Top 4 Moments of 2024

As we close out 2024 and look forward to the new year, all of us at FableVision want to take a moment to reflect on and celebrate the remarkable year we’ve had. We’re extremely proud of the achievements, milestones, and fun times spent with friends and partners. Before we celebrate all the possibilities that come in the new year, here’s our top moments from 2024!

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A Very Shiny Year

FableVision’s Gary Goldberger and Liz Newbury of the Wilson Center accepting the award for The Plastic Pipeline at G4C!

2024 was extra sparkly as SEVEN of our collaborations garnered awards. From groundbreaking educational platforms to innovative sustainability projects, our work is recognized for it’s creativity, impact, and social good. Here are just some highlights

• Anthem Awards Silver in Education, Art & Culture - Education or Literacy Platform Product, Innovation, or Service for Nunaka: My Village (Chugachmiut) 

• Anthem Awards Bronze in Responsible Technology - Education or Literacy Platform Product, Innovation, or Service for Give As We Grow (GivingTuesday and Phillips Foundation)

• Anthem Awards Bronze in Responsible Technology - Film, Video, Television or Show for Heroes of Zero (Power of Zero)

• International Serious Play Award, Gold for GASHA GO! World (Georgia Public Broadcasting and GaDOE)

• GEE! Award Winner (Informal Learning): GASHA GO! World (Georgia Public Broadcasting and GaDOE)

• Stevie Awards, Bronze, K-12: MathBee (Stride/K12)

• G4C Awards, Best in Environmental Impact Winner for The Plastic Pipeline (The Wilson Center)

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Red Carpet Rolled Out

We hosted a few star-studded studio events in 2024! 

Creative Juices

In July, we kicked off the summer fun with our annual Creative Juices art show open house at the studio! The event featured original works of art created by staff and studio friends, a live band, and lots of laughs. 

Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Reception

This past fall the NCSS Conference was just down the street from us, what better opportunity to host a FableVision Studios reception?! We had lots of new faces in the studio and some old friends too. 

TLC Studios Opening

The Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning, and Creativity recently debuted their latest offering: their brand new brick-and-mortar location, TLC Studios & Media Lab: Innovation & Creativity Center. To kick off its grand opening, partners, educators, and friends were invited to explore the space for themselves! 

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In Good Company

We have the best clients in the world. Our partners work with us to find creative solutions for complex challenges. Here are just a few of our big collaborations from the year.

Our collaboration with IGDILab on a new PreK storybook assessment brought us to the Gates Foundation! The platform captures key developmental domains in ways that prioritize equitable outcomes and moves away from harmful historical assessment traditions.

Nickelodeon and audiyo-yo’s launch of the Dora’s Aventuras podcast features rockin’ music, sound-based minigames, and exciting stories that inspire and entertain. Every day is an Aventura when you’re with Dora!

The Heroes of Zero continues to garner much-deserved recognition in various award competitions this year. The animated series, created with the Power of Zero, teaches 5-8-year-olds the skills needed for an increasingly online world. 

Stride/K12’s Learning Hub holds two collaborations with FableVision. The ELA Village world acts as a virtual lobby to their existing minigames and MathBee gameplay engages learners to solidify their math skills.

The National Gallery of Art’s Paint ‘n’ Play interactive, developed by FableVision, invites visitors to learn about the art around them by digitally creating their own.

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smart Cookies

Who us? You betcha! Our team traveled near and far to share our knowledge, best practices, and stories from behind the production curtain.

FableVision’s Anne Richards, Sarah Ditkoff, Kellian Adams Pletcher, and Steph Hoechst representing the studio on this year’s conference circuit!

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And looking ahead to 2025…

We’re hitting the road in the new year! We’ll be sharing insights, meeting new people, and growing our community. We can’t wait for what comes next! 

We’re headed to FETC this January! Check out Sarah Ditkoff, VP of Strategic Partnership’s panel, “How To Integrate Game-Based Learning into Curriculum Design.” She’ll be joined by Stride, Inc’s Chief Learning Officer Niyoka Mccoy, and i2e Edu’s Senior Manager of Customer Engagement Nathan Wells. 

• President Gary Goldberger, VP of Development Rachel Reade Marcus, VP of moonladder Tone Thyne, and VP of audiyo-yo Anne Richards will be attending the Kidscreen Summit in February!

• FableVisionaries are setting off to Austin for SXSW EDU in March.

• Director of G.L.A.M. Innovation Kellian Adams Pletcher’s forthcoming book on building games in museums, published by Rowan and Littlefield, is set to release in 2025! Pulling from Kellian's work with museums and interactive exhibit production, the book provides a guideline for creating digital, analog, or digital/physical games tailored to museum settings. If you just can’t wait, check out Kellian’s article in the fall 2024 publication of AAM: A Museum Community Starts with Friends: Building Open-Source Prototypes for Audience Engagement with Project AMI.

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Cue the Conferences: FableVision’s 2023 Guide

Lunches with partners, new meet and greets, enlightening sessions, presentation opportunities, and exciting cities – what’s not to love about conferences? Check out where we’re headed to learn from industry professionals, share our insights, and most importantly, see you.

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MuseumNext Digital Learning Summit

During the virtual conference, learn how museums can keep up with evolving technology to create engaging and immersive experiences for visitors. Keep an eye out for Kellian Adams Pletcher, our Director of G.L.A.M. (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) Innovation.

When: Monday, June 19 – Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Where: Online

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ISTELive 23

Visit our friends from FableVision Learning at their tables at the Keystones Technology Innovators in PA session on Wednesday, June 28 from 9–11 a.m. and STEM Playground — Tools for Physical Computing and Making from 12–2 p.m. in the ISTE Explore and Create Playground. Paul Reynolds, Andrea Calvin, and Mary Johnston will provide hands-on demonstrations of FabMaker Studio and Animation-ish. Learn more here.

When: Sunday, June 25 – Wednesday, June 28
Where: Philadelphia

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Games for Change Festival

Celebrate Games for Change’s (G4C) 20th anniversary with a summer festival full of events analyzing the past, present, and future of gaming and XR.

FableVision’s VP of audiyo-yo Anne Richards will present a project brief on Nunaka!: Games for Indigenous Cultural Heritage Preservation on Wednesday, July 19 at 5 p.m.

Producer Jonah Gaynor will present a project brief on Wilson Center’s Plastic Pipeline right after Anne on Wednesday, July 19 at 5:20 p.m. Both presentations will be at the Microsoft Winter Garden.

President Gary Goldberger and Communications Strategist Nadya Karpova will also be attending. We hope to see you at both project briefs! The schedule and more details can be found here.

When: Tuesday, July 18 – Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Where: New York City

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Podcast Movement

At the world’s largest podcast conference, passionate podcasters and industry professionals gather to learn from each other and improve the audio community. Anne Richards and Gary Goldberger will surely tune in — don’t forget to say hello.

When: Monday, August 21 – Thursday, August 24, 2023
Where: Denver

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Ed Games Expo 2023

The  Ed Games Expo is a public showcase of game-changing #edtech innovations developed through programs at IES, the U.S. Department of Education (ED), and across government. We’ve got a few great things lined up for Wednesday, September 20 at Kennedy Center REACH:

• Between 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m., catch FableVision Studios’ Paul Reynolds, Snow Dong, and Nadya Karpova, along with FableVision Learning’s Andrea Calvin and Mary Johnston in Skylight Pavilion at tables S-7 and S-8. We’ll be doing live demos of Civics! An American Musical and Nunaka.

• At 1:30 p.m., Snow will lead a Master Class on Civics! at MoonShot Studio. If you’d like to attend, please register here.

• Between 5:30-8:30 p.m., find us in PT-109 at tables P-3 and P4 for the Ed Games Expo for the Public.

Click here to view the Ed Games Expo agenda.

When: Tuesday, September 19 — Friday, September 22
Where: Washington, D.C.

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Serious Play Conference

Time for some serious fun in Toronto, while learning about creating and using games and simulations for educational purposes and how to move those programs ahead. Make sure to attend Executive Producer Peter Stidwill’s session on Wednesday, October 11 from 2-2:45 p.m. on Five Tips for Researchers Who Want to Make Educational Games. See the full conference program here.

When: Wednesday, October 11 – Friday, October 13, 2023
Where: Toronto

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Hands On! Conference

Hosted by the Children’s Museum Creaviva in Bern, Switzerland, Europe’s largest conference on science education and children in museums will experiment with exhibitions, themes, and learning opportunities. And who’s keynoting? You guessed it — Kellian. More information coming soon — you don’t want to miss this one.

When: Wednesday, October 25 – Friday, October 27, 2023
Where: Bern, Switzerland

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MCN Annual Conference

For MCN 2023, the Penn Museum in Philadelphia will gather over 600 cultural heritage professionals from museums, historic sites, and visitor attractions to advance digital transformations in museums. Kellian and Gary can’t wait to see you there.

When: Wednesday, November 8 – Friday, November 10, 2023
Where: Philadelphia

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This year, Gary, Anne, VP of Moonladder Tone Thyne, and VP of Development Rachel Reade Marcus attended the Kidscreen Summit in Miami. At BostonFIG Online Expo, Kellian presented tips for researchers and developers working together when creating games. We were thrilled to catch up with you at those conferences, and we look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones in the upcoming months.

Let's Rewind: FableVision's Top Moments of 2022

Another year, another reflection! As we eagerly await the clock striking 12 and greeting 2023 with open minds and hearts, we want to review 2022’s highlights that were made possible by our incredible and dedicated staff, partners, and friends. 

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New Year, New Logo

To celebrate our 25th anniversary, FableVision unveiled its new, dynamic logo. Our fresh look pays tribute to the whimsy of our original logo, designed by FableVision founder and New York Times bestselling author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, with a contemporary and playful personality. 

Since one image couldn’t encompass all of FableVision, our spiral O is interchangeable with icon doodles including chicks, planets, aliens, and more. 

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Did You Hear About Our New Audio Division, audiyo-yo? 

With a desire to keep growing, FableVision launched audiyo-yo, our new podcast division dedicated to creating entertaining, engaging, and educational audio content for children and families. 

“Even though audio is a classic form of storytelling going all the way back to radio plays, there’s so much exciting new work happening in this space right now,” said audiyo-yo VP Anne Richards. “There’s a lot of room for innovation and emerging voices to make an impact.”

audiyo-yo celebrated the launch of its first two projects – first, the interactive, voice-activated Pinna Original Yes No Audio Escape series, where listeners co-create the story by answering “yes” or “no” to questions; second, Pinna Original Roasting Vegetables, a short-form audio series full of silly vegetable puns, original beets, and nutritious, delicious characters.

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Exciting Industry Recognition

We are honored to work with amazing partners to represent unique and educational projects. Check out the recognition we’ve received and how we reached a broader audience.

Reception on our roofdeck the night before MuseumExpo

• To help spread the word about audiyo-yo, Kidscreen featured articles about our audio division, how audiyo-yo tackles the future of kids’ podcasts, and audiyo-yo’s podcasts to keep on your radar. 

• Children can now listen to the Pinna Original Yes No Audio Escape series on Pinna’s app and to the Pinna Original podcast Roasting Vegetables in Pinna’s Surprise Box. Kidscreen also took a deeper look into the development of the interactive escape series in its online and print magazine.

NoiseFilter’s Doc Griggs stopped by to record in our studio

• Tone Thyne, FableVision’s VP of Creative, served as showrunner for Spin Master’s Sago Mini Friends, a new animated series for preschoolers on Apple TV+ based on the characters from the Sago Mini Friends app. In the adorable nod to gratitude, four friends play, explore, imagine, and celebrate daily in their joyful town of Sagoville.

• Guru Studio partnered with award-winning TIME Studios to develop FableVision’s new animated series Scoops, created by Tone Thyne. The lighthearted comedy tackles neighborhood news stories featured on best friends Ellerby and Olsen’s home-grown news show.

• FOX8 in New Orleans ran stories about two NoiseFilter animations – clinical trials with Irma Thomas and pediatric vaccines – while interviewing Doc Griggs.

• Animal Antics, created with Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Civics! An American Musical, created in partnership with Maryland Public Television, Maryland Humanities, and Tufts’ Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), were included in the 2022 American Library Association’s Notable Children’s Digital Media list.

Meeting with Georgia Public Broadcasting about GASHA GO!

• Echo Explorers, a born-accessible Cyberchase game created with The WNET Group, THIRTEEN, and Bridge Multimedia, was nominated for Kidscreen 2022 Best Learning App — Branded award in the Kids Digital category.

• Peter H. Reynolds’ book Be You!, published by Scholastic, reached the Top 10 List for The New York Times Children’s Best Sellers — Picture Books.

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Thought Leadership

Sharing our experience and insights while meeting experts in the field helps us strengthen our services and grow our community. Here’s where we presented this year.

Kellian (as Ms. Drizzle) at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

• Sarah Ditkoff, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, presented Civics! An American Musical at the Middle States Council for Social Studies (MSCSS) Annual Conference, the National Council for History Education (NCHE) Conference, and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS).

Paul and Peter H. Reynolds at FlipFest

• Director of G.L.A.M (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) Innovation Kellian Adams Pletcher took center stage at MuseumNext’s Museums, Games, & Play Summit to discuss how to learn from past failures in game production and what makes games succeed or fail. She also spoke about trends for museums and play for the Children’s Museum Research Center, China, created and implemented a team-building game at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and taught introduction to game design at Emerson College. 

• Ideas Last, a podcast hosted by Danielle Gillespie, featured FableVision President and Co-Founder Gary Goldberger to discuss the launch of FableVision, how to approach learning in a new way, and his advice for entrepreneurs. 

Peter Stidwill at YOU Belong in STEM

• Peter H. Reynolds and FableVision CEO Paul Reynolds presented about International Dot Day at Flip’s FlipFest at ISTELive22, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Boch Center’s Wang Theatre.

• Anne Richards spoke at the 2022 Games for Change Festival on how podcasts can meet the needs of children, parents, and educators, both now and in the future.

• At the Connected Learning Summit (CLS), Sarah Ditkoff and Gary Goldberger discussed the power of partnerships between academia, for-profits, and nonprofits.

• Executive Producer Peter Stidwill presented on supporting STEM education through small business innovation research at the YOU Belong in STEM National Coordinating Conference hosted by the U.S. Department of Education.

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To Wrap It Up…

It’s not all serious work for us. As we settled into our new space on the bustling and historic Newbury Street, we hosted a reception the night before the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo and a game design discussion with leaders from IDEO and Innova in Peru. Our staff and friends participated in our ninth annual Extra Life to raise funds for the Boston Children’s Hospital. 

Thank you to our wonderful partners and staff – old and new – who help us create incredible projects. Whether you’re stopping by for a meeting, recording in our sound booth, or attending an event, we hope to see you at our studio soon. We can’t wait to see what we accomplish in 2023!