SPEAKERS

Jo is producer for Animation and Acquisitions – overseeing animation and live action projects for CBBC.

Previously Jo worked as an animation producer and consultant in the independent sector, making commercials, series; including ‘Morph’ and ‘Angry Kid’ and short films including the Academy Award nominated ‘Wat’s Pig’ and the BAFTA, Cartoon D’or and Annecy Special Jury award winning ‘Pearce Sisters’.

Most recently she has produced the animated pre-school series ‘Go Jetters’ for CBeebies.

Tom is head of kids and animation for Tiger Aspect Productions and series producer of the animated Mr Bean.

Tom started his career in advertising as a creative before moving into live action film production. After managing commercial and pop promo productions for various bands and brands from U2 to Pot Noodle, Tom transferred his skills to animation and children’s TV production. Tom joined Tiger Aspect in 2001 and has been involved in all of Tiger Aspect’s children’s programming output, working across every aspect of production from development to delivery and beyond. Credits include: Mr Bean: The Animated Series (104 x11min), Charlie and Lola (80x11min), Tinga Tinga Tales (52x11min) and most recently Aliens Love Underpants (12 x 3min) for Sky.

CBeebies is the BBC’s service dedicated to the under sixes. Kay commissions all content across all platforms – TV, Online, Mobile, Apps and Radio. Under Kay’s leadership, CBeebies has evolved in to a multi-genre, multi-platform offering and remains the UK’s most popular channel for the pre-school audience. This success has been recognised by BAFTA with CBeebies named Childrens Channel of the Year four times since 2011. Over 2 million children watch CBeebies each week, and requests for CBeebies titles on the iPlayer and iPlayer Kids continue to increase.

Recent commissions include Apple Tree House, Pablo, Our Family, Where in the World, Do You Know?, Clangers, Down on the Farm, Go Jetters, CBeebies Stargazing, the CBeebies Prom, Goldilocks Ballet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the three CBeebies Apps – Playtime, Playtime Island and Storytime.

Kay has over 25 years of experience in children’s programming, primarily at the BBC, where she previously she ran CBeebies In House Production and Acquisitions, and also in the independent sector.

Christian is the co-creator/director of ‘The Heroic Quest of The Valiant Prince Ivandoe’, a new Cartoon Network EMEA production. He previously worked as animation supervisor at Nexus Studio and as an animator on various short films, games and tv-shows, including Cartoon Network’s global hit ‘The Amazing World Of Gumball’. Christian is from Copenhagen, Denmark, where is he is currently based. He graduated from The Animation Workshop in 2012, where he also occasionally taught and attended the masterclasses SEA and Animation Sans Frontières.

Vanessa Chapman is a senior media executive and strategist, whose 25-plus years’ experience in the sector has spanned all media platforms.

She is the managing director of VJC Media, a creative and business strategy agency that works with creators, international broadcasters, global media companies, brands, investors and government bodies. In recent years, VJC Media’s clients have included Sesame Workshop, Disney in EMEA, a major international toy company and a leading media grouping based in Asia. Vanessa is also Managing Director of Essential Lifestyle Group, in the factual space.

Prior to running her own businesses, Vanessa was Controller of Children’s, Youth and Family Programmes for the ITV Network. Subsequently, she helped develop key strategies for The LEGO Company’s entry into the global and movie business. While at LEGO, she was promoted to managing director of LEGO’s newly created TV and film company Create TV & Film, where her credits included the multi-award-winning film and toy franchise Bionicle and popular pre-school title Little Robots.

Lauren Child is a multi-award-winning, bestselling writer and artist. She is the creator of many much-loved characters, including Clarice Bean, Ruby Redfort and Charlie and Lola. She is a passionate advocate for visual literacy and the importance of quality picture books for children.

Lauren has been at the forefront of innovation in children’s books for over 15 years and has elevated the profile of illustration as an artform for all ages. She works with mixed media, pioneered text as an integral part of illustration and collaborates with artists across different fields.

Her first two books were published in 1999 – I Want a Pet and Clarice Bean, That’s Me, and she won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal in 2000 for I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, the first of her Charlie and Lola picture books. Lauren published her first Clarice Bean novel in 2002 – Utterly Me, Clarice Bean. The Clarice Bean series has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

In October 2005, the BBC launched a 78-part animated series of Charlie and Lola. The series has won four BAFTAS and is aired in more than 34 countries.

In 2008 Lauren launched UNESCO’s ‘My Life is a Story’ Campaign for UNESCO’s Programme for the Education of Children in Need, and was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2008.

In 2010 she was awarded an MBE for Services to Literature.

She is a founding trustee of the House of Illustration.

In October 2005, the BBC launched a 78-part animated series of Charlie and Lola. The series has won four BAFTAS and been aired in more than 34 countries.

In Autumn 2011, the first book in Lauren’s Ruby Redfort series was published by Harper Collins. Ruby is a smart-talking, code-cracking, girl-spy genius, who together with her side-kick butler solves mysteries and helps rid the world of evil villains. The sixth and final adventure for Ruby was published in 2016 – Ruby Redfort: Blink and You Die.

The latest Charlie and Lola book will be published by Hachette in Autumn 2017 – Charlie and Lola: A Dog with Nice Ears.

Serious Lunch is a London based boutique distribution company building a portfolio of high quality I.P’s including the multi BAFTA winning  ‘Operation Ouch!’ from Maverick now in its 6th season for CBBC,  ‘Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter’  from the Astrid Lindgren Company/Studio Ghibli, just launched on Amazon US/UK,   ‘Art Ninja’ from Dot to Dot for CBBC now in its 4th season and Horrible Science for Hat Trick/CiTV/Amazon. The company is now very actively seeking new titles to roll out in 2018.

The company is headed up by Genevieve Dexter who is also CEO of the London based animation studio Eye Present. The studio is now in production with ‘Xephos & Honeydew’ based on the famous Youtube avatars of ‘Lewis & Simon’.   The company is also developing   ‘Flix’ based on a book by Tomi Ungerer about a young dog who is adopted by progressive cat parents. Flix is a co-production with Cottonwood Media and Federation.

The studio is seeking co-production opportunities and coupled with its associated distribution arm offers creative skills and an unrivalled ability to raise finance from a mix of broadcast, distribution, public and private funding.

Steve joined Jellyfish Pictures back in 2014, following the opening of Jellyfish Animation. Joining as animation producer to work on the company’s first children’s animated series, “Floogals”, Steve was instrumental in paving the way for Jellyfish’s expansion in to children’s TV animation. “Floogals” went on to be NBC Sprout’s highest rated pre-school show, and is now broadcast across the globe.

Following the success of “Floogals”, Steve holds the role of head of animation, supervising the Beano Studios/BBC Children’s re-boot of “Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed!”.

Prior to joining Jellyfish, Steve trained as an animator, working for many years at Ragdoll Productions and undertaking various roles from writing, animating, storyboarding and in production. His credits include “Spike Milligan’s Badjelly the Witch”, “Brum”, “Boohbah” “Teletubbies Everywhere” and “The Adventures of Abney & Teal”.

Cathal Gaffney is the managing director and co-founder of Brown Bag Films, an award winning animation studio that was established in 1994. Brown Bag Films is a global leader in children’s animation.

In 2015 Brown Bag Films announced their acquisition by Canadian producer and distributor 9 Story Media Group. Cathal has assumed the responsibility of Group COO which collectively employs almost 600 staff in Toronto, Dublin and Manchester.

In 2002 Cathal was nominated for an Academy Award® as director of the short film ‘Give Up Yer Aul Sins’. Recent credits as Executive Producer include ‘Vampirina’ (Disney), ‘Stinky & Dirty’ (Amazon), ‘Doc McStuffins’ (Disney), ‘Peter Rabbit’ (Nickelodeon), ‘The Octonauts'(BBC) and ‘Bing’ (BBC). Cathal was previously nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and won the European Producer of the Year at the CARTOON Forum in Norway. Cathal is an honorary fellow of the National Film School in Dublin . In his spare time, Cathal is a keen cyclist and photographer.

With a BA (Hons) degree in Performing Arts, Sue Goffe began her career in London as a Soho runner, rising to become an experienced producer of both live action & animation, culminating in her present position as managing director & head of production at the multi-award-winning London animation studio, Studio AKA.

Sue has overseen the creation & development of a series of short and long form projects. In 2004 Sue produced the 12 minute short film JOJO IN THE STARS, directed by AKA’s Marc Craste, which won the BAFTA for Best Animated Short Film – alongside a host of other international awards including the Special Jury Prize at the 2004 Aspen Short Film Festival and the European Cartoon d’Or 2005.

Sue’s next production was Varmints, a 30 min film, again by AKA’s Marc Craste which went on to win a total of 27 international prizes in film festivals, and was BAFTA nominated and shortlisted for an Oscar. The film is based on the award-winning book of the same name, illustrated by Marc and written by celebrated children’s author Helen Ward.

In 2008, Sue produced the BAFTA winning half hour film by AKA Director Philip Hunt titled ‘LOST AND FOUND’. Based on Oliver Jeffers’ award winning children’s book of the same name Lost and Found has to date won 61 International Film awards.

In 2011 Sue produced A MORNING STROLL, directed by AKA’s Grant Orchard. Festival prizes include the Junior Jury prize at Annecy, the BAFTA for Best Animated Short Film, The Sundance Jury Prize and an Oscar nomination.

Sue successfully brought STUDIO AKA’s first original pre-school show ‘HEY DUGGEE’ to CBEEBIES & BBC WORLDWIDE. HEY DUGGEE has gone on to win a BAFTA and International EMMY and is now broadcast in over 150 countries. Studio AKA is currently producing Series 2 and has recently been commissioned for a third series.

Sue is currently developing a slate of Long form & series projects at STUDIO AKA.

Marc Goodchild joined Turner EMEA in January 2017 as head of digital content strategy & product. In this role, he is responsible for the overall content strategy and digital content vision for EMEA, working in close collaboration with all regional content and digital teams. He also leads the EMEA central digital team and provides support and editorial guidance to the local heads of digital, alongside the central research, commercial, advertising sales, marketing, PR and franchise management teams.

Goodchild is an award-winning television producer and digital executive with a 20-year track record in broadcast, production and the start-up community. Before joining Turner, he worked with UK start-ups where among other achievements he pioneered a new second-screen system for kids shows, and most recently a family app gifting platform. Prior to this, his career includes a mix of senior director, producer and executive roles at Disney and the BBC, and on commissions for Discovery and Channel 4. He has also consulted for independent production companies including Jamie Oliver, Zodiac Kids and Lion TV. He has a BA Hons in Politics from the University of Nottingham and a post-grad in Broadcast Journalism from City University.

As senior vice president, international production & development, Nina Hahn oversees international content development and co-production partnerships for Nickelodeon outside of the US.

Based in London, Hahn coordinates and drives the development process, spearheading new production models, managing productions from pilot through to series, and working in direct partnership with Nickelodeon’s content teams around the world.  In this role, Hahn oversees all internationally sourced productions, aligning Nickelodeon’s global production and development pipeline, representing Nickelodeon US’s production and  development interests abroad and identifying resources and expertise to drive creative partnerships and cultivate talent.

As the main production and development conduit for Nickelodeon’s portfolio of international channels, Hahn is responsible for ensuring the cultural relevancy of all Nickelodeon production and development for global broadcast.

Hahn also works in direct partnership with Nickelodeon in the UK to source content from UK independent producers for potential global production and development.

With more than 25 years of experience in creating and producing content for kids, Nahn is a respected and acclaimed industry veteran, and frequent speaker at international TV markets and events including MIPTV and MIPCOM.

Since joining Nickelodeon in 2005, she has been the driving force behind establishing the brand as a core international hub for creators and talent, with a slate of global Nickelodeon hit titles to her name – including live action series Hunter Street and animation hit Nella the Princess Knight – currently  airing now on Nick’s channels across the world.

Prior to joining Nickelodeon, Hahn worked as an independent producer and development consultant for some of the world’s leading kids content producers and broadcasters in New York, including HBO and Jim Henson Productions.

Patricia Hidalgo is chief content officer EMEA and international kids strategy for Turner. In this role, she acts as Turner’s editorial head for its strong portfolio of kids’ content and channel brands across EMEA including Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Boing and Cartoonito – as well as representing Turner International with the kids’ production teams in the U.S.

Hidalgo oversees all owned, co-funded and acquired content as well as the programming and digital strategies, branding and franchise management for Turner kids platforms and IPS. She is also responsible for the production of Cartoon Network’s global hit series, The Amazing World of Gumball.

Hidalgo joined Turner in London following a 15-year career at The Walt Disney Company, most recently as vice president, content & programming strategy, EMEA, with responsibility for directing content, programming and acquisitions strategies for Disney across EMEA.

Rebecca Hodgson is the executive producer for the Netflix Original Free Rein, The Evermoor Chronicles for the Disney Channel and Rocket’s Island for CBBC.

Previous producer credits include the critically acclaimed Good Cop, written by Stephen Butchard, which aired on BBC1 and won the Royal Television Society award for Best Drama Serial 2012; We’ll Take Manhattan, starring Karen Gillan and Aneurin Barnard for BBC4 and Ovation, which won the Prix Europa for Best European Single drama in 2012; BAFTA nominated Stolen, written by Stephen Butchard and starring Damian Lewis for BBC1; The Road to Coronation Street, directed by Charles Sturridge, which won the 2011 BAFTA for Best Single Drama as well as the 2011 Royal Television Society Award for Best Single Drama; Ingenious, written by Jeanette Winterson for Lime and CBBC; Wired, directed by Kenny Glenaan and starring Jodie Whittaker and Laurence Fox for ITV1; Dead Clever, written by Sally Wainwright and starring Suranne Jones and Helen Baxendale for ITV1; The Girls Who Came To Stay, directed by Philip Martin and starring Alun Armstrong and Lindsey Coulson for ITV1 and Vincent, written by Stephen Butchard and starring Ray Winstone for ITV1.

Rebecca started her career as a journalist for Screen International before moving into film development, where she worked on Paul Greengrass’s Bloody Sunday and Kay Mellor’s Girls’ Night.

Oliver Hyatt is the MD of Blue-Zoo Productions a business that he set up in 2000.

Oli Is in charge developments at Blue-Zoo creating many of the popular brands preschoolers watch today, he is on the board of Alphablocks limited, and part owner of both Panel Forge a new software company and Nextgen skills academy. He is the chair of Animation UK which he set up in 2007, a body that successfully lobbied for taxcredits for his sector, he later received an MBE for this achievement, and sits on the BAFTA children’s committee.

In his spare time he is a keen Hockey Player, and both plays and coaches mens 1st team, and  runs preschool hockey, in a new innovative program he devised called “little sticks”.

Jonas Kryger Hansen is the commissioning editor for Danish tween channel DR Ultra, and responsible for developing future strategies for the brand and its platforms. He is a trained TV-journalist who has produced many TV shows for children since 2008 and still functions as in.depth editor on the channels most important fictional and factual formats. This year Jonas won both an Emmy for the entertainment show “Baking in the Dark” and a Prix Europa for fictions series “The Class”.

Daniel Lennard is the owner of Lazy Louis Entertainment and the creative producer of the multi award winning The Amazing World of Gumball, the global hit series on Cartoon Network. He is also Creative Producer and Writer on a new Cartoon Network EMEA show The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe and the creative consultant on a new show for Cartoon Network called Apple & Onion. Previously Daniel was Turner’s VP Original Series & Development and has held various creative roles within the top kids broadcaster, including setting up and running the Development Studio, out of which has come Gumball, as well as a new Cartoon Network series and Nickelodeon series that will be airing in 2018. Daniel also provides development and creative producer roles for animation production companies in the UK & Europe.

Alongside Claire Poyser, Kate took on joint managing director duties at Lime Pictures in March 2013 and since then they have taken the Company – which employs over 400 staff at its production bases in Liverpool, London and LA – from being a respected UK  business to one that is renowned for delivering innovative, cutting edge, talked about content across the globe.
Under Kate and Claire’s leadership, Lime’s long running drama series, Hollyoaks (Channel 4) won Best British Soap at the 2014 Soap Awards and is now in its 23rd year, The Only Way is Essex will begin shooting its 22nd season in 2018, and has launched stand alone series for Joey Essex (Educating Joey Essex), Elliott Wright (Playa in Marbella and Elliott and Sadie’s Wedding) and Megan McKenna (There’s Something About Megan).  Geordie Shore, now in its 17th season, remains MTV’s most popular series outside North America.
Claire and Kate have also led the diversification and broadening of Lime’s portfolio both in the UK and worldwide. Celebs Go Dating premiered on E4 in 2016 and is now in prep for its 4th series, sitting alongside Channel 4 pieces Too Posh To Parent and Northern Spirits and Six Pack Superstars on All4.  Across the water, Lime has delivered the Emmy award winning The Singles Project (Bravo), Work Out New York (Bravo) and Relative Success with Tabatha Coffey which will air in January, also on Bravo.
Lime’s scripted children’s slate is world renowned: building upon the success of Rocket’s Island (CBBC) and House of Anubis (Nickelodeon) in 2015 Lime became the first live action producer outside North America to be commissioned by The Disney Channel US with International Emmy nominated The Evermoor Chronicles.  In 2016 Lime secured the commission for the first live action scripted Netflix Original Series with Free Rein which launched globally in over 190 countries in June 2017. Priding itself on delivering the very best storytelling with the highest possible production values, Lime Pictures sets the gold standard for Children’s live action scripted production, worldwide.
Prior to joining Lime Pictures, Kate was Director of Business Affairs at ITV Studios. A key member of the ITV Studios Board, Kate had responsibility for Business Affairs across ITV’s content business, worldwide UK and International production as well as distribution. Her key global projects included Come Dine With Me, the US launch of Jeremy Kyle, Prime Suspect USA and multi-party financed large scale drama co-productions such as Titanic and The Prisoner.

Lucy was appointed Sky’s first head of kids content in 2015. She is responsible for Sky’s on demand kids content across all platforms, a library which recently saw the number of episodes available grow from 700 to 4,500 episodes, as well as overseeing the continued development of the successful Sky Kids App.  In 2016 she commissioned a new series of animated classic Morph from Aardman Animation as well as Big Cats: Wild Files from Offspring and Duck Quacks Don’t Echo: Kids from Magnum.    

Lucy has over 20 years of experience in producing and developing shows for children’s and family audiences. As a producer, script editor and development executive, Lucy has worked for a diverse slate of clients from small indies to major international media groups on shows ranging from The Gruffalo to Aardman’s BAFTA and Guinness World Record holding Tate Movie Project. Prior to joining Sky Lucy held a role at Azoomee, a new video on demand platform, as creative director and head of content. Lucy also lead the writing team and exec produced 78 episodes of hit CBeebies show Bing Bunny for Acamar Films.

BBC Worldwide children’s business includes CBeebies channel, content distribution, ancillary, live events and publishing with a content pipeline from both BBC in-house and award-winning independent producers.

Harriet took on this newly created role in 2015, shaping the genre strategy and managing the launches of brands and new digital marketing platforms.  Previously at BBC Worldwide, Harriet has held a number of development, commercial and marketing posts, including overseeing the launch of Planet Earth and the reboot of Doctor Who.  Harriet has significant experience of building brands and developing the strong partnerships required to take a property from script to screen to shelf. Harriet’s interest in Children’s stretches beyond work – she is mother to three girls aged 10, 7 and 3 years who help her stay abreast of the latest trends!

Anna Rafferty is global director: digital marketing at BBC Worldwide.  She is tasked with developing the BBC’s direct-to-consumer offerings, editorially leading the company’s short-form and social content production unit BBC Worldwide Digital Studios, and driving the corporation’s reputation for digital innovation.  She particularly works on the BBC’s global franchise brands including BBC Earth, Doctor Who, Top Gear and Children’s.

She joined BBC Worldwide from Pottermore, J.K. Rowling’s digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company where she was Director of Product, Content and Creative.  Prior to Pottermore, Rafferty spent 11 years at Penguin Books where she was MD for its Digital Division. She worked with major talent and IP including Roald Dahl, Jamie Oliver, Stephen Fry and Penguin Classics, amongst many others.

With over eighteen years’ experience in broadcasting, development and production, Chris joined Beano Studios in April 2017 as director development & production. Chris leads the development and production of long form television, film and theatre productions for Beano’s existing cast of characters as well as developing new characters for a range of new platforms.

Prior to joining Beano Studios, Chris was the commissioning editor, children’s television at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, developing and executive producing commissioned content for the ABC’s two dedicated children’s channels, ABC ME and ABC KIDS. Previous roles include director development for Mattel owned HIT Entertainment and content & acquisitions manager for CBeebies and Acquisitions Manager for BBC Children’s.

Chris has overseen a number of successful and award winning series including CG animation The Deep (Kidscreen Award 2017 Best New Series), the interactive children’s drama Secret Life of Boys (2017 BAFTA award for INTERACTIVE: ORIGINAL) and The Flamin’ Thongs, (2015 AACTA Award Best Children’s TV Programme); Chris also developed Mike the Knight, which won the International Emmy award for Best Pre-school series in 2014. He is currently working on a number of multi-platform live action and animated series due to launch in 2018.

David Schweitzer is an award-winning composer who has scored over 100 film and television projects ranging from animated kids’ shows to documentaries and drama.

In the world of children’s television, his credits include Charlie & Lola , The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That, Mike the Knight, Q Pootle 5,  Bob the Builder, Angry Birds Toons, Tommy Zoom, Digby Dragon, Miffy’s Adventures Big and Small and Olobob Top.

As well as being a multi-instrumentalist, David is also a unique and inventive lyricist and songwriter whose CDs include ArtSongs – a collection of songs about art for children commissioned by Tate. He recently enjoyed collaborating with Tiger Aspect on songs for Aliens Love Underpants!

Robert Vargas is an executive producer for Nickelodeon’s brand-new animated preschool series Nella the Princess Knight.

 A two-time Emmy award-winner, Vargas has worked in various roles on other Nickelodeon preschool series, including head writer for Zack and Quack, and storyboard supervisor for The Wonder Pets! and Little Bill.  He has also worked as a writer on such shows as Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins, Disney XD’s Rekkit Rabbit, PBS Kids’ WordWorld and the Rai/Sony Creative Products hit Mofy, available on NOGGIN, Nickelodeon’s video subscription service for preschoolers.  Additionally, Vargas’ credits include story editor for Henry Hugglemonster and storyboard supervisor for Little Einsteins on Disney Junior.  

 In 2008, Vargas received a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Main Title and Graphic Design for WordWorld, and again in 2009 for Outstanding Writing in Animation for the series.

 Vargas began his career in television as an animator at Georges Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a B.A. in English Literature and Composition.  Vargas is currently based in the U.K. and France.