Matthew Luhn Keynotes KingstOOn; Prime Minister Holness to Open Event

KingstOON 2021, which will take place virtually from 21 to 25 April, will feature Matthew Luhn, Storyteller Extraordinaire, as keynote speaker. His story artist credits include the Toy Story movie, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars, Monsters University, Ratatouille, Up, and many others. The organizers also announced that Jamaica's Prime Minister, The Honorable Andrew Holness, ON, MP, will deliver the welcome speech for the show's opening ceremony.

“It is truly an honor to have the likes of Matthew Luhn at the grand opening of our KingstOOn. This was made even more special, with the welcome of the Honorable Prime Minister himself, who emphatically articulated the importance of the creative industries, and animation in particular, for generating job opportunities for our nation's youth ", said Margery Newland, Project Manager for the Youth Employment in the Digital and Animation Industries, the host agency for KingstOOn.

Luhn is a writer, story and branding consultant, creative writing instructor and speaker with over 25 years of experience. He brought to life stories and characters for Pixar Animation Studios, The Simpsons and many others. Over the years, his clients have also included companies such as Target, Procter & Gamble, Adidas, Sony, Mattel, Facebook, Charles Schwab, Microsoft, Warner Brothers, Google, Salesforce, and Disney.

At 19 he was the youngest animator to work on The Simpsons TV series. Today it trains CEOs, entrepreneurs, marketing teams and directors on how to use the secrets of a great storytelling to captivate an audience, sell a product, idea, service, or strengthen a brand.

Prime Minister Holness will be joined at the opening of the event by Tahseen Sayed, National Director of the World Bank for the countries of the Caribbean, Latin America and the Caribbean region. The YEDAI project is funded by a $ 20 million World Bank loan to the government of Jamaica for the training of young Jamaicans in the digital and animation industry.

Speakers at the 2021 event include industry experts and "animation rock stars" from around the world, including legendary Disney animator Floyd Norman, Love for hair co-director Everett Downing, cartoonist Keith Knight (creator of I woke up), director Olivier Lelardoux (Gigantosaurus), David Stewart II and Carl Reed of Lion Forge Animation, Jay Francis (VP ​​Current Series, Diversity & Inclusion, Disney), Melanie Goolsby (Original Animation Indie Series, Netflix), Camille Eden (VP Recruiting & Talent Development, Nickelodeon ), Kimberley Wright (Producer, Sesame Workshop), Taylor K. Shaw (Founder and CEO, BWA Studios), Josh Selig (CEO, China Bridge Content) and Tatianna Kober (President, Bejuba! Ent.) - to name a few!

This year's KingstOOn will also feature a long-awaited Film Festival with a series of animated films focusing on the diversity of the Caribbean and the rest of the world, a business exchange forum and its exclusive Pitch Boot Camp and Competition for the five. Caribbean -runner fronts in the Best Concept category.

Register for free and find out more about KingstOOn at www.kingstoonfest.com.