Musician, actor and KidNation co-founder Chris “Ludacris” Bridges will give the opening keynote address at the fourth annual BRIC Summit, set for Feb. 11 and 12.
Bridges is the co-founder of KidNation, an interactive platform for children to enjoy kid-centric, educational entertainment. His remarks will open the summit on its Industry Day.
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The day’s focus will be on four themes – Break: the Rules (ways to continuously remain activated for social justice and civic engagement); Reinvent: The Workforce (ways to redefine the workforce and best practices for hiring and retaining employees in a post-COVID world); Impact: Through Authenticity (what does successful authenticity look like in creative departments); and Change: Cancel Culture to Reform Culture (can and should we shift).
Opening day will also feature an invitation-only workshop for executives called “The Future of Inclusive Hiring,” led by Darnell Moore of Netflix and Julie Anne Crommett of Collective Moxie. The day’s other speakers include WarnerMedia’s Karen Horne, Sony Pictures Animation’s Karen Toliver, NBCUniversal’s Hoai Scott, Suzanne Marques of CBS, DreamWorks Animation’s Rabia Abedin, Disney’s Kim Williams, filmmaker Shruti Ganguly, Forrester’s Dipanjan Chatterjee, Women in Animation’s Jinko Gotoh and Steven Isaacs of Epic Games.
In addition, the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative will present research on the state of the industry.
The summit is presented by the BRIC Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing representation in the entertainment and gaming industries.
Day two of the summit, which is open to the public, is Education Day, featuring workshops, a BRIC Creative Academy session, an art jam, a Careers in Animation panel and portfolio reviews conducted by animation, visual effects and gaming studios.
The summit is presented by the BRIC Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing representation in the entertainment and gaming industries.
“The past several years have been traumatic and divisive,” said Alison Mann, BRIC Foundation co-founder and CEO and talent manager/co-president of Fourth Wall Animation. “In order to find unity amongst one another, we will need to take a moment to do some ‘deep listening.’ to find empathy and understanding, and allow for dialogue and self-realization instead of being reactionary. I am excited for this year’s summit, where we’ll discuss cultural shifts and talk about cancel culture. While these conversations can be tough, they are necessary, and my hope is we have some key takeaways to finding our way back to connecting and understanding each other, allowing for healing and growth.”
“Research shows that the more representation there is behind the screen, the more authentic representation you see on screen. In order to improve the talent pipeline to allow for more underserved creators to enter creative industries, we need to double down on education and create new access points. We hope our programming for educators and students will become an invaluable asset that will inspire them to pursue careers in entertainment, gaming and more,” added BRIC Foundation co-founder and executive director Nicole Hendrix.
BRIC Summit sponsors include ArtCenter College of Design, Artstation, ASIFA-Hollywood, Bento Box Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation, Easterseals, Fourth Wall Management, Fox, Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Hello Sunshine, Illumination, LatinX in Animation (LXIA). Nickelodeon, Six Point Harness, Skydance Animation, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 32, Visual Effects Society (VES), Wacom, Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, WarnerMedia, West Studio, Weta Digital and Women in Animation.
More information is available on the BRIC Foundation website.
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