The future of children and media is the main topic of next Children’s Global Media Summit 2017.
Children’s Global Media Summit 2017 will take place in Manchester (UK) from 5th through 7th December 2017. This Summit was formerly known as the “World Summit on Media for Children”, founded in 1995 in order to help to secure the future of children’s programming in a rapidly-changing world. The Summit is held every three years, for the first time in Melbourne, Australia. Following, the Summit was held in Greece, Brasil, South Africa and Sweden. London was the host city in 1998 and the last city to host the event was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2014. The main goal of the World Summit is to monitor children’s media development and the role of media in children’s education and growth. The major global themes on children and media landscape are at the centre of Summit topics.
This year, the BBC will host the 8th edition of the Summit, in Manchester, with Director of Children’s Alice Webb acting as summit chair, and Director-General Tony Hall delivering the opening address.
Delegates will come from the US, Australia, India, Japan, China and all over Europe and Africa with 36 different countries represented.
The speaking line-up includes leaders from organizations and brands such as ABC, DHX Media, Disney, Dubit, Endemol Shine, Facebook, Fremantle Kids, Google, Intel, Minecraft, NBC Universal, Netflix, NHK, Nickelodeon, ParentZone, PBS, Sesame Workshop, TalkTalk, Tech City UK, The Premier League, Viacom Africa and Zodiak Kids.
The content of this Summit across three days will fall within five themes: empowerment, innovation, education, entertainment and freedom.
Every Summit has its slogan and main theme. In Manchester it will be Generation U: The future of media for an Unlimited Generation. This theme is based on the concept that current and future generations of children are growing up with an expectation that media is always on demand and have never known it any other way. To them, the digital world will become without limits or end, a completely unlimited resource with unlimited possibilities. This new generation, their needs and experiences will mean that we need to rip up the rule book and rethink the approach in the future. The Summit is a wonderful and unique occasion to share all this among leading key players in the entertainment and digital industries.
To learn more, LM has interviewed with Sarah Baynes, Executive Summit Director.
Sarah Baynes, Executive Summit Director
LM. Which is the main goal of this Global Children’s Media Summit?
The purpose of the Summit is to look not just at where we are now, or will be in the next couple of years, but further into the future. Digital has changed everything in kids media in recent years and the Summit will look at what’s next for Generation U – a generation that has grown up without digital boundaries and whose expectations continue to grow.
We will bring together content creators, platform providers and policy makers to look at how we shape the future together. We have an incredible line up of speakers who will help us to think differently and challenge assumptions – paving the way for us to create a digital future for our kids that is fit for purpose. We want everyone to join in the conversation and leave the summit with a clear vision of their role in future developments. This will help to shape their own strategies to future proof their business.
LM. How many delegates you expect to welcome and how the programme will be structured?
We will host over 130 speakers. There will be few speakers in each session and many debates on stage. We really want people to talk from different countries and share their thoughts and experiences. For each main topic of the summit (empowerment, innovation, education, entertainment and freedom) we will focus on its future. Every session will end with a debate to have voice for everybody and to encourage sharing information. Every debate will be a mix of countries and we will ask ourselves what we are doing to robust children’s background in the future. Tech revolution is happening and how we can be aware of this changing and build more tools for next children’s media plans.
For more information: www.cgms17.com / Twitter @CGMS2017
