KAM Summit and ANN AWARDS embraced by animation industry

MUMBAI 30 AUGUST 2019: India’s first kids animation summit by
AnimationXpress.com titled KAM (Kids, Animation & More) successfully
concluded on 30 August 2019 in Mumbai. The day long KAM Summit’s
highlight was that it served as a catalyst by sparking discussions between kids
broadcast, digital platforms, studios, FMCG advertisers and ad agencies on
how each one of them could work more effectively with each other through
effective partnerships. The summit did this through a series of panel
discussions, fireside chats, presentations and through networking between
CXO level executives and creative professionals. More than 45 speakers from
around 40 companies made the KAM Summit an engrossing and engaging
one through the day.
It was followed in the evening by the well-attended and glamorous ANN
Awards - the first ever premium, independent and full scaled awards focused
purely on kids programming, animation technicians, personalities, platforms,
and licensing and merchandising.
Both the events saw a fabulous turnout from India’s major and independent
animation studios, educational institutes, broadcast channels, students,
animation aspirants, brands, agencies and celebrities from the world of TV
and film. More than 500 executives and students, from the animation
ecosystem made their way to the Hotel Lalit in close to Mumbai’s
international airport.
Said Viacom kids cluster head Anu Sikka: “It was a wonderful event.”
Added Green Gold CEO Rajiv Chilaka: “Kudos to the team at
AnimationXpress for giving another opportunity to the animation industry to
interact with each other and those who can help it grow further- brands and
agencies.”
Added Ketan Mehta: “Really well done. Thumbs Up to the animation
industry.”
“What differentiated KAM from other conferences on animation is the
presence of brands such as Baskin Robbins, Pidilite, Hamleys, Mondelez,
KidZania, Parle Products, Mattel, and agencies such as Wavemaker, IPG
Media, Publicis,” says IndianTelevision and AnimationXpress.com group
founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari. “Kids –between 2-14 years
form a large chunk of India’s population and they are a hungry for
entertainment and information audience, and they also play a role in product
and brand selection in Indian families. Hence, it’s crucial that there is agreater understanding between the various constituents on how to address
this demographic, and we provided the platform to enable progressive
conversations – both during the KAM Summit and hopefully after - between
all of them.”
Wanvari added that the ANN Awards were well received and industry sent in
more than 200 entries in year one. A 16 member Indian and international jury
helped short list the nominees and the winner through and online judging
portal for the 40 odd categories.
While studios such as Green Gold, Aum Animation, Cosmos Maya, PhilmCGI,
DQ Entertainment, Technicolor, Puppetica Media and networks such as Sony
Yay, Nick, Pogo shone during the ANN Awards, honors were conferred on
eminent personalities such as Cosmos Maya founder Ketan Mehta, Nick’s Anu
Sikka, and ailing Indian animation father Ram Mohan. Cosmos Maya was
declared studio of the year.
ANN awards prides itself as the only awards’ that aims to recognise the
artistry of the entire animation ecosystem in the most inclusive and impartial
ways, allowing the non-partisan jury members to decide who would bag the
prestigious ANN Awards.
AnimationXpress.com’s initiative received industry wide support. Among the partners
who backed it included: Cosmos Maya (Summit Partner), Viacom18 (Summit
Partner), Sphere Origins (Associate Partner), DQ Entertainment (Lanyards & Badges
Partner), Wacom (Support Partner), Huion (Industry Support partner), ABAI
(Community Partner), Digicon (Festival Partner), Discovery Kids (Support Partner),
Toonz (Industry Support), ITV (Online Media), ITV 2.0 (Event Execution) Sony YAY
(Support Partners).