Speaker 1: Welcome stage 32 community. I hope everybody is doing very well and that you're all enjoying a great summer. Today I wanted to to talk to catch up on the topic of the digital festivals and markets. Now that we are more than a year in this pandemic and now that the world is opening up and that physical versions, editions of festivals and markets are coming back. And the question comes up whether or not the digital versions will continue to exist alongside the physical editions in some sort of a hybrid format. Now I have participated since the pandemic started in several online editions like EFM, AFM, Mipcom, Connecta and NetBee and I'm currently actually simultaneously participating in the Cannes Film Market and Connecta. Connecta is a smaller film festival, film market taking place in its physical form in Pamplona in Spain. And I've had good and mixed experiences with the online editions. Now if I assess these and why am I participating, most of all for me it is important to learn, to gain knowledge when I participate in festivals and markets and to network. These are the two main reasons for me to go to a festival or to a market. So if we look at the online versions it is extremely important first of all to have a decent workable and accessible platform. A platform where people can log on, create a profile and where it is easy to find basically events and people. Now for these online versions to to continue to be meaningful also when the world is fully opened up and the physical versions will come back basically. There should be good events, meaningful events, webinars, conferences, conversations, talks, online conversation talks which contribute, which are about topics of interest. Whether that's topics, general topics, universal topics about the industry or specific topics in connection with that specific market or festival. I think that's very important to keep people focused and to attract them to the online editions. Now on the other hand as meeting people, networking is for many people one of the main reasons to attend markets and festivals. Obviously there should be a very good networking tool and in order to have a good networking tool it is essential to be able to select, to have a basically a filter to list all the participants in the market and for the ones looking for connections and trying to network to be able to easily and quickly look for the people that match your interest basically. And on the other hand the possibility, the option to create a full-fledged profile so that it just basically is easy for people to network and to match. And in addition to this it should be very easy and straightforward to set up meetings through the platform, through the system and to chat or to communicate with people outside the meetings. Whether that's through Zoom or one of the other online meeting tools. This is an essential feature for these markets to work. Some of these markets have done this very well. Other markets I think have failed to provide for this. But I think these are the most important features for the digital versions of markets and festivals to work. At least if you focus again on learning and knowledge on one hand and connecting and networking on the other hand. I think if markets are able to set this up properly and to offer an attractive online platform, I'm convinced that the online editions will function alongside the physical editions. And why? Well in general these online platforms are extremely accessible. If we look at them from a cost perspective it's way cheaper to participate in the online versions than to go to the physical versions. And you know flights, booking a hotel, spending on dinners and lunches. There's no comparison. So for many people it's extremely attractive to participate for that reason in the online editions. And on the other hand it's extremely efficient and productive. Meetings are generally short. They're to the point. If you do this, if you participate in the online versions, you can do it from home. You can do it while working on other stuff. So it's perfectly combinable with let's say the day-to-day work. So the combination of these platforms being extremely cost-efficient and very productive and efficient will make them of very great importance for the future. And they will continue to exist alongside the physical editions in a hybrid format. So in a nutshell if festivals, if markets are able to offer this, to offer great functioning platforms, this will be the future. And at the very least it will be the future in combination with the physical editions. So that's my take on where we stand with the digital festivals and markets now. You know more than a year after the pandemic started. I would love to hear your experiences. And you know if you have been participating in these online editions, what your thoughts are, what experiences are, how you see the platforms, what you think platforms are doing very well or where you think that there may be room for improvement. I would love to get that feedback. And for now, thank you all very much and I hope you're having a great day. We stay in touch. Take care. Bye.