Find Your People: Iris Lamarr joins Animation Matchmaking Online 2026

Reframe Collective founder Iris Lamarr will join animation professionals from around the world for a month of industry talks, collaborative roundtables and one-to-one networking.

Marketing should not arrive when the poster is ready.

If a story is going to travel, its relationship with an audience needs to begin much earlier—while the project is still being developed, positioned and introduced to potential partners.

That idea is at the heart of Find Your People: Marketing That Builds a Crowd Around Your Story, Iris' upcoming talk at Animation Matchmaking Online Series 2026.

Building an audience around the story

When filmmakers are asked who their audience is, the answer is often a demographic: an age range, a gender or a broad group such as “families” or “festival audiences.”

But demographics alone do not tell us why someone will care.

Useful audience thinking goes deeper. What does this story make people feel? Where are its potential audiences already gathering? What will make them talk about it, share it or feel that it was made for them? Who could become an early champion of the project?

My session will explore how animation creators can begin answering those questions without flattening the originality of their work.

We will look at marketing as part of the creative and strategic process—not something added at the end—and consider how clearer positioning can help a project connect with audiences, collaborators, partners and decision-makers.

The goal is not to make a story appeal to everyone. It is to find the people most likely to care deeply, then give them a compelling way into its world.

A global meeting place for animation

Hosted from Aotearoa New Zealand, Animation Matchmaking Online brings together writers, directors, producers, animators, studio professionals and emerging creators from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States and beyond.

The online programme runs from 18 August to 19 September 2026 and includes industry talks, interactive roundtable discussions and pre-matched one-to-one networking.

This year’s speakers include Craig Bartlett (Hey Arnold!), Rebecca Gibson (Eagle Vision), Ricard Cussó (Cosmic Dino), Colin Bennett (Toon Boom), Dave Mullins and Brad Booker (ElectroLeague), Joseph Bell (VFX & Animation World Atlas), Arman Haque (Glitch Productions), Nic Cabana (Claynosaurz), Aaron Gilman (Steamroller Studios), Kirby Atkins (Mosley), Bevin Linkhorn and Abba-Rose Vaiaoga-Ioasa (NZFC), Kate Goodwin, Wade Cowin and Rosie Howells (Rat Qween), Arthur Struyf (Creative Aotearoa French Exchange), Garrick Rawlingson (Floating Rock), SideFX—and me, representing Reframe Collective.

It is a strong opportunity to hear from people working across creative development, production, technology, international collaboration, pitching and audience strategy. Just as importantly, its roundtables and speed-networking sessions are designed to help participants meet potential collaborators and begin real conversations around their projects.

Because the event is entirely online, you can take part wherever you are.

Come and find your people

If you are developing an animation project, looking to expand your international network or thinking more seriously about how your story will reach its audience, I would love to see you there.

Animation Matchmaking Online Series 202618 August–19 September 2026

Registrations close 17 August

View the programme and register

Let’s find the people who will champion your story.