few weeks.
After this, I felt the need for a good stiff lemonade, and made my way down to the bar. I’d met a lot of people over the last 2 days, and wanted to have a final chance to chat with them before they drifted off.
The final panel I went to see was ‘Top 10 Trends in Children’s Apps.’ Even though I’m not an app maker, and have no plans to become one, it’s clear that children are devouring content in every available format, and that a multi-platform approach has to be devised before a show is launched. I learnt some staggering facts in this seminar, some of which I found really quite scary: did you know that in several apps from big name companies (like Disney and Dreamworks), have games marketed at kids with digital items costing £79.99? And that in some cases the option to buy those absurdly priced items come up a short enough time after the parent has put in their password to download the game, that you can buy them without putting the password in again? And sometimes there isn’t even a £ sign before the number so kids aren’t aware they’re spending real money?
No wonder there are trust issues between parents and app companies. It’s clear to see that people resent paying for digital items, and it’s also clear to see that app makers need to earn some money for what they provide. This very interesting panel explored some possible solutions, and spoke positively about the future, where the speaker (Stuart Dredge) believed that apps that play fair and find ways to earn money without breaking the trust of the gatekeepers, would flourish in the long run.
The Friday of CMC seemed like a strange day last year. The big party the night before resulted in a lot of tired eyes and tired brains, and the lack of an ending ‘event’ means that people tend to drift off home throughout the day. This year, however, anyone who didn’t make it to the end missed out on a big treat: Catherine Bennett, the pop star dreamt up by a 9 year old girl!
In a world where children, and particularly girls, are constantly subjected to the overt sexualisation and dubious moral compasses of the singers they’re taught to look up to, Taylor Houchen (who is 9) has transformed her Aunt (performance artist Bryony Kimmings) in to a new sort of pop star.
She is bright. She works in a museum and wears a dinosaur necklace. She loves tuna pasta. She rides a bike. She covers up. She sings about polar bears and friendship and the need to get involved in social issues that matter to you. She is so refreshing I nearly cried.
The idea is to listen to children, and to create the sort of Pop Idol that they want to see; one who is positive, imaginative, credible and likeable. This was a wonderful note to end the conference on. Not only because Taylor and Bryony (AKA Catherine Bennett) got on stage and got the whole audience attempting to follow their dance moves, but also because it perfectly captured what had become a theme of the conference: children know what children want. Don’t try and guess, just ask them.