TIME & LOCATION
About
Chair
SPONSOR
Panel
Creative Director, Paper Owl Films Ltd.
BAFTA nominated, award winning creator of standout stories for young children, Gráinne is Creative Director at Paper Owl Films, growing ambitious content for international audiences. Gráinne was Series Director on Lí Ban for TG4, S4C & Aardman and the team are busy planning more stories in the Lí Ban celtic anime realm. Creator of ‘Pablo’ for CBeebies, RTÉJr. and CAKE, she is delighted to have recently greenlit the spin off Series ‘Boy Meets School’, with Crayola Studios, BBC Children’s and CAKE Entertainment. She was creator of the Award Winning special & celtic collaboration, ‘Sol’ and Happy the Hoglet for ITV, RTÉJr. & Aardman. Gráinne leads an exciting international slate of original IP for Paper Owl and is passionate about the creation of content that allows children to see themselves on screen in inspirational ways.
Content Commissioner, S4C
Sioned is a Content Commissioner at S4C - Children and Learning. She commissions for children from 0 – 16. This includes award winning content for the pre-school brand ‘Cyw’ aimed at children up to 6 years of age, ‘Stwnsh’ for children 7-10 and drama for the 11+ audience. She is an award-winning, bi-lingual former Series Producer and Exec with over 30 years of experience in production for S4C, BBC, and ITV. With single and multi-camera director experience in pre-recorded and live environments Sioned formerly worked across a variety of genres – factual, factual entertainment, entertainment, children, live - events and music. She is a qualified industry coach and mentor and as well as the Children’s Media Conference Advisory Committee she also sits on the Screen Skills Children’s Council.
Education Editor, TG4
Conall Ó Máirtín is the education editor for TG4 and works to develop teaching resources for their online learning platform, ‘Foghlaim TG4.’ On top of educational programming, Conall is a sports commentator and presenter for 'GAA Beo'. Previously, Conall worked as a producer and presenter for BBC Gaeilge, helping develop series like ‘Blas’ and ‘Blas: Ón Taobhlíne’, he has also won awards for the radio series, ‘Snámh Fiáin’ and ‘Litreacha’. As a TV Presenter, Conall hosted the travel series ‘Woofáil’ and ‘Ar Bhealach na Gaeltachta,’ and has worked as a reporter for BBC NI’s Irish language magazine show, ‘I Lár an Aonaigh’. Conall also has experience working as a teacher and lecturer in the Irish language primary school sector.
Children's Author
Máire Zepf is an award-winning children’s author. She has written 16 books for children, from picture books to a YA verse novel. Her books appear in 10 languages worldwide. Her ‘Rita’ series of picture books with illustrator Mr. Ando has recently been adapted for television. For TV, she has written, translated, presented and voice-directed. Most recently, she is writer and co-creator of the celtic anime series ‘Lí Ban’ with Paper Owl. Máire was the first Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland, based at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at QUB.
Commissioning Editor & Acquisitions Executive, TG4
Siobhán is commissioning editor and acquisitions executive for Children’s content at TG4, Ireland’s Irish language public broadcaster and the 1 year old dedicated Irish language children’s channel Cúla4. In her current role as Young People’s Exec, Siobhán is responsible for selecting, negotiating and overseeing acquisitions for both TG4 & Cúla4 and is across the commissioned young people’s content for both channels. Siobhán started her television life as a dubbing director, before moving to TG4 to oversee In-house production and marketing of the Young People’s output. During this time, Siobhán oversaw the development of the Cúla4 brand; the young people’s schedule on TG4, the live continuity segments and audience events. She then spent a number of years working as a producer in the Independent sector, developing and producing projects, such as ‘Is Eolaí Mé’ /’I’m a Scientist’ an award winning series which has sold Internationally.