The Karnataka Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics (KAVGC) Summit this year received an amazing response with students and professionals from all across the city as well as professionals from all over the country attending the event.
At the inaugural of KAVGC Summit 2011. (L to R) Balakrishna M.R., President, ABAI;Rajat Jain, Chairman, Mobile2Win;Sri. M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary IT BT S&T & eGovernance;Dominic Casey, Consulate General of France; BIren Ghose, Chairman, ABAI and Country Head Technicolor India
Inaugural ceremony of the summit held at Nimhans Convention Center, Bangalore was graced by Sri. M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary IT BT S&T & eGovernance; Dominic Casey, Consulate General of France; Rajat Jain, Chairman, Mobile2Win; BIren Ghose, Chairman, ABAI and Country Head Technicolor India and Balakrishna M.R., President, ABAI.
The event this year had a very positive vibe about it as Sri. M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary IT BT S&T & eGovernance told the audience that the government of Karnataka is with the industry and will do whatever it takes to develop the AVGC sector in state.
“If its Animation, it must be Bangalore and we should think how we should make it happen. The government of Karnataka will support the AVGC summit annually and would want to make it a 2 day event”, he added.
He also mentioned that the AVGC Policy will be announced on 18th Oct 2011 at the annual IT.biz this year which is going to be inaugurated by former President of India and renowned scientist Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. This exclusive policy for the AVGC sector by the Government of Karnataka will address various problem areas of the segment.
The keynote speaker Rajat Jain, Chairman, Mobile2Win spoke about the Changing Indian Landscape when it comes to the media space and touched on the growth around 3D and wireless networks, increasing consumer awareness, technology around internet and mobile which is growing dramatically.
He stated that the mobile market in India is huge and the second largest in the world and in the next 3-4 years it’s going to cross a billion cell phones. One of the important things in the growth would be user generated content, the plank on which many businesses are based today popular example being YouTube.
“Newer platforms are getting introduced every day. The internet medium is taking over entertainment, education, healthcare and ecommerce. And this in turn is giving rise to newer content opportunities”, he added.
According to Rajat the revenue models in the content space have also undergone change in the last 20 years from being completely advertising driven to being dominated by subscription model along with advertising. Internet is still considerably free till now and that is an area to be addressed.
Rajat says, “It’s about delivering decent quality at affordable cost and the way forward is building brands. Build it for 10 years and reap it for many years, till it goes to public domain”. Investors today are looking for scalable idea, sustainable IP value and content ownership, patented technologies, annuity revenue models and significant cost arbitrage possibilities.
Talking about the role that government can play in the development of the media sector Rajat said, “The governments in established media markets like Canada, France, Korea have played a significant role in the development of the media and entertainment industry. Destination building is something that the government has to do here as well.”
Balakrishna M.R., President, ABAI said the objective of the ABAI festival and KAVGC Summit is to bring people with expertise in the industry together for knowledge sharing and for the overall growth of the industry. And to accelerate the growth of the industry it is essential to have support from the government.
Biren Ghose, Chairman, ABAI spoke about the huge change taking place in the way in which content is being viewed and managed.
Describing the growth of the AVGC sector in India he said that the growth of the industry has happened in phases. Phase one was Outsourcing, Phase two was companies turning to Co production with international as well as local studios and wanting to own a little part of the project they were working on., Phase three saw the first seeds of local content being sown and Phase four is right now where we are working more and more on developing Intellectual properties.
Biren showcased the reel of some of the work done in Technicolor India which featured popular properties like Penguins of Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda Series, Fan Boy and Chum Chum which served as the showcase of the high quality work being done in Bangalore.
He touched on the subject of AVGC education and said that not enough is being done in areas of Art Schools, there should be a bridge to connect the art schools with the digital world. He also felt the need of specialised training for management in the AVGC sector.