Senior executives from Disney, Nickelodeon, Apple, Netflix, BBC, RTÉ and Turner—as well as Oscar-nominated director Peter Lord (The Pirates! Band of Misfits) and renowned Pixar animator Bobby Podesta (Cars 3)—will be among the key industry professionals attending the sixth-annual Animation Dingle conference in Ireland later this week.

Taking place from March 23 to 24, Animation Dingle brings together industry participants and students to celebrate leading animation from Ireland and around the world. The event is co-founded by JAM Media CEO John Rice and Dingle International Film Festival head Maurice Galway,

This year’s edition will feature panels, workshops, the 2018 International Student Animation Awards and screenings of more than 120 shorts and features.

Other industry notables heading to Dingle include Apple’s new head of children’s programming, Tara Sorensen (ex-Amazon Studios), Disney Channels EMEA VP of programming, production and strategic development, David Levine, and L.A.-based creature designer Dan Katcher, who is best known for his dragon design work on HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones.

Along with recognizing emerging students, the festival also presents The Murakami Award for outstanding achievement in animation. This year, the award will go to Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O’Connell of Brown Bag Films (Doc McStuffins, Vampirina). Previous winners include Jimmy T. Murakami (The Snowman), Richie Baneham (Avatar) and Tomm Moore (Song of the Sea).

Additional conference activities include five-minute speed pitching sessions, a charity-based sketch competition event entitled The Big Pitcher (where one winning student will be offered a six-month paid internship at JAM Media), and a festival pass to Cartoon Springboard.

Animation Dingle, which is funded by Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Film Board, features a one-to-one female to male ratio and a 50/50 ratio of students to industry participants. The full conference lineup can be found here.