Months before the official opening of the Global Media Congress in Abu Dhabi the capital of the United Arab Emirates, there are indications that the flagship event promises a full house thanks to a ”registration storm” by captains of industry determined not to be left out when it runs from November 15 to 17, 2022.
Some 1,200 delegates are expected to rub shoulders with some 200 media CEOs and over world renowned speakers to animate a series of thought leadership sessions and debates including Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Ms. Monica Mutsvangwa, Mohammed Jalal Alrayssi who is the Director-General of the Emirates News Agency (WAM), and Naji Gouiaa, the CEO of MediaCity Mauritius.
It will also be a platform to showcase products imperative in the evolution of the global media such as state-of-art technologies, equipment hardware and social media tools.
Amidst frantic preparations, its itinerary already suggests a packed series of events beginning with an opening ceremony featuring keynote addresses which will interrogate the current state of the global media scene with a view to shaping its future landscape.
There is a deliberate plan by organisers to ensure the event proceeds on a multilingual platform which means discourses will be made in all of the world’s major languages, increasing its appeal to a global audience unprecedented in the history of organising the congress.
There will also be time for an opening exhibition, keynote speeches explaining the transformative power of the contemporary media, a ministerial panel interface, an interrogative session on whether digital media provides opportunities for future investments to be followed by other presentations looking at investment trends in the industry and how they will affect its landscape, the benefits for companies and whether big techs in Europe should be forced to pay for content.
A session putting the spotlight on North America will focus on whether regulators can keep up with the pace of change from physical to virtual media while a presentation on the future of news and analyses on how AI, machine learning and automation will transform the news will cap the first day of the congress.
Day Two will open with participants studying evolving challenges in harnessing technological innovations to combat the spread of misinformation and encourage unity under the banner World Tolerance Day.
It will also feature a panel delving into the roles of the integrated media hubs in the future of the industry while later sessions will tackle questions around the dynamics of media thinktank in the digital information age, and examine social media and consumption across the Middle East and Africa taking stock of how this has transformed the media landscape in this region.
There will also be discourses on how the rise of the short-form video has changed the media industry, a focus on Asia, a look at whether streaming services are a crowded market or have room for more.
The second day will also see participants picking each other’s mind on issues around the creator economy, its genesis, who’s paying for it and who’s controlling its production.
There will also be a presentation on ”Esports- Playing into the future” before the day wraps up with a panel on sustainable development goals with reference to the global media.
The third and final day on November 17 will open with a keynote address highlighting the importance of inclusive design and the role of cognitive bias in social media design, to be followed by a presentation on ”Diversity and inclusion in a digital era: Women in media”.
It will also cast a spotlight on consumer psychology as a theme examining the latest and future predicted consumer trends in media consumption, a focus on Latin America before a debate on the great attrition in the media industry, whether media companies should be responsible for comments on social media, and presentations around wooing consumers in a world of infinite choices.
”Influencer journalism: A necessity or self-promotion?” will be the theme of a panel discussion before a closing session on ”Amplifying minority voices from across the globe for accurate storytelling”.
WN/as/APA