The Goethe-Institut in collaboration with AnimationSA will host the final Cav’ Platform Dialogue Forum for 2022 on the 26 August 2022 at the Cape Town International Animation Festival CTIAF. This will be a hybrid event both in-person and live streamed through the AnimationSA and Cav’ Platform Facebook groups.
Following two highly successful Cav’ Platform Dialogue Forums in Johannesburg and Durban earlier this year, the Cape Town Dialogue Forum will cover the latest trends and opportunities in licensing and merchandising in the animation community. This is an important piece of the animation value chain however only few industry players know much about it. It is a complex industry that has its own challenges and opportunities.
“The dialogue forums has seen the animation industry engaging with itself as well as with the public sector and the Cav’ Platform a project of Goethe – Institut have been honoured to have been part of this process and hope such engagements continue beyond the scope of this project,” said Bandile Gumbi Cav’ Platform Project Manager.
Licensing and merchandising is a new industry to most animators and is as complex if not more than the animation itself. It is vital that we understand this critical arm of the animation value chain and start learning how to extract value from it. This Cav‘ Platform Dialogue will explore two critical areas including, Africanisation of merchandise and addressing the critical shortage of African themed toys and apparel for the youth market. The three specialist guests will give us an overview of the industry from their unique perspectives from being a global brand player to a local African brand player and a small animation studio perspective. The panelists are Thabo Motsabi from Toys with Roots (www.toyswithroots.co.za), animator Kgosi Ntono and Jacques De Beer from Character Licensing and Marketing (CLM). The forum will be moderated by Isabelle Rorke, Co-Chair : AnimationSA – Social Impact and Human capital Innovation. “The South African animation industry is at a pivotal time, a time to start engaging with the multiple income streams that are attributed to animation brands. By shifting from project focus to brand focus producers can start to explore the various ways in which to show a return on investment. This collective brain’s trust forms the beginning of our journey to unlock the wealth that awaits in mastering licensing and merchandising for animation brands,” says Rorke.
The Cav‘ Platform is a collaborative project between the Goethe-Institut and Animation South Africa (ASA) that develop dialogue forums focused on topics relevant to the Animation Industry. Goethe-Institut and Animation SA have been collaborating over the past 3 years on the Cav‘ Platform particularly focusing on the transformation of the South African animation industry. Each dialogue forum is based on the theme and research findings of transformation requirements within the animation industry.
In the course of German Development Cooperation, GIZ and Goethe-Institut are collaborating with Animation SA to further develop the ecosystem of the rapidly growing African animation sector. While GIZ is providing support to Animation SA to strengthen their internal capacity as an industry association, further develop services to members and broaden Animation SA’s role and capacity for advocacy and lobbying work on behalf of the industry, the Goethe-Institut is focusing on support to enable extensive industry dialogues.
