30th annual Conference and 29th General Assembly of COPEAM

Digital Cultures and New Audiovisual Languages

The 30^th COPEAM annual Conference on "Digital Cultures and new Audiovisual Languages" took place in Montpellier from 26 to 28 of April, organized in partnership with Radio France and the City of Montpellier.

The opening ceremony started with the greetings of Michael Delafosse, Mayor of Montpellier, of the Claudio Cappon, Secretary General of COPEAM, and of Charles-Emmanuel Bon, Secretary General of Radio France, who welcomed the more than 200 participants, among which delegates from public broadcasters, journalists and operators of the audiovisual and cultural sectors.

High institutional representatives of the Euro-Mediterranean area, such as HRH Princess Rym Ali, President of the Anna Lindh Foundation - via a video message - and H.E. Nasser Kamel, Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean, opened the works with a reflection on the cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean area almost 30 years after the launch of the process of Barcelona, emphasizing the importance of any forms of associations and collaborative tools to encourage dialogue throughout the Region.

Anne-Marie Amoros, Director of France Bleu Hérault, moderated the main panel, in which took part editorial and digital experts from COPEAM network: Adil Chquiry (2M-Morocco), Aline De Volder (EBU-European Broadcasting Union), Samah Nassar (PBC-Palestine) and Adel Gastel (France24/France Médias Monde). The debate offered an overview of the major changes occurred in the media sector in recent years, with a focus on the new ways of creating, distributing and consuming audiovisual content, including storytelling techniques such as the "news sketching" and those specifically related to social media, namely TikTok.

The floor was then given to the "Voices from the world": a session animated by Yasushige Nagahata from ABU (Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union) and Taro Kunimi (NHK-Japan), who presented the technology 8K applied to the digital promotion of Japanese cultural heritage.

The panel closed with the contributions of COPEAM 2023 partners: Erwann Gaucher from Radio France, who displayed the main innovations in the field of radio content offers, in particular online content and podcasts for children, and Nicolas Dubourg, who presented the City of Montpellier as a candidate to Capital of Culture 2028.

The works ended with the joint meeting of COPEAM Commissions (Cinema/Festival/Culture, News Exchange, Gender Equality and Diversity, Training, Audiovisual Heritage, Radio and Television) and the Ordinary General Assembly of the Association.

A number of side events was organised on the 26^th and 28^th of April in different relevant locations of the city: a masterclass led by Éric Valmir, Secretary General for Information (Radio France) at the Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University, the coordination meeting of the Arab, African, Asian and European Public Media Unions (ASBU, AUB, ABU and EBU), and a matinee devoted to the Mediterranean cinema at the creative space MoCo Panacée.