Nancy Steingard, Executive Vice President, Universal Cartoon Studios.

Nancy Steingard, Executive Vice President of Universal Cartoon Studio, noted that "a big focus of what Universal is trying to do is to capitalize on our franchise properties." She attributes the international success of their animated show Casper, to its quality and the fact that the property is already established, having gained wide recognition with the recent feature film. Additionally, she points out that the international market is very receptive to comedy. Anticipating international success for one of the new shows in development at Universal, Steingard said "Woody Woodpecker is a property that we have on the drawing board right now, and it has already been very big in the international market. We have a lot of great plans on the drawing board for Woody for the upcoming year, and we have some really amazing talent working on it."

Linda Simensky, recently appointed Vice President of Original Animation for the Cartoon Network responded: "If I thought about what every different Cartoon Network wanted, it would be difficult because everybody wants something else. In Asia, they like family-oriented shows, in some places they only like funny animals, and in other places they like sarcasm. What I really try to do is to just not make shows feel too American. I look for the universal gag, the universal sense of humor. I think the reason slapstick works is because it's funny everywhere. Whatever motivates the characters should not be specific to American life. I try to stay away from American jokes, although I'm seeing a lot more of them now. Why not just come up with some human personality traits that are universal?"

On the second day of the conference, NATPE presented a panel discussion entitled "Animation: The Universal Language". With Cartoon Network President Betty Cohen moderating, panelists discussed the realities of the much-hyped global marketplace for animation.