The Business Clinic will come back for 2026 edition of Cartoon Business!
This networking opportunity connects participants attending the event with specialists during individual coaching sessions on animation-related business issues. The Business Clinic allows participants, including newer entrants to the industry, to ask specific questions and receive targeted advice from experienced consultants.
Be aware that the event as well as the consultations will be in English.
Consultants

Mark Taynton
- Position
- Founder
- Company
- Marky Sparky Media

Lucas Sauvan
- Position
- General Director
- Company
- ACT&PLAY

Céline Dornier
- Position
- Content Executive
- Company
- IPR.VC

Sebastian Wehner
- Position
- Co-Founder & Producer
- Company
- Wonderz

Cecilia Bossel
- Position
- Animation Project Manager
- Company
- Ecoprod

Sebastien Lachaussee
- Position
- CEO
- Company
- L Avocat

Anaïs Pirenne
- Position
- HR specialist
- Company
- Amplo

Mark Taynton
- Position
- Founder
- Company
- Marky Sparky Media
- Country
- UK
At a glance
Adult animation specialist supporting creators, studios, and platforms in the audiovisual sector with a focus on editorial, IP development fan engagement and driving European genre growth.
Presentation:
Mark Taynton, founder of Marky Sparky Media, is an international media executive specialising in adult animation. With 20+ years’ experience at leading media companies, Mark offers a unique and wide range of skills to support creators, studios, platforms, broadcasters, streamers, and festivals. Offering a wide gamut of assistance across editorial, content and business development, brand and franchise management, marketing/PR, social, fan engagement and community building, digital storytelling, research, distribution, and more. With a global mindset and contacts across the industry, he brings a hands-on, collaborative, and commercially focused approach.
Business Tips:
— Build your community: animation offers a unique chance during the long production timeline to to build a fanbase for your IP on social media, so you have a built-in audience ahead of the launch alongside data as proof of concept for future distribution deals.
— Be local, think global: don’t lose your local charm by creating something generic because you think it will sell, drive the genre forward by being authentic, showing the world what hasn’t been seen before.
— Know your characters: don’t get lost in worldbuilding, really know who your characters are, what makes them tick and what their relationship is with the other key protagonists/antagonists. And, less is more, don’t add so many characters that it becomes overwhelming, focus on the core and build over time.

Lucas Sauvan
- Position
- General Director
- Company
- ACT&PLAY
- Country
- FR
ACT&PLAY is a financial consultancy dedicated to the creative and cultural industries (animation studios, audiovisual and film production companies, VFX studios, distributors).
We provide tailored, long-term or ad hoc support: outsourced financial management (part-time CFO), production financing and budget follow-up (financing plans, subsidy files, tax credits, accounts submission), grant and fundraising assistance, and one-off audits or business plans.
Our expertise covers cash-flow and organisational optimisation, financing plan structuring, the legal and financial specifics of the creative sector, and support for foreign studios integrating into France (access to public subsidies, identification of French co-production or executive production partners).

Céline Dornier
- Position
- Content Executive
- Company
- IPR.VC
- Country
- Finland
Céline began her career in international sales in Hong Kong (All Rights Entertainment) and Vancouver (Horizon Motion Pictures, The Green Channel). In 2016, she joined Logical Pictures as Production & Development Officer, working on films such as “Revenge” by Coralie Fargeat. She later became Production and Acquisitions Manager, overseeing financing for titles like “The Innocents” by Eskil Vogt and “Pleasure” by Ninja Thyberg. In 2021, Céline was appointed Head of Investments and International Coproductions, focusing on bold, auteur-driven films and coproducing “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” by Kirill Serebrennikov (Cannes 2022). By 2023, she was VP Finance & Acquisitions and worked on films such as “Monte Cristo” by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte and” Emilia Perez” by Jacques Audiard. In 2025, Céline joined IPR.VC as Content Executive.

Sebastian Wehner
- Position
- Co-Founder & Producer
- Company
- Wonderz
- Country
- Germany
Wonderz helps cartoon and kids’ entertainment brands turn their characters, stories, and content into premium digital experiences. Our no-code platform powers branded subscription apps across mobile, TV, and web—combining video, audio, games, learning, and interactive features in one safe, family-friendly destination. We manage the technology, operations, monetization, and updates, helping brands build direct audience relationships and recurring revenue.

Cecilia Bossel
- Position
- Animation Project Manager
- Company
- Ecoprod
- Country
- FR
At a glance
International animation executive turned sustainability advocate, with 30 years of experience in growing companies and developing international activities. Now at Ecoprod, driving the ecological transition of animation and helping to launch ANiMPACT, an international standardized framework for the animation sector.
Presentation
For 20 years, Cecilia Bossel led and co-founded an independent animation studio, helping build the company from a small French animation studio into an international group.
Today, she has joined Ecoprod, a non-profit organisation that drives environmental sustainability in media, accompanying animation studios in their ecological transition. In this task she can count on the numerous tools at Ecoprod such as their online course mastering green animation on their elearning platform StepUP, themed webinars and training sessions, and the international green animation guide.
Cecilia is driving the launch of ANiMPACT, an international standardized sustainability framework designed by the sector, for the sector. Now in its pilot phase the framework is seeking 2D and 3D projects. Want to join? I’ll tell you more.
Business Tips
— Start early. Sustainability works best when it is built into the project from the beginning.
— Be practical. Don’t try to change everything at once. Identify your biggest impacts and start there.
— Share what works. Animation is collaborative and international. We can move faster by learning from each other.
— Measure, learn, improve. Sustainability is a journey, not a box to tick.
— Think collective. The biggest change will come when studios, producers and broadcasters move together.

Sebastien Lachaussee
- Position
- CEO
- Company
- L Avocat
- Country
- FR
At a glance
L Avocat lawfirm is born from the willingness to provide an organised working method for media customers, as efficient as larger scale lawfirms but with a specific focus expertise, an important reactivity, and a better knowledge of the customer.
Presentation
The field of expertise of L Avocat lawfirm covers all essential domains of activity within the media sector L Avocat intervenes on all types of cases in relation with the activities of the film and audiovisual industry. The lawfirm advises notably producers, distributers, broadcasters, authors, directors, technicians, artists or individuals and companies whishing to invest in audiovisual projects.
Business Tips
— Focus on the overall contractual numbers of a chain of title and not only on the one-by-one negotiation of contracts
— Securing your investment of time and expenses by negotiating profitable exit and termination clauses
— Watch out on adaptability of contracts in a world of continuous changes of formats and needs
— Better earlier than too late, think to organize yourself upfront to enter in production with the right backup

Anaïs Pirenne
- Position
- HR specialist
- Company
- Amplo
- Country
- BE
At a glance
HR support for artists and studios in the audiovisual sector, with a focus on contracts, employment status, and legal-administrative guidance.
Presentation
As an HR specialist at Amplo, Anaïs Pirenne support creative professionals with practical questions about work status (employee, artist status, freelance), contracts, salaries, and HR management. She works closely with many studios in the audiovisual sector, especially in animation, helping them with the hiring and contracting of artists and technicians, and guiding them through the legal and administrative aspects of their projects. Her experience comes from daily work with both individual artists and production companies across Belgium, as well as through professional events such as Cartoon Business or Anima Film Festival.
Business Tips
— Think early about the HR part of your project. Clear contracts and the right work status for your team members will save time, money, and problems later.
— Plan your HR budget carefully, make sure it is realistic, and always connect it to the legal and funding requirements of your project.
— Don’t hesitate to ask for advice: good HR planning helps you build a strong team and gives your project a solid foundation.
Benefiting from consultations
You will be able to choose the consultants you wish to meet by the end of October.
Practical information
Schedule
The Business Clinic will take place over two days:
- On Tuesday 24 November in the afternoon
- On Wednesday 25 November at the end of the day
Venue
Area 42
Rue des Palais 46
1030 Brussels
