CHRIS NEE Creative Keynote:

Chris Nee, creator of the breakthrough show Doc McStuffins and a slew of other titles via an overall deal with Netflix, spoke about innovation in preschool narrative techniques, the keys to encouraging co-viewing and her work in driving forward diversity and inclusion in children’s media. Read the recap here.

I started at Sesame Street, which was great at working on two levels— the level the kids were watching on and the one the parents were watching on. I don’t have that sense that if kids don’t understand every single beat of something, they won’t watch it. That’s a different way of approaching preschool TV. I think they recognize an emotional beat because of how everybody reacts to it. Doing really strong character comedy work through the very specific point of view of whatever the weirdness of the characters is keeps the parents in there. And then the other real secret when you’re trying to keep parents in and watching is having great voice casts and great music.”