Jose-Maria Figueres to inaugurate 4th World Summit on Internet and Multimedia in Beijing

FIAM is honoured to welcome the CEO of the World Economic Forum and Chairman of the United Nations ICT Task Force, Mr. Jose-Maria Figueres, to inaugurate the 4th World Summit on Internet and Multimedia. Mr Figueres will make a keynote speech on the development of the digital economy in the beginning of this new century.
Mr. Figueres is well aware of the necessity for the developing countries to invest in the ICT sector and the knowledge economy. As President of Costa Rica, he had convinced Intel to establish a 2000 employee manufacturing plant in his country in 1997 as part of his “technology strategy”. Among those foreign investors were Taiwan's Acer Group, Microsoft Corp., Motorola Inc., Lucent Technologies. Costa Rica has been ever since one of the leading countries in this sector in Central America. Mr. Figueres is also concerned by the Sustainable development and has created a Foundation dedicated to that purpose in Latin America.

Setting-up E-communities in China
With the fast growth of China’s economy, medium-sized cities and towns must rapidly build information systems for their communities, and multimedia technologies represent appealing tools for that purpose. The Beijing organizers, along with the Chinese government, have decided to address the issue of digitization of the small cities (E-communities), and have invited several delegates from these municipalities to participate in the process. Renowned speakers and specialists will present different points of view, experiences and projects in view of defining how this process will be implemented. (October 18 and 19)

Virtual Reality and Cultural Heritage Conference
When the World Heritage meets the Digital World

FIAM organizes during the WSIM a multidisciplinary conference on Virtual Cultural Heritage, linking the scientific issues to multimedia industry concerns. Taking advantage of technologies advancements in the fields of computer graphics, multimedia, Virtual Reality, the Internet, 3D imaging, natural, cultural and World Heritage, professionals and promoters are developing state of the art applications for education, interpretation, conservation, preservation and promotion of VH. The conference will be inaugurated by Mr Abdul Whaleed Khan, UNESCO Deputy Director General for Communication and Information, and will count with a large Chinese participation, the Moebius Association, and experts from different countries.

The conference will focus on three major themes:
- Best practices in Virtual Heritage Building processes
Notwithstanding the promises of this field, most VH projects use a wide array of standards and technologies; it is therefore difficult to use and transfer various VH works in a collaborative manner, whether for scientific, commercial and promotional purposes and uses.
- Valorizing Heritage
This theme will provide multiple cases of salient international and Chinese applications dedicated to world cultural heritage. In addition to VH technologies, we will show the best usages of these applications for the cultural world
- From Sciences to Industry Needs
The Multimedia industry is in need of sources of content in order to produce and distribute a wide array of digital products and applications such as games and educational content to a large audience. This theme will focus on the economic and technical viabilities of partnerships between science and Industry

Xuanwu District’s 35 billion RMB investment in International Media Boulevard welcomes foreign multimedia companies

Xuanwu District’s 35 billion RMB investment in International Media Boulevard welcomes foreign multimedia companies Beijing has a population of 14 million people and is divided into 16 Districts with their own municipal government. The Xuanwu District, with an area of 16.5 square kilometers and a total population of 550 000, has focused its development on the Information Industry and invested in a huge project called the “International Media Boulevard”.
This Real Estate development, totaling 4,2 Billion USD, will gather all the media sectors of the media industry on a single 3,2 kilometre long avenue called International Media Boulevard: newspaper, magazine, radio and television broadcasting, media and advertising agencies, cinema, internet and multimedia content producers will share the 5,6 million square meters of prime space in the old urban area of Beijing. International companies are welcome to establish their Chinese Headquarter offices in this brand new development that will become the avant-garde of Chinese media when completed before the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The three previous World Summits organized by the International Federation of Multimedia Associations (FIAM) were held in Montréal, Canada (1999), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2001) and Montreux, Switzerland (2002).

240 000 RMB in prizes to best start-up projects in gaming and digital animation Contest!

The Beijing Multimedia Industry Association (BMIA), in a bid to encourage domestic multimedia industries to develop international level multimedia productst will host a “Competition for Business Prototype of Chinese Multimedia Works” as an important activity of the 4th World Summit on Internet & Multimedia.
One 100 000 Yuan first prize and one 20 000 Yuan second prize will be given away in each category for a total of 240 000 Yuan!
Hurry up, the deadline for submitting works is October 15th! For more information, see
http://en.wsim.cn/2j/ztlt/szyl1.asp

Summit Issues

*The Future of the Gaming Industry
*E-training and digital interactive education
*Virtual Cultural Heritage
*Digital advertising and marketing
*On-line mobile future trends
*Intellectual property