– The Congress highlighted the most important challenges and developments in the media industry
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – November 16, 2022:
Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court, the Global Media Congress continued its sessions on the second day, with the participation of international leaders, specialists, influencers and experts in the global media industry.
The activities of the second day of the Global Media Congress included a number of sessions which highlighted a wide range of topics in the media sector. His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence.
The sessions, which attracted a wide audience of media representatives, are part of a media campaign by the Emirates News Agency, which aims to highlight the media’s pivotal role in spreading messages of tolerance and solidarity, and limiting messages of violence and hatred.
In an interview focusing on the metaverse, Alex Gubbay, Head of Digital Strategy at The National, and Adnan Kashwani, Senior Director for the Cloud Center of Excellence at Etisalat, highlighted how the metaverse can be a useful enabler for new technologies.
Attendees heard how phone numbers are becoming part of people’s identity in MENA with 5G becoming increasingly critical as we entrust telephone companies with every aspect of our lives.
The interview focused on people’s need to establish a virtual presence in the world with first movers and innovators having an advantage.
Mr Kashwani explained the evolution of traditional media to a two-way relationship with social media and internet promoting interaction.
Practical considerations are important, with challenges in security and potential cyber bullying.
The interview was optimistic, highlighting the benefits of balancing real life and virtual life.
The speakers gave the example of tourism, where people have the opportunity to visit different countries in the metaverse from the comfort of their own home.
As telecom companies evolve into technology companies, the tech savvy younger generations are speeding up adaptation.
In the concluding remarks, Mr Kashwani stated that yesterday’s fiction is today’s reality and today’s fiction is tomorrow’s reality, with the market value of the metaverse expected to rise to trillions of dollars by early 2030s.
SESSION: Inside MENA’s entertainment industry ATTENDEES: Mark Whitehead, Chief Executive Officer of Twofour54 and Youmna Naufal, Director at Brunswick
In an interview focusing on the entertainment industry within the MENA region, Mark Whitehead, Chief Executive Officer of Twofour54 and Youmna Naufal, Director at Brunswick, explained the exciting momentum for the entertainment industry in a golden age of content.
Despite notable challenges and headwinds with the pandemic slowdown, the region is buoyant in supporting content creators with notable stakeholders in Bollywood and Hollywood coming to Abu Dhabi.
Mr Whitehead explained how Abu Dhabi is taking the lead and developing the infrastructure and talent for the entertainment industry to thrive, with positive conversations happening with all sectors in the industry.
Moving forward, attendees heard how the region has to continue creating exciting content to entertain people.
The future of the workplace for the entertainment sector in Abu Dhabi is in community hubs with people coming to work with meeting rooms and ecosystems around creativity.
As the pandemic changed the way people work in the office, industry stakeholders are providing an environment where people of all ages can thrive at an exciting time for growth.
Examining social media and consumption across the region and how this has transformed the media landscape attended Mario Soufia, Business Lead – Strategy, Media & Creative for Digitas UAE; Percy
Fernandez, Chairperson for School of Media & Communication at Manipal University, Dubai Campus; Mr Al Alhamedi – President and CEO of Arabsat
In a discussion focusing on social media consumption, Mr Al Alhamedi, President and CEO of Arabsat and Mario Soufia, Business Lead Strategy, Media & Creative for Digitas UAE, explained the impact of social media on the lives of citizens and residents across the Middle East.
With 97.6% of people in the region having smart phones and spending on average three and a half hours on social media, attendees heard insights on the customer journeys happening everywhere across the value chain.
Seeing value in social media is key to develop society and access the plethora of opportunities to sell products.
Attendees learnt how industry stakeholders are helping brands find value with 75% of brands using social media to reach new customers.
The panellists explained the importance of optimizing content for different platforms and leveraging information for the benefit of everyone.
Within a creator economy, there is a pressure from brands on social media to improve capabilities and useful insights to ensure a positive transformation of the media landscape.
The discussion session, titled “Highlighting the role of integrated media hubs in the future of the media industry,” saw the participation of HE Dr. Khalid Omar Al Midfa, Chairman of Sharjah Media City (Shams), from the UAE; Najib Gouiaa, CEO of Media City from Mauritius; Ramy Jallad, Group CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ), from the UAE; Majid Al Suwaidi, Senior Vice President at Dubai Media City, Dubai Studio City and Dubai Production City from the UAE; and Wayne Borg, Managing Director of Media, Entertainment and Culture at NEOM, from KSA.
Participants in the session emphasized the active role played by media cities in developing the media sector.
Media cities provide an integrated work environment which invests in media talents and content makers to enhance their creative capabilities and provide all requirements for creating integrated media content.
This includes providing fully-equipped media studios, and media production facilities that include the best equipment and advanced technological technologies, in order to produce media outputs that meet the public’s aspirations, and achieve continuous development in this field.
Participants also discussed to the synergy of work between media cities in across the UAE.
This comes in line with the directives of the wise leadership on enhancing cooperation and joint work between various media institutions to exchange expertise in a way that serves the sector and consolidates the UAE’s position in this field.
The discussion session, titled “The role of media in creating tolerant societies,”, in which Ruben Banerjee, Former Editor of Outlook Magazine and Author, from India; Adrian Ruiz, The Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, from the Vatican; and Mohamed Al Ali, CEO and Founder of New Trends Research and Advisory, from the UAE participated, highlighted the importance of promoting a culture of tolerance among societies and working to implement it across different media channels.
During the session, the speakers unanimously agreed that the culture of tolerance begins with promoting its values it at home.
Family is the main contributor to fostering the values of tolerance, before educational institutions and various media outlets.
This reinforces the need to add tolerance and media content in academic institutions to motivate the media to adhere to the values of tolerance in their orientations and media messages, especially since media is a major contributor to rejecting fanaticism and hatred that may cause dissemination of discord and destabilization of security, but until today it has not been employed in an ideal way in this field.
Regarding the role of social media influencers in spreading tolerance in society, the speakers pointed out that their ability to influence the public must be utilized.
To achieve this, they should be directed
towards creating societies based on tolerance, where everyone must contribute to this process.
They pointed out that one of the most important challenges facing social networking sites is the lack of clarity in the identity of their users.
This gives some people the opportunity to incite hatred, and to avoid this, the role of media outlets must be strengthened in spreading messages urging the adoption of healthy behaviors related to accepting others and not discriminating against them.