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Gilles Paquin knows the rewards of entertaining kids. After 30 years of promoting rock concerts and managing artists at the helm of his Winnipeg-based production company, Paquin Entertainment Group, in 2003 he formed Koba Family Entertainment, a live-theatre production company that targets children between the ages of 2 and 6 and their parents. For the past five years, he and his wife, artistic director Patti Caplette, have been developing stage shows built around such kid favourites as Caillou, the Backyardigans and Little Bear. Their productions have toured North America, South Korea, Lebanon, Barbados and the United Arab Emirates. In 2007, the company grossed over $2 million from performance and appearance fees and merchandising sales. Now, Paquin is raising the stakes with his first foray into continental Europe. This fall, the company will set up shop in Paris, where Franklin the Turtle and his friends will make their European debut, performing 43 consecutive shows at the 3,000-seat Grand Rex theatre. There is a lot riding on the run's success, including the chance for Koba to stage long-term performance runs in other European centres.

Why is Paris your first step into Europe? We studied the European market in depth before we made any decisions about going over there. In the same way our trips to Korea, the Caribbean and the Middle East served almost like trial runs for our business model—in that we were able to assess what worked and what needed fine-tuning on the road—we'll gauge the Western European market from this Parisian expedition. Also, the character of Franklin the Turtle is a big deal in Paris. This is very much a turning point. Ideally, we'd love to have long-term and even permanent productions in some places while touring smaller productions.

How does Koba compete in a sector dominated by such U.S. giants as Disney? While there are a number of established companies in the market, few have looked seriously into taking their shows outside North America. Like any business, being competitive involves finding or creating a niche and then doing it better than anyone else. In our case, we saw that live children's theatre was an emerging opportunity, especially in non-traditional markets where there was no one doing these kinds of productions on this scale. Given the immense popularity of these characters, we knew kids would connect with them. Then it became all about refining the offering: What can we do better? How can we streamline expenses without sacrificing the quality of productions? What other opportunities can we develop within the business model?

What's the main challenge of the business? Bringing the ideas to life can present all sorts of logistical issues. Developing everything—from script and dialogue to music, stage props and lighting—is the most time-consuming part. Then the business challenges follow: raising capital, partnering with promoters, piecing together travel itineraries and obtaining work visas all require tremendous attention to detail. And the sheer expense of taking these productions on the road has risen significantly, now that the costs of transportation, security and insurance have gone through the roof.

How has this industry changed? Expectations today are much higher, especially among young people. Consumers today want everything on demand, meaning that they can hit a button, flick a switch or click a mouse to find what they want any time. An entertainment company like ours, even though we cater to a young audience, is no longer competing only with other similar businesses. We are up against an entire sector—movies, music, television, video games, computers, sporting events, live concerts.

How do you set your ticket prices? That depends on where we are performing and what's involved in putting the production together. As a mid-market producer, our goal is always to keep things accessible to our audience without sacrificing performance quality. That being said, our ticket prices have been rising over the past couple of years as audience expectations have grown. And in a bigger city, though crowds are considerably larger, things like advertising costs and per diems for the performers are much higher. For example, in Paris, tickets are as high as ¤27 [$43] for premium seats because our costs are significantly higher than they would be in smaller markets.

What's the hardest part about touring? Aside from the usual wear and tear that travelling takes on our performers, the barriers of language and culture present all sorts of challenges, particularly with contractual issues and equipment logistics. We learned these things the hard way with the first series of shows in South Korea. We were under the impression that the promoter there was going to cover all the costs of shipping the production to and from Seoul. While they did pay our way there, we ended up footing the bill to make our way home because we didn't fully understand the terms of the contract. Now, we make it a point to read and translate all of the fine print to ensure we are covered. In France, we have a promotion company that shares the advertising costs and venue risks.

The Rex theatre is quite large. How do you expect to fill it for 43 straight shows? That's a very good question. There is always some kind of financial guarantee and insurance with live performances, so we are covered. That being said, there is always a risk involved when you undertake something of this scale. However, given both the large local population in Paris and the high autumn tourism numbers, it's a safe place for us to start wedging our way into the European market. —with files from Denise Balkissoon