Guyana Animation Network (GAN) Inc.

We are solving the problem of unemployment and lack of creative and culture high-quality media emanating from underrepresented cultures and groups, starting with Caribbean content. The solution we are proposing is an experiential training and on-the-job experience giving users the opportunity to learn industry-internship level animation skills for the production of high quality marketable cultural and creative content from the Caribbean and further afield. Our solution can positively change lives if it scales globally by giving traditional artists and creators the opportunity to upskill while producing high-quality content for outsourcing jobs for diverse cultural and creative content, providing employment and exposure for the quintessential “starving artist” or young creator while providing entertainment, education and awareness to a global audience.

The specific problem we are trying to solve is unemployment and the lack of creative and cultural diversity of underrepresented cultures in global and mainstream media, particularly in entertainment and education media. In Guyana alone, youth unemployment was 31% for the first quarter of 2021. The economy we are working in in the Caribbean scales from a Total Available Market(TAM) is approximately 700,000 and has a population of 43.8M persons, of which youth comprise 11-15M individuals. This is compared to the global economy for animation, VFX and other forms of entertainment media market worth over US$261B. The factors of education, educational resources, access to technology and access to digital skills training in animation particularly but also new media and future skills for industry relate directly to our solution whereby users (“newbies”) will be provided with the resources, education and industry expertise to produce high-quality content. During the COVID-19 pandemic many youth stopped formal schooling and some were forced for transition to virtual technology for academia rather than leisure, creating and entertainment. Our solutions helps youth and other groups to use the digital world of animation to learn, earn and create cultural stories for global consumption.

Our solution uses existing industry software in animation and industry experts to provide an edu-ential (education + experiential) experience to new learners to animation-based software. The length of time is a minimum of 6 months to 1 year. Micro-studio(s) are developed from teams of learners who are trained to create and produce content immediately after learning. The content is developed from stories pitch by learners. Animation experts listen to the unique cultural stories of learners and choose the best 1 or 2 stories to produce on each cycle. The production is then marketed to a global audience via international buyers, film festivals and licensing opportunities. The quality of the output generates greater demand for B2C and service businesses to demand similar content to reach their consumers.   

Our solution is made possible through collaborations with local, regional and international creative professionals and freelancers who work with us to develop curricula and/or facilitate training. Through research and data analytics, we identify relevant digital skills, trends, impact, required software, ease of learning, the scope of further learning and development opportunities and importance of need and applicability of course areas.

The target population our solution is seeking to directly improve is Guyana, our total addressable market is 120,000 – 220,000 users. We intend to scale to the top cities in the Caribbean after testing in Guyana, with a total addressable market of 11-15M users between ages 19-44. This market encompasses predominantly adolescence, youth and youth adults who are mainly structurally unemployed or unemployed. In Guyana, the youth unemployment rate recorded in the first quarter of 2021 is 31%. Most of the youth are creatively gifted and attracted by new digital technology trends, however, they lack the skills, know-how, outlet and technology resources to learn and monetize creative and technical skills. In the global entertainment industry, Caribbean content is low due to the lack of industry-standard content that can be mass-produced or access to industry experts to guide development. Our solution involves collaborations and partnerships with industry experts to guide high-quality content production through a large employable pool. 

Our solution will address their needs by providing some or all of these that follow, namely:

- shifting learning and career perceptions locally and regionally. 

- equipping them with the skills needed or enhancing skills previously learnt informally. 

- creating a community to boost their confidence in their skills through sharing their work with others and connecting them to greater opportunities based on their skills and specific interests.

- providing identifiable role models in the industry locally, regionally and internationally that are willing to train, teach and develop workforce and ecosystem.

- develop curricula that could be adapted by the local university.

- create pipelines for our target population to access jobs, higher education, software, resources and other opportunities to build businesses of their own, hone their craft and develop high-quality content for global consumption.

- produce content to be outsourced to a global audience.

The Caribbean and generally nationals of small island and developing states have historically seen traditional models of education which do not cater for digital advancements in technology or the future of work. This, in large, affects LAC region from having a thriving workforce possessing the digital and technological skills to create and produce high-quality content for global consumption, lack of mentors and infrastructure to support such a transformation.

Our solution prepares the unprepared present generation and creates a pipeline for upcoming and future generations to service the global digital creative economy outside of the classroom.

I selected the Growth stage because we have tested part of our concept to users across 5 administrative regions in Guyana and in 6-8 other countries (virtually). The Growth is intended to be a fusion of projects underwent by our team and partners and feedback received from users and investors to find the business model/service that would best work in guaranteeing work upon the development of digital and new media skills. After reviewing research done by other small island and developing States, our territorial neighbors in the Caribbean and South America as well as market research, we believe that an experiential, skills training and industry approach will work best within a short timeline. We are testing the growth stage with an initial group of 10-15 persons in our community before expanding to 30-50 and scaling the model further to hundreds and thousands in other communities and cities thereafter. 

Our innovative solution is embedded in our unique experiences as youth in a developing country, in an advancing digital world and who are affected by lethargic development in education and digital/future careers. Due to these experiences, we were led to develop and create a customized way of gaining and sharing resources and delivering digital education and literacy to make an impact. 

Over time, we designed curricula and systems to combat the challenges of the availability and accessibility of technological and digital resources specific to our community. Our process of translating digital information into physical spaces where there is a lack of these resources and skills can be translated to our communities, sectors and regions faced with problems. 

Our solution is different because it comprises of time savings and experiential curricula, designed with literacy and techniques in a range of digital, creative, innovative, entrepreneurial and interpersonal skills that can be learnt by a child as young as 5, within a short period as well as advanced industry on-the-job training which allows youth and adults to produce high-quality content for global consumption. We first cater to the learning needs and threshold of a child with the rationale that if a child can understand it, create a digital solution and continue their development after the training, an adult can too. 

Even though our solution was developed to meet the needs of a young audience, it also caters to mature audiences which include parents, teachers, freelancers and business executives who may be digital immigrants. 

We use new and existing technology to facilitate, improve and enable access to our training and jobs and production experience, this includes both hardware and software and digital technology. Through strategic partnerships access to technology for our team and beneficiaries has helped us to provide our solutions.

Our bite-sized curricula refers to our application of technology and processes to tailor, translate and better communicate digital lingo to be easily understood across age groups, learning abilities, communities and cultures. Experiential learning will enable users to work with animators and other digital technologists, currently industry experts or professionals, on novel, indigenous projects, productions and ideas for global consumption using existing industry technology.

For hardware, users should be equipped with personal computers, laptop or access to such hardware with at least 8GB - 16GB RAM.

For software accessibility, industry software of ToonBoom permanent license, Adobe Creative Cloud, 3D Blender, Google Suite and potentially Unity 3D and Pencil 2D Animation. These software will be utilized in actual training and production of content, storage, data collection and communication and design and social media content. An existing collaboration with Adobe enables the use of a number of licenses for this model and 3D Blender is free.

For digital technology, we utilize Trello, Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, Youtube, Discord, Thinkific.com and/or Zoom and/or Google Classrooms, Calendar and Forms to track team work, deliverables, communications, learning and resources.

In light of the different technologies used by our team which are based heavily on the specific area of focus, we recognized the need for simplifying our process of virtual and physical training experiences by following tested standard operating procedures used in previous activities which made our delivery efficient and effective.

For specific software technologies used, an example of our unedited product demo of our training tutorial using Adobe Photoshop to our audience is available here:https://www.dropbox.com/s/4obz...

This demo excludes our transcript for the video, sectioning and curriculum that each participant can view or download.

For digital technologies, we create re-usable forms for user registration and feedback through Google Forms. Upon registration, users are emailed using Google services, their information is also analyzed using Google services. 

They are redirected to our e-learning platform destinationdigitaldesign.thinkific.com using Thinkific.com where learning and training is self-paced OR to our Discord server (GAN's Server (discord.com)) where live sessions, training, communication is facilitated. Users are placed in channels based on areas of interested and connected with experts in specific channels. All information is also provided on our website animateguyana.com.

Access to software is embedded in each training experience via our courses on Thinkific.com when the learner is ready to begin live or self-paced training on either digital platform. 

On Discord, for examples, expert animators teach the use of Toon Boom remotely and guide users to creation of elements. 

Through digital technologies, our training and productions are marketed across social media platforms to reach our audience.

Through software partnerships, participants access free or low cost software to receive training. 

Through hardware partnerships, participants lacking access to hardware, are provided with hardware on a needs-basis, to participate in training. As users earn, they can finance their own hardware and software and support the financing pipeline.

Use of this technology presents the risks of ownership and intellectual property concerns. Our solution addresses this by offering trademark and copyright protection to our creators and a legal personnel within our team capable of ensuring that creators and the venture benefits from the protection needed to enforce its economic and intellectual property rights. 

Historically, creative works have been seen as "not too serious" and "not a profitable" earner and as a result creators battle with their works being replicated without their consent or compensation. As such, the team behind this venture has and continues to do extensive research on the benefits offered by the existing legal infrastructure in the Caribbean and are currently in representative capacity on regional policy platforms.

Our solution in the digital skills, animation and new media training component only directly served 471 persons over a five year window. 

For our new concept of training + experiential learning and production, we will be serving 10-20 persons and we hope to see that number quadruple at least annually each year. Therefore, this would enable use to reach at least 13,650 - 300,000 users in 5 years.  

Within the next year, our goals:

1. Continue conducting market research - using surveys, interviews, continued engagement with primary and secondary beneficiaries, investors; and external data from large media companies on the demand for historically underrepresented content
2. Develop initial ideas to produce - create internal production ideas pitching competition by core/starting team
3. Begin experiential training with core group in studio-based approach of animation and digital media skills through expert/animator/producer
4. Build a virtual talent portal - through our website
5. Document development e.g contracts and NDAs - through our legal team

Within five years:

1. Produce at least 3 outputs that can be outsourced to large media companies - through development of 1 or more ideas pitched into a production pipeline alongside training 
2. Increase marketing, promotion - through social networks and production reach
3. Expand workforce and create more jobs through increased interest post-production
4. Enable creators to earn a reasonable wage/pay
5. Raise income streams eg licensing and distribution through collaboration and research
6. Participate in 3 or more international film festivals - through partner organizations and animators and innovators in the community
7. Influence the intellectual property protection and laws to stimulate greater production and confidence in the legal and economic infrastructure - through our legal team
8. Improve operations and delivery for greater efficiency and effectiveness.
9. Improve commercial and monetization strategy
10. Influence the establishment of a local film and animation school/university program of industry standard and software collaborations
11. Increase opportunities for women in the sector and digital literacy of youth through high school and business outreach programs

We are measuring our progress toward impact goals through Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our social return on investment (SROI). Recently our work was analyzed from 2016-2020 by One Young World in their 2020 Report on page 81 and our SROI is 1:5. 

The SDGs we currently impact are SDGs 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 17.

3 - Full Time

6 - Part-time

4 - Contractors

We have a small team of young, passionate women leaders with backgrounds and skills in law, medical technology, research, social and tech entrepreneurship, animation, game design and development, project and resource management, volunteerism, hospitality, communication, marketing, administration and taxation. 

Our contractors are professionals working in industry, namely an international animator, a game designer/programmer, digital designer and business expert. 

We have participated in local, regional and international programs, awards and ambassadorships as young leaders in technology, community, business and youth development like the Commonwealth Youth Award 2021, Royal Family Virtual Presentation with Her Majesty the Queen 2021, Adobe Design Achievement Awards Judging 2019, One Young World Summit 2019, the Caribbean Tech Entrepreneurs Programme 2019, IDB Project Management for Results Programme, our National Youth Award. 

Our networks and partnerships range over 100 private and public partners locally, regionally and internationally; some have specifically dedicated their resources to creative and technological skills development, which allows us to deliver our solution and solve the problem. 

Notably, our collaborations with local and global creative professionals and freelancers who serve as mentors, facilitators and observers of our activities, has significantly enabled us to ensure that beneficiaries receive quality training even though the digital language is translated for simple consumption. 

Together, and with external support, our team is uniquely positioned with access to software, information, industry professionals and a diverse partners who share a common goal of advancing our present and future leaders and innovators by training them with the skills needed to navigate the digital economy.

We are the only young female lead body driving animation and innovation in Guyana and the Caribbean.

Our founder launched the organization when she was just 19 after 2-3 years of experimenting, experiencing and testing the vision of creative inclusion in global media: Teen From Guyana Wins 'Innovation Award' For Animation Nonprofit : Goats and Soda : NPR . Defying the odds of a male-dominated field, our founder created more opportunities for young women like her to have a seat at the table and to tell their stories: GAN Newbies to Animation & Digital Media - YouTube while still enabling young men to be innovative as well. 

Our mentors are mature women in the ICT, technology, animation and business sectors, whose guidance, leaders and years of experience are embraced by our young minds. 

Our team promotes a collaborative and multi-stakeholder approach to advisory leadership while enabling young leaders to be innovative. Our core values are integrity, honesty, compliance, God, purpose and timing, without which we would not be who we are are today. We intend to:

Develop documentation and clear systems to uphold Integrity and Honesty;

Conduct research through our legal personnel to stay abreast with Compliance;

Trust God and His promises of justice, love, mercy and humility of all and the biblical worldview that women are entitled to an inheritance like Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah - the daughters of Zelophehad.

Believing that in God's Purpose and Timing, we will succeed.

We are applying to 2021 TPrize Challenge because this Challenge can help us to overcome our:

- Financial barriers:

• of accessing international finance services like PayPal to link to our platform, training, jobs and resources to other historically underrepresented communities;
• of raising enough funds to eventually pay our team and creators to work full-time and provide training;
• enable the mentors and experts are funded to help us to reach to expand.

Technical barriers by connecting us with mentorship and strategic advice on:

• capacity building, interpersonal and innovative skills required for our internal team to lead international operations
• optimizing efficiency, operations and work flow.
• financial and management accounting, analysis and projections.

Legal barriers through mentorship on international compliance and regulations for scaling across borders.

Cultural barriers through mentorship on improving dissemination and presentation of information and resources to improve preparedness for present and digital economy, remove and reduce perceptions of the creative industries in the Caribbean and LAC and improve financial literacy on online payments, security and monetization of creative skills.

Market barriers through connecting experts who can provide strategic advice on connecting and collaborating with international infrastructure to educate, produce, create and earn through global distribution and globalisation.

To help us overcome the barriers mentioned above, we seek partnerships to:

• Support and advise on technologies that we can use to simplify or improve our solution
• Support and advice on sourcing the right talent and experts for industry development
• Advise and/or support us through funding or improving our revenue model.
• Serve as advisors or board members to provide on-demand advice, connections and resources for scaling
• Provide legal and regulatory support and guidance
• Recommend technologies or provide mentorship on systems of monitoring and evaluation that can improve our reach, operations, efficiency and impact
• Access to software and technology to improve the human capital and workforce preparedness
• Guidance on distribution and licensing in the market for sustainable and commercially viable pricing and ROI.
• Support marketing, communications, branding, media and exposure opportunities across mutual or diverse audiences to build mutual community support.

We would like to partner with technology-based, innovative, entrepreneurial and philanthropic organizations in the animation and film and distribution that can assist us through:

• Technical and software sponsorships and support to improve our online market readiness by developing and launching our website and virtual platform to provide training within and across borders; and stimulate cross-cultural and  multi-cultural creative and digital competitions and activities like Adobe, Microsoft, Google, ToonBoom, Sony, Autodesk, Vodafone Americas Foundation, Apple, and Electronic Arts (EA). 
• Business and strategic planning for international development such as MIT faculty or initiative, Solve Members, MIT, Netflix, IDB, the Richard Branson Foundation/Virgin Unite
• Educational and cross cultural learning and launching opportunities for participants or beneficiaries in technology and innovative spaces like MIT faculty and initiatives, AfroTech, Women in Tech, Girls in Tech, Women in Animation, LatinX in Animation, Electronic Arts (EA), global universities, Disney Internship Program, Sony and Google.
• Establishing their local/regional headquarter in our locality to improve access to job and other opportunities: Film University or Project, Netflix