Children, learning and the meaning of play

This is perhaps the reason why the Jumpstart fest, organised by the German Book Office, New Delhi, a joint venture of the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Federal Foreign office, Berlin, assumes significance.

To begin with, Jumpstart is a two-day annual congress of children’s content creators, where hundreds of professionals, writers, illustrators, designers, artists, educators, publishers, book-sellers and storytellers, come together for discussions and exchange of ideas.

This year, Jumpstart 2014, which comes with an additional title, Let’s Play, will be held in two cities – New Delhi, and for the first time, Bengaluru. The New Delhi event will be on 25 and 26 August at India International Centre, 40, Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Estate, and the Bengaluru event has been scheduled for 28 August, to be held at Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, 716, Chinmaya Mission Hospital Road, Stage 1, Indira Nagar.

Bringing together experts and enthusiasts from all walks of life, including authors, artists, publishers, teachers, illustrators, innovators, animators, librarians, storytellers, online platforms, booksellers, filmmakers, designers and others, the sixth edition of Jumpstart will feature panel discussions, presentations, workshops, interactive sessions, and six master-classes.

The idea behind this year’s Jumpstart is to bring together experts to create a dialogue and explore the different facets of play and its intersections with storytelling, imagination technology and reality that will translate into better content for children. The event will look at ways in which individuals as writers, illustrators, artists, storytellers, filmmakers, gamers, coders, animators, designers, publishers, technology experts and adults in general, create games in diverse forms that enrich the lives of children. There will be an exploration of different facets of play and its intersections with books, media and learning.

The event will offer a platform to ask questions like, what makes ‘play’ possible? How do we encounter the ‘play’ with words and pictures, animation and accessory? And then, what ‘play’ means in an everyday learning environment and how is it useful?

Jumpstart 2014: Let’s Play, which encompasses four countries and eight industries, boasts of 12 distinguished speakers. These include Anshumani Ruddra, author, game designer and screenwriter; Amkuta Mahapatra, educationist; Asha Nehemiah, illustrator and author; E K Shaji, partner, Jodo Gyan; Nury Vittachi, writer and TV presenter; Ralph Moellers, publisher and co-founder Terzio, book2look.com, and flipintu.com; Sophie Benini Pietromarchi, artist, illustrator and author; Shilpa Ranade, animation faculty, IDC, IIT Bombay and filmmaker and Sujata Noronha, founder, Bookworm.

Initiated in 2009, Jumpstart started as a series of workshops and seminars focused on writing and illustrating children’s books, libraries for children and marketing children’s books.

German Book Office (GBO), New Delhi is a joint venture of the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Besides promoting German books and the activities of the Frankfurt Book Fair, GBO New Delhi serves as a contact point between the book industry in South Asia, Germany as well as the international book and media industries.