The Bengaluru B2B AVGC Summit, which is to be held on 16-17 November 2017, has announced some new additions to the list of buyers who will be coming to the event to enable a vibrant trading market.
Amongst these figure: Nitin Kalra, Juan Sotelo, Tomás Canchola Saldaña, Vijay Jung Thapa, Disney India associate director of animation development & production Shilpa Verma, director – DCVI and Disney India animation development and production Ravindra Acharya and Goquest Media Ventures managing director Vivek Lath.
Emphasising more on this, B2B summit convenor and ABAI vice-president Ganesh Papanna says, ” All efforts will be put to ensure that every buyer’s expectations and every seller’s needs will be met thereby resulting in positive results leading to success of this innovative and unique event. We have been very encouraged and supported by the honourable IT BT minister of Karnataka, Priyank Kharge and his team to work in this direction.”
More than 100 pitches over 800 pitch slots over two days will be made to the various buyers – including the main 20 ones – at the ABAI Bengaluru B2B AVGC Summit. Keeping in mind the preferences of pitchers, the precious time and requirements of buyers, a unique scheduling process has been put in place to ensure that everyone’s time is well spent for mutual benefits over these two days.
ABAI committee members point out that the summit is a pure B2B marketplace and not a conference or seminar for audience participation. Says one of them: “It is open only to the pitchers. The idea is to increase current and future prospects for generating and selling creative IP. Some parallel interactions and discussions pertaining to this theme will also take place. It’s a revolutionary and path breaking attempt to promote the business of AVGC. Our kudos to the sponsors the Karnataka government’s ITBT department which supports the power of ideas and have given us this encouragement to build a pioneering platform.”
Details of the new buyers are as follows:
Nitin Kalra
AI Licensing (SAARC Region) India director
Nitin Kalra is the director for SAARC Region at AI Licensing India, a company part of the Hong Kong based Animation International Limited. Under his leadership the company manages the licensing and merchandising business for several popular global brands such as Doraemon, Shin Chan, Archie Comics, Garfield, Cut the Rope, Hallmark Design Collection, Hallmark Babies, Albert Einstein, Withit Studios besides others.
The company also has a strong trading, corporate sales and wholesale cash-n-carry business. Under his leadership, the company has also expanded operations in the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and even markets like Turkey and Dubai.
Juan Sotelo
Mighty Animation head of production
Mighty Animation head of production Juan Sotelo
Juan Sotelo is the head of production of Mighty Animation Studio. It is a studio specialised in creating meaningful intellectual property for children. Mighty produces 2D and 3D animation for new digital platforms. The studio was founded at a crucial time in the entertainment industry, when different platforms of content were opening new formats for the world like digital streaming, video on demand and smart devices.
Already the signature properties are designed to cross platforms in the digital world; Juan Futbol was developed as a short web series for social media, and already made its way to the small screen on Cartoon Network Latin-America, now it’s crossing into the virtual reality world. Also, Charlie M is an animated television program that encourages interactivity in a second screen, where children can contribute to the story in real time with their own tablets, at home.
Tomás Canchola Saldaña
Canal Once producer
Tomás is the producer of Central Once, the youth channel of the Mexican TV station Canal Once. His work is focused on developing quality shows focused on the new generation of viewers including producing music, sports, scientific and current issues programs. These programs are transmitted in national and international open signals, web platforms and social networks of Canal Once. His specialty lies in photography and production of documentaries. Urban cyclist concern about the mobility in his city.
Vijay Jung Thapa
Hotstar head – content
Vijay Jung Thapa has more than 25 years of experience in content creation working across print, TV and digital domains. For the last decade, he has been focused mainly on the digital space, particularly working on content strategies for multiple audiences in different genres like entertainment and sports. As head of content for Hotstar for the last five years, he shaped a content creation and acquisition strategy through consumer insights that has led to a 100-million audience on the platform. He has worked and built good relationships with top content creators, both in India and abroad to develop a pipeline of originals and branded-content projects.
Vivek Lath
Goquest Media Ventures managing director
Vivek Lath is the managing director of Goquest Media Ventures, India’s largest independent distributor of television and digital content. He established Goquest Media in 2013 as a distributor of Indian content and has evolved into a distributor of global content across India, South East Asia, Africa and MENA. Most recently, Lath also launched Goquest Formats, an independent format development and distribution vertical. He is looking for distribution/investment in episodic animation IPs. His focus is kids animation series with global stories.
The last two names of the summit includes Shilpa Verma who is an associate director of animation development and production and Ravindra Acharya who is director – DCVI and animation development and production.
