Meet some of the world’s best animation industry experts–like the co-director of Shrek– and a ‘who’s who’ of the China animation industry in historic and beautiful Suzhou, one of China’s most beautiful Canal Cities.
TV, film, education and training, games, mobile, advertising, and online animation will be featured at the workshop/conference. Animation, fast becoming one of the strongest youth market categories in digital media, is something everyone involved in Internet Web 2.0 should know more about.

X|Media|Lab in Suzhou has been concentrating on a “wealth of animation” and has brought together a stellar range of animation experts from all over the world:

The Keynote Conference Day focuses on four themes: Animation Industry Development; International Business Opportunities; Quality Assurance and Management; and Technologies and Skills.

The Business Matching Forum focuses on participants. There will be an opportunity to meet up with animation industry experts, directly discuss your own animation ideas, and network yourself right into the heart of the animation industry, and explore business matching and partnerships with the other international participants at the Lab.

International participants include:

• Raman Hui - Guest of Honour - Co-Director “ Shrek the Third ” (Hong Kong, San Francisco)
• Michael Johnson - Moving Pictures Group Lead, Pixar Animation Studios (San Francisco)
• Duncan Brinsmead - Principal Scientist, Autodesk (Maya Software)
• Suresh Seetharaman - Founder and President, Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation
• Sue Erokan - Supervisor, Character Animation, Dreamworks
• Dan Scott - Head of Global Production, Nokia Games
• Masakazu Kubo - Executive Producer, Pokemon Film and TV Series (Tokyo)
• Xavier Nicholas - Managing Director, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore
• Heather Kenyon - formerly Director of Development, Original Animation at Cartoon Network
• Dale Herigstad - 5-time Emmy Award Winner, Schematic (LA)
• Nickson Fong - Founder, Egg Story (Singapore)
• Paul Steed - Founder, Exigent Studios (Los Angeles)
• Madhavan - Founder, Crest Animation (India)
• Michael Stevens - Board Member, Park Road Post (Wellington)
• Tatiana Kober - Founder, Bejuba Studios (LA and Toronto)
• Anand Gurnani - Founder, Animation ‘Xpress (India)
• Tim Brooke-Hunt - Head of Children’s TV, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Sydney)
• Alan Lindsay - CEO, Vue DC Group (Perth)

China participants include a ‘who’s who’ of the China animation industry including: the Dean of Animation, Beijing Film Academy; President, Great Dreams Cartoon Group; Executive Deputy Secretary General of China Animation Association, and Head of Digital Media Technologies, Beijing Institute of Technology; Executive Vice President of China Animation Association; Deputy Director of Digital Animation Creation R&D Centre, China Art Academy; Secretary General of Mobile Animation Industry Association; CEO of China Animation Association; Managing Partner of China Renaissance; the Vice President of ID Tech Ventures; and many others.

XML Suzhou will be the perfect place to make contact with some the best animation people from all over the world – whether you are interested in creative development, best practices, or business opportunities internationally or in China.

Suzhou is one of China’s animation centers of excellence, about 90 minutes north of Shanghai - and it exemplifies the “New China”: hundreds of huge new buildings springing up out of the ground, great vitality, and a commitment to developing the digital media industries.

Marketing partners the The China Business Network and International Online Reputation Management and Search Engine Marketing Agency Culturefish Media have a sign-up link here: Animation Workshop

从创意到财富——2008XML苏州动漫产业大会

5月8日-10日|苏州

结识四海精英，给你最好的融资拓展和国际市场方案！

★    业界巨星阵容

★    全新咨询模式

★    黄金人脉拓展

全球顶尖的动漫行业精英首次云集中国苏州, 从商业模式、创意研发、生产管理、国际合作等各个角度为动漫公司提供咨询服务和发展机会。

18位国际顾问嘉宾包括《怪物史莱克3》导演Raman Hui, 皮克斯工作室电影部 负责人Michael B. Johnson, Autodesk（Maya软件）首席科学家Duncan Brinsmead, 维基漫画与维基动画 创始人兼总裁Suresh Seetharaman, 梦工厂角色动画 总监Sue Erokan等。更多名单详见www.xmedialab.com.cn。

9位国内顾问嘉宾包括香港万宽数码有限公司总经理黄宏显, 宏梦（上海）卡通实业有限公司首席执行官/宏梦卡通集团首席运营官王敬, 哥伦比亚广播CBS户外传媒（中国）有限公司合伙人刘均海 ,水晶石影视动画科技有限公司副总裁陈明等。更多名单详见www.xmedialab.com.cn。

从创意到财富——2008XML苏州动漫产业大会包括向所有动漫行业专业人士开放的一天专业论坛，以及接下来的两天封闭式实验室环节。

业界公司在XML精心设计的结构中有充分的机会和主动权结识任何感兴趣的嘉宾，展示自己的项目和团队，并获得他们的私人建议和业务支持。这种XML为业界公司提供的机会在全球动漫会展中都绝无仅有。

跨媒体实验室（X|Media|Lab）是一个享誉全球的数字媒体智囊团与创意峰会，专注于正在崛起的数字媒体市场的行业发展服务。

跨媒体实验室承诺所有的参会公司将获得：

1、    项目发展： 获得帮助以实现自己的项目创意。
2、    专业发展： 通过与全球范围内最好的从业者一起工作，丰富专业知识，提
升专业技能
3、    高价值的国际人脉网络：获得无可挑剔的全球专业朋友圈

跨媒体实验室致力于通过分享借鉴全球最好的动漫专家的知识和经验，协助打造成功的国产品牌。

更多资讯详见 www.xmedialab.com.cn .
如希望采访请联系： 袁培丽+ 86 139 1169 4727

This post was written exactly a year ago and I opted to reprrint it as some things never seem to change…..

In today’s news:
Club.cn.yahoo.co is a new blogging network for Chinese netizens. According to Reuters and Wired magazine the new service designed to give bloggers a place to exchange ideas and photos. Wired posited that this seemed pretty dangerous in light of Yahoo’s admitted role as a snitch for folks who might advocate such atrocities as democracy and human rights. While I like that they took a shot at Yahoo! for its ongoing hypocrisy, it seems typically naive and Sinophobic. QQ is the world’s third most popular IM service and easily the largest in China. It is an incredible pipeline for information among everyday Chinese citizens. There are now so many blogs, bulletin boards, cell phones and messaging services that the Chinese government is soon going to be busier than a one-armed paper hanger with the hives and hopefully unable to police even a fraction of the traffic out there. I am looking forward to more of the Chinese information/communication explosion. Wired and media worldwide ought to be applauding any vehicle that further taxes the censors and they should be providing links to groups that will help further that cause. But, it is easier to demonize a country we really know little about in the west and play to people’s perceptions of China.

While Yahoo is trying to get folks on the net the Chinese government is trying to get some of them off: The long anticipated restrictions on gaming will take effect on July 15th. Emboldened by a report that claims some 2,000,000 Chinese kids are addicted, the government will penalize minors who spend more then three hours a day playing video games like WoW online. The consequences: After three hours players will only earn half the credits they would normally accrue and if they play for five hours online they will stop earning any credits at all. It isn’t exactly a firing squad, but some folks are calling this a fascist policy. Should I be sent to Guantanamo for believing it is not really a very bad policy and the punishment seems pretty benign?

And speaking of fascists: Google, Yahoo! and MSN are taking heat from some bloggers for refusing to to sell ads for China is Evil. CIE is a pretty poorly done site with kind of rambling rant which includes: “ In recent years maoist rebels have tried to take over Nepal. I have no evidence that China is supporting them, but it is highly probable that they are.” It ain’t the International Herald Tribune and I am even not sure there enough content on his one page site to get him banned in Beijing. I say sell him the ads. As advocates of free speech we should be defending his right to sound dim, especially if he is paying for it.

But he seems typical of most Americans and bloggers to whom I speak with about China: It is a given, in my experience, that Westerners will buy information in any news release that helps paint China as a bastion of oppression and don’t do a lot of research on their own. My stories about China’s ills are syndicated 10 times more frequently than my calls for positive action.

I was guiding a class through keyword research in an SEO class today and looking up words relating to China/Asia. The results were telling:

China Politics receives 1,600 queries

Chinese Girls gets 61,000 searches a month by Americans in the three major engines

Human Rights China scores 2,345 hits

China News gets 17,000 visits

Chinese Zodiac slams in at 280,000

and Tiannanmen Square receives 15,000 searches a month…..

I get a bit weary of the negativity without good information or corresponding positive solutions. I heard candidate Obama on Letterman play to people’s fears that their jobs might be outsourced to China, but I heard little about how he’d further humanitarian ideals for an oppressed populace. China is new country we love to hate. But boycotting or ignoring issues and not participating in solutions isn’t going to do us, or the 1.3 billion folks in the Middle Kingdom, much good.

Scholarly and well articulated related articles: Mutant Frog (fantastic writing!), Simon World,

Reputation Management and Manipulation of the Internet

In addition to water-boarding it is apparent that government interpreters world-wide now learn social media, SEO and RSS management during their program of study. It is no secret that many blog comments on opinion-shaping sites are made by full-time surfers or “trolls” as some call them, with nationalist or agency mandated agendas; some get paid for their performance. The real weapons of mass destruction in a digital world are words and the technology is readily available even when we don’t send fuses to Taiwan.

Several recent comments, meant to manipulate media have come back to deservedly sound-bite the perpetrators in their virtual asses.

John McCain campaign aide, Soren Dayton was suspended from the campaign because he Twittered a link to a YouTube video blasting Barack Obama’s minister. And the Chinese government was a bit slow on the draw when they led reporters into the lama’s den in Lhasa last week.

Multi-national companies now hire ethical as well dubious administrators of propaganda to sow seeds of content across the blogsphere when a ruthless competitor, frustrated consumer or PR gaff has sent a brand or image into the cyber-stool. Internet Word of Mouth is an ICBM with a guidance system that can be more unpredictable than a cold war space laser.

I read a news release today written by the folks at 5fad.com. 5fad.com is suing Baidu.com for copyright infringement and then speculating, during trial, about the outcome and impact of the verdict.

Written in something akin to English and suspiciously fed out of a UK media outlet, the release contains suppositions meant to influence public opinion in advance of a judicial ruling.

Some highlights: “The MP3 search engine is of crucial importance for Baidu.com to gain an advantageous position in its competition with its business rival, Google.com. Once the MP3 search engine service is ruled unlawful, Baidu.com’s leading position in the search engine market may topple” Remember that this news release was written by the Plaintiff!

The take a break from legal commentary to do an infomercial about 5Fad: “5fad.com, ranking among 2007 Red Herring Asia Top 100, was founded in 2003. Though headquartered in Hangzhou, it has branch offices in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and New York…5fad.com is the leading digital entertainment and culture company in China. Its service network covers a total population of 300 million.” With a Google Page Rank of 4 and a purported audience more than twice the size of the China Internet user base the claim is dubious at best.

I have become so jaundiced that when JWT’s Tom Doctoroff, a man I have long respected as an authority on China, makes statements concerning Tibet like:”…I instinctively empathize with the impulses of the protesters” I wonder if he is just careless and failing to weigh the consequences of the potential spin of his comments as sympathy for murder or arson? Or I question whether or not the soon-to-be Olympic torch bearer has intentionally inserted psycho-linguistically charged language about Tibet, in an article written against calls for an Olympic boycott, in order to draw in more readers for the Huffington Post?

I am a poet and the keeper of an online diary. I am not a journalist or political pundit in blogger’s clothes. I love and cherish the written word–despite my occasional acts of grammatical or stylistic annihilation. And because I am a creative writer I attempt to ferret out the real meanings of a work and the reasons for the choice of diction.

I am becoming less cavalier about reading or writing. I now am casting a cold eye on much of what comes to me via RSS or social networks and so it seems should we all….

Update: Head over to ESNW for an important addendum to the newest China Photogate…

How is this for synchronicity?:

I study at least one Chinese idiom, parable or allegory a day. Today, honestly, I opened my study text and immediately saw:

At whose hand the deer will die is unknown

It is an idiom that implies that the outcome of a struggle or rivalry is still undecided. It has roots in  the first Han dynasty in 203 B.C..

The story behind the idiom takes place in what was once known as “China Proper” which originated in the Tibetan Plateau and was bordered by the Yellow and Yangze rivers: The advisor to Han Xin, King of Qi, urged the King to break away from the Emperor Liu Bang. In 196 Han was executed for plotting a rebellion even though he had not followed the advice given to him by one Kuai Tong.

Later Kuai Tong was brought to Liu to be executed. Kuai Tong told the emperor among other things: ” A dog barks at people, not because it is bad, but because they are not his master. At the time my duty was to help Han Xingain gain power, so to execute me would be unjust.”

Liu Bang pardoned him.

I am hoping for the same fate for other Yellow River inhabitants showing support for their beliefs. I am hoping for the safety of my friends very near the confrontations. I am praying for an end to the violent conflicts– though the outcome of the struggle may long be undecided…