The Asian Festival of Children's Content

Here's something I really want to attend. REALLY. WANT. TO. ATTEND.

The very first Asian Festival of Children's Content will be held in Singapore on May 6 - 9, 2010. It will be organized by the Singapore Book Council and The Arts House.

The vision of the festival is to provide the world’s children with quality Asian content for education and entertainment. Its mission is to foster excellence in the creation, production, and publication of children’s materials with Asian content in all formats, and to facilitate their distribution and access, first in Asia and then to children worldwide.

The objectives of the festival are to:

Develop children’s materials with Asian content for information, education, and entertainment
Promote the publishing of Asian children’s content in all formats
Provide children in Asia and the world with ready and easy access to Asian content

Now, if that doesn't say "Asia in the heart, world on the mind," I don't know what does.

Here are some of the festival's programs:

Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference
ASEAN / India Writers and Illustrators Dialogue
Asia / Australia Writers and Illustrators Network
Asian Children’s Librarians Seminar
Asian Children’s Publishers Symposium

The target audience:

Writers, illustrators, digital artists, producers, and designers of children's content (comics, books, e-books, graphic novels, videos, films, and educational games)
Librarians and institutional buyers
Publishers
Broadcast media executives
Educators
Literary agents
Translators
Media distributors and vendors
Multimedia professionals
Parents
Vendors of educational products and services

Some of the confirmed speakers include:

Murti Bunanta, president and founder of the Society for the Advancement of Children’s Literature in Indonesia and the Indonesian Board on Books for Young People

Daphne Lee, publishing editor of OneRedFlower Press, a new imprint for Malaysian children’s and young adult books

Atanu Roy, illustrator of over a hundred children's books, games, and educational aids in India

Uma Krishnaswami, author of a dozen books for young readers and faculty of the Vermont College (USA) of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults

Eddie Tay, professor of children’s literature, creative writing, and poetry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Click here to see the flyer for the Asian Festival of Children's Content.

Thanks to Jenny Desmond Walters, regional advisor of SCBWI Korea, for the tip on this event!

So who's going? :o)