LIMA joined forces with UCLA Extension to offer a new course, Licensing Entertainment: Strategies for the Global Marketplace, designed for entertainment property owners, agents, lawyers, and producers.  Instructor, Ken Markman, and a select number of the industry’s top licensing professionals are addressing myriad issues on how to license entertainment properties in today’s increasingly competitive marketplace.

We’re halfway through the course, and the students are speaking up!  The following are comments sent to Mr. Markman from class participants:

•  The class thus far, has proven to be a truly exceptional UCLA Extension course offering.  While providing an in-depth and currently relevant examination of brand marketing and product licensing in its myriad forms, your instruction succeeds in identifying the core industry foundations and principles represented on a global stage by LIMA and venerable industry leaders such as yourself.  As a film industry veteran, I am finding the subject matter genuinely fascinating and the caliber of presentation by yourself and the various guest speakers to date, truly without equal.  UCLA Extension markets its academic programming as aspiring to meet the equivalency of a post-Baccalaureate level of instruction and though my own expectations have not always been met in this regard, this particular class wonderfully meets every expectation I might have and then some!  In short, your course represents the graduate level of study I had hoped to find at UCLA.  “Engaging, thorough, inclusive, enlightening and inspiring” are, but a few of the adjectives I would choose, were I to wax poetic about the terrific roadmap you have created in aid of my pursuit for professional knowledge.  I intend to highly recommend this course to others and this is ultimately the highest praise I can offer.  Kudos to you and Charles Riotto for a job extremely well done!
• Rating: Brilliant!
  If I were to think of one precise sentence to describe the ability and professional value of Ken Markman’s lectures, I’d probably say this: Both ‘Marketing Entertainment’ and ‘Licensing’ classes carry the same message: helping expand abilities by gracefully presenting & teaching the latest trends, invaluable lifetime experiences, drawing the bigger picture in the minds of students, our great teachers and lecturers included.
• The variety of industry professionals from all fields of business gives us all the rarest opportunity to learn firsthand, ask questions and feel respected and valued. Every opinion matters, every question is answered, and everybody is highly engaged in this mixture of master-classes, pep talks and lessons.  I am grateful to be a part of this process, shaping my experience with the careful guidance of the finest first-class expertise.
• While we are just barely halfway through the course, I have found it to be an extremely valuable and rewarding experience so far. Coming from a background of licensing and promotions, I came into the class with a high-level sense of the licensing process since I had been in mostly supportive roles. Each week’s new learnings have been very helpful in my day-to-day tasks as I become more familiar with each facet of the industry, and the networking opportunities and insight that each guest speaker has shared is unlike anything one can find elsewhere. It goes without saying that taking this course was a terrific decision and I would recommend it to anyone with a hint of interest in licensing.