Car­toon Busi­ness 2024: Highlights

After three amazing days of keynotes, panels and case studies, we hope that you've learned a lot about the challenges that the animation industry will have to face in the coming years.
Cartoon Business gave the opportunity to meet professionals and discuss about different topics. Here's a look back at the highlights that made this first edition in Brussels a success.

Pho­to 1/1
Pho­to 1/1

KEY FACTS & INSIGHTS

New initiatives

For this year's edition, we had the pleasure to introduce:

Job Fair

By giv­ing the chance to tal­ents to meet rep­re­sen­ta­tives of local indus­tries and explore career oppor­tu­ni­ties, Car­toon Busi­ness allowed to build con­nec­tions. Com­pa­nies like Vivi Film, Souza Stu­dio, Crea­ture, Sub­ma­rine, The Pack, nWave stu­dios, Cre­ative Con­spir­a­cy and Spicy Acorn talked about their com­pa­ny and what they were look­ing for, fol­lowed by meet­ings with the talents.

Busi­ness Clinic

This con­sul­tan­cy oppor­tu­ni­ty had the pur­pose to con­nect par­tic­i­pants attend­ing the event with spe­cial­ists dur­ing coach­ing ses­sions on busi­ness issues they are fac­ing and try­ing to find a solu­tion, or at least some ideas on how to fix it. More than 40 inspir­ing meet­ings took place dur­ing this first Busi­ness Clinic.

Belgium in the spotlight

This year’s edi­tion of Car­toon Busi­ness took place in Brus­sels so we had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to put Bel­gian’s com­pa­nies in the spot­light. From access to finances to how to oper­ate with dif­fer­ent regions and a case study about Stu­dio 100 and their growth through time, we had a clos­er look at the local ani­ma­tion indus­try that is thriv­ing in the country.

Bel­gium is an amaz­ing place where busi­ness­es can be done eas­i­ly and some valu­able grants and invest­ment are avail­able to help green­light your pro­duc­tions. ​“The Polar Bear Prince” and ​“Sav­ages” were two case stud­ies pre­sent­ed to high­light how to access local finance and oper­ate with mul­ti­ple regions and cul­tur­al funds.

Business models impacted by new technologies

Dur­ing a heat­ed but live­ly debate about A.I. and what its arrival means for the ani­ma­tion indus­try, our speak­ers (Lau­ri Saun­ders, Char­lie Fink and Cathal Gaffney) had a lot of pros and cons to talk about. The main point was: the genie is out of the bot­tle, we have to cope with it and find finan­cial ways to imple­ment it. A.I. has to stay a tool to help human beings rather than some­thing that will replace them. 

Plat­forms such as online gam­ing ones, social media, and many oth­ers, are a way to reach new audi­ences that might not be reached on the usu­al plat­forms the ani­ma­tion indus­try is using. There’s a gigan­tic audi­ence that can be reached through those plat­forms. The keynote about the new busi­ness strat­e­gy of the BBC and their use of the uni­verse of Roblox gave an idea on how the indus­try can adapt itself.

And many other topics on how to survive on the market

Even though the sit­u­a­tion of the indus­try might seem in a state of Doom and Gloom, the speak­ers, through their speech­es, were con­fi­dent that the ani­ma­tion indus­try has a bright future ahead. All it has to do is find new oppor­tu­ni­ties and ways of think­ing through coop­er­a­tion, debates, research­es, open-mind­ed­ness and net­work­ing. At least, Car­toon Busi­ness gave a boost of con­fi­dence the indus­try needed.

We hope your stay in Brussels was a success. Save the date for next year as Cartoon Business might return to the capital of Europe.