MONTREAL – Toronto will host the first-ever Children, Youth & Media Conference on November 10th.
Organized by the Alliance for Children and Television (ACT), the conference is the only one of its kind to bring together Canada’s creators, producers and broadcasters of youth programming. Modeled after Média-Jeunes, a highly coveted gathering the ACT has held in Montreal on four occasions, this new event is devoted to exchange, training and professional development.
Over 200 attendees, including a number of well-known specialists, will explore programming trends and share their views on the needs and interests of young people through workshops, discussions and speedpitching sessions. They will also have the chance to meet prestigious guests from Canada and abroad.
Below are a few activities on the agenda:
* A panel of English-language broadcasters: Representatives from BBC Kids, CBC, The Family Channel, Teletoon, TVO and YTV/Treehouse/Discovery Kids will give a rundown of their goals and expectations for the coming seasons.
* Up Close & Personal: Speed-pitching sessions that give producers the opportunity to pitch their projects to broadcasters.
* “Getting the Drift” panel: Collideascope Digital Productions president Steve Comeau will lead this round-table discussion. Children are watching less and less TV in favour of more and more time spent surfing the web and playing video games. What’s behind this trend? What’s attracting these youngsters? What are the impacts on our industry?
* Meet marblemedia: The winners of the 2005 Emerging Talent Award, Matt Hornburg and Mark Bishop, will share the 10 secrets of their success.
* Degrassi: Two sessions with the winners of the Shaw Rocket Prize. Degrassi: The Next Generation team will talk about the factors behind the show’s success and longevity.
* “Flash & Dash” panel: 2D animation software like Flash is changing the face of animation productions in terms of both costs and aesthetics. What will the effects be of this veritable revolution?
* U.S. Perspective on Preschool Programming: This panel looks at preschool-programming trends and challenges in the United States. It features Miki Baumgarten Ph.D., Alice Cahn (Cartoon Network) and Carol Greenwald (WGBH). What’s New With Teens: Michael Wood, vice-president of Teenage Research Unlimited, a firm examining the behaviour and interests of teens, will present the findings of the TRU fall 2005 annual study.
The Alliance for Children and Television is a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to promote youth television production of the highest calibre. In addition to granting Awards of Excellence, the ACT has for over three decades been offering its members professional development activities such as seminars, conferences, workshops and screenings, helping producers and other creators keep up with today’s ever-changing youth culture.
The Children, Youth & Media Conference is being produced with financial assistance from its partners – the Shaw Rocket Fund, the Independent Production Fund, Telefilm Canada, NBC Universal, Corus Entertainment , Mercury Filmworks, Decode Entertainment, Zone3 and The Family Channel.
To register for the conference or view the agenda, please visit www.act-aet.tv.
