Speakers
Adam Whiteside
Whitepot Studios
Adam Whiteside is the co-founder and technical lead of Whitepot Studios, a Belfast-based game development and interactive media studio renowned for its award-winning multi-platform games. With over a decade of industry experience and an MEng in Computer Games Development from Queen’s University Belfast, Adam is a seasoned expert programmer and technology consultant
At Whitepot Studios, Adam has spearheaded numerous successful projects, helping clients' games soar into the Top 10 of the Nintendo Switch charts. His technical proficiency spans a variety of industry-standard technologies such as Unity, Phaser, WebGL, and JavaScript. His leadership has enabled collaboration across global teams and multiple time zones, continuously pushing the boundaries of digital interactive experiences.
Colm Tobin
Turnip + Duck
Colm Tobin is a producer, writer and creator; and co-founder of Turnip + Duck, an award-winning creator studio based in Dublin, Ireland. With a background in law and music, Colm has worked over many years across productions from script to screen, attempting to balance creative work with figuring out finance plans. Together with Turnip + Duck co-founder Aidan O’Donovan, Colm has written over 100 comedy scripts, and created multiple original shows including Brain Freeze, Critters TV, Atom Town, and Maddie + Triggs.
Vicky Potts
Whitepot Studios
Vicky Potts is the co-founder and business lead of the award-winning Whitepot Studios, a Belfast-based games development and interactive media studio that creates multi-platform games and interactive experiences.
At Whitepot, Vicky seamlessly blends her roles in business development and production, driven by her solid foundation in software engineering, and MEng in Computer Science from Queen's University Belfast, and ILM-recognised Business Development accreditations.
Vicky is a BAFTA Connect member who has appeared on the 2021 MCV/DEVELOP 30 Under 30 list. Vicky also often delivers talks and demonstrations within the Northern Ireland game development scene, speaking at NI Game Dev Network and QUB events, as well as taking part in UKIE’s Belfast Hub-Crawls.
Aidan O’Donovan
Turnip + Duck
Aidan O’Donovan is a writer, creator, showrunner, producer & performer; and co-founder of Turnip + Duck, an award-winning, writer-led creator studio based in Dublin, Ireland. In a past life Aidan worked as a professional musician, and today brings the skills developed in jazz performance and improvisation into the childrens’ work he creates. Together with Turnip + Duck co-founder Colm Tobin, Aidan has written over 100 comedy scripts, and created multiple original shows including Maddie + Triggs, Critters TV, Atom Town, and Brain Freeze.
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Elaine Gill
Clancy & Associates
Elaine heads up the film and entertainment unit in Clancy and Associates. Elaine is a qualified accountant and chartered tax advisor with over 25 years experience in advising the Irish film industry and is considered one of the leading experts in this area. Elaine specialises in providing tax advice for all genres of film production in Ireland which qualifies for the Irish film tax credit, including animation feature and television, creative documentary, feature film and television drama as well as providing personal tax advice for cast and crew coming to work in Ireland.
Elaine was closely involved in discussions with Revenue Commissioners when drafting the Tax and Duty Manual for the film tax credit, and maintains a good working relationship with Revenue personnel. Elaine also participates in an advisory capacity with IBEC Audiovisual committee as well as providing presentations on the operation of film tax credit for SPI, Screen Training Ireland and other bodies.
Nick Dorra
Nick Dorra Production
Nick has worked in various production roles in animation for over 20 years. He used to joke that he can’t draw to save his life, but new technologies are changing all that. Currently he’s focused on helping animation companies figure out what to do about the coming AI tsunami - including both the threats but also the opportunities. He’s just started a newsletter focusing on this stuff, which you can sign up for at www.nickdorra.com
Over his animation career, he’s headed the animation studio at ‘Angry Birds’ maker Rovio and worked on projects like ‘Merry Little Batman’ for Warner Bros. Animation and a video startup at Fred Seibert’s incubator Thirty Labs. When not in work mode, his attention is on spending time with his family and trying to go out sailing whenever possible.
LinkedIn | Work
Catherine Branscome
Branscome International
Catherine set up her sales and distribution business in 2000. She collaborates with talent, indie producers, and animation studios worldwide. Animated content for kids and families is the company’s core genre.
Catherine’s successfully closed hundreds of deals with top players including:
• major US Studio networks: Disney, Cartoon Network, Sony Pictures Television, Nickelodeon, HBO, PBS and Netflix
• top international Broadcast/Cable channels: Animax, Gloob! Family Jr./Family Channel, TFO, M6- Lagardere’s Gulli and Tiji, TF1, Super RTL, TVE, Canal Once, Televisa, MTV3, SVT, CTC, RTS, RTBF and ZDF
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Catherin Roycroft
Cartoon Saloon
Chief Operations Officer Catherine Roycroft has played a key role in the growth and success of five-time Oscar® nominated studio, Cartoon Saloon, over the past 14 years. Her role encompasses oversight of the day-to-day operations of the studio, planning for future development, and engagement & collaboration with cultural, educational and community partners to contribute to a vibrant and thriving ecosystem. She is deeply committed to developing and maintaining a creative, inclusive studio culture which supports the making of great stories that inspire and entertain worldwide.
Eleanor McSherry
University College Cork
Eleanor McSherry BA MA PGCertTLHEd is a highly qualified Programme Coordinator/designer, researcher and lecturer with UCC (ACE). She lectures and gives workshops, in the areas of neurodiversity, autism studies, advocacy, disability studies, mental health, film scriptwriting, creative writing, film and media. She is a Programme Coordinator/Designer/Lecturer on the: Diploma in Autism Studies, Cert in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Neurodiversity in the Screen Industry, Cert in CPD in Advocacy, Cert in CPD in Neurodiversity in the Arts and Creative Industry, Cert in CPD in Wellbeing Coordination for the Arts and Creative Industry and the Cert in CPD in Neurodiversity in the Workplace. She is currently doing her PhD within Maynooth University’s Media Department.
Eleanor has been heavily involved in the film industry in Limerick and the Mid West as a filmmaker, advocate and representative, since 2008. She is a multi-shortlisted short film scriptwriter since 2009 and has worked in several roles with various production companies in the Mid-West of Ireland. She has been a freelance journalist for many years including, until recently, with Film Ireland. She also has worked with several film festivals, in roles such as a creative director, public relations and film judge.
Mamobo Ogoro
GORM
Mamobo Ogoro is a Social Psychologist and multi-award winning social entrepreneur. As the first Sanctuary PhD Fellow at the University of Limerick, Mamobo’s research investigates migrant identity construction in Ireland and how systems of inclusion and exclusion affect migrant communities in Ireland. Mamobo is on a personal mission to unify the world. She is the Founder and CEO of GORM, an award winning social enterprise on a mission to unify across differences and advance belonging for marginalised communities.
Mamobo has been heralded for her work with GORM on countless occasions, and most recently won the 2023 Tech and Digital award in the eir Power of Women awards, and listed in the Irish Independent 30 under 30. Mamobo spends most of her time working with organisations around the world, helping them develop intercultural leaders.
She lives in Dublin, Ireland, and considers herself as your friendly bisexual plant loving neighbour, who loves to read and take care of her home forest. She loves music, singing jazz and r&b, and spending time with family & friends.
Jhonie Aelbrecht
Pixel Nexus
Jhonie Aelbrecht is the CEO of Pixel-Nexus, a Belgium based company specialized in CGI pipelines. He started his journey in the world of computer graphics at the University of Applied Sciences in Kortrijk, where he graduated in Digital Arts and Entertainment.
When working at Grid VFX in Belgium as a lighter/rigger, later as a pipeline TD, he noticed that a pipeline and workflows are at the core of every production process.
With this experience in his back pocket, and his skills and expertise in software development, Jhonie embarked on a mission to provide pipelines and workflows for the rest of the entertainment industry. So he launched his company and provided productions across the globe with tools, workflows, guidance and the occasional bad jokes.
He also leverages his creativity and knowledge from the animation and VFX industry, in the gaming industry. Because of this enormous passion for animation and optimizing workflows, he grew Pixel-Nexus to the hub of knowledge it is today.
Sumesh Kumar
TRIXTER
Sumesh Brings with him over 18 years of combined experience in the Animation and VFX industries. Over the span of his career he has been part of various multinational studios in the likes of Dreamworks Animation India, Technicolor, Brown Bag Films, Trixter Gmbh and others. He has also fulfilled a variety of artistic, technical and managerial roles within all kinds of projects ranging from preschool TV shows to High end VFX and Full CG animated films. His primary focus has always been production technology and workflow efficiencies.
Wendy Willis
Sixpoint Harness
Wendy Willis joined Six Point in January 2016 as their Head of Development. She has worked as a creative producer in both features and television for many many years (20+!!!!), selling both comedies and dramas alike. Wendy and her team produced the animation for the 2020 Oscar-winning short animated film, Hair Love. She’s currently executive producing The Last Xmas, an R-rated, animated feature with Sony and Mosaic as well as OMG, Yes, a series for Adult Swim created by Adele Supreme Williams. In addition to the projects she’s currently in production on, she’s developing many others pitches with various studios and talent. Prior to Six Point, she was a development executive at Mosaic where she oversaw a slate of projects under their first-look deal at HBO and she also spearheaded the company’s first theater project with Crescendo Productions. Even further back, Wendy worked for Lorne Michaels at Saturday Night Live and at Mopo Productions where she was a producer on the Oscar-winning, short documentary,Twin Towers. She spends her time between Los Angeles and the Oregon Coast with her husband and dog.
Malte Baumann
NORDEMANN
Malte Baumann is an associate attorney at NORDEMANN, a leading German law firm in the field of intellectual property and IT law. His practice includes primarily copyright, information technology and competition law. He provides comprehensive advice on issues of liability, licensing and remuneration. A particular focus of his work is on technology-related areas of copyright law – such as artificial intelligence and online enforcement matters. In this context, he regularly deals with questions of ISP and intermediary liability and develops holistic concepts against Internet piracy. He regularly advises international and national companies and associations in the film, sports, music and software sectors, as well as publishers and marketing agencies. He also contributes to the public debate on legal topics and publishes on various copyright and IT law matters such as artificial intelligence, intermediary liability and uses permitted by law.
Before joining NORDEMANN, he gained experience in these areas at a leading international law firm and an international film industry association.
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Riccardo Fusetti
Director
Riccardo Fusetti began his career as an editor in London before recently transitioning into directing with his AI-generated short film "Generation." Working within tight constraints, he creates meticulous visuals exploring the human experience. With a background in editing, Ric's work focuses on rhythm, pace and experimentation. His inquisitive nature drives him to explore contrasts - blending the mundane and surreal, the epic and awkward, the serious and trivial. He embraces challenges, letting limitations inspire rather than deter his passion for innovative storytelling through any means possible.
Tania Pinto Da Cunha
PINK PARROT MEDIA
Tania started in the business in 1997 working for prestigious companies such as Pathé International, Hanway Films and Lola Films as Director of Sales and Acquisitions. Then she fell deeply in love with the world of animated children films and tv series while working for Dygra Films in 2005 as Managing Director and Executive Producer. She has since then acquired several credits as Executive Producer. Until recently, she was the Sales Associate at Sola Media, well known for its expertise in the international family entertainment business. At present she runs Pink Parrot Media with her partner since they launched it at the Berlinale in 2018.
Tiffany Feeney
Talent Outpost
Tiffany Feeney, founder of Talent Outpost GmbH, is an executive headhunter and recruiter for the animation and vfx industry.
She is a trusted confidant to studio executives and senior leadership and has hired talented people on 50+ 2d and 3d animated films and vfx features, tv series, and commercials for global studios including Aardman Animations, Framestore, and Sergio Pablos Animation Studio, amongst others.
She enjoys speaking to the media about hiring and getting hired, networking, and larger talent trends in the industry. She has been invited to stages to discuss trending recruitment and talent engagement strategies including Annecy, SIGGRAPH, and FMX.
A graduate of Pratt Institute, Tiffany majored in Computer Graphics: Animation and Design Management. Before starting her own recruiting consultancy, she worked as a recruiter at Google, DreamWorks Animation, and Zynga.
Though Tiffany Feeney is originally from Hershey, Pennsylvania (yes, home of the famous chocolate bar!),
She now lives in Switzerland with her husband, their Maine coon cat, Mr. Pickles, and Bernedoodle dog, Lola.
Vanessa Robinson
Little moon
Vanessa is co-founder and CEO of Little Moon Animation. Founded in 2019, Little Moon is an award winning 3D animation studio known for its innovative approach to production. Their first original series, Fia’s Fairies (26x5’), was the first TV series in Ireland to achieve a televised broadcast having been produced using Unreal Engine. The series is multi-award nominated and was the number #1 watched Irish commission on RTEjr in 2023. Vanessa is the creator and showrunner of Fia’s Fairies S1 and S2 (2023, 2025), The Scavengers (2024) and various other development projects within Little Moon.