Another outing at CMC 2026

This is a late post. As always I was at the Children’s Media Conference held in Sheffield early July. For me, it was quite a busy conference, with lots of lovely meetings alongside producing a session.

DAY 1

CMC 2026 started early catching up with one of my first ever TV industry friends - Steff Lee from KinoBino Studios. We had a working lunch discussing a new project we are doing for our course with NFTS - Create x Connect.

Steff and I had a lovely lunch as we chatted through our idea - new thing excitement.

Day 2

As always I chaired the Colourful Connections meeting and this year we met in a different building. We met new faces, chatted with old ones and talked about how to grow a community.

A literal round-table discussion

This year I got the opportunity to attend the Skills Exchange event before the conference formally began. This year covered an important topic - digital and social media for kids, making content for platforms like YouTube.

That’s me in the pink, in the second row, on the right-hand-side.

Catherine Carr making a point! She made many good points.

This year’s keynote by Catherine Carr broke many hearts and yet galvanised us to look after our children, touch the grass and create good quality content for the next generation.

I ended Day 1 with a wonderful dinner with friends - catching up before we head to the Mojo Bar to say hello to many of the conference attendees at the NickShake drinks.

Day 2 ended with a wonderful dinner with friends and panelists on all the inclusivity sessions we had collectively organised.

This is me with my exec producer Steph Cooper at the dinner.

I’m a prouducer! See what I did there!

My Day continued with meetings back to back, meeting new producers, pitching myself to write on shows, and meeting folks I had only spoken to on Zoom or corresponded by emails.

It was a productive day, filled with encouraging conversations.

Day 3

Day 3 started with meetings with a clear cut-off at mid-day because I had an important job to do. I was producing the panel on Writing Inclusivity that Lasts. So running around, shepherding our speakers and making sure everything was working… it was a fantastic panel and I’m so chuffed at how it turned out. You can download our practical guidance sheet from this link too.

After the panel was done and dusted, a couple of adhoc meetings later, we braved the journey back to London from Sheffield in the face of train cancellations and delays.

But we made it back, full of energy and enthusiasm. Friday would be full of follow-ups but for the evening on Thursday it was a wrap!