201208060206.jpg Pop culture business news site ICv2 has announced the ICv2 Conference on Comics and Digital II to be held in conjunction with this year’s New York Comic-Con. It will be held on WEDNESDAY, October 10th,1:00 to 5:00 p.m. — in previous years it was held on the Thursday prior to the Con but NYCC is essentially a 4 day show now.

As in previous years, The Beat is a sponsor of this event. Here’s the line-up of panels, with speakers to be announce. All of them sound extremely interesting.

The ICv2 White Paper

This ICv2 White Paper will present a comprehensive look at the comics and graphic novel market in print and digital for 2011 and 2012, with an analysis of long and short term trends driving the market.
Presented by Milton Griepp, ICv2.

Kids—the Future of Everything!
The fastest growing segment of graphic novel publishing is titles for kids, tweens, and teens. Are you doing everything you can to take advantage of this huge change in the audience for comics? Learn about the kids graphic novel scene from the leaders of publishing, retail, and libraries.

Comics—The New Medium
As technology impacts the world of comics, we are seeing the biggest changes in format since the invention of the graphic novel. What will the comics art form look like in five years, and how does the essence of sequential storytelling using words and pictures change in the process? Creators and entrepreneurs discuss the question of “what is a comic” and how the revolution in technology is transforming the medium.  

Comics—The Transforming Business Model
The business of comics is changing faster than we’ve ever seen before—digital is exploding, crowdfunding is providing a new source of financing, the retail and library channels are changing rapidly, and media exploitation of comics is now an important part of the business. How does this all fit together into the new business of comics? We bring together the thought leaders of the comics world to talk about their visions of the future for the business of comics.


This is a fairly essential lineup of topics facing the comics industry right now — I think this is going to be a seminal year of change and opportunity, and, to put this in total hype terms, you aren’t going to want to miss this!

Sign-up details in the link.