Now in its 19th year, the 3-day conference set for next week brings together buyers, sellers, financiers and lovers of animated entertainment from all over the world.
For almost 20 years, SPP, the annual cartoon and animation market known to many as the Seoul Promotion Plan, has been an invaluable and vital international conference and market focused on the buying and selling of animated content produced and distributed in Asia. Growing global demand for animated programming content, spurred primarily by explosive growth in online streaming platforms like Netflix and Youku, has made prominent business events like SPP more important than ever before. Programming decisions are now being made throughout the year rather than based on broadcast “seasons,” and timely business meetings to introduce and share new IP and project development ideas is essential for any studio hoping to pitch shows, secure financing & distribution and gain critical feedback on the viability of their content.
Running July 15-17 at the Millennium Seoul Hilton and hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Business Agency (SBA), SPP has firmly established itself as an essential market for meeting with top Asian animation content creators, producers, financiers and distributors to discover their latest projects and IP development. SPP is specifically designed for business-minded professionals interested in co-production, procurement & sales, and investment, with a series of tracks scheduled over the 3-day event all designed to foster networking opportunities and facilitate meetings and business development.
SPP 2019's main programs include One-on-One Business Matching, AND (Asia New Direction) presentations, the main Conference with presentations on the latest market trends, IGNITE, Private Pitching, a Welcome Party as well as other business networking events.
One-on-One Business Matching (Biz Matching)
Putting creators and buyers together in a series of back-to-back-to-back meetings, the One-on-One Business Matching sessions will generate more than 5,000 meetings for nearly 200 participating companies over the 3-day event. Programing and development executives have been invited from the world’s major kids’ networks, along with representatives from numerous key distribution companies, all attending a revolving set of private 20-minute business meetings. Biz Matching is a unique way to accomplish a single goal: put buyers and sellers together to facilitate business collaboration and investment.
AAA and AND – Asia Animation Alliance and Asia New Direction
New this year at SPP is the launch of AAA, the Asia Animation Alliance, a consultative group focused on promotion of Asian animation business and industrial development through the sharing of current market information reported from the participants’ domestic territories. With AAA’s debut at SPP 2019, the event organizers plan to help representatives of member Asian countries collaborate and exchange new business ideas and opportunities. In the future, SPP will work to expand the alliance to include major Asian institutions, corporations and media companies.
Participating countries are: China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The AAA launch ceremony is scheduled for Monday, July 15 from 9:00 – 9:30 at the Millennium Seoul Hilton, Atrium (3F).
Also new this year is SPP’s Asia New Direction track, or AND. At AND, many major Asian agencies, corporations, media companies, distributors, producers, and other professionals will gather to share and discuss entertainment content market conditions in member countries with an eye towards stimulating new business collaboration and project development. The program is targeted towards TV programming, acquisition & development, distribution and licensing. As the alliance grows, SPP hope to position AND as the event’s dedicated Asia Focus program.
AND takes place Monday, July 15 from 10:00 – 15:40 at the Millennium Seoul Hilton, Atrium (3F).
The lineup of panels and participating companies presenting includes:
AbemaTV, Japan – Manami Kabashima, Executive Producer, Animation & Drama Division.
Astro, Malaysia - Ezura Marissa Hanafi, Assistant Vice President, International & Kids Content
CCTV, China - Feng Huan, Director, Business Strategy Development Center
CH3 (BEC), Thailand - Kaneearch Dandumrongsuk, Program Acquisition
EBS, Korea - Thomas Hankil NAM, Head of Animations
MangoTV, China - Ren Xu, Deputy General Manager, Copyright Management Center
RTV, Indonesia - Artine Utomo, Chief Executive Officer
VTV7, Vietnam - Le Thang, Creative Producer & Sales Executive
The Conference
SPP’s main Conference covers trending topics related to animation and webtoons. The industry's best experts will present and share their views on industry trends and future vision.
The track takes place July 16-17 at the Millennium Seoul Hilton, Atrium (3F).
The Conference program includes the following:
July 16 - Conferences for Animation Producers
Session 1: 10:00 - 10:50 | Digital Short Ani - Now, it is Hot?
Juliana Koranteng, Consultant, Editor-in-Chief / JayKay Media Inc Ltd
Session 2: 11:00 - 11:50 | Global Animation Trends
Mark Worden, Consultant / Mark Worden Company
Session 3: 13:00 - 13:50 | Be Brave! New Korean Animation Challengers
Yang Jungwoo, CEO, Executive Producer / Studio Shelter
Rafy, CEO / Laftel
Lee Jaeha, COO / Red Dog Culture House
Cho Kyunghun, CEO / Studio Animal Co. Ltd.
Moderator: Kim Hyeonsu, Journalist / CINE 21
Session 4: 14:00 - 14:50 | Ani For Sale: The Age of Goods-selling Animation
Kim Hyeonsu, Journalist / CINE 21
Session 5: 15:00 - 15:50 | Animation Viewer Behavior Research
David Kleeman, SVP for Global Trends / Dubit
Session 6: 16:00 - 16:50 | A:Lab & Time for Planning: What is changing?
Woo KyungMin, CEO, Director / Brickstudio
Shin TaeSik, CEO, Director / 38℃ Animation Studio
Meang JooGong, CCO, Director / Million Volt Animation Studios
Ahn Byoungwook, Director / Million Volt Animation Studios
Moderator: Katie Eunsun Lee, Deputy General Manager / CJ ENM
July 17 - Conference for Webtoon Businesses
Session 1: 14:00 - 14:50 | T B D
Anni Chen, CEO / Kuaikan World
Session 2: 15:00 - 15:50 | Super IP Incubation in the Platform Era
Hong Minyoung, Director / Kakao Page Corp.
IGNITE
SPP’s IGNITE track provides a forum for a series of high-level content companies to present their offerings and promote opportunities for business development with attending buyers and production companies. Sessions are scheduled for each of the 3 days as follows:
July 15
Session 1: 15:30 - 16:30 | Youku (China)
YOUKU KIDS Project Launching and Sharing Experience on IP Incubation and Development
YOUKU is a video sharing platform based in Beijing, China that provides music, music video, drama, and movies. In January 2010, Youku.com ranked first in the Chinese Internet video category, according to CR-Nielsen, an Internet statistical provider.
Session 2: 16:30 - 17:30 | BAMHANEUL (Korea)
Virtual Guardians Business Briefing
BAMHANEUL GEURIMJARI is an animation studio based in Seoul, Korea. Since its establishment in 2015, the studio has focused on creating animation, developing expertise on creative planning, production, management and animation business while producing several commercial films and animation for broadcast.
July 16
Session 3: 17:00 - 18:00 | EBS Media (Korea)
Baby Bus Business Briefing
EBS Media operates KIDS channel of Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) based in Seoul, Korea. EBS Media's business areas include characters, DVDs, brodcasting rights, direct publishing, proxy publishing school support, education development, broadcasting sponsorship, performance business, and educational and cultural events.
July 17
Session 4: 10:00 - 11:00 | TikTok (Korea)
TikTok: Global Short Video Community
TikTok is the world’s biggest platform for short-form mobile videos. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones, so users of TikTok can make short video within 15 minutes easily. In 2018, TikTok was one of the most downloaded apps in the world.
Session 5: 11:00 - 11:30 | Itoys (China)
Successful Legend Hero in Indonesia from iToys AC
Itoys is a global toy licensing company located in China. Itoys combines a variety of license covering a wide range of toys that delight and encourage children of every age. Itoys’ R&D teams monitor market trends to keep the pace with the dynamic requirements of new toys.
For more information on SPP, visit the conference website.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
