Bert Smets is CEO and Creative Manager at Bert Smets Productions, the production company of Hopla, based in Ostend, Belgium. They focus on children’s edutainment (education and entertainment) and children’s merchandising. Being active in the worldwide children’s market since 1988, Bert Smets worked as an illustrator for numerous European children’s magazines and publishers. Since Bert created his character Hopla, this is the only thing he is working on since then, both creatively and business wise. His animation series Hopla can now be watched in more than 35 countries (US, Canada, Japan, UK, France….).