Looking Back At Children’s Media Conference (CMC) 2015
Another July fades away, another CMC has come and gone.
Yet again Sheffield opened it’s arms to the great and the good of Children’s Media, and yet again hoards of animators, commissioners, producers, musicians, authors and illustrators descended (or ascended, depending on their relative geography) upon the City to listen, learn, meet, mingle and be inspired.
CMC delegate pack, with its usual amazing goodie bag!
And as the memories fade, the enthusiasm ebbs, and the bag of freebies gets dispensed amongst family and friends, the real reason we flock to Sheffield once a year becomes apparent: the phone starts ringing.
Because this industry is, perhaps unfortunately, often about who you know. And CMC is where you get to know the people you need to know.
This year the conference took place from 1-3 of July, hosted 1,075 delegates plus 204 speakers, who attended 54 sessions and workshops and held a staggering 1287 meetings at the International Exchange. All impressive statistics, and proof that the Conference is growing year by year, but the jewel in CMC’s crown has never been the individual talks or research seminars: what CMC is able to do to a greater extent than any other event in the UK is to bring everyone within the industry together and to allow conversations to flow.
First timer’s networking event on the first day
Between talks, during lunch breaks, and even whilst performing terrible terrible karaoke, relationships are forming; cards are being exchanged; business is happening.
The focus this year was “All Change” – reflecting how children are consuming media and encouraging content producers to keep up with a rapidly changing environment. This inevitably meant that traditional animation models of just ‘making a TV show that kids love enough to spend their waking lives pestering their parents to buy the merchandise for’ were not dwelt upon to the same extent as previous years, and it was increasingly apparent that this approach will need updating if not completely revolutionising in the coming years.
The hi-light of the festival was the powerful keynote speech given by Jenny Sealey MBE of Graeae Theatre Company. Probably best known for co-producing the Paralympics Opening Ceremony, Jenny’s speech on the Arts, Government support (or lack thereof), the visibility (or lack thereof) of disabled people within the media, casting and discrimination earned her every second of the 5 minute standing ovation that she received. Going deaf at the age of 7 had “pretty much ended [her] love affair with television,” and Jenny embraced the festival’s theme of change to hi-light the need for multi-sensory programming, as well as diversity in casting and a shift in attitudes towards the disabled.
(On a related note: one of Jenny’s many rallying calls was to defend disabled people’s right to independent living, which is under severe threat. Consider signing this petition to over-turn the Government’s decision to close the Independent Living Fund, which provides disabled people with the help they need to have equal access to opportunities as non-disabled people.)
A slide from “Changing Channels: Commissioner Conversation with the BBC”
Amongst the other sessions were “From Tokenism to Truthful“, which dealt with authenticity on screen; “Finance Lab” to explain the complex world of raising funds, and “Commissioner Conversations” where BBC bigwigs share what they’re looking for in the upcoming years.
The festival is well documented throughout, with each session getting a full write up on the CMC blog, and several of them having full videos so you can relive the experience. There is also a new event worth mentioning that was ‘launched’ at the Conference: Manimation will be joining forces with the all new Manchester Animation Festival taking place from the 17th to the 19th November, and will include screenings, competitions, networking opportunities and informative talks. And hopefully, no karaoke.