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So get this, I was the grand prize winner of the “Extra Special Totally Rad Preferential” version of the KidScreen Summit (okay, that wasn’t really the official name). What I was to receive was a suite upgrade at the Manhattan Hilton, limo rides between JFK Airport and the hotel, a $50 Starbucks gift certificate, and a private lunch with a decision-maker at a kids’ entertainment network.

The particular “kids’ entertainment network” just so happened to be Cartoon Network International. As soon as I found out which network, I contacted my friend Debbie Reber. Debbie is an author with amazing integrity; she produced videos for CARE and UNICEF and has written books that help guide and mentor teen girls. Debbie also worked as Director of Development for Cartoon Network.

Now we here at Plexipixel have been working very slowly on a super secret project together with a very talented artist in Portland over the last year or so. This super secret project was nowhere near prime-time but I knew a few things:

1. private audience opportunities that may involve alcohol don’t happen often,
2. Cartoon Network just has a great philosophy on how they like to work with Creatives, and
3. I know two very nice people who either work for or have worked for Cartoon Network and they’re mighy fine people.

With those three arguments, I knew that we had to have something to show my KidScreen lunch date.

I bribed Debbie with a delicious lunch at Kisaku and procedeed to pick her brain. I subjected Debbie to the “proof of concept”, very rough super secret animation we’ve been working on. She gave me a couple of tips on what I should try to take away from the meeting (“ask as many questions about what they’re looking for as you can”). Finally, Debbie also kindly let me know that she knew the person I was meeting with and that he was “a very nice guy”.

There were still a few weeks left before the Summit, so I continued my fact finding. I met with our dear friend Tom Doughterty who has not only pitched a number of game and TV property projects to networks in the past, he rubs elbows with folks like Erik Wiese (co-creator of the Mighty B!). He gave me a plethora of ideas and pointers: examples of pitch material, what to put in a “leave behind”, why having breakfast for dinner is never wrong…

I took all of the pointers back to the studio. We put all of our heads together and came up with a game plan that was inspired by Stephanie’s Gocco (and all the many cool things it can do), Patrick Tribett (of gold paint huffing fame), and the Portland artist whose amazing art we’re getting to work with. I worked on the pamphlet content, Troy laid out the pamphlet design, Ryan was responsible for the DVD label and the aqua paint-splattering, Stephanie Gocco’d and made Fimo bagels, and Matt continued with the animation like a mad man. Jamie made sure that everything was all packed and ready to go for the big trip. Talk about team work!

Next blog post from me… report from the actual trip!