HIGH PROFILE SPEAKERS JOIN LINE UP FOR THE CHILDREN’S MEDIA CONFERENCE 2016
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Lord Waheed Alli, Alice Webb and Professor Steve Barnett discuss the implications of the White Paper
The Children’s Media Conference (CMC) is thrilled to announce an eclectic, high-profile line up of speakers, highlighting the wide range of expertise, opinion and experience which will feature at this year’s event, running from 5-7 July in Sheffield.
In the opening session of the conference (Wed 6 July 9.30), veteran media analyst Professor Steve Barnett (Westminster University) will host a Question Time with major figures from the children’s media world focussing on the theme of ‘Making it Happen for UK Kids’. Lord Waheed Alli, Director of BBC Children’s Alice Webb, and others will all face questions about the White Paper on the BBC, the new pilot contestable fund, production quotas, diversity on and behind the screen and internet security in the new kids’ app VOD landscape.
Additional speaker highlights include: Mike Batt from Dramatico Entertainment (creator of ‘The Wombles’); Carrie Grant (‘Fame Academy’, ‘The One Show’, ‘Pop Idol’, ‘Carrie and David’s Pop Shop’), Ford Riley from The Walt Disney Company (Executive Producer of the new Lion King follow-up series ‘The Lion Guard’), Pat Younge CEO of Sugar Films and Stewart Purves, ex-CEO of ITN and Professor of Journalism at City University.
Three workshops will also run simultaneously on Tuesday 5 July from 1pm until 5pm. Following the success of last year’s workshop, Bible Class 2 will feature a new panel of esteemed experts who will share their insight into how to produce and present a slick pitch. Make Something Happen, will use the Open Space method to allow attendees to explore how to make a difference in diversity, and Making it Happen with YouTube will see YouTube present a ‘deeper dive’ into their analytics and the kids’ app.
The changing landscape of children’s media will be examined in a number of insightful Commissioner Conversations on VOD and OTT with Lucy Murphy from Sky, Miki Chojnacka from Hopster and Estelle Lloyd from Azoomee.
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is (Wed 6 July 2pm) will see producers pitch new projects to win real cash development support from ‘dragons’ Cheryl Taylor from CBBC, Eryk Casemiro from Zodiak Kids, Serious Lunch’s Genevieve Dexter and Mattel’s Christopher Keenan.
Reflecting the expanding international nature of CMC and the ever-increasing options for co-productions, there will be several global focus sessions: Focus on China (Wed 6 July 11am); Focus on India (Wed 6 July 2pm); Focus on Europe (Wed 6 July 3.30pm) and Focus on Canada (Wed 6 July 5pm) with Deirdre Brennan, newly appointed Vice President of Content at Corus Kids, Canada.
Following last year’s hugely successful inaugural ‘Changemakers’ strand, delegates will again also hear from contributors, many of them under 25, who are creating waves in traditional media models, in education, and in the minds of today’s young audience. Changemakers already committed to CMC 2016 include Leo Waddell, the transgender protagonist of multi-award winning CBBC documentary I am Leo, and Tourettes Hero Jess Thom whose comedy demands uncompromising acceptance of her own “difference”.
Greg Childs, Editorial Director of Children’s Media Conference said: “It’s a fascinating time to be in the business of creating media for kids. With new players springing up to compete for the audience’s attention, and their parents’ pockets, and with the government finally producing the long-awaited White Paper on the future of the BBC, including new ideas about a contestable fund for kids’ content, there’s a sense that the industry is “on the move”. We wanted to “Make it Happen” by providing a conference which truly covers the issues in this uncertain but opportunity-laden landscape and offers the tools to handle change, the information and networking needed to build new partnerships, and the best possible chances for creative ideas to find their way to the kids’ audience.”
Making it Happen is the theme of this year’s CMC and that will be the theme running through the conference’s sessions. This year highlights the industry’s emphasis on diversity, representation and inclusion – in all its multiple aspects. Making new initiatives happen around how kids’ media builds a more diverse workforce, how it ensures gender representation is balanced, how it includes people with different abilities in teams and on screen, are prime objectives for CMC 2016. It’s just one of the topics running right through the event that matter to the audience, and to the makers and distributors of content who are our delegates.
This year CMC 2016 will itself make changes which should offer greater engagement for the 1100+ delegates attending. A new midweek format will start on Tuesday and wrap up on Thursday, allowing delegates to take full advantage of all three days during the working week.
The event will kick off with the annual CMC International Exchange on Tuesday 5 July, which aims to 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.
Tuesday evening sees the CMC Opening Keynote, followed by two full days of conference sessions with multiple tracks exploring every aspect of children’s media content creation and delivery, including sessions dedicated to the latest creative trends, business issues, strategic understanding, policy debates and research and commissioning news – and all of that across the many different sectors of the kids’ media industry including audio, film, TV, digital media, games, licensing, publishing, the arts and culture sector and the ed-tech community.
The conference ends with the Closing Keynote “The Last Word” on Thursday 7 July at 3.30pm.
Inspiring, informative, innovative, inclusive and above all the most friendly and welcoming event of its kind – the CMC is back in summer 2016 to challenge its 1100+ delegates and 200+ contributors to make something special happen in those three days in Sheffield.
For more information, visit: www.thechildrensmediaconference.com.