Gyarmath Bogdan represented Toei Animation, which had its own meeting room near the panels, giving it high visibility. Photo credit: Sarah Baisley.

Most guests could not return to their rooms for a long time and/or without power over a day. Power issues also interrupted registration on the first day. Wisely, the organizers finally sent people to their sessions without badges until the systems were up and running. The Nicktoons Network Lounge was cleaned up in time for the network's networking party where people shared their experiences and a few drinks to calm the nerves.

Being in the show business, the panels, presentations and meetings continued at brisk pace, imparting lots of information and advice. Attendees may also access audio of the presentations at the KidScreen website.

Cartoon Network had its own panel to explain what the net was looking for worldwide and had an open house in the summit Lounge to introduce its new production division in London, CN has started to put out feelers in Latin America, Asia and India.

"We are inviting anyone to submit ideas to us," said Finn Arnesen, svp/gm, original series and international development for CN. "The future is not just in the U.S. and Europe; it's in the whole world."

It was pretty easy to bump into people from the networks. Going over the delegate list, one finds there were many from each net and they were out in the open, not hidden behind the walls of a booth with hostesses and sentries limiting access, like at most trade shows:

BBC, 5
Cartoon Network/Turner, 24
Nick/MTV, 34
Discovery Kids, 20
ABC/Disney 7
France 2, 2
France 3, 2
National Geographic, 7
PBS, 13
YTV, 3
Super RTL, 3
ZDF, 4
TELETOON, 6

Signifying the growing importance and role the KidScreen Summit plays in childrens entertainment, for the first time in its 34-year history, nominees for the Children's Emmy Awards were announced by the TV Academy at the Summit, weeks before the rest of the Daytime Emmy nominees would be unveiled.

Exhibitors in the Summit Lounge saw plenty of traffic with the registration desk held in the same area, as well as continental breakfasts, coffee breaks and buffet lunches for delegates.

Toei Animation had its own meeting room near the panels, giving it high visibility.

The winner of the Pitch It competition, in which finalists pitched live in front of the audience and a panel of five broadcasters, was Ken Bautista from Rocketfuel Prods./Hotrocket Studios with C.I.E. (Central Institute for Exploration). Some of the buyers held back their comments, because they were obviously interested in pursuing the property. Mostly, they gave constructive thoughts about presentation styles, materials and pointers on what presenters needed to work on.

KOCCA (the Korea Culture & Content Agency) held a special signing ceremony to launch the co-production of Oasis, with reps from partners Nickelodeon, TF1, Tuba Ent. & Synergy Media and TeamTo.

KOCCA, the Korea Culture & Content Agency, put together a special presentation to showcase the work coming from animation producers in Korea and held a special signing ceremony to launch the co-production of Oasis, with reps from partners TF1, Nickelodeon, TeamTo and Tuba Ent. & Synergy Media. The 3D comic/adventure series features fantastic character design and humor with true squash-and-stretch animation with a western sense of timing.

Animation veteran Tony Collingwood took meetings in the Nick Lounge as his new show had just launched on Nicktoons a few weeks earlier (Jan. 20), The Secret Show, a Collingwood O'Hare Ent. production from the U.K., which premiered on the BBC last September.

The show is done all in the U.K., with 80 animators using cel action. Collingwood was delighted with what he sees is a, "resurgence just being able to do things, in some respect the old fashioned way, in-house the current new way with all this technology."

Susan Miller, president, Bolder Media, was there to host a panel plus a breakfast for delegates to promote her new TV venture, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, which airs on Nick Jr. She said she kept hearing at the Summit, find partners and share the risk.

She is a perfect case in point. Coming from WB Consumer Products, she grew interested in creating product. A friend introduced her to Fred Siebert, president of Frederator Films. They found common goals and complementary talents and connections. Siebert told her he had "guys in L.A. who have a lot of stories who are working for other people." She said she had "a lot of women in New York who are looking for new stories and characters. Let's launch a book imprint."