Prominent players of the digital content industry will gather in the city next week to participate in the annual summit of the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI).
The AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics) sector forms a significant portion of the fast growing digital content industry. This segment in India was pegged at $685 million in 2011 by Deloitte and NASSCOM, growing at 18-20% CAGR. In recent years, the Karnataka government has been launching initiatives to develop the sector including the release of the Karnataka AVGC Policy in 2012. The two-day summit, the Karnataka Animation Visual Effect Gaming & Comics (KAVGC) Summit 2013, will start on August 28.
Jai Natarajan, executive committee member of ABAI and CEO of Xentrix Bangalore, said, "Unlike previous years, this summit is focused on business, intellectual property and technology strategy aspects of the industry. We will have a separate event for the grassroots community. This allows better streamlining of senior global speakers. We have also introduced clinics, where specialised experts can provide more in depth interaction on specific topics like intellectual property, legal issues, and technology.
ISN Prasad, principal secretary IT-BT and S&T, said, "Karnataka will continue to lead the AVGC growth in India. We have partnered with a cross-section of the digital content industries through ABAI. This summit showcases the support and resources we have sponsored through multiple initiatives to develop the eco system using technology and this includes tier-2 towns. Karnataka will be the prime provider of high-level skillsets, taking this industry to the next level. We will continue to seek consensus and thought leadership and help ABAI achieve its mandate to implement India's first AVGC policy."
On the Bangalore angle, Natarajan remarked, "Karnataka is home to several leading Indian companies and MNCs like Technicolor, Dreamworks, Xentrix, Dhruva Interactive, and Zynga. With technology platforms like Android and Amazon converging towards digital media, there is a growing ecosystem of startups and large companies which are creating the foundation for the next generation of digital media content. This would be heavily leveraged from Karnataka."
Along with keynote speeches and panel discussions, the summit will host clinics where managers and entrepreneurs can get expert guidance on legal, business, creative and technical matters. Over 400 people from all over India attended the 2012 version of the summit.
Ankur Bhasin, secretary of ABAI and CEO of Bhasinsoft Bangalore, said. "As Brand Karnataka grows and engages with the world, we will benefit through additional inflow of a talent pool into the industry, better market position, and stronger investor interest. The KAVGC will fuel this growth and help create an image of Karnataka as a serious player as has been achieved previously in IT and biotech."
