Busi­ness Clinic

At a glance:
Strate­gic and Organ­i­sa­tion­al advice on max­imis­ing oper­a­tional work­flows, pipelines, and inter-depart­men­tal effi­cien­cies and col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:
Naïrye Apelian is spe­cialised in pro­vid­ing audit and organ­i­sa­tion­al sup­port tai­lored for the ani­ma­tion and VFX indus­try, with the help and con­tri­bu­tion of inter­nal teams.

She focus­es on enhanc­ing oper­a­tional work­flows, opti­mis­ing pro­duc­tion pipelines, and ensur­ing seam­less col­lab­o­ra­tion between departments.

Busi­ness Tips:

— Improve Your Organ­i­sa­tion : Con­duct in-depth audits to stream­line your work­flows, boost inter­de­part­men­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and enhance over­all effi­cien­cy in pro­duc­tion processes.

— Scale Your Stu­dio Effec­tive­ly : Receive strate­gic guid­ance on scal­ing oper­a­tions, opti­mis­ing resources, and enhanc­ing team man­age­ment to sup­port your studio’s growth with­out com­pro­mis­ing quality.

— Empow­er Your Teams with Train­ing : Equip your team mem­bers with essen­tial skills through tar­get­ed training.

At a glance:

Advice on best cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tion and brand build­ing tech­niques, to enable ani­ma­tion busi­ness­es to stand out, devel­op and grow.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:

Liberi Con­sult­ing: Spe­cial­is­ing in Mar­ket­ing, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Promotion

Liberi Con­sult­ing is a for­ward-think­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions agency offer­ing a ros­ter of bespoke ser­vices to help ani­ma­tion exec­u­tives and com­pa­nies define a dis­tinc­tive voice and posi­tion in the mar­ket. They pro­vide exec­u­tive coach­ing in the skills and exper­tise required to pro­mote your busi­ness across mul­ti­ple plat­forms. They under­stand the impor­tance and impact that com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills have on busi­ness and busi­ness devel­op­ment, man­age­ment, cor­po­rate cul­ture, and pro­fes­sion­al growth. Their goal is to help you define your voice and use it.

Busi­ness Tips:

— Offer­ing guid­ance on your cor­po­rate posi­tion­ing and messaging.

— Help­ing you lever­age your voice effec­tive­ly across all mar­ket­ing and PR activities.

— Assist­ing and help­ing in devel­op­ing strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions campaigns.

At a glance:

Legal advice on deal mak­ing in Europe and the US, with both tra­di­tion­al pro­duc­tion and new tech­nolo­gies in mind.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:

As a sea­soned attor­ney and legal expert work­ing in the ani­ma­tion sec­tor, with years of expe­ri­ence in both Europe and the US, Stéphane Lieser has cov­ered all aspects of the busi­ness from incep­tion to com­ple­tion and deliv­ery of projects. Today, deal-mak­ing in ani­ma­tion is fas­ci­nat­ing, as it involves inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy as well as tra­di­tion­al pro­duc­tion meth­ods. Legal and busi­ness play­ers must be up to this challenge.

Busi­ness Tips:

— Bal­anc­ing of inter­ests between authorship/​creation and the business/​market: always keep this equi­lib­ri­um in mind.

— No hand­shake deals. Always for­malise your agree­ment to secure you rights.

— The chain-of-title (« cot ») and prop­er insur­ance cov­er­age are two ele­ments to con­sid­er when nego­ti­at­ing a new ani­ma­tion project.

At a glance:

Advice on best cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tion and brand build­ing tech­niques, to enable ani­ma­tion busi­ness­es to stand out, devel­op and grow.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:

Liberi Con­sult­ing: Spe­cial­is­ing in Mar­ket­ing, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Promotion

Liberi Con­sult­ing is a for­ward-think­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions agency offer­ing a ros­ter of bespoke ser­vices to help ani­ma­tion exec­u­tives and com­pa­nies define a dis­tinc­tive voice and posi­tion in the mar­ket. They pro­vide exec­u­tive coach­ing in the skills and exper­tise required to pro­mote your busi­ness across mul­ti­ple plat­forms. They under­stand the impor­tance and impact that com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills have on busi­ness and busi­ness devel­op­ment, man­age­ment, cor­po­rate cul­ture, and pro­fes­sion­al growth. Their goal is to help you define your voice and use it.

Busi­ness Tips:

— Offer­ing guid­ance on your cor­po­rate posi­tion­ing and messaging. 

— Help­ing you lever­age your voice effec­tive­ly across all mar­ket­ing and PR activities.

— Assist­ing and help­ing in devel­op­ing strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions campaigns.

At a glance:
Legal advice on IP rights, employ­ment law when work­ing in France & effec­tive struc­tur­ing of con­tracts.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:
As a French lawyer spe­cial­is­ing in the ani­ma­tion sec­tor, Aurélie Orts­man assists ani­ma­tion stu­dios in safe­guard­ing their projects. At Car­toon Busi­ness, she will pro­vide legal exper­tise on key top­ics such as con­tract struc­tur­ing, intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty pro­tec­tion, and employ­ment law to both French stu­dios and inter­na­tion­al ones aim­ing to expand their activ­i­ties in France.

Busi­ness Tips:

— Secure intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty rights ear­ly to pro­tect your cre­ations and max­imise rev­enue opportunities. 

— Struc­ture clear and com­pre­hen­sive con­tracts to avoid dis­putes and ensure smooth collaborations. 

— Stay com­pli­ant with employ­ment law to safe­guard your stu­dio’s operations.

At a glance:

Advice on media financ­ing, project bud­get­ing, and nav­i­gat­ing tax incen­tives, espe­cial­ly in Belgium.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:

As the lead con­sul­tant and co-founder of Media Part­ners, Olja Rudic brings a wealth of expe­ri­ence in media finance, spe­cial­is­ing in sup­port­ing pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies and cre­ative mak­ers with busi­ness and finan­cial man­age­ment. At Car­toon Busi­ness, she will offer tar­get­ed advice on key issues such as project bud­get­ing, fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and nav­i­gat­ing tax incen­tives, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Bel­gian tax shel­ter mea­sure. Her goal is to empow­er par­tic­i­pants with the insights they need to suc­cess­ful­ly man­age their projects amid the indus­try’s evolv­ing landscape.

Busi­ness Tips:

The ani­ma­tion indus­try is known for its inno­va­tion and abil­i­ty to think beyond con­ven­tion­al paths. Olja believes that this mind­set should be extend­ed to man­ag­ing financ­ing options and bud­get­ing as well. 

— Don’t lim­it your­self to tra­di­tion­al fund­ing sources; explore alter­na­tive avenues, part­ner­ships, and tax incen­tives that can sup­port your cre­ative projects. 

— Embrace flex­i­bil­i­ty and bold­ness in your finan­cial plan­ning to nav­i­gate the ever-evolv­ing land­scape of animation—after all, ​“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

At a glance:

Strate­gist, focus­ing on new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties in the dig­i­tal space, with­in the cre­ator econ­o­my, and includ­ing the devel­op­ment of trans­me­dia brands. 

Pre­sen­ta­tion:
He works along­side Julien on devel­op­ing Medi­awan Kids & Family’s activ­i­ties, with a focus on new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties in the dig­i­tal space, par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in the cre­ator econ­o­my. His exper­tise also includes the trans­me­dia devel­op­ment of Medi­awan’s brands, from pod­casts and VR to gam­ing. He will be par­tic­i­pat­ing as a con­sul­tant to help guide the next gen­er­a­tion of cre­ators as they adapt to the con­stant­ly evolv­ing ani­ma­tion industry.

Busi­ness Tips:

— Cre­at­ing brands with­in the cre­ator econ­o­my: Focus on build­ing sus­tain­able brands by tap­ping into the cre­ator econ­o­my, lever­ag­ing con­tent and com­mu­ni­ties to grow your audience.

— Trans­me­dia sto­ry­telling: Expand your sto­ry­telling across mul­ti­ple plat­forms (TV, pod­casts, games, etc.) to engage with diverse audi­ences and max­i­mize the val­ue of your IP.

— Col­lab­o­rat­ing with lead­ing Euro­pean stu­dios: Inde­pen­dent cre­ators can great­ly ben­e­fit from work­ing with estab­lished stu­dios, gain­ing access to resources, exper­tise, and a wider net­work for distribution.

At a glance: 

Media finance con­sul­tants, pro­vid­ing project sup­port & out-sourced finan­cial man­age­ment. Spe­cial­is­ing in max­imis­ing cash­flow & advis­ing over­seas Stu­dios, look­ing to work/​set up in France, to take advan­tage of the avail­able subsidies.

Pre­sen­ta­tion:
A&P is a finan­cial con­sul­tan­cy for the cre­ative and cul­tur­al indus­tries. We pro­vide project sup­port, out­sourced finan­cial man­age­ment and ad-hoc assign­ments. Our spe­cial­i­sa­tion will focus on the key pil­lars of the sec­tor: - opti­mis­ing cash flow / - inte­grat­ing for­eign stu­dios in France in order to obtain pub­lic sub­si­dies for the devel­op­ment or pro­duc­tion of their projects / - any legal or finan­cial issue linked to the spe­cif­ic fea­tures of the market.

Busi­ness Tips:

— Under­stand the dif­fer­ence between account­ing and cash man­age­ment to avoid unpleas­ant surprises. 

— Set up report­ing and man­age­ment con­trol tools.

— Con­trol the legal chain right from the devel­op­ment stage to avoid los­ing out on the poten­tial rev­enue gen­er­at­ed (this has already happened!).

— Always think macro and then micro, so as not to rely on a sin­gle project.