By Ryan Tuchow and Cole Watson

There’s no “i” in team, but there were plenty of them at Kidscreen Summit on Monday, as innovation, intentionality and improvisation emerged as the themes of the day. 

Duncan Wardle, a former head of innovation at Disney who was responsible for many of the company’s key innovations over 20 years, opened Kidscreen Summit 2023 by challenging creatives and execs to mix up boring meetings and stop saying “no, but…” to one another. His top takeaways? Hire a “naive expert” (for example, he hired a chef to consult with a team of architects on Disney Shanghai’s build, leading to Bao-inspired design and a catchy slogan), and use improv staple “yes, and” to inspire creativity and turn an individual’s ideas into group projects. Thinking more like a child (less reductively) gives you a much stronger chance of making your creative ideas a reality. 

Following this opening keynote, execs from eOne (Olivier Dumont), Invisible Universe (Nerissa Holder Hall) and Paramount Consumer Products & Experiences (Veronica Hart) broke down their secrets to successfully building modern franchises. “Go to the toy store,” said Dumont, president of family brands at eOne. It may seem obvious, but with so much of our lives playing out online now, it was sage advice from one of the biggest brains in the business. 

New approaches to cultivating fan communities toplined “The Kingdom of Fandom” panel, where Mattel Television’s Christopher Keenan, eOne and My Little Pony exec producer Cort Lane and BBC Studio’s Suzy Raia discussed new and established tool that major brands are using to cultivate fans in a fractured mediaverse. Keenan touched on Mattel Television’s strategies for engaging younger Barbie fans (preschool) with animated content, while still serving the brand’s adult fans with releases like this summer’s Margot Robbie starrer Barbie. Lane talked about the critical importance of serving longtime fans with exclusive content and consumer products, while bringing new fans in through mass media. And Raia emphasized the importance of taking a strategic approach to “reaching fans where they are,” and tailoring approaches to platforms like TikTok. 

In “Pandemic Aftershocks: A kids mental health check-up with Sesame Workshop,” the non-profit company joined YouTube and Headspace on stage to encourage the industry to take a deep breath and think about creating content that addresses the wellbeing of children. From meditation exercises with Elmo, to Headspace’s videos with Star Wars, the panelists reflected on content they made during the pandemic and noted that the demand for meditation and mindfulness resources remains strong. 

To close out the first day, Linda Schulyer—creator of long-running teen series Degrassi—brought the audience at a “We Say Gay” panel discussion to tears with anecdotes about her poignant experience as a teacher, which inspired her to create Degrassi. She was flanked by Lucia Baez-Geller (a Miami-Dade school board member) and Nadine Smith (executive director of nonprofit org Equality Florida), who provided insights on what is happening to schools in Florida under the Don’t Say Gay bill, and why content creators are uniquely poised to help embattled LGBTQ+ youth. 

Throughout the day, speakers shared their new strategies for launching new IPs for kids, ranging from TV and films to more unconventional formats such as video games and podcasts. David DiLorenzo, Future Today’s kids & family SVP, said that the key to succeeding in today’s market is developing a strong co-viewing experience. Last year, the LA-based distributor picked up 150-plus family films for its children’s AVOD platform HappyKids when it determined that more than 60% of its kids audience watched content with a sibling or a parent.

Meanwhile, execs from ZAG, Tinkercast, Retlaw Enterprises and Rovio Entertainment discussed how to engage audiences directly by developing new brand activations. Crowds are slowly coming back post-pandemic, and are hunting for more intimate live events and budget-friendly experiences to connect with their favorite brands, said Meredith Halpern-Ranzler, Tinkercast’s co-founder and chief executive. Retlaw president Eddie Newquist added that educational facilities such as museums and science centers are fantastic opportunities for lower-scale activations because they can emotionally resonate with local communities and appeal to parents by providing new learning opportunities for their children.