Michael Rosen to Speak at Children’s Media Conference

Michael Rosen, a children’s novelist, poet, broadcaster, columnist and more, is slated to give the opening keynote at this year’s Children’s Media Conference (CMC), which is being held in Sheffield from July 3 to 5.

After decades of working in public service broadcasting, children’s theater and educational publishing, Rosen is now a YouTube star with 220,000-plus subscribers and more than 40 million views of his content. He will open the CMC on July 3 with a speech focused on championing creativity and imagination in the face of what he calls “data-driven education.”

Rosen remarked: “I’m riding the crest of the digital wave, I thought. Only to discover that what I was riding was a tiger: a tiger with an insatiable appetite and an audience only too eager to be eaten. We want tigers to roam free. Of course we do. But that doesn’t mean we’d give our children to one. So what do we do?”

Greg Childs, editorial director for the CMC, added: “Michael epitomizes the ethos of the CMC. Not only is he dedicated to creativity for, and by, children, he both embraces and challenges the new digital era which encapsulates, envelops and forms young people. At the CMC we’ll be asking ‘What’s Next?’ for Michael Rosen. We can be sure of an entertaining and thought-provoking reply.”