Report 2023

REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE OF THE ANIMATION

The 4th edition of Cartoon Business in Las Palmas started on November 14th and brought together various professionals from the animation and related sectors around keynotes, panels & case studies. Thanks to the knowledge and expertise of our speakers, the participants have discussed, reflected, and imagined together what the future of the industry can be.

For 3 days, broadcasters, producers, sales agents, public and private investors have met future partners during dinners, lunches, and coffee breaks, created business opportunities during one-toone meetings and exchanged about the best evolution for the industry. One of the strongest points of Cartoon Business is to combine formal and informal meetings, creating not only professional bounds but also human ones, developing further the cooperation between the different actors of the industry.

On Wednesday 15 November, during the welcome words, Frédérique Vinel, Head of Content Cartoon Business, greeted everyone and reminded the mantra of the event which is Finding Together the Best Growth Model For and With Animation.

Antonio Morales, President of Cabildo de Gran Canaria, after greeting the participants, acknowledged the importance of hosting Cartoon Business regarding the region’s resolution to consolidate its presence in the industry. He also reminded the measures put forward – such as tax incentives – to attract companies and actors on the island.
This intention has been developed further by Nuria Guinnot and Guillermo Quintana Ramos on a special keynote dedicated to the ambition of the Gran Canaria Film Commission and its investment in the animation industry.

THE SPEAKERS

For 2 days, 33 highly skilled speakers from 15 counties have been tutoring and sharing their expertise to the attendees. Coming mainly from Spain (24%) and France (21%), an important part of them also came from non-MEDIA countries (21%) such as Argentina, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel.

Also, more and more women come on stage and share their knowledge with 43% of women speakers (57% being men) in this 2023 edition.

THE CONFERENCES

Cartoon Business offered a set of 19 conferences from top experts working in different fields (sales agents & distributors, investors, broadcasters, game companies, jurists…).

The aim was to highlight the current and growing challenges the industry faces, such as the rise of A.I., the difficulty for animated projects to reach teenagers, projects’ merchandising and many other.

Among the topics generally addressed:

• How should we handle the growing standardization of A.I.? This challenge was the main subject of many conferences, giving different points of view on the topic (artistic, financial, legal).
• How to make the industry greener? With a wide scope, several conferences raised the issue of sustainability for production companies and asked the question of certifications as a potential solution.
• How to strengthen the bounds between animation and video games? Different approaches gave some ideas for these two industries to collaborate further.
• How to deal with the crisis European public broadcasters face? By questioning the challenges of traditional platforms and the concurrence digital mediums offer, our experts gave some examples of how to adapt to this global and fast evolution.
• How to attract the tweens? Analyzing the rise of adult animation helped finding some strategies to make animation everyone’s.

ABOUT THE ONE-TO-ONE MEETINGS

For the second time, on November 14th, our participants had the opportunity to meet each other during one-to-one meetings. 120 meetings have been organised, gathering 65 participants, facilitating exchanges and networking on the first day of the event.

WHO ATTENDED CARTOON BUSINESS?

Among our 115 participants, 89% came from MEDIA countries, Spanish people being the most numerous, just before French and Belgium attendees.

48% of Cartoon Business participants were women, a rising number considering women represented only 40% of last year’s attendees.

Among these participants, we also count 3 European journalists (Rosella Arena from Licensing Magazine, IT / Irene Jiménez from Audiovisual451, ES & Monica Tasciotti from Cinema & Video International, IT) who have promoted Cartoon Business before, during and after the event.

In addition to the journalists invited by Cartoon, TV journalists from RTVC (Radio Televisión Canarias) and TVE (Televisón Española) came to the event as well. The Cabildo de Gran Canaria also asked its own journalist to sum up Cartoon Business in a video report.

Cartoon Business is also a moving platform since 57% of the participants were newcomers and 79% of the speakers were new trainers.

The strength of Cartoon Business is to stabilize the number of senior attendees with last year’s (62%; 60%) and at the same time to attract twice more young professionals (8%; 16%).

By being a place continuously attracting young professionals and where confirmed ones represent the most important part of attendees, Cartoon Business maintains its key position in the animation industry and among professionals as a platform to think, connect and exchange altogether about the past, the present and above all, the future.

TO CONCLUDE CARTOON BUSINESS 2023

To close the event, on November 16th, during the “Grande Finale” session, 9 speakers gathered on stage to answer the questions of Cartoon Business moderator, John Lomas-Bullivant. These questions mixed serious and professionally targeted ones with more trivial ones. This hour of Q&A closed this 2023 edition of Cartoon Business by coming back on the most popular topics of the event and detailed what the speakers tutored about.

At the end of this special session, the Head of Content, Frédérique Vinel, thanked all the participants, partners, and organisation team for bringing everyone to talked, exchange and think about animation.

Cartoon Business closed 2023 on a good note for Cartoon and we can’t wait to meet you again in 2024!