The Red Stick International Animation Festival will host a luncheon for the local business community on Friday, Jan. 16 to outline the economic development benefits the festival brings to Baton Rouge and tell them how their companies can become part of the event.
The inaugural Red Stick Ink & Paint Club Luncheon will take place from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the Heidelberg Ballroom of the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center on Lafayette Street downtown.
Emily Hoppe, an animation marketing and publicity professional with Walt Disney Feature Animation, will speak during the luncheon to detail the upcoming feature film, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, which is set in Louisiana, and to describe Disney's ongoing relationship with Red Stick. Stacey Simmons, Ph.D., Red Stick director, will discuss the growing international reputation of the Red Stick International Animation Festival, and ways Baton Rouge businesses can capitalize on its success.
The fifth annual festival will take place April 22-25 in downtown Baton Rouge's Arts District.
The Red Stick festival began in 2005 as an idea by LSU Professors Simmons and Stephen David Beck. It has grown into the largest event of its kind in the United States, bringing renowned animators and artists from leading studios to Baton Rouge each spring.
Prominent state and community organizations sponsor the festival, including LSU, Baton Rouge Area Chamber, Baton Rouge Area Foundation, East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President's Office, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and Louisiana Economic Development.
These groups combined to form the Baton Rouge Area Digital Industries Consortium in 2007, which seeks to recruit new animation, video game and digital media companies to the area to take advantage of the state's lucrative tax packages and local talent in starting a business. BRADIC was responsible for attracting the new Electronic Arts, Inc. North American video game testing and quality assurance facility to Baton Rouge last year.
Tickets to the luncheon are $10 per person. To pre-pay and register in advance, call 225-389-7182, or e-mail amoody@cct.lsu.edu. Participants also can register and pay on-site Friday, Jan. 16 from 10:30-11 a.m.
For more information on the Red Stick International Animation Festival, visit www.redstickfestival.org.
Publish Date:
01-12-2009
