The digital revolution will factor heavily into this year’s KidScreen Summit, as top experts and executives in kids programming and marketing converge on the Big Apple for the conference’s seventh edition. This year’s summit will run at the New York Hilton, Feb. 8-10.

The 2006 summit, an offshoot of KidScreen, published by Brunico Communications, which also publishes Playback, will have a strong focus on digital distribution of content to emerging platforms – from broadband to wireless devices – according to Sandra du Preez, KidScreen’s director of event development.

‘Everyone wants to know how to [get involved] and whom to partner with,’ says du Preez. ‘It’s relevant this year, which is why we’re dedicating so much time to it. We touched on it at last year’s summit, but not nearly with the level of detail we will this year.’

This year’s event will feature eight panels with a digital media theme, such as the Heirs Apparent? Meet the Digital Content Providers panel, with Malcolm Bird, SVP at AOL, and moderator Doug Murphy, Nelvana’s EVP, business development.

Another session will explore creating mobile and broadband content for the new age, featuring Jonathon Millman, director of Decode Entertainment’s interactive division, and Art Roche, creative director of Cartoon Network’s new media and online divisions.

Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) – a vocal advocate for stricter regulations on marketing to children – will deliver a keynote address to a roomful of people who market to children. Du Preez is anticipating one of the most provocative speeches ever delivered at the conference.

Bonita Siegel, Corus Entertainment’s director of original production, and Steven DeNure, a partner at Decode, will be part of the Fine Art of Co-production panel, about finding the right production partners and meeting the needs of all involved.

‘Because funding is at a premium, people are having to bring on more and more coproduction partners, so there’s the whole issue of who gets what,’ says Lana Castleman, KidScreen’s managing editor. ‘How do you split the rights? How do you split the back end? It’s getting more and more complicated.’

Panels about specific demographics, retail, and building kids lifestyle brands will also be featured.

Returning to the summit are the 30 Minutes With sessions, in which a top executive in kids entertainment – be it a television programmer, toymaker or licensing consultant – will field questions from up to 35 preregistered delegates about industry trends and the ins and outs of making an impression at their companies. According to du Preez, the 30 Minutes chats have become a popular attraction at the conference for producers.

‘It’s invaluable face time with elusive kids programming executives,’ she says. ‘Regular producers would never have this time with these people.’

Canadians such as Kim Wilson, CBC’s creative head of children’s and youth programming, and Siegel will participate in the 30 Minutes chats. Reps from international companies including BBC, Nickelodeon, Fisher-Price, Cartoon Network, PBS and others will also be available for brain-picking. Many of the 30 Minutes Chats overlap with each other and other panels, so delegates will have to pick strategically among them.

Wilson, who attended the KidScreen Summit for the first time last year as CBC’s deputy creative head of kids programming and sat in on a few of these sessions, says she enjoyed the intimacy of the discussions, adding they are useful for everyone involved. The featured buyers can underline exactly what they look for in a seller’s pitch, while the sellers get a sense of the dos and don’ts when pitching, and an idea of the speaker’s management style.

‘You get a little more insight into the person picking the programs – what their personality is like – and I think that always helps if you are trying to do a good pitch,’ says Wilson. ‘As a broadcaster, I’m happy to give as much information as I can to help people, because it only helps me in the end.’

Siegel and Madeleine Levesque, director of original programming at Teletoon, will participate in the speed pitching sessions on Feb. 10, where producers will have three minutes to impress them and eight other programming and acquisition executives from an international array of broadcasters. Feb. 8 will be dedicated to workshops.

According to du Preez, the 2006 edition is on track to be the biggest KidScreen Summit in terms of delegate participation. She is anticipating 1,100 attendees this year, up from 850 last year.

www.kidscreensummit.com/2006