With an exceptional speaker and panellist line-up, a last chance voting station, and a list of influential companies attending, next week’s Licensing Essentials Course and Spring Fling Networking event promises to be the best yet.

LIMA UK, part of the trade organisation for the $180+ billion worldwide industry, is hosting the annual event on Thursday, 12th May at the striking Hotel Verta in Battersea, London (www.hotelverta.com).

Kick-starting the Spring Fling at 5pm is The Legendary Licensing Question Time featuring an impressive line-up of panellists. LIMA UK can reveal the Spring Fling Debate Panellists are:

• Andrew Carley, Head of Licensing & Merchandising at eOne. Portfolio: Peppa Pig, Twilight, Ben and Holly’s little Kingdom & Humf.
• Paul Bufton, General Manager at Warner Bros. Consumer Products UK. Portfolio: Harry Potter, Batman, Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes Active, Tome and Jerry, Tweety, Thundercats.
• Robert Sutherland, Managing Director, Redan Publishing. Portfolio: Peppa Pig, Dora the Explorer, LazyTown, Little Princess, Go Diego Go!, Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom.
• Rob Watson, Hornby.

Over 100 people are attending the event from an eye-catching list of companies including; Dreamworks Animation, Mind Candy, ITV Studios, Sainsburys, Mothercare, Hasbro, Game Stores, Shell, Unilever, Topps Europe, DNC UK, Penguin Books, Koch Media and the Special Olympics.*

This year’s event will also be made different by a last chance online voting station for the prestigious 2011 LIMA International Licensing Awards. Nine UK companies have been nominated for the highly sought after awards, placing Britain second only to the USA for number of nominations.

Kelvyn Gardner, Managing Director of LIMA UK, said; “Delegates will be treated to an entertaining evening with our renowned panellist debate and Spring Fling.

“Critically this year we are also backing Britain by encouraging all UK members of LIMA to vote for UK nominees to receive an award at the 2011 LIMA Licensing Awards in Las Vegas. Thursday will be the last chance to vote for many as voting closes the following day.”

The UK nominees for the awards are:

• Victoria & Albert Museum/V&A Enterprises – Categories: Best Art or Design Program of the Year; Best Art or Design Licensee of the Year, and Overall Best Licensed Program of the Year
• Creative Tops (Property – V&A Museum) – Category: Best Art or Design Licensee of the Year
• The Smiley Company – Category: Best Art or Design Program of the Year
• JCB (J C Bamford Excavators Limited/JCB Consumer Products – Categories: Best Corporate Brand Program of the Year and Overall Best Licensed Program of the Year
• The Licensing Company/ Jelly Belly – Category: Best Corporate Brand Program of the Year
• Boots (Property, Strictly Come Dancing) – Category: Best Retailer of the Year
• Entertainment One (Property, Peppa Pig) – Category: Best Character or Toy Brand Program of the Year
• Ludorum/RTL (Property, Chuggington Traffic Safety Cross-Platform Promotion) – Category: Best Licensed Promotion of the Year
• Chorion (Property Mr. Happy Should’ve Gone to Specsavers Promotion) - Category: Best Licensed Promotion of the Year

Winners will be announced at the LIMA Opening Night Awards Ceremony at Licensing International Expo in Las Vegas on 14th June 2011. Voting is open to members of the trade body, LIMA, only and is limited to one vote per company. The deadline for voting is Friday 13th May 2011.

To book on the Licensing Essentials Course and Spring Fling please fill in the application form at www.licensing.org/uk/springfling. For all other questions please contact Saphia Maxamed, LIMA Membership Services Manager on +44 1908 802 863 or email smaxamed@licensing.org .