Chris Moujaes, President & CEO, Boomstar, Inc.

The global recession has shown its face in our industry and has had a visible impact on buyers, creators and animation service providers alike. Change is inevitable and I strongly believe that challenging times like these provide opportunities to be very creative. At Boomstar, we've been steadily growing into other lines of business including animated-entertainment film/TV financing, building online media holdings and expanding service offerings to other industries.

The long-term changes will depend on the length of the recession. Creators and IP owners are already seeing a change in buyers' willingness to take risks on new properties. Co-pros will become even more prevalent as partners look to spread the risk and share in rewards. However, I see times like these as a prime time to explore new ideas and properties. Clinging to the old approach, while comforting, is what everyone is doing. What better time to be poised for the economic recovery than now? I mean, the whole world has changed dramatically, shouldn't we?

Branscome International reps the ultimate U.S. indie, Bill Plympton (pictured is his short Hot Dog). © Plymptoons Studio.

Catherine Branscome, President, Branscome International Group

We've all heard it before, the Chinese symbol for crisis is the same for opportunity. We all now have the opportunity to either commit hari-kari, or go green and grow our own veggies. But there's still going to be bills beyond groceries, and to pay those, business survival strategies in downturns always seem to include: 1. trim budgets, 2. cut costs and 3. cut costs (and repeat).

Smaller independents, "boutiques" like my own company, seem oddly better prepared for downturns, since by the definition of being small, our overheads are too. However, trimming even more is crucial and quickly becoming a fine art: we're using some old fashioned concepts (think of how those pioneers survived) -- by sharing! Sharing costs by splitting costs, even with friendly competitors. For instance, we're sharing our MIPTV booth this year, which cuts our MIP costs in half!

Another survival tactic we're using: time management and trimming wasteful activities. Don't e-mail as much, and you won't get as many emails back. A phone call instead can resolve and troubleshoot problems more quickly. Listen first, pitch second -- hear what your buyers really want to buy and reinforce that you're going target your pitches to them. They appreciate your saving them time too.

Lastly, the back-to-basics recession might have a great impact for indies: perhaps the days of true talent and original ideas will take off again. Inventive content can (and will) spring from great adversity. Let's consider that we're in an "ideal incubator state" for new shows. Once we're over the recession, we may just reflect and say, "That was the best time for experimentation and taking the time to test and improve ideas, while we all waited for the bigger players' budgets to be revived."

So to all big and small industry friends, let's hunker down together, survive and prepare (or help colleagues strategically prepare) new content for the inevitable upturn in the global economy. And if it doesn't happen overnight, that just gives us more time to test our content and see if it catches on with audiences. Get some kind of distribution going, even if it is small exposure to start. It's better than no exposure. Get your content moving, even if money's practically frozen, and keep repeating: springtime will come again.

Gene Fowler, President & Founder, FatKat Animation Studios

Here at FatKat, we began trimming our spending a year ago. Sure, there's always more you could trim and several low risk/high reward methods to market your services, but the saying eventually holds true, you have to spend money to make money. Conferences and trade shows such as KidScreen remain a valuable opportunity to keep top of mind in the industry and source out existing opportunities. Our industry is experiencing a slow-down -- not a stop.

Derick Cobden, Managing Director, Airwaves Sound Design Ltd.

A global recession affects everyone whether you are selling a service or a product. As financing becomes more difficult to acquire, fewer productions get made. With fewer productions there is more competition from the top of the food chain down. This trickledown effect just takes time to hit different areas of the industry. The good news is that it's part of a cycle that is not new to us or the industry. The question is how long the cycle will last and who will come out ahead. Being a service provider, our model has always been diversification. It protects us when one industry or another isn't thriving. We also become more selective with the work we take on, qualifying companies we do business with to reduce our risk. The market is currently saturated with content -- some of it is good, a lot of it bad. Eventually with less product, we will see a shift in demand and with that will be stabilization and finally growth. It's basic economics.

Heather Kenyon is currently a consultant specializing in animation and IP development. She is the former senior director of development, original series at Cartoon Network, where she focused on the development of animated comedy, comedy adventure, action-adventure and live-action series for children 6-11 years old. Prior to joining Cartoon Network, she was editor-in-chief of Animation World Network. A graduate of the prestigious School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, Kenyon began her career in animation at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons as a recruiter and in production.