Supported and endorsed by the Government of Telangana, Reed Exhibitions’ inaugural ATF Kids’ Summit 2018, had an amazing response on the 31 of August. Presented by Disney India, and in partnership with local industry veteran, and the ATF representative for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Anil Wanvari, the one-day show attracted the who’s who of the Indian content industry.
The crowd soon dispersed from the registration desk and thronged the hall as the event kicked off with the lighting of the lamp and an opening keynote. With the seats filling in a jiffy, the sessions were next in line. The opening panel talked about ‘The emergence of animation hotspots’ with Anil Wanvari moderating the panel with Govt. Of Telangana principal secretary Industries and Commerce department, IT department Jayesh Ranjan and FICCI Animation and Gaming Forum chairman Ashish Kulkarni.
Following up with a solo keynote was Turner International Asia Pacific SVP and CCO (kids) Mark Eyers. The veteran talked about the indigenously created Lamput and how the IP was garnering praise worldwide. Eyers further stressed on the point of technology assisting us in telling more immersive stories through the likes of augmented reality in the foreseeable future.
The segments following this up had presentations from TVAGA president Rajiv Chilaka, talking about the state’s prowess in the sectors of AVGC, also touching upon the proposed incubation centre for the industry, while BARC India COO Romil Ramgarhia focused on the numerical side of content, by providing reliable data on the content consumption patterns of Indian kids, on television.
TV Asahi Corporation, head of animation international business department Takahiro Kishimoto opened up about his business affairs with India. Kishimoto explained how initially his idea of India being a strong content hub came into existence after initial disbelief. He said that their beloved shows Shichan and Doraemon have the second highest revenues earned in India, Japan being the primary and that he would further like to explore co-development opportunities in the country.
The session titled ‘The Animation Sweetspot’ saw some of the well known names of the Indian kids’ content industry come together in one panel. Nickelodeon’s Anu Sikka explained how demand has now leaped ahead of content in the subcontinent and how the industry is aggressively looking out for more talent. Budget constraints in the Indian kids’ content creation (animation) seemed to be the major issue discussed. While the creators want to make content of international standards, monetary aspects still seem to be dwindling in terms of funding and the panel hoped that in the coming years, the problem might be at least solved, a little. Albeit budget is one of the major concerns that the panel discussed, they also stressed upon understanding the sensibility of the audience and bring forth a balance to make content more acceptable.
Viacom18 (Nickelodeon) head – kids entertainment cluster Nina Elavia Jaipuria, in her keynote addressed the attendees with a few pointers on how to keep the kid’s entertainment ecosystem hearty and hale. Nurturing talent, continuing to understand the consumer, having a risk appetite, embracing new technologies were some of the points she highlighted. She ended her session with a hearty note on calling forth content creators to collaborate and create things which entertain and engage kids throughout the globe.
Further discussions during the event focused on the emergence on the OTT platforms and how piracy in the sector is still a problem, even in a freemium market like ours. The library and the pipeline were things which were discussed as well.
In a rather interesting session focusing on the scope of exports, co-productions and outsourcing, the panellists explored the opportunities India provided as a co-production content creation destination. Delving deep into the topic, the experts discussed how regional content is hard to push out at a global scale. Through the nitty-gritties of the legal implications, topics like arbitration clause, theatrical rights, derivative rights, exploitation rights, syndication rights, territory, termination and consequences of termination and much more made their way into the discussion and questions were answered by the veterans.
While the sessions went on in full swing with a packed set of audience at the constant, the networking sessions were at absolute par. Apart from the coffee-networking, the instant networking sessions through speed dating proved fruitful to a lot of attendees. Speaking to AnimationXpress, a few attendees expressed their gratitude to the event and stated how an event like this had managed to bring a major chunk of decision makers from all walks of the kids’ content industry of the country.
The swan song to the event was titled ‘The Future of Kids Content’ and saw the panel consisting of stalwarts from the current industry. Cosmos Maya founder and MD Ketan Mehta, Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka, Toonz Animation India CEO P Jayakumar, Nickelodeon EVP-programming, creative and research, kids entertainment cluster Anu Sikka joined the panel moderated by Indian Television Dot Com Group and AnimationXpress founder and CEO Anil Wanvari. While discussing the scopes and predictions of the forthcoming future a few points were almost cemented by the panellists. According to them, in the next five years, these are some of the scenarios that we will likely see:
TV will still be as relevant as today.
Data analytics will play a large role and the sections will be dissected.
The way content is created will change
The dependence on manual labour will reduce with the advent of futuristic AI. (Not necessarily in five years)
The usage of VR will see a rise.
The ecosystem will be more integrated.
India will be a leader in terms of content.
Indian show/s will global appeal will make their mark.
With the last panel ending and questions from the audience finally answered, a successful inaugural edition of the Summit called its curtains for this year. However, not before a show-of-hands vote on how many would want this event to be back next year, to which you guessed it, the positivity was a full-house.
After all, who wouldn’t want to meet and greet the industry together, under one roof and without having to travel overseas!