Speaking at a half day seminar.
(GBR) Coordinated by the NMK, the Children Online event was an intimate afternoon seminar focussed on exploring how young people and children are populating online platforms, plus how organisations and brands can utilise this migration into new media.
MediaSnackers was up first, giving a contextualising talk about the change in the youth media landscape and young people themselves. We thought it went well :-)
To follow was Simon Fuller from Grid Learning discussing his online tween-focussed platform, Grid Club. Fantasic overview which focussed on how there is desire for children to get involved but attitudinal dangers of ‘leaving-them-to-it’ by the parents.
Lizzie Jackson was up next, from the BBC and gave insights into strategy formation when it comes to kids online—what works and what doesn’t through illustrative case studies. She also threw out some fantastic stats about how 100% of under 12s have and do play computer games.
To end the first session, from Scream Out Loud, Juliet Tzabar offered a grounding of the participatory stratgies through the use of new media and did great at bringing the debate back to the focus of empowerment and interactivity.
All talks echoed the point that there is a knowledge vacuum not with young people and children but with parents and adults. Something, MediaSnackers feels passionate about and which we’re trying to bridge through our training.
For the second half Juliet Tzabar was up again and took us through a ‘practical’ session on user testing and development for digital projects—audio reinforcement, product testing, mouse control, picture hyperlinks, rollover states, rewards etc.
Neil Hughston from Saatchi & Saatchi International gave us a sweet insight into how brands are approaching the online engagement of kids. From a creative agency standpoint, he discussed the use interactive channels and how this all have given them a challenge—kids participate in online experience rather than consumers.
And last but not least, Dino Burbridge from Digital Outlook talked about creating or designing for kids and gave us his top ten. From ‘knowing your target’ right through to ‘free stuff’ strategies. Obvious when stated but so obvious if someone asked you the question isolation.
Thanks again to the NMK for inviting us to attend and participate in the event and also thank you to Scream Out Loud for suggesting us, plus thanks to those individuals who allowed us to interview them for the forthcoming vodcast episode.
Related post: Children Online
