Content Reigns Supreme. New Digital Landscapes in Publishing and Licensing.

Laura Abril is Head of ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) EMEA & Asia and Senior Vice President All Brands for ViacomCBS Networks for all markets across South Europe and Middle East. In her role as Head of VIS EMEA & Asia, Laura Abril is responsible for content development, production and content sales across Southern, Western, Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia, which includes securing partnerships with key media stakeholders in the industry, including talent, production companies, broadcasters, streamers and more. As SVP Brands for South Europe and Middle East, she leads the editorial teams across these markets, overseeing the full editorial strategy, including Marketing, Production and Programming.

Laura Abril joined Viacom International Media Networks in 2009, as VP of Editorial for MTV Spain; in 2014 she was promoted to VP Youth & Music Brands for South Europe, Middle East and Africa and after that she took the responsibility of Kids and Family too being promoted as SVP. She was later promoted as SVP Multi-brand for Iberia and Head of ViacomCBS International Studios Southern and Western Europe, Middle East and Africa. 

With over 20 years’ experience in the licensing and kids entertainment business, Cristina has a background in marketing, public relations, communication, sales, and business development.

Tasked by BolognaFiere to build a brand new entertainment and licensing section, she was instrumental in launching the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair in 2008, Italy’s only Italian licensing event, and one of the major meetings in Europe. Taking place in conjunction with the Bologna Children's Book Fair, the trade show has become a reference point for kids licensing with international key players. 

Following her expertise in building trade publications, Cristina is now editor-in-chief, on behalf of Bm srl, of Licensing Magazine, a leading b2b publication in digital and paper format distributed all over the world.

She is also a consultant on several animation projects to be launched as brand-new IPs on the market, following every step - from concept through financing to the final marketing strategy and launch - supporting companies to build business networks.

She debuted her career in 2000 in Rai, the Italian Public Broadcaster, where she worked for almost 10 years in different departments: acquisitions and TV special projects for the kids' channel, RaiSat Ragazzi; business development at RaiTrade (today RaiCom), and organization as coordinator of Cartoons on the Bay, a major European Animation Festival. 

Gabriela Arenas serves as Vice President of Licensing, North America, for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street. Arenas oversees the strategic development, direction, and implementation of the consumer products licensing and venue merchandise activities across all major categories of goods including toys, apparel, home furnishings, stationery and gifts, as well as content driven licensing categories such as publishing, music, apps, home entertainment and podcasts.

Arenas continues to expand and diversify the organization’s consumer products’ offering so that fans across generations have new ways to enjoy Sesame Street, and create unique opportunities for them to contribute to the causes they care about. Under her leadership, Sesame Workshop’s consumer products support and amplify the organization’s philanthropic efforts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Workshop launched the Caring For Each Other, an initiative to help children and families cope, Arenas’s team developed Heroes Wear Masks — a picture book to support kids through an unusual back-to-school season. Special books, customizable apparel, and plush featuring Julia, the first Sesame Street Muppet with autism, have been delighting families and highlighting the Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children initiative since 2017. Most recently, Arenas oversaw Sesame Street’s 50^th anniversary collaborations with strategic partners such as TOMS, Bombas, Out of Print, and DIFF Eyewear, who, like Sesame Workshop, also believe in giving back to families in need. Other key partners that Arenas manages include Google, Amazon, Champion, Hasbro and P&G.

Prior to joining Sesame Workshop, Arenas served as Group Director of Licensing, North America and Latin America, for HIT Entertainment/Mattel, where she successfully launched an extensive Thomas the Tank Engine consumer products program across Latin America—significantly increasing the revenue and driving sell-through in key categories of business. While at HIT, she also held the role of Vice President, Licensing, Latin America, where she managed consumer product sales, marketing and retail operations, and Brand Director, where she led brand direction and content strategies for key entertainment properties. In addition, Arenas has worked at Mattel, Inc. Fisher-Price in the capacity of Marketing Director and Senior International Marketing Manager.

Arenas earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication and Science, and an Executive Post Graduate certificate in Marketing from Universidad Anahuac in Mexico. She attended New York University for Global Marketing and e-Commerce Business Management. She resides in New York City with her family.  

Nadine Billard is currently SVP of Content Acquisitions & Strategic Partnerships at Odilo, a leading Ed-Tech company with HQ in Madrid, Spain. Nadine is a publishing executive with 30+ years of experience in senior-level sales, marketing, licensing, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships roles for both start-ups and established firms such as PRH, HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill, Berlitz, and more. She brings deep knowledge of both Trade, Educational, and eCommerce channels in international and domestic markets. 

With over 20 years industry experience, Susan has been a licensee, agent and licensor working with and for some of the biggest names in Character and Brand licensing. Susan began her licensing career at BBC Worldwide managing in-house pre-school brands as part of the Global Brand Development team before going on to Italian publishing house, DeAgostini where she co-ordinated global product roll-outs for brands such as STAR WARS and THE LORD OF THE RINGS franchises.   Prior to joining Penguin Random House Susan spent almost 10 years at award winning global licensing agency, CPLG, as European Publishing Director representing some of Hollywood’s biggest studios including Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and blockbuster movie franchises such as DESPICABLE ME, SHREK and STAR TREK . Susan played a pivotal role in setting up Penguin Ventures (part of Penguin Random House UK) the team she heads up in her current position as Licensing and Consumer Products Director. She has a remit to grow the children’s divisions’ wholly owned brands including PETER RABBIT and THE SNOWMAN, both in the UK and internationally across licensing and consumer products, and was most recently an executive producer on the Peter Rabbit Movie, which took over $350m at the global box office. 

Ivan Colecchia is SVP Global Development at Kidz Global, a quantitative market research and consulting firm specializing in children, teens and family-friendly consumer markets, covering 44 countries in all continents. Specializing in the broad child-orientated consumer market, the company’s focus includes, but is not limited to, licensing, toys & games, video-games, entertainment, digital devices, advertising, FMCG and education.

After 20 years’ experience in a broad range of market research - kids, FMCG, sports, beauty, and restaurants - Ivan joined Kidzglobal in 2011. A much-appreciated expert in the licensing and kids business worldwide, he is frequently asked to speak at kids content licensing conferences.

Silvia Figini is COO of Sanrio GmbH (EMEA, Oceania and India) and Mister Men Limited (Worldwide). She joined the company in December 2019, bringing her consolidated experience working on both the licensor and licensee side.With a strong financial-consultant background and 20 years’ experience at Disney and Egmont Publishing, Silvia manages an international team and is a key strategic guide for the business development of Sanrio’s iconic characters.

Literary Agent / Publishing Consultant with over 20 years’ experience in International Rights and Licensing sales of children and adult publications. During this time, Cristina has gained in-depth knowledge of the publishing industry working closely with authors, editorial, marketing and sales teams. In her career, she has applied her extensive experience to manage projects and organise world-wide co-editions of ambitious novelty projects with licenses like Disney and Warner Bros as well as specialist publishers like London Stereo Company, whose Queen in 3D was written by Brian May. She also represents authors of YA and Middle Grade. Fluent in five European languages and based in the UK where she lives with her family, Cristina is a passionate reader and enjoys working with other book lovers. She is also a long term member of the Motovun Group of International Publishers. 

Marc Goodchild is Head of Digital Content Strategy & Product, Kids, EMEA, WarnerMedia and has been with the company since January 2017.  In this role, he is responsible for the overall content strategy and digital content vision for EMEA, working in close collaboration with all regional content and digital teams. He also leads the EMEA Digital Product group for the Kids division and provides support and editorial guidance to the local heads of digital, alongside the central research, commercial, advertising sales, marketing, PR and franchise management teams. Goodchild is an award-winning television producer and digital executive with a 20-year track record in broadcast, production and the start-up community His career includes a mix of senior director, producer and executive roles in TV and Digital at Disney and the BBC, and on commissions for Discovery and Channel 4. 

Neal Hoskins runs WingedChariot, an events and publications consultancy that focuses on digital publishing projects. Alongside his work with the Bologna Children’s book fair digital strategy he works for Tomi Ungerer online and on special app and web publishing projects across the globe.

Brett Jubinville is the Head of Distribution for Skyship Entertainment, creators of Super Simple Songs. In addition to working closely with Skyship’s distribution partners, Brett also spearheaded the creation of the Super Simple mobile app, and is currently focused on building Skyship’s educational initiative. 

Strategist, analyst, author, speaker, connector — David Kleeman has led the children’s media industry in developing sustainable, child-friendly practices for 35 years. He began this work as President of the American Center for Children and Media and is now SVP of Global Trends for Dubit, a strategy/research consultancy and digital studio. David is advisory board chair to the international children’s TV festival PRIX JEUNESSE and serves/served on several other media and media literacy boards.  

After gaining experience as a freelancer working on several important international productions, in 1997 Federica founded Italy’s first services company in the animated cartoons industry, managing both the studio and customer relations. After this service provision experience working with international producers, in 2003 she founded Enamimation S.r.l., an animation production company developing new IPs. The company seeks out IPs prevalently in the publishing/multimedia sector, developing them into television products for an international audience. In recent years, Federica has put the accent on her producer and executive producer skills as the company has developed its creative and artistic production services. IPs produced include: the award-winning Tv series “Uffa che Pazienza!” inspired by Andrea Pazienza’s book “Favole”, the international co-production of the playstation game Mini Ninjas”, and the “Nina&Olga” Tv series based on the “La nuvola Olga”  book series by Nicoletta Costa and soon to be released on Rai networks. 

Nick is the founder and CEO of The Insights People, the global leader in kids, parents and families market intelligence. Nick has become a go-to-expert and a regular speaker at industry events across the US, Europe and Asia. The business is the only provider of real-time data and insights on kids, parents and family attitudes, behaviour and consumption – surveying more than 362,000 children and 177,000 parents across five continents every year for companies such as Amazon, Formula 1, Mattel and Warner Bros. You can find him on Twitter @nickinsights and Kids Insights @kidsinsights. 

Jade St-Laurent (MBA E-Business and Digital Strategy) specialises in digital and data-driven project management for the media industry. She has put in place a Data Management Platform at Bayard Presse to develop the digital subscription of La Croix, the French daily newspaper. Jade is also the marketing director of Bayard’s mobile app for kids that works through a subscription model. 

Juliet's career in media spans over 25 years. Following an early career in the art department of television dramas, Juliet moved into digital media in 2000, where she specialised in delivering interactive projects with a broadcast tie-in and a focus on the children and families audience. Juliet joined Plug-in Media in 2007 and as CEO has led the company’s growth and success, establishing it as one of the UK’s leading digital production companies, working across animation and games, and the winner of multiple awards, including 5 BAFTAs. Since 2013 Juliet has been leading the company’s original IP strategy, driving the ‘digital-first’ success of Tee and Mo, from 10 web games via short-form content, to a 50x7’ animated TV series, with a Youtube channel that has amassed over 240 million views. In 2011, Juliet was also shortlisted for the Women in Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award. She is also a Non-executive Director for Wired Sussex and on the advisory board of The Children’s Media Conference. 

Sebastian Wehner is co-founder and CEO of Wolkenlenker, a brand development studio based in Berlin, Germany. Sebastian is the creative producer behind all Wolkenlenker’s products, including award-winning TV productions, games, picture books and audiobooks. He is also co-founder and CEO of Wonderz, a company whose mission is to enable content creators publish any kind of content of their entertainment brand in one app with the help of WunderBox, a robust and flexible multimedia publishing platform for children’s publishers.