Mumbai: Kids, Animation & More (KAM) Summit and Ann Awards are back again with yet another insightful and exciting edition. The second edition of KAM Summit and Ann Awards 2021 began virtually on Thursday.
AnimationXpress launched the first edition of the KAM Summit and Ann Awards in 2019 at The Lalit, Mumbai which saw a participation of about 700 delegates and 45 speakers. The industry has gone through a lot of changes since then.
One of the very few sectors that flourished tremendously during the lockdown period was Animation! A form of entertainment that is not reliant on production that presupposes physical gathering unlike live-action content and yet entertains children and adults alike.
The key theme of KAM Summit 2021 is ‘The Next Big Rise’. The three-day event will witness insightful sessions with industry leaders across studios, broadcasters, OTT platforms, creators as they discuss the options Indian animation has before itself and the direction it can take to propel it further. It will also focus on the medium’s expansion into myriad genres and platforms.
The mission of the KAM Summit is to celebrate the stupendously growing animation industry and to bring together the animation industries – both in India and internationally – to pause and reflect on trends and developments in every aspect of the business and technology associated with it.
With the animation industry’s creme de la creme on the advisory board, the summit is set to be a definitive virtual gathering and a vantage point for the entire animation industry.
The advisory members include Toonz Media Group CEO P Jayakumar, Vaibhav Studios founder and director Vaibhav Kumaresh, Zebu Animation CEO Adi Shayan, Green Gold Animations CEO Rajiv Chilaka, FICCI AVGC chairman and Punnaryug Artvision founder Ashish Kulkarni, Technicolor country head Biren Ghose, Assemblage Entertainment founder and CEO AK Madhavan, Walt Disney Animation Studios character technical director-simulation supervisor Avneet Kaur, Autodesk India technical solutions manager Samit Shetty, Joan Vogelesang Consultants president and CEO Joan Vogelesang and Srinivas Sribhakta who is the CEO of VedAtma Animation Studios, director & CEO at Arena Animation Malleswaram & Rajajinagar and secretary ABAI.
KAM Summit is presented by Nick and is co-powered by Cosmos-Maya, Unreal-Engine, and Discovery Kids. ABAI and COE are the associate partners and the event is supported by GUBBARE and HUION. Digicon6 Asia is the festival partner and ASIFA India serves as the community partner.
Viacom18 Hindi and Kids TV Network head Nina Elavia Jaipuria said, “The kids’ entertainment space is at a very exciting stage. With carefully curated IPs that are entertaining, engaging, and transport kids into a world of escape, it is no wonder that the category is on a growth trajectory. Since kids influence almost all major household purchase decisions and co-viewing of the genre, it is no wonder that kids’ channels remain attractive to advertisers. An event like KAM brings all the relevant stakeholders together- be it content creators, platform owners, or advertisers. It is collaborative forums such as this that will lead to greater storytelling and innovation in the sphere of kids’ entertainment.”
Unreal Engine Epic Games evangelist Arvind Neelakantan also expressed his excitement for the virtual summit. "Unreal Engine is reimagining storytelling and revolutionizing production pipelines for episodic, feature-length, and short-form animations. We are excited to be at the summit to see how we can enable creators to transform their first idea into a final frame, all using Unreal,” he said.
In its statement, Cosmos-Maya said, “The KAM Summit is an effort to take the Indian animation industry global and also celebrate our landmark achievements as an industry. As a leading industry player Cosmos-Maya is happy to be part of an industry-wide initiative like this and we expect it to be a great event. An opportunity to make any new professional collaborations would be the cherry on the cake.”
YOTTA serves as the workstation and OTT service partner whereas Green Gold Animation is the summit partner.
In a statement, YOTTA Infrastructure said, “Technology has been powering content creators and digital platforms. At Yotta, we are democratizing technology by offering innovative solutions on a subscription model. This is the first time we are participating in the KAM Summit 2021, and looking forward to presenting our solutions for Creative content creators and OTT Players/Broadcasters."
Green Gold Animation stated, “Animation as a medium has been evolving to accommodate the changes or rather the growth in reach and access along with the technology of the industry. The digital platforms have opened up the world of content across the world. With storytelling itself no longer bound by regions and language, the animation is gaining acceptance across age groups with the myriad tales that appeal to human emotions and shared experiences that we all share during our lives. We look forward to sharing our bit of experience gained along our journey and be privy to the same from the various participants and speakers at KAM 2021.”
ABAI president Biren Ghose who has been supporting the initiative also as an advisory board member shared, "ABAI is delighted to present the "go-to-market" strategy and the traction it has achieved for the Center Of Excellence that has provided high-end technology solutions; incubation and a subsidised set of infrastructure to the start-up community at Bengaluru. The finishing school is in the process of taking its talent development mission to high-tech areas in virtual production and game engine technologies and also to act as a hub for the virtualisation of the digital arts education programme. No industry association has been able to show multi-million-dollar support to the community like ABAI has done thanks to the Government of Karnataka and the KAVGC Policy.”
Keeping the ongoing lockdowns and work from home stress in mind, this year’s KAM Summit will be held in two parts of the day; morning sessions will be from 10 am and evening sessions will be held from 5/6:00 pm.
We are excited to bring to you this massive extravaganza and information-loaded KAM summit to make the animation industry propel to new heights.
Click here for the complete KAM SUMMIT 2021 Agenda
For additional information and for Summit Registration kindly visit the KAM SUMMIT 2021
